Youngster chipping in strides - advice?

arwenplusone

arwenplusone

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Sorry - a bit long! My young mare, who's been doing newcomers, has started chipping in strides and getting right underneath fences. Trouble is, I look for a stride and try and tell her when to take off - My instructor thinks I should let her alone, do nothing and let the fence come to me. (good advice) When I do this, V chips in a stride at the last minute which usually results in us hitting the fence. I have confused her with not telling her what to do and sometimes (can't help myself) I tell her and sometimes I don't - consequently we are getting to fences in a bit of a mess as neither of us is taking control!
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Trying to do lots of grid work and use placing poles but she's v closecoupled and a bit canny so she can sneak another stride in. If I build up the fences bigger she is better but I don't want her to hit them and lose confidence - I know she has heaps of ability but would rather she was jumping correctly before I do bigger jumps?
Anyone got any good tips? She lunges over fences ok (sometimes puts in a short one) and I did loose jump her but she jumped out of the school (1m30 gate
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) so stopped that now - lol.
Should I build up the fences? I'm going for lots of grid work and patience but sometimes the grid makes her worse? Help appreciated.
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Chipping in short is generally a sign of lack of confirdence- I'd be doing loads of fairly little, really good fun stuff- dont worry about precision and accuracy for a while- just let her be a horse and find a better rythym by allowing her to experiment a bit
 
Agree with Boss, mine does this alot and it is undoubtedly a confidence issue. We have been getting good results with building small (no bigger than 95cm) grids with nice short distances, so they come down them and have no option but to land, take a stride and jump, becasue everything is already thee for them. Also use placing poles to get us where we want to take off. We did the grid excercise th day before an event and jumped a fab round, and only chipped in once, so it does work!
 
I always find mine jump better when i try not to look for a stride! Its a pretty difficult habit to get out of. I couldnt see a stride if it was painted on the floor in big white letters! I agree with the others, drop the height slightly (not too much you still need her to have something to think about) and really try concentrating on not placing her at the fence - i feel they do better when made to think for themselves - or maybe thats the event rider in me?! Strides seem to come much better for me when i approach a fence sat on my bum, legs on, going forward and hands up - and not looking for strides! good luck!
 
Some good advice herre already.
Don't make the mistake I did last night, which was to decide mare wasn't going forward enough in the first class, so decided to hunt her on a bit in the bigger class. Forgot to keep a hold of the front end though, so ended up hurdling the double, and she chipped in a couple of short ones as well.
Fortunately we managed to get it to gether in the second round, but don't go from one extreme to the other like stupid me.

Good luck.

Fiona
 
Have you got any good professional showjumpers in your area where you could send her away for a few days? This can really help their confidence and make them an easier ride for you, it can be very interesting watching someone else.
 
sounds like some of my rounds recently!
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Advice seems to be consistent though - I should stop worrying about strides - easier said than done tho.

Got working hunter coming up - just for fun - we'll see how she goes!
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Daisychain - this is a good idea but i think it needsto be me that gives her confidence otherwise we'll never get it together.

I think practice over some less daunting fences is in order!
 
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