Starting a young, in-experienced horse over fences?

[Girlracer]

Major is the first horse i've ever 'started' before, anything i've had or ridden has known how to jump even if i've then had to work on technique it's always known the basics, so really i'm just looking for a few suggestions of what exercises i could be doing with Major now, in the hope you guys might suggest something we're not already doing!

Major is a 5yo ex-racehorse, he flat raced as a 2-3yo before going to live with a good friend of mine for a while, during that time he was turned away but also did a lot of ground work to! I got him early September, and got on him mid-september and since then we've been gradually working on well... everything really. He's a fast learner, enjoys his work and has never shown any signs of being phased by anything i've put to him yet (apart from pigs). He schools pretty well in walk and trot and is starting to develop a decent canter however because of his background can be a bit racey and un-balanced in his canter. He's done trotting poles, raised trotting poles, funny spaced trotting poles (so he has to actually think about his feet), he's popped a few little fences etc.

I try to incorporate some pole work into most schooling session to keep him interested but also to keep him calm about anything to do with poles! He's done so well so far, he's calm, confident whilst still being forward and careful :wub: but what other things could i start trying with him?

I don't want to give him any bad habits, i want him to learn to do it properly (i'd like to event him one day)! I am planning on having lessons in the next few weeks, but would still be nice to have a few suggestions.

Here's a photo of him popping over a cross a few weeks ago

And walking over some poles a while ago (back in small jumper weather!)

 

[spotty_pony]

A row of about 5 canter poles is a good exercise. (Set them out 3 human strides apart) This will help him to learn to canter in the same rhythm. You could then try making the last pole into a small cross pole. Then you could make the fourth pole into a cross pole so that the last two fences are a bounce and so on, until you have a line of bounce fences. This will encourage him to sit back on his hocks and shorten himself up, which he will find difficult at first considering race horses are trained to go as long and flat as possible. Approach in trot if possible to start with and then let him go into canter a few strides out, and eventually canter into the line of fences. (This will take at least a few sessions to do all of this - don't expect to do all of this in one day!)

Another good exercise is a single cross pole, like the one in your photo, but with a placing pole three human strides in front of it to show him where he needs to take off. Trot him in, and then ask him for canter as you reach the placing pole.

Hope this gives you some ideas. He looks lovely by the way, he looks like he has got plenty of scope over a fence. Good luck with him.

 

[Girlracer]

Thank-you for that i will give these a go, gives us something to work on!

 

[tinkandlily]

To get a good jump, you have to have a balanced, active canter, you can get this by doing lot's of transitions especialy walk to canter, to help him engage his backend.
When in canter it's also a good idea to lenthen and shorten the stride, to help him learn to sit back and step more under his body to get a nice bouncy, collected jumping canter.
I've re-trained a couple of ex-racers, and found canter is the hardest one for them to get right, so i may take time to get the perfect jumping canter.

Grids are really good. You could start with a row of poles with a small jump at the end, and build up to having all the poles in small jumps. I like to do bounce grids, i find it very usefull in sharpening up lazy horses, and helping the speedsters slow down.
An exc and it really gets the bum working.

Another exercise i like to do to get my horses thinking and listening is, set up a grid that has three small jumps all one stride apart and a single pole placed inbetween them, (especialy usefull for horses that land miles away, and need help sorting their stride out), then a stride after the jump, set up three poles circling to the left, and three to the right, so when your horse lands he's got to listen to you as to which way you want to go.