The spooky pony jumped today!

[spookypony]

As you may remember, we've had a bit of an, er, spotty history with our jumpies...several falls on my head, and one instructor advising me to stop trying to jump him altogether...

...well, I don't think he'll ever be a show-jumper, but I feel it's mainly a confidence issue with him, and wanted to try from scratch, just to see if maybe we could build up his confidence slowly. By early July, I had him doing mini-courses of up to 40cm without his patented dirty stops and panicky run-outs. But then he went lame, so with one thing and another, we haven't tried until today.

Somewhat apprehensively, I built a little course of 3 Xs, schooled him around them for a bit, and then jumped him over them, first one at a time, and then in series. And he was really good! We had one moment where he slowed to a walk before stepping over the thing (more leg next time

), a few ridiculously large leaps over them, and one moment where he tapped it with a front foot, freaked out, and tried to gallop off (his usual reaction to things going slightly wrong), but no refusals or run-outs or rider dumpings!

Here's hoping were back on track!

 

[chestnut cob]

YAY! Well done you and Spookypony!!

Big pats for clever pony

 

[ForeverBroke_]

Yay! You have no idea how rewarding this is to hear as I'm having the same trouble RE jumping with my ned atm. Staying on him jumping is nigh on impossible when it comes to his stops

Glad to hear someones making it through to the other side!

 

[ladybones]

Congrats! Must feel really nice to prove that silly instructor wrong, go spooky pony!

 

[Slinkyunicorn]

 

[spookypony]

Well, we're not really through the other side yet...the trick will be to see if we can get him to jump something that he can't just step over...

I see my instructor's point: when the pony evades a jump, he's bl**dy dangerous. And why try to make him do something he clearly was not happy to be doing? But precisely because I don't make my living from this, I can afford to take the time to jump him over 40cm for a year if that's what it takes to build his confidence. We'll see!

 

[beckieswann]

Oooh I have the same problem! When I first got my boy he jumped (albiet no more than 40-50cm) but he jumped, and then all of a sudden he turned spooky and extremely unconfident, so i've gone back to basics with lots of polework, getting him cantering over them without causing a fuss and literally doing small jumps which he has to walk over first before jumping, as the session continues he gets quite excited and seems to take everything at a hundred miles per hour (and I can't stop!!). Is this what happened with you? We've been doing this for a month now, and it's so nice to hear that patience and going back to basics actually pays off! Well done!! xx

 

[MrsMozartletoe]

yay spookster

have you had saddler check the points of the saddle tree? LL does 'dirty' stops and we think it cos the points dig in behind his shoulders

 

[spookypony]

It was a little different: he was worried about jumps already when I got him. We still have fine brakes throughout the session, as well. At the moment, we're only jumping from trot.

 

[JosieSmith]

That's great news! Me and mine are in the same boat. Our yard does competitions in summer and I was determined to take part in the last one and do some jumping so I saved up and got loads of lessons with my instructor (who is brill by the way)

. We did the clear round first to give us both confidence as Belle tends to look at the poles first time around (and the sneaky YO had put some new painted poles in that we'd never seen - black and white spotty

), and ended up going clear three times, then we got third in the pre-novice!

How chuffed was I

Now we can jump up to 2 ft, though I need to do it regularly to stop her going back to spooking at poles. And she used to panic if she caught one but she totally takes it in her stride now (pardon the pun

). Did some cross country a couple of weeks ago too. Planning on some more competitions away from the yard but the nearest place has just got strangles so looks like it's lock down for us at the moment

 

[spookypony]

[ QUOTE ]
yay spookster

have you had saddler check the points of the saddle tree? LL does 'dirty' stops and we think it cos the points dig in behind his shoulders

[/ QUOTE ]

Saddler is coming out in early October to check; she checked it in January and it was fine then, so we'll see!

 

[spookypony]

Thanks, JosieSmith, that gives me some hope! I do feel a bit iffy going against the advice of my instructor in this, since he's normally the last person to throw in the towel, and generally has a way of pushing me beyond my nerves, but I think I'm right about this.

If I had lots of horses to worry about, I probably wouldn't bother, but I have only the one, so I can take the time...and to make sure I'm not putting pressure on either him or me, or lose my own confidence, I do lots of jumping with RS horses.

 

[Katie__Connie]

Congrats!!! Well done thats so good!!

My pony was a nervous wreck when we first got him... wouldnt jump anything unless it was a plain cross poles... too nervous to hack... but 1 year on we now compete loads and won a ODE this year

So happy with him cant believe the difference its like he's a different pony

so theres hope for every spooky thing out there!! ahaha

congrats again