Ahrena
Well-Known Member
Hi,
A while back I posted on here asking for advice with my 6yo welsh cob, Lacey. This was when she was very nappy and pretty much wouldn't jump a thing after having previously been the sort of "point, squeeze, leap" sort of horse. Had some very good advice, but it turned out, it was actually lack of feed which was upsetting her.
A nutristionist who we had see her, said that because we only fed her a handful of chaff, under all her adrenaline, excitement, jogging, (she's very excitable), she actually had no energy, and it started taking affect in the summer because I was riding her longer than I could in the winter.
Anyway, now she never naps anymore, and doesn't stop jumping at home, (touch wood!) and seems to enjoy it a LOT.
We're also jumping smaller because I figured she'll have lost a bit of confidence. But then when I took her to a show and did 2 foot 3 and 2 foot 6 about 10 days ago, we can safely say my Lacey isn't back. She had 8 faults in the 2 foot 3, and the 2 foot 6 (despite jumping that at home no problems) seemed to cause her a bit of a headache and she had a couple of very nasty stops. Because of the nature of the refusals (brakes last second, usually she starts stopping a few strides off and goes dead to the leg) I think her nerves failed the last minute. She also just didn't have her 'sparkle'.
So okay, she doesn't have a lot of confidence at shows and she's still a bit stale. So I'm not competing her (neither dressage nor SJ) until January. Orginally i was going to not jump her either, and concentrate on flatwork and hacking, maybe a spot of NH. But I was going to take her out a few times November/December out hunting because I thought that'd give her a lot of confidence.
But just had a thought, maybe I should do gridwork with her once a week to help her technique (which is already very good) and give us both a confidence boost. Or maybe give her 6 weeks off jumping then start gridwork?
Open to any ideas. Thanks everyone
A while back I posted on here asking for advice with my 6yo welsh cob, Lacey. This was when she was very nappy and pretty much wouldn't jump a thing after having previously been the sort of "point, squeeze, leap" sort of horse. Had some very good advice, but it turned out, it was actually lack of feed which was upsetting her.
A nutristionist who we had see her, said that because we only fed her a handful of chaff, under all her adrenaline, excitement, jogging, (she's very excitable), she actually had no energy, and it started taking affect in the summer because I was riding her longer than I could in the winter.
Anyway, now she never naps anymore, and doesn't stop jumping at home, (touch wood!) and seems to enjoy it a LOT.
We're also jumping smaller because I figured she'll have lost a bit of confidence. But then when I took her to a show and did 2 foot 3 and 2 foot 6 about 10 days ago, we can safely say my Lacey isn't back. She had 8 faults in the 2 foot 3, and the 2 foot 6 (despite jumping that at home no problems) seemed to cause her a bit of a headache and she had a couple of very nasty stops. Because of the nature of the refusals (brakes last second, usually she starts stopping a few strides off and goes dead to the leg) I think her nerves failed the last minute. She also just didn't have her 'sparkle'.
So okay, she doesn't have a lot of confidence at shows and she's still a bit stale. So I'm not competing her (neither dressage nor SJ) until January. Orginally i was going to not jump her either, and concentrate on flatwork and hacking, maybe a spot of NH. But I was going to take her out a few times November/December out hunting because I thought that'd give her a lot of confidence.
But just had a thought, maybe I should do gridwork with her once a week to help her technique (which is already very good) and give us both a confidence boost. Or maybe give her 6 weeks off jumping then start gridwork?
Open to any ideas. Thanks everyone
