when you started a youngster....

[lizzieuk1]

how did they perform xc, were they spooky or had little quirks that you had to work really hard on. thing is h has been great really odd spook xc and water, well we won;t talk about that!, but so far he's jumping v well, he steadys right up when jumping through a hedge /fence that he can't see the other side of but will jump through. just wondered how everyone else got on with theirs the first few times.
also how quickly did you affiliate? h is jumping 3' nicely with the odd little look so do you think he's ready to BE next season?

 

[amandathepanda]

I always start them off xc schooling and use fun rides etc to get them out and about seeing things in a busy, competition like environment. All youngsters are allowed to look and maybe have the odd spook the fact that they look at what they jump will help to make them more careful over strange fences in the future. You do need to introduce them to water/ditches and jumping light in to dark in the right environment though - not necessairily (sp) at a competition. How quickly you affiliate depends on how soon you feel ready, but I would want to be winning unaff SJ and xc at the same height (or maybe 3" bigger) before going affiliated as likely to be more technical questions asked on an affiliated course.

 

[LEC]

I had my horse in Nov 05 he went xc schooling in Feb 06 for first time ever and he was pretty bad would not even contemplate going in water. I hunter trialled him a couple of times getting eliminated each time over 2'6 at the water and he had some more xc schooling. Did his first intro in April 06 and his whole eventing season was characterised by being either ok or getting stupid 20s. I took him hunting winter of 06 and he came out again in March 07 and has been amazing all year. It has taken him a while to grow up and get the hang of it but now he is a wonderful xc horse.

 

[lizzieuk1]

sounds like we're doing ok then, H hasn;t stopped at anything except the water and like you eliminated because he wou;dn;t go in, we are progressing though and he will go in down a slope and off a little drop now so hopefully it'll improve from there.
do you think a season hunting helped him xc? also how old did you start him at?

 

[LEC]

I had mine aged 6 where he had done nothing due to terrifying his owner so in his mind he was 4yo. Hunting helped him think forwards and learn to get to the other side. Hunting they also go a bit faster where as xc schooling sometimes you can be a bit nice to them.
My horse is still not convinced about water and likes to go as slowly as possible through it but at least he is doing it. The best thing about intro that made me do it is no drops can only be walk in which was fine!

 

[Nats_uk]

I recently had a clinic with Lucinda Green and she said that she had a couple of 4/5 year olds that she had just started cross country and she would always walk and trot them up to the xc fences so they had plenty of time to see the fence and think about what they had to do. She said only when they were confident trotting over the fences would she then start cantering over them.

My horse is a bit of a wimp xc and I have been told to take him hunting to help him learn to open his stride up and to get more confident in moving forward and being in open spaces.

 

[Rosiefan]

As I understand it, hunting is very useful because 99.9999 % of horses love it!

 

[Bossanova]

Moon was useless the first few times we went xc schooling, she didnt get it at all. Within 3 months she went round an intro. A little bit of hunting after that last winter and she came out this season a different horse and has rapidly progressed.

 

[only_me]

my pony spent the whole 1st year and half of the 2nd year literally getting elininated at every event we went to - he was 5/6 at the time. we had a few tears!! (the events were 2f9 - 3f3, pre novice level )

then the next year suddenly everything clicked - we won every event we entered and won our area event and qualified for the Pony Club champs! he just took some time and he was worth it, as he is now happily doing well in pony eventing!

 

[poggio]

I definitely believe hunting is the best xc education a horse can have.

 

[kirstyfk]

I rode a 5 year old a couple of years ago. A week after she did her first jump I took her to a jumping derby, it was only a foot high. A month later we did out first hunter trials and the she cantered in to most of the jumps. 3 months after that she went clear at her first intro. She was such an honest horse and only stopped about 3 times the whole time I had her.

 

[SpruceRI]

Mine was a nightmare as very spooky and especially nervous of people on the course such as the fence judge or spectators!

Hunting definately helped this, although for many years she was a nightmare to hunt - but that's another story!

I stuck to the really small stuff for ages and built it up slowly. she was especially nervous of ditches and I fell off into many of them. Never thought we'd overcome that problem, but now she's a star and jumps boldly round anything. So some are slow starters but yours sounds very confident.

 

[KatB]

Mine was fine with "normal" fences, houses, roll tops etc etc, and ditches, but took him a while with water and banks! We are there with banks now, he is quite happy, but still very suspicious of water, though we have never been elim XC at water, we just tend to go through slowly!!

Mine just needs to learn to let go a bit and relax, but that is the same in all aspects of his life!

 

[MagicMelon]

Id do some XC schooling for a bit to gauge how they're going. Then once they were confident with everything, water & ditches included then Id do a few hunter paces. Once doing those clear Id move onto a hunter trial or little ODE. Some take longer than others, it really just depends. I dont mind if they're spooky as long as they're honest and keep going forward!

 

[lizzieuk1]

Thankies all who replied. Thats really given me an idea of where we are so far. and am thus very happy! will do some more Sj(his fave as his dad did this v well!)/stressage over the winter and start the season unaffiliated with some xc and little ode's then hopefully affiliate in the 2nd half of the season (after the wedding!!) thanks again and no doubt will be after al your advice v soon!

 

[Jul]

[ QUOTE ]
I would want to be winning unaff SJ and xc at the same height (or maybe 3" bigger) before going affiliated as likely to be more technical questions asked on an affiliated course.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry but got to disagree with that, assuming you're referring to the lower levels. Intro, at 3', is more straightforward than most PC/RC 3' classes I've seen. At that height its normally the intermediate or open when unaffiliated and they have all sorts of combinations - coffins, drops into water, jumps in the middle of the water etc etc. There are strict guidelines on what can be included in an Intro and in fact they are very straightforward so a great way to introduce a youngster as you can be confident nothing weird or overly technical will be included.

As you go up the levels though, yes, BE would be more technical than unaff although you'd be hard pushed to find much unaff bigger than PN anyway.

 

[buzzles]

Well I took my mare to her first hunter trials last week. She was broken in Jan even though she's 6 so she's still quite green. She'd been xc schooling once before and was great, didn't look at anything and at the HT I went in the pairs first behind an experienced pony and we trotted into most things but she jumped everything. I then took her in the singles and she flew around, much more confident and really taking them on and listening to me. We got 2nd in the pairs and would have gone clear in the singles except some one else cut right in front of me and refused so my mare had to stop

.

I think it depends on the horse though, my girl is very genuine and will jump whatever's put in front of her and she's not spooky at all. We also live near a river which I bring her down to play in so she really likes water and she has a ditch cutting through her field which she prefers to jump over rather than go around through the gap

. Every horse is different and some will take longer than others to build up confidence xc.