MagicMelon
Well-Known Member
Long Post, sorry:
I dont know what to do with my 6yo Welsh D. I keep wondering if I should sell him as I cannot decide if jumping is for him (which is what I do). Absolutely breaks my heart to even think about parting with him as he is such a character. But at the same time I want him to be happy. I dont have huge aspirations for him as I have another horse who is my "serious" one, he's my "fun" horse. But at the same time, I want to be able to jump a certain level. Like even just popping RC opens would be nice, couldnt care if he wouldnt go any bigger.
Basically our only real problem up until now was that he'd often get 4 faults from being clumsy (he used to be much worse and hit practically every fence!). He was NEVER EVER a stopper. Lately however, Ive been having monthly SJ lessons with him which are quite challenging for him although he's always coped really well and was really improving. Ive never over-faced him. He was happily jumping unaffliated 1m's so I thought Id reg him BSJA to do some BN's and Discovery's. His first Discovery he found very hard work. He was jumping HUGE over them all and thus messing up our striding a lot so at the very last fence - a big wide spread he stopped and put his legs through the middle of it. This seems to have scared him. That was about 3 months ago. He's since done this "front legs through a spread" thing about 3 times since. So I felt he wasnt managing the wider BSJA spreads well. So I took him right back down to unaffiliated 75cm and 85cm a few weeks ago. He won the 75cm, then did it again in 2 of the spreads. I jumped him at home last week and he was excellent - happy as ever, popping wide spreads fine.
I had a lesson the other day which went very badly. He surprised the hell out of me refusing a simple small vertical twice. Very very odd. Yet, he popped through doubles etc. with very wide spreads on ok and happily jumped bigger verticals etc. Its very strange. My trainer just said he looks like he's a had a little bit of a scare but at the same time, he's the type of horse to quickly begin taking advantage.
I know he's generally quite a stroppy bolshy little horse. He does behave like a spoilt brat sometimes and does start "giving up" when he gets a bit tired. Im trying extremely hard to keep it all fun for him but at the same time Im trying to really get his jumping sorted. Im not over-jumping him. I very rarely jump at home and he competes (jumping or showing) probably 2/3 days a month. What do I do? He has so much potential and we can win a class but then suddenly it all goes crap in the next one! And of course, now Im worrying about it too much as I dont want him to hurt himself when he lands stupidly in a spread.
Maybe Im just being a drama-queen because I havent had a stopper for a very long time! Im sure we've just hit a little blip? As to be fair, one of my other horses went through a month-phase of refusing the odd fence when we went up a level, but he was soon back to normal again.
I dont know what to do with my 6yo Welsh D. I keep wondering if I should sell him as I cannot decide if jumping is for him (which is what I do). Absolutely breaks my heart to even think about parting with him as he is such a character. But at the same time I want him to be happy. I dont have huge aspirations for him as I have another horse who is my "serious" one, he's my "fun" horse. But at the same time, I want to be able to jump a certain level. Like even just popping RC opens would be nice, couldnt care if he wouldnt go any bigger.
Basically our only real problem up until now was that he'd often get 4 faults from being clumsy (he used to be much worse and hit practically every fence!). He was NEVER EVER a stopper. Lately however, Ive been having monthly SJ lessons with him which are quite challenging for him although he's always coped really well and was really improving. Ive never over-faced him. He was happily jumping unaffliated 1m's so I thought Id reg him BSJA to do some BN's and Discovery's. His first Discovery he found very hard work. He was jumping HUGE over them all and thus messing up our striding a lot so at the very last fence - a big wide spread he stopped and put his legs through the middle of it. This seems to have scared him. That was about 3 months ago. He's since done this "front legs through a spread" thing about 3 times since. So I felt he wasnt managing the wider BSJA spreads well. So I took him right back down to unaffiliated 75cm and 85cm a few weeks ago. He won the 75cm, then did it again in 2 of the spreads. I jumped him at home last week and he was excellent - happy as ever, popping wide spreads fine.
I had a lesson the other day which went very badly. He surprised the hell out of me refusing a simple small vertical twice. Very very odd. Yet, he popped through doubles etc. with very wide spreads on ok and happily jumped bigger verticals etc. Its very strange. My trainer just said he looks like he's a had a little bit of a scare but at the same time, he's the type of horse to quickly begin taking advantage.
I know he's generally quite a stroppy bolshy little horse. He does behave like a spoilt brat sometimes and does start "giving up" when he gets a bit tired. Im trying extremely hard to keep it all fun for him but at the same time Im trying to really get his jumping sorted. Im not over-jumping him. I very rarely jump at home and he competes (jumping or showing) probably 2/3 days a month. What do I do? He has so much potential and we can win a class but then suddenly it all goes crap in the next one! And of course, now Im worrying about it too much as I dont want him to hurt himself when he lands stupidly in a spread.
Maybe Im just being a drama-queen because I havent had a stopper for a very long time! Im sure we've just hit a little blip? As to be fair, one of my other horses went through a month-phase of refusing the odd fence when we went up a level, but he was soon back to normal again.
