Anyone NOT jump their horse in warm up?

[jhg140]

My horse’s issues are mostly in his head, so count us as those who skips the warm-up. We usually flat hard in the am in the ring and then do our schooling jumps in the morning, too. He can get wound up, so very specific routine - jump and halt on a straight line. Doing this in the am gives us all the time we need to get him responsive, and if he gets wound up, he goes back to his stall to go back to sleep.

I think I am in the minority though, in that we literally walk straight from our stall to the ring. No flat, just the walk and we do a little mini tour of the ring. Hasn’t been an issue yet, we may re-evaluate if we ever move up to 3’6" (currently doing 3’3").

[Calvincrowe]

Do what makes you and your horse happy is my philosophy. My trainer always asks (silly person!) if I want a jump in the warmup. Nope. Just messes with my head and I start overthinking everything. Mr. Horse gets hotty hot hot and carries that into the ring. He’s spooky at stuff outside the ring, not at any jump we’ve found so far. Last summer I filled a 2’6-2’9" hunter derby–we wtc, and went straight in to logs, rock walls, and flowers. We hadn’t jumped hunter jumps in two years! (We were welcomed by the announcer as “joining us from the jumper ring tonight”!) It was fun! And those “new” jumps sure made my boy jump brilliantly.

[yellowbritches]

I don’t like to jump a lot of jumps, ever, and have always tried to keep it to no more than six. Admittedly, my horse was unusual this time around. He’s usually pretty easy going in warm up and only needs a couple of jumps (in my book) to warm up his jumping muscles and realize we’re jumping. But this weekend, he was a goofball and I think we only managed a couple of fences I was happy with (either the jump itself, or how rideable he was before and/or after). I basically gave up after a couple and figured he’d be ok in the ring. I kinda wonder about the warm up area itself…a big ring with a couple of standard issue plain rails and standards, and our timing got us there when it was quiet. There was NOTHING to keep his attention. He walked into the ring (both days) and jumped out of his skin.

So, he may not need a revamped warm up…just a busier ring!

[SweetTalk]

I sometimes don’t. My horse doesn’t really need it. At the most 1-2 fences for my sake.

[dynamite0319]

The warmup makes my horse crazy so we hack super early when no one is there and use the warmup hunter course as just that. He seems much happier and less frazzled this way.

[Lord_Helpus]

I think that it is more fair to the horse to jump several jumps – warm up his jumping muscles, as it were.

I had a very flighty mare who would get herself into a dither in the warm up ring and the longer she was in there, the more frazzled she got. So she did a short warm up when the prior class was finishing and jogging. Then she would come out, I would take off the saddle and we would stand under a tree. Thinking she was done, she would cock a hind leg and fall asleep. When it was 1 round before she went I would put the saddle back on and the pro would get a leg up at the ingate. He would tighten the girth as he walked in the ring, slip into a canter and jump around.

He would pull up after his courtesy circle, walk several steps and go straight into the second course. No fanfare, just slipping over another 8 jumps.

That mare won a whole lot of classes with this kind of prep.

[foursocks]

I agree- it is important for most horses to not be cold when they go in. But it really depends on the horse, the height of the jumps, and the pre-jumping flatwork, I think. My horse gets supple through my flat warm up, and if I don’t do that properly he makes me pay for it through shenanigans over fences. At our first big show I didn’t know this yet, and he bucked vigorously through the entire first round and the jump off, which was both funny and somewhat embarrassing. In his case, then, a good flat session is much more important than jumping a bunch in the warm up. I know (now) when he is ready and it is generally after only a few jumps.

He’s also the opposite of a lot of horses being posted about on this thread- he doesn’t get frazzled, he likes competing, and not much bothers him once he knows we are there to do a job. One additional factor is that he is a beefy, lazy little WB and I need his energy for the jumper ring, not the warm up!

I have a friend who herself can’t deal with the warm up ring. She competes way below her horse’s scope and so long as she does a really good hack around the show grounds she can go in and jump him around without more than a single fence in warm up, and he is happy as a clam with that.

[jlphilli]

I personally like to do minimal warm-up jumps. I only do 3’, and my horse does better with less time between me getting on and going in the ring. I typically just do a small vertical both ways to warm up, then the same thing higher. I only do more if I’m feeling blind or having trouble getting a good canter.

[yellowbritches]

[QUOTE=foursocks;8126588]
I agree- it is important for most horses to not be cold when they go in. But it really depends on the horse, the height of the jumps, and the pre-jumping flatwork, I think. My horse gets supple through my flat warm up, and if I don’t do that properly he makes me pay for it through shenanigans over fences. At our first big show I didn’t know this yet, and he bucked vigorously through the entire first round and the jump off, which was both funny and somewhat embarrassing. In his case, then, a good flat session is much more important than jumping a bunch in the warm up. I know (now) when he is ready and it is generally after only a few jumps.

He’s also the opposite of a lot of horses being posted about on this thread- he doesn’t get frazzled, he likes competing, and not much bothers him once he knows we are there to do a job. One additional factor is that he is a beefy, lazy little WB and I need his energy for the jumper ring, not the warm up!

I have a friend who herself can’t deal with the warm up ring. She competes way below her horse’s scope and so long as she does a really good hack around the show grounds she can go in and jump him around without more than a single fence in warm up, and he is happy as a clam with that.[/QUOTE]
I really agree about the flatwork. I find that once I get Toby moving off my legs (forward and sideways), bending well, and his canter where it needs to be, he can jump just about anything and it seems to matter little what happens with the warm up jumps. Especially if he gets a proper walk (which for him is at least 10-15 minutes, preferably not in the ring) to kick things off.

We’re showing this weekend, so I’m going to try a slightly different approach, with just a couple of jumps and see what it gets us.

Remind me, the former event rider turned jumper, can we roll placing rails out in warm up at h/j shows?

[Kat]

[QUOTE=yellowbritches;8127096]

Remind me, the former event rider turned jumper, can we roll placing rails out in warm up at h/j shows?[/QUOTE]

Yes, that’s fine, but try to roll it back in when you’re done to be courteous

[Jumper_girl221]

My mare loses her mind in the warmup ring and during schooling. She’s scopey as heck, and tends to get a bit strong, so our warmup consists of a few trot circles and maybe a light lunge then we go right in. If she’s jumping a higher height then I’ll do a warmup round or a class at a lower height, but honestly walking in cold I get my best rides out of her.