Won't jump away from home?

[Jingleballs]

One of the girls at my yard has a lovely wee mare who is an absolutely superb jumper - she has so much scope and power over the jump that it can be quite scary to watch.

She can sometimes be a bit difficult in the school and sometimes needs a lot of leg to get her to trot/canter but will pop a jump no bother.

The problem arises when she's taken away from home to jump - she just refuses to do it!!

We went to a show on Sunday and she point blank refused to jump - she would just come back to walk when approaching and no amount of leg or stick could get her to move.

Her owner was trying soooo hard to get her to go - she was actually compromising her own seat/position to get her over.

She did eventually get her round a clear round course but it took so much effort and at the end her owner was quite upset especially as everyone else seemed to think that if they were riding her they could get her to do it!!

We've got some more jumping shows coming up soon and I was wondering if anyone else has any experience of this problem and how to go about resolving it so that my friend can go and actually start enjoying these shows!

Thanks

xx

 

[0ldmare]

I would probably suggest taking her hunting or try to do a mini pairs hunter trial. Anything that takes her away from home, is good fun for her and makes her enjoy going forward over jumps. The key here I think is her backing off the leg at home (other than jumping at home). Just my view though.

 

[Racing_Gal]

How much experience has your friend had? Maybe it'd be worth letting a more experienced rider try to take her round? That way if the horses jumps ok you know its just a matter of time and gaining experience, if she still wont jump you know its not the rider. Was this the first time the horse had been to this show? Maybe it will just take some getting used to?

my girl is an ace jumper and usless I cock up we're always in the prizes but there is one EC she refuses point blank to jump at, I don't know why, we can't work it out, maybe it's just a 'mare' thing!

 

[Jingleballs]

Thanks for the suggestions!

The mare is around 8 years old - the girl has owned her for around 5 years and has been riding for about 5 1/2 years. She's not done a lot of jumping herself which could be part of the issue but one of her more experienced friends who's been riding for about 15 years tried to take her round at a previous show and could not get her to move so it's not just the rider although I think perhaps she is expecting her to refuse which can add to the horse backing off.

 

[dozzie]

One of my old boys was exactly the same. He would jump anything at home, was fast against the clock and never touched a pole, but was really different at shows. Just totally lacked confidence. I did eventually get him jumping but tbh there was a lot of eliminations on the way. I would tell your friend just to try to get her pony out clear round jumping at the mo and when she is happy then enter a tiny class if possible.

My "instructor" friend at the time told me it was my fault and I wasnt being positive enough. So she got on and had the same problem!

She actually admitted there was nothing she could do! That made me feel better!

It never became easy with this horse and eventually I switched to dressage with just the odd bit of jumping at home.

So tell your friend she is not the only one and not to let it upset her. See if she could get her pony out to clinics and clear round where help can be available yet she is still jumping away from home. I have also known horses to be really funny about jumping on grass/hard ground so she may need to monitor this as well. Hope that helps a bit. Poor girl! I know just how frustrating this can be.

 

[Mithras]

She isn't responsive to the aids and doesn't go forwards when asked. Thats the problem. Unless your friend is happy to have the pony in control of her and only doing things which the horse is happy to do on that particular day, she needs reschooled to get her in the habit of going forwards and not evading. She needs to learn as soon as a leg aid is replied, she responds. I would bet her walk isn't even particularly forward and if you could get her to do an active walk, with straightness and no evasion and full concentration, everything else would improve. Personally I would ride her in spurs as well.