+ vids: Jumping- help please!!

Piaffe63

Piaffe63

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After starting to jump on Friday with my 5yr old, which went really well, today wasn't quite as plain sailing- he was getting his striding abit muddled (which is understandable, he's only learning) so we put down a placing pole for him. After this, no matter how much impulsion we had, he just stopped, like this;



We also had a couple of run outs, and of course, I couldn't stop until we had done it once because I wanted to end on a good note, which we did manage a couple of goes later. What can I do? I'm worried that I'm going to spoil him and teach him the wrong things!! Help!! :(
Oh, and the good one; :)



And this pic because it makes me chuckle :D

JumpingFol022.jpg


Thank you :)
 
Have you lunged him over some small jumps? I done this with my 5 year old who is just learning to jump now. We did various spreads and cross poles at low heights so he can find his own way and get his balance. He now knocks down anything that is lower than 60cm as he makes no effort but will happily pop 1m10! x
 
Personally I think its your riding. Your are not being very effective. You need to ride more foward to the fence, not faster, but when he starts to back off you sitting there doing nothing. You need to keep your leg on and go with. Also in the first video you where a little in front of the movement when he stopped. I think you need to be a bit more defensive. Also if he is running out open your hands slightly and think of riding him down a tunnel. you are kind of sitting there expecting him to do everything for you but he is just a baby. :)
p.s Remember to ride away from the fence, you didn't over the cross pole. If your are really struggling with run outs and stops approach in trot.
 
You are right in asking because what you are doing is asking for him to refuse and run out.

You really need an instructor who knows what they are doing.

First, if you only started him on Friday he should be trotting over small fences, cantering comes later.
Secondly the pole in front of the jump is not a place pole it is a ground line and because it was set away from the base of the jump he had to look at it. A place pole is a pole on the ground at about 8 feet away from the base of the fence to put him within the correct distance for take off.

When he runs out you need to stop him fast and turn him back towards the fence against the distance he ran out.
The jump is nothing very much yet you are taking enough distance to be jumping a 7 feet wall!
Come in much closer and at the trot.

two other things, first you need to put a neck strap on so you can take a hold of it when he jumps and second, your boots look as if they do not have much of a heel for riding in.
 
The jumps are so small that if he stops you need to make him walk over them, you are currently teaching him that if he stops he gets to turn away from them. Also I dont quite know what your doing with your placing pole, I dont think he could work out whether he was supposed to step over the pole and jump or jump the pole with the jump. You need your placing pole atleast 3 human paces away from the fence so he lands in a natural place to then jump.
If I was you I wouldnt jump unless in a lesson with an experienced instructor as I think you may have some trouble if you continue as you are. He is gorgeous though
Also with this video you could try and put a pole down the sides so he kind of has a tunnel to the fence, also the girl was correct in saying you needed to do it again as he refused.

Please Please get an instructor
 
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^^^^^ This :D.
Nice baby- but he just looks a little confused at the moment- and where the ground pole is he would really have to fiddle to get legs inbetween there and cross pole.

Also there are loadsa books with some fab exercises to help horses get their 'eye in'. I have one called 101 jumping exercises where the first 1/3 are arrangement of poles on the ground in different places to help with steering and also helping horses to sort their feet out. One really good exercise that I have been doing recently is set up 5 trot poles and get them trotting through calmly and evenly. Then pull out pole 2 and 4 so that a little bit sticks out from the grid. Then try to go through the middle. Gradually pull the poles out further and further untill there is only a horses width across the middle where you will trot over all the poles. This has REALLY been helping with straightness for me and Av and we have been finding in very difficult. (I am sorry if I havent explained that very well!!)..(ETA that Av is fairly established and so with a baby I would work gently on this exercise, increasing the difficulty over a series of sessions!)

I would do lots of work with poles on the ground and trotting over tiny cross poles untill pony gets how to sort his feet out. Have fun!!:D
 
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You really need to get someone to help that knows what to do with poles and starting a young pony, the placing pole in the first video is in totally the wrong place he could not jump like that.
Try putting 3 or 5 poles on the ground in a line about 7 to 8 foot apart depending on his stride, so that he can canter over them remaining in balance and when he can do that make the last one into a small jump, he should then be able to stay in canter and be on the right stride for the jump.
It may also be easier for you to start with if you stay in trot until you both gain a bit more confidence then build up to using the canter poles.
 
be positive said:
You really need to get someone to help that knows what to do with poles and starting a young pony, It may also be easier for you to start with if you stay in trot until you both gain a bit more confidence then build up to using the canter poles.
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Defo agree with this too. I had Av as a VERY green ex racer (although not a complete baby). I had lots and lots of help to help both of us- i used people who would give us exercises to work on my ourselves so werent restricted to just having lessons.

Also it took Averlline a long time to bcome totally confident with cantering into jumps- and in fact its only very recently that she doesnt trot into the first couple of warm up fences. They find it much harder to adjust and control the canter I think.
 
Not meaning to be too critical but I too found that you just sat there and expected the horse to know what to do and ypu were out of balance and to forward of the movement.

I could mention other things but what I would really suggest is that you get some lessons first before trying to teach your horse as you could end up teaching bad habits and I don't htink that is what you want.

Placing poles then cavaletti's are where you should be starting and until the horse works over these in balance and your riding improves should you start taking on jumps.

It's good that you are asking questions though as I know many would just carry on regardless.
 
