Uprights

[Blazingkate]

Hiya, just a quick question to ask if anyone has any ideas on how I can get my horse over uprights mroe confidently. He will happily jump a 3ft 3" spread, but put a upright up and he really holds back and sometimes refuses. He's always been more scaried of uprights, just wondering if theres anything I can do to improve his confidence other than just do lots of uprights when I jump.

 

[Cobnut1]

Have you tried a ground pole? just place it on the ground under the upright poles, then roll it towards you (which ever direction you want to jump it) so that it's slightly infront of the jump.... it will make the horse see it as a spread, but also tell him where to take off from. I was once told that uprights are harder for horses to jump than spreads are...as they are in the air for longer, and don't have to round thier backs so sharply for a spread as they do an upright.

You can try putting the ground pole at different places before the jump until you find what is comfortable for him, but he needs to be able to jump this pole as well. I usually find that 1.5 - 2ft is enough (heel to toe measures)

good luck on this