Teaching a horse to jump

[annaellie]

I got a horse he was 17.2 and very in charge of everybody that handled him I done lots of flat work and poles on the floor which he hated to begin with I also loose jumped him always giving rewards after and two years later he was the most honest and best jumper i ever had its just taking your time

 

[katiejaye]

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

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Phew for a minute I thought you were a converted showjumper...

I understand, I love jumping too, in fact that's what I started out doing competitively-wise, I actually bought Lou as a SJ (a looney one though!), and I ended up converting to dressage! We do take Lou to ODE's and SJ occasionally as he loves it! I make sure I jump him once a week as I find it great for his flat work as it really seems to loosen him up over his back and gets him swinging a bit more...and plus...it's fun!

 

[Bananaman]

Just to echo Weezy and others PG and that is to take heart.........he isn't 'abnormal'

, and to stick with it.

If you can have one end of the school free to lunge and in the other end, scatter 3 or 4 poles completely randomly about. Then when you're lungeing, just move your circle about to incorporate one or more poles.
Try not to make too big a deal of things if he leaps and runs away, although obviously you need to get him back under control fairly quickly!
I'm not saying you are but if you were to scold him, yank on the lunge rein or shout at him, he'll have something else to worry about!
Just bring him back under control, moving your lunge circle away from the poles until you have a calm rhythm again and repeat again and again until it's no longer scary or exciting.

Remember to praise the good, (calm), behaviour and ignore the 'bad'.

This may take weeks but you'll get there.

 

[jayvee]

Had a horse here behaving just like yours. He would poo himself with poles on the ground or very small x pole jumps when lunging or loose schooling. Infact once he'd rathered be out of here and jumped out the bleedin school!!.
We endlessly tried to get him usesd to them but never made any progress. He was 8. In the end had to bite the bullet and get on him! He was hard to ride over the poles as would leap all 3 or do stupid hops and a 'ping' cork screwing at the same time.
We thouhgt to hell with this and one day set up 2 jumps of about 2'6-2'9 and he jumped em like he'd done it all his life!! OK, a tad higher than he needed to but he was flying.
we decided to stop faffing with poles and just got on and jumped him. And he was fine!!
About 6mths later had a go at trying the poles out of curiosity and he was a complete wreck with them. Our conclusion he just had this bizzare phobia of poles on the ground.

 

[Bossanova]

Boss, the boldest bloomin thing ever is terrified of jumping on the lunge- he wont do it. Took me a long time to teach him that poles on the ground werent going to eat him either and he's still not entirely happy with the concept!
So dont give up hope, I'm sure he'll learn, oir he may just settle down if you build a small x-pole.....

 

[tinker512]

You say he finally managed to trot over one pole on the lunge....well once he is fine with that no problem what so ever, add another one at the other half of the circle...till he is trotting over both fine...then you can steadily add 2 more at each quarter like a clock.Presuming that goes ok, you can have a play...raising just one end of the bucket so he is raising his legs abit more...until you can raise both ends and his still trot over sensibly

 

[Weezy]

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Boss, the boldest bloomin thing ever is terrified of jumping on the lunge- he wont do it. Took me a long time to teach him that poles on the ground werent going to eat him either and he's still not entirely happy with the concept!

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Yeah - if you try and adjust a fencepole whilst holding him he tries to tear your arm out of its socket

 

[bellgave]

Ditto weezy, just keep going and Im sure he will get the hang of it!!