Bit Suggestions for TB that Hunts the Fences

[GrayTBJumper]

[QUOTE=StormyDay;8855920]
At first, this is not going to help her building and pulling. But what you have to understand is that when you sit down too early, you restrict your release when she still needs it. To her, you are initiating the tug of war, which is probably one of the reasons she builds. She has learned to ignore your pulling, because over the jump it doesn’t mean anything.[/QUOTE]

Had a total light bulb moment when I read this, thank you! Fix my position first, and then she’ll realize she doesn’t have to pull me across/after the jump.

Going right, she canters with her haunches in instead of straight. She has slightly more muscling in the pocket behind her right shoulder than her left. Should I still step onto my left/outside stirrup? Suggestions on how to balance AND keep her straight going that direction?

[findeight]

[QUOTE=GrayTBJumper;8856702]
Had a total light bulb moment when I read this, thank you! Fix my position first, and then she’ll realize she doesn’t have to pull me across/after the jump.

Going right, she canters with her haunches in instead of straight. She has slightly more muscling in the pocket behind her right shoulder than her left. Should I still step onto my left/outside stirrup? Suggestions on how to balance AND keep her straight going that direction?[/QUOTE]

Take some Dressage lessons, the better HJ trainers have a good basic Dressage background and it is part of Eventing so there should be several options in your area, ride one of their horses at first, make it easier for you to learn.

If you are taking lessons, your trainer should have noticed this what should be obvious hole in basics. Plenty out there teaching that also lack basics. Unfortunately we tend to not see that hole in our trainers talent because we confuse personal feelings for receiving the correct guidance we pay for.

Just something to think about.

[StormyDay]

[QUOTE=GrayTBJumper;8856702]
Had a total light bulb moment when I read this, thank you! Fix my position first, and then she’ll realize she doesn’t have to pull me across/after the jump.

Going right, she canters with her haunches in instead of straight. She has slightly more muscling in the pocket behind her right shoulder than her left. Should I still step onto my left/outside stirrup? Suggestions on how to balance AND keep her straight going that direction?[/QUOTE]

Yes, because when you step out, what you are really doing is preventing yourself from leaning in. You will feel like you are stepping out a lot, but in reality the movement you have is very small and it is only to help with your position. Remember to sit up through the turns too! She will always mirror your body. you will also need to keep that inside leg on to support through the turn, and if she leans on the forehand or wants to motorcycle around the turn lifting the inside hand can keep her