We had a go at XC - any advice for a beginner?

ImmyS

ImmyS

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So I posted this in the Tack Room just as more of a proud post, but thought it might be handy to post it in here for the purpose of gaining some advice and wisdom.

So me and a friend hired out a XC course yesterday. I took my 4 year Welsh X who to my knowledge has never jumped before apart from a couple of straw bales with me and I have never in my ridden life jumped any form of XC fence. The ground was a bit slippy from rain the night before so I was very selective, only taking him over fences with good ground either side as I didn’t want him to scare himself.

For both our first times I think we muddled through pretty well and he jumped everything asked, some more ‘interesting’ fences just needing a bit of encouragement. He was extremely well behaved being in a new place and really didn’t put a foot wrong, super proud!!

I just wanted some advice really on how you guys approach taking young green horses XC. Is it best just to just set them up and ride forward without interfering at all letting them figure out striding, or is it best to interfere a little bit to help them get a good stride. He was keen and honest, but I felt a couple of times I probably made him back off the fence because I was worried bout striding/ground etc even though he was fine. I know it’s probably blind leading the blind as we’re both so inexperienced in this area, most of you probably thinking ahhh crazy fool!!

So how do you guys ride green horses into solid fences? And how many of you go to XC clinics? Do you find them beneficial or would a one to one XC lesson be better?
Thank you!

Little video of a few of the jumps. The first two jumps in the video were the first Two of the day and you can hear him catch the fences with his back feet. He got better and better the more we jumped and more confident. The last jump over tyres was last jump of the day which felt very nice.

[video=youtube_share;Ae3olEF9m_A]https://youtu.be/Ae3olEF9m_A[/video]

Thank you for reading and any XC for idiots pointers would be much appreciated.
 
He looks lovely, just how I like to see a young horse at this stage, my thoughts would be that rather than cantering and trying to set up the stride I would stay in trot and let him learn to take his time, to look and think for himself, if he starts to take you in in a canter then keep the contact, keep your legs on but let the jump come to you rather than push on into it, more horses are spoilt by rushing along at "xc pace" than by being held back in trot, or at times walk, so they can learn the job at a pace you and they have more control over, most can jump anything at this stage out of a decent trot but many will struggle in canter.
 
be positive said:
He looks lovely, just how I like to see a young horse at this stage, my thoughts would be that rather than cantering and trying to set up the stride I would stay in trot and let him learn to take his time, to look and think for himself, if he starts to take you in in a canter then keep the contact, keep your legs on but let the jump come to you rather than push on into it, more horses are spoilt by rushing along at "xc pace" than by being held back in trot, or at times walk, so they can learn the job at a pace you and they have more control over, most can jump anything at this stage out of a decent trot but many will struggle in canter.
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Thanks be positive for your reply. That sounds like the best way to build up confidence. We did a bit of a mixture, I tried to encourage him to stay in the trot and let him pop them and then some he would take me into canter so rather than having a battle before just tried to sit quietly and let him figure out. It was quite nice in a way that the ground wasn’t perfect as it meant we had a good walk in between fences and kept everything calm and relaxed just popping fences as we came to them if they looked inviting and good ground. That’ll be a good tip for next time though to try and maintain a good trot rhythm into the fences. The last jump on the video that we trotted into felt probably the best out of those three. Thank you!
 
Nothing helpful to add, just that Arlo is such a lovely boy! Said it before, you two look so good together :). I've never done xc but would love to have a go... over the teeniest baby jumps.
 
Rumtytum said:
Nothing helpful to add, just that Arlo is such a lovely boy! Said it before, you two look so good together :). I've never done xc but would love to have a go... over the teeniest baby jumps.
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I’m glad I’ve finally done it! I was such a wuss though!! Would only go over the tiny stuff whilst my friend was flying over all the big stuff on her 12.3hh!! Good fun though, and a positive first experience, would recommend hiring one out first time as you can just go round in your own time :)
 
My riding school has two xc courses, baby and big. Will look in to hiring the first! Lots of tuition required before I attempt it, but thanks for giving me a new target, would be a huge achievement! Looking forward to reading more of your and Arlo's adventures :)
 
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