Will he EVER learn to pick his feet up

[MagicMelon]

Welshie is still being dopey! He is now 6 but still feels and behaves the same as when he was a 4yo. Ive pissed about in small SJ classes for ages now and he is always having a pole or two. In lessons he goes so well over bigger fences so figured maybe because he was jumping small courses he just wasnt trying! So today I tried his first discovery. Again, poles hit the floor! It DID make him try harder but to the point he jumped a few WAY too big and then that made us too close to the next one on a related distance hence why he knocked.

He has so much potential, its just trying to keep it together. He is quite a difficult ride and is very upright in front yet his stride is quite short compared to others so on related distances I have to let him move forward more to make up the striding which then makes him jump flat! And like I say, if he knocks he then pings straight up over the next one way too big which cocks our next distance up. Its very diffcult to keep him together and try to stay on when he makes his insane jumps.

I know gridwork would help, if I did it regularily. But I only have a paddock to ride in (no school or proper surface) so jumping is very much limited to when the ground is dry enough (which is not often!). AGHHHHH

 

[nomini]

My gelding was like that, really clumsy with his feet, so my instructor got me coming into the fence from about 2 strides away so coming round on a circle or cutting the corner, really helped with him and now we usually jump clear, if not we usually only have on down whereas before we were having nearly every fence down. Also gridwork is good but you have already mentioned that is difficult in your situation. Hope this helps

 

[MagicMelon]

Do you mean you praticed at home turning into a fence 2 strides away? Obviously this cant be done out competing (unless jump off!). Did it really help?

 

[Fiona]

Could you hire an arena (say twice a week for three weeks) and do some concentrated gridwork, to see if this (as you suggest) would make any difference.
Fiona

 

[I_A_P]

in my experience i have found this worse, as its hard to keep balance around a corner coming into a fence that close! but then that might just be my mare!

 

[Weezy]

[ QUOTE ]

He has so much potential, its just trying to keep it together. He is quite a difficult ride and is very upright in front yet his stride is quite short compared to others so on related distances I have to let him move forward more to make up the striding which then makes him jump flat!

[/ QUOTE ]

Ahhhhhhhh - OK if this was me and I know that my horse is capable of jumping flat I would be holding for an extra stride and making him more engaged in his hocks - ok so you may get some TPs but it may teach him to pick his feet up - just because it walks, say, 5 stride, it doesnt mean you HAVE to do it in 5

Then once you have the collection, extension thing working well you can start moving on to making the 5 strides big round strides instead of flat

In short I would be trying to canter round on the shortest most bouncy SJ canter you can so you are hitting the fences with VERY engaged hocks and pretty much spot on every time

 

[nomini]

Yeh sorry didn't explain it properly, i practiced at home coming into a fence from 2 strides. I know it sounds strange but it really did help him to pick up his feet, and has really improved his jumping at shows!