very strong horse when jumping... any tips?

H

HeatherAda

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 January 2006
Messages
880
Location
Northampton
Visit site
one of the horses I ride gets VERY strong when jumping. after about 3 jumps I end up using most of my strength trying to keep him in check and steady.
after a lesson last night i'm feeling stiff and sore around my shoulders. i only ride him once a week, but would still like to get the best out him. how strong he is to ride seems to vary week to week, as last week he wasn't a prob at all.

any helpful thoughts much appreciated.
 
his owner tends to just hack him and work on the flat, so he only really jumps with me. the other girl who exercises him is a bit scared to jump him as she had a nasty fall a couple of months ago.
 
would really need to know more..how old is he, how progressed in his schooling - jumping and flat, is a good canter established....

...very hard to say without watching but usual causes of rushing jumps are;

young horse out of balance (you have to be prepared to let the head go a bit with these)
canter not properly established (causes rushing0
rider tense/novice and therefore fighting unnecessarily (they do need to move forward)
pain in back or teeth
unbalanced rider (ahead or behind of the movement)

in any order you please..so try working through those and see if anything rings a bell

edited to add; of course a change of bit might be a solution, but I would normally look to eliminate other causes before doing that
 
great thanks, … he’s a tb x and about 12 I think. He came from a riding school so not sure how disciplined he has been. before jumping his flatwork is great, but try to do any after and he’s a nightmare.

I think he may enjoy jumping a bit too much and gets carried away. My own horse is a pleasure to jump so I can still enjoy it with him.
 
Does he actually rush into the fence? My horse does this and I've found lots and lots of canter poles and gridwork has really helped.

If he starts to get strong and we argue then it's a total waste of time as he just starts bouncing! so he is still in a snaffle. Try schooling excerises first. Maybe book some lessons?
 
I have one of similar breeding and vintage who rushes through excitement, although he is starting to steady up now with taking it right back to basics, small jumps and making him think very hard about where he needs to go after the jump. A regular calmer in feed and a waterford snaffle have dealt with his tendency to lean on the bit and take a hold
 
yes, definitely rushes the fence. can't get to it quick enough... ok, so i'll perhaps step back from jumping for a while and try out the above suggestions.
Thanks!
 
I spent a about month with canter ploes all over the school! It teaches them to check and sort themselves out, really good for them. Then I progressed to gridwork, now I'm doing related distances. Made a real difference. I now approach fences calmly and don't dive at them!
 
My daughter's pony can be a bit like this and we have found it helps to vary the work and keep her guessing. Working over one jump again and again just fires her up.

Instead we place a few jumps around the arena and pop her over one then go on to do some circles or do some transitions etc., then perhaps pop over one of the others. This way she is listening to her rider rather than trying to anticipate!
 
I've found this exercise very helpful with mine. Start with a pole on the ground. Walk up to it and halt about 4 strides in front. Ask back in to walk, walk over pole and right to the end of the school and halt in a straight line in front of the perimeter fence. Turn away, circle and repeat back in the other direction.
Once this is going ok, take up trot on the circle but ask for a walk transition 4 strides from the pole, walk over it and halt as before at the end of the school. The idea is that the pole means slow down not speed up.
Once this is also going ok, approach in trot, pop over the pole and ask for halt at the end. They should be anticipating the halt transition and so slowing anyway.
I usually then change the pole into a small cross pole and repeat the exercise.
I have been doing variations of this ad nauseum for weeks now and its really paying off - because my horse is looking to me for the pace and direction after the fence.
I have now started to do the same exercise in canter - I would never of believed it possible to achieve the halt transition by the end of the school in the past but we can and do.
I've found this exercise very useful so hope you might find it that way too.
Good Luck, AJ
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top