Thank you everybody- very useful comments. When this video was taken, there was an experienced woman helping me, and I understand what you mean about just sitting there. I think this is a confidence thing as I am not the most confident jumper in the world, but I have had this pony for over a year and I know him well, so it was suggested that I now try a couple of little cross poles on him. He went wonderfully the other day, but we were in our yard's jumping paddock, and I dont know if that had anything to do with it. But thank you for the comments and I will take them all on board and hopefully I will be able to post in six months time that it is coming together abit more :D
Oh and the cantering- he was difficult to get a trot out of!!
 
So who put the pole on the ground in that position?? If it was your "experienced" person, find someone with better knowledge before you do any more, please:D
 
be positive said:
So who put the pole on the ground in that position?? If it was your "experienced" person, find someone with better knowledge before you do any more, please:D
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We did remove it because I didnt like it there either- I had always thought that a placing pole was supposed to be much furthur away, like a stride or two?
 
If you just started jumping him on friday why are you trying to jump him again already?????
I would jump him any more than once a week at that age imho atleast until he has the grasp of what he is doing!
I agree with the others i think you could do with getting an instuctor in to help you, you look like you could do with building up some confidence with him as when your coming into the jump you dont look confident so your pony isnt going to feel it either! Also you have legs, use them!! If he stops make him go over it even if it is just a walk over it even if he does knock it down it doesnt matter as long as you get him over it.

Good luck!!:D
 
Yes it should be about two of your strides away from the jump, 8 foot or about depending on your ponies stride, he would then be able to canter or trot over it and then do the jump.This is why you need a genuinely experienced person to help, it would also give you more confidence if everything is done correctly.
Good luck:D
 
be positive said:
Yes it should be about two of your strides away from the jump, 8 foot or about depending on your ponies stride, he would then be able to canter or trot over it and then do the jump.This is why you need a genuinely experienced person to help, it would also give you more confidence if everything is done correctly.
Good luck:D
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Thank you :) - I was just wondering, I'm feeling as though I cant ride at all at the moment (now I can see all the mistakes that are obvious now someone says it) Do you think that I can get there? I really dont want to spoil him and I'm now worried that everyone on here thinks I cant ride at all!!! Apart from the obvious, do you think that I will be able to jump with him? :)
 
Yes of course you will, take things slowly, dont do anything you are not confident with, get someone good, that you trust, to help. You just need to get started on the right track, walk, trot canter and over lots of poles, make sure he is straight and that you are riding properly, looking up and keeping in a balanced position, it will then become easier and you will both improve.
He is only young so do not rush things try and make sure you do everything well and if you make a mistake its not the end of the world, just do it better next time.:D
 
be positive said:
Yes of course you will, take things slowly, dont do anything you are not confident with, get someone good, that you trust, to help. You just need to get started on the right track, walk, trot canter and over lots of poles, make sure he is straight and that you are riding properly, looking up and keeping in a balanced position, it will then become easier and you will both improve.
He is only young so do not rush things try and make sure you do everything well and if you make a mistake its not the end of the world, just do it better next time.:D
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Thank you very much :) I will practice with lots of poles and things and hopefully, we'll get there! :D
 
For future reference(because I dont think you should be cantering into fences at this stage!)- a relatively simple way of working out where to put poles is to remember that 3 decent sized human strides = 1 horse stride (approx 12ft)

You need to think of the jump itself as one horse stride - half before the fence, half after. A placing pole "places" the horse in the correct place to take off, so your placing pole needs to be 12ft away from the fence. Any other pole on the ground before a fence is a canter pole, and needs to treated as a fence, so 6ft for landing over it, plus multiples of 12 feet depending on how many strides you want before you take off.

I wouldn't use poles with a horse this green though - give him as little as possible to look at, so he can focus on the fence itself - from a nice steady trot. I'd also recommend putting the fence up on the track so that you have fewer escape routes, and the arena fence to help keep him straight.
 
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Please get a an instructor to start the training for this horses jumping, you are obviously inexperienced so need an extra hand. Horses are so easy to muck up and so hard to retrain. If you get a trainer now it will be fairer on the horse and give you the start you need.
 
I agree with what others have said about instructor.
I bought a very very green only just broken 5 year old 3 years ago- first 2 years of owning were hell because although i'd brought on green ponies I was still very inexperienced on the scale of things, and my pony ended up being a peice of crap- then this year after her injury I spent my free non riding time reading books and learning how to train (couldnt afford an intructor) spent about 9 months on the flat- now she is fab moves very balanced in 3 paces correctly in a true outline and only now since she has mastered this can she jump balanced! flatwork must be good before you start jumping imo.
 
I had a pony in the summer who simply could not coordinate his legs going over a jump- he was only a baby so I went back to basics to make it as easy as possible.

Started off with short lunging sessions over poles on the ground- one at the top of the circle, one at the bottom, just trotting, then cantering, over them. Then introduced barrels at either side of the poles, so he got used to going between something going over the pole. It seemed to really help his coordination, so then made a tiny x pole for him to trot over, and when he was doing that confidently, asked him to do it in canter. Basically I had to be sure he was doing things happily in trot before canter.

In my case, we took it at his pace. Between lunging sessions when riding (I didn't just lunge!) sometimes we would revisit what we'd done on the lunge (trotting/ cantering over poles on the ground) so he could do it when ridden. Sometimes we didn't do any pole work at all, just had fun in the school or hacked. Anyway after a few weeks he had improved enormously and was happily popping over half barrel straights (that was as much as I did with him before he went back) and seemed to be enjoying himself.

He was never going to be the best jumper but he knew the basics and was happy to pop a wee fence.
 
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