spooking at fillers!

[china]

i have jumped prince since i first started riding him over 3 years ago. iv onwed him 2 years. iv have been doing dressage on him and decided i would quite like to do so ODE on him which means i need to tackle this filler phobia. my YO took me to our local competition venue and i hired the school with the bsja course out which had fillers and a viaduct wall and planks etc. she gave me a lesson, he jumped amazing and only stopped once at a plane filler. so i know its partly my mental block against fillers which has happened since i fell of at one. we were jumping 3ft3 unaffiliated rounds before. YO was abit like well he wasnt as bad as i thought he was going to be. i lunged him the other day over a jump about 1m with a scary filler under it. in the past he has needed a crack of the whip to encourage him forward over it. but this time he jumped it first time and didnt even look at it. but i rode him thismorning and jumped him and came round to this exact same filler and he backed off and ran out about 3 ft away!!! whats that all about! he got a smack and jumped it the 2nd time. but will this ever end! it really knocks my confidence when he does this. he has an amazing jump but i dont ever know if he will go over the jump! i meant to be going to do the 80cm a week wendesday and im scared already! has anyone else had problems like this and do they end??
sorry its long and iv rambled im just stressing out about it. mint choc chip icecream if youget this far!

 

[bailey14]

Yep, I have the same problem too! My 17.1hh horse is spooky anyway, and at fillers very spooky! I blame myself partly for this, as I feel that the number of falls I have had where I have gone over the side of him backwards resulting in a slip disc has really knocked my confidence. I am starting to jump small 2ft 3-2ft 6 xc fences and plain showjump pole fences without fillers. Grid work is also very good at calming the nerves, once they are safely over the first one you can kind of sit back and grin to yourself so to speak. I am so proud of myself this weekend just gone, cos on Saturday I went to my local riding club and rode around the grounds jumping the diddy xc jumps, and some of the mini xc jumps too. I was very happy with him, and we got confidence off each other. I am going to start introducing fillers again in a few weeks and see how I get on then.

 

[Lauraoscardillon]

I'm no expert, but I have this problem with my pony. Some days he jumps fillers no problem, but particularly at comps he decides to refuse. the advice I've had is to introduce them slowly, from the basics. This means at the sides, slowly bringing them under the jumps till he is jumping over them rather than through them. Similarly, getting him to jump as many types of filler as practice as possible will also boost his confidence. So spooky, strangely shaped fillers, gates, hanging fillers, standing fillers, walls etc, so when he is faced with them in the ring they arent quite so new and scary!

I also have the "mental block" with fillers, I feel he isnt going to go over them so when we are faced in the ring with them he probably thinks well if she thinks we're not going over so do I! So maybe the build up of the fillers which helps him, may also help you to build your confidence. Also, start small. There's nothing wrong with entering at 2ft until you get your confidence up!! and plus, you're more likely to win hehe.

I hope this helps, as I say, I'm not an expert, but experience has certainly helped with my tricky pony!! xxxx

 

[china]

glad its nots just me with this problem.its soo silly. they are scary fillers admitadly but no more than the venues with the newer showjumps will have lol. think i just need to pratice more and more. i had put the fences back down to 2ft6 ish to get our confidence up. i have been jumping at college on lots of different horses and i think its knocked my confidence. i dont rely like riding other peoples horses over fences. i will take a photo of the fence he spooked at when i go down later

 

[Lauraoscardillon]

Yeah, perhaps riding just your horse will get you more and more familiar with him, and you'll learn to trust each other. I have a new horse who flys over the jumps, the problem is slowing him down not persuading him over! But, like you, I want to get this sorted with my pony because its so frustrating and I know he can do it!!