Teaching a horse to jump

[Tempi]

Archie is by a Grade A showjumper (Odermus R) so ive great hopes for his jumping!! however before he came to me he'd never even seen a pole let alone a jump wing!! And he'd never been walked over poles.

So one of my missions in life at the moment is to teach him to jump as i think his training needs breaking up and being made more interesting. Problem is he has a heartattack (not litterally!!) when he sees a pole

Ive led him over in hand and hes fine, wanders long behind me, he can even walk over 3 in a row. Then i try and lunge him over just one and he leaps 4ft into the air (not joking!) over it!! He also cant walk over one on the floor on the lunge, he has to canter at it

Which would be fine if he cantered calmly over it, but he snorts and leaps it!!

After constantly going over one pole on the lunge about 10times he will eventually trot over it, but still lifting his legs really high (at least hes going to have scope and be a careful jumper!!). When i then put another pole down we go through the same thing all over again of him launching himself over them in huge leaps.

Now dont get me wrong as ive taught horses to jump before so i know what im doing, but non have done leaps like he does over a pole and all have taken pretty quickly to trotting poles! I also dont mind if it takes me a year to get him over a jump (well obviously not that long, but it dosent bother me if it takes a while!) but i just wondered who else had taught their horse to jump and how long it took them to be able to ride them over some trot poles.

As it stands there is no way id be able to ride him over a pole on the floor so we're sticking to lunging atm!!

 

[samp]

Have you tried leading him over the poles. With youngsters I sometimes find this helps then to learn to walk over the poles without jumping them. Also loose schooling over jumps soon teches them to think for themselves

 

[Weezy]

Sounds like Chico - keep going and going and doing it - he is brilliant now, when I first started he thought they were equine eating monsters! First time I went to walk him over a pole I almost came off as he whipped around

But after lots of work on the ground and on the lunge he gobbles them up now without hitting the roof!

 

[Tempi]

dont want to sound rude, but read OP - i said in it that i lead him over them just fine, infact he wanders over them without a care in the world!

ETS - we arent allowed to loose school at my yard and id never in a million years loose school him, he'd totally freak out!!

 

[Sags_Deer]

mine jumps poles on the lunge and he is 8!! but he does jump with me on top okay. cant help you on that one but just to stick with it, sounds like they are scary gremlins to him at the moment. if you ride him it may give him more confidence with it. ps i have pm'd you a quick question

 

[Tempi]

oh good, its not just my wierd animal then!!!!!! im only really doing it once or twice a week atm as we have other problems that need working on too. So hes only really seen/been over poles about 8 times since ive had him. He really does think they are going to eat him alive!

 

[Tempi]

have replied x

 

[Sags_Deer]

thanks for message pg, they are too far away from me, but sound v good saddlers. we need some bloomin good ones near us with a massive choice.

 

[kirstyfk]

Sorry can't help but you don't teach a horse to jump, as you can see he can jump already but you are developing his jump. Sorry to be pretandic!

 

[CSYMolly]

Yeah Molly is a nighmare with lungeing over poles too. She will only do them a hundred miles an hour or come to a screeching halt and spin round. I can lead her over them but as soon as I try lunge she is a nighmare again. I probably wasn't persistant enough but I gave up as she is much better to just ride over them. Although she did once get me off just walking over a pole (very embarrassing), the sand flicked up on it and she leapt about six foot then bucked, dropped her shoulder and spun and that was me on the floor! Sorry not much help, perhaps it would be best to lunge him yourself and get a helper that can eventually let go rather than trying to do it all yourself. Otherwise he might actually be braver with you onboard?!?

 

[Baileysno1]

I had great fun teaching mine to jump, although he had the opposite problem and stood every trotting pole and casually destroyed every jump it was as though they weren't even there! Persaverance is the key we went to jumping rallies through the summer with the riding club and did little grids and pole work - everyone clapped the first time he did an actual jump! He gets it now and I include gridwork and free jumping in his routine. I think sammy j may be right about riding him over them he may not react as much...

 

[Weezy]

[ QUOTE ]
oh good, its not just my wierd animal then!!!!!! im only really doing it once or twice a week atm as we have other problems that need working on too. So hes only really seen/been over poles about 8 times since ive had him. He really does think they are going to eat him alive!

[/ QUOTE ]

Is that IT?!!!! Oh keep at it - took me about 2 months to be happy enough to walk over one on board!

I did a lot of work with fan formations too - that REALLY helped with extension and collection PLUS it kept the brain engaged instead of being scared LOL!

 

[Tempi]

like the fan idea too!!

i did say it hadnt been long, just wondered if anyone elses horses did the same as him!!! i know it takes ages as like i said ive taught horses to jump before

xx

 

[Tempi]

thanx for that........

 

[Weezy]

Just wait until he is working beautifully over the poles without having a heart attac - you will be beaming

(Then I am going to come and steal him mwahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa)

 

[BBs]

Just keep going! poles on the floor OMG snoopy jumps them all the time - i think its his excuse just to jump! he loves it

doesnt snort or anything just does it cos he loves it lol

I always have poles dotted around the arena and jumps are always changing. Hes now jumping happily over plastic on teh floor!!

A water jump has now arrived WOO HOO thats the next scary thing lol

Hes so bright tho that he has to have things changed all the time - or he gets cocky!

I would just continue to have poles laid out everywhere even when you are doing your dressage schooling have them around so you can just walk over them or stand next to them.

Repeat Repeat its the only way - with snoop it takes about 5 minutes, but with Arch and also Bally my old horsey I had to do it day in day out just until it go boring.

 

[Tempi]

you can have him hun - hes going free atm!!!!!!!!!!

(trust me hes not easy atm!!!)

 

[Tempi]

quite often there are jumps and things in the school which he is fine with which is a step in the right direction, he'l walk up to them and have a snort at them and then be fine aswell. Archie is definately one of those horses that you cant rush anything with!!

So wheres my vid of snoops then hey???!!!

 

[Lill]

I would personally prefer to work him over poles while riding him as you'd have a lot more control when on top rather than the end of a lunge line!

When we first got Blue jumping he was not very enthusiastic and preferred to go through the jumps trashing them rather than actually jump them - when we started jumping courses he would trash on average about 4 jumps out of the course! (He is wicked now btw managed to get that sorted!)
Holly on the other hand preferred to ping over everything in case it was going to eat her - bit like Archie it sounds - we just persevered with getting her to walk over one pole on the ground (while riding her) and progressing to a few then she'd ping the jumps so we put canter poles in a fan with a jump in the middle and grids etc and she improved no end. She will happily jump a course now but will always ping the first jump!

 

[BBs]

Broadband is being installed tonight woo hoo! so vid can be done then

cos i canonly run it on my lappy atm.

Give me your email i will send it to you

 

[Tempi]

riding him over them isnt an option im afraid - hes got 'issues' at the moment (not going into anymore detail on here tho).

 

[KatB]

Try loose schooling? Make a jumping lane with poles on the floor, and then he earns it is fun aswell as educational!!

 

[Weezy]

I would honestly just do as you are doing - walk with him, give more rein - keep walking on a circle - more rein - etc - you know what you are doing!

OK I will come get him on Saturday, as long as you dont mind me acp'ing him up first

JOKE PEOPLE - JOKE!

 

[siennamum]

Conrad Schumacher did pole work with Union Jack when I went to watch him, he was quite clear that he thought it's a very good idea for a dressage horse.
The horse though thought it was a very BAD idea, and was horrified, it made me feel quite smug that at least my little fat orange pony will walk over a pole....hehe

 

[katiejaye]

Louis never quite got the idea of lungeing over jumps! He also either leaps them or stops and spins or veers towards me bucking! Even though he's a complete speed demon being on top seemed to give him more confidence when we started as he seemed to take him confidence from me. I did initially have a few tumbles as he'd either do giant leaps or throw in a zillion bucks but eventually he got the hang if things. The best thing when starting out was just making it so routine that it was almost boring to him. I school him sometimes over small jumps or poles on a circle or in a fan formation etc. and he always starts off worked up (even at the age of 14) but eventually just becomes bored and in a routine!

If all else fails, stick to dressage...far safer

 

[Kelly1982]

I think the main thing is just to repeat repeat repeat until they get the hang of it.

My mare looked at me as if i was having a laugh when i tried to get her over trotting poles on the lunge and would either jump them or dogde them. Even when riding her she used to jump them putting bounces in between each one.

She has learnt that its boring now so she may as well just go over them normally to get it over and done with.

She still leaps the pacing pole before a jump though

I'm sure you will be fine hun, some horses just take a bit longer than others for it to sink in.

 

[Tempi]

i cant loose school him unfortunately as we arent alowed too, i also think he'd jump out of the arena (we've got an outdoor with just a post and rail fence around it!)

 

[kirstyfk]

It there anywhere near you which you could hire?

 

[Tempi]

dressage is definately the main sport dont you worry!! but i like jumping to and hes definately got a fab jump on him!

 

[JACQSZOO]

My 6yr old does the same. Some time back my instructor thought it would be a good idea to introduce some pole work in walk - she laid out 3 poles and Georige promptly lept all 3 together from walk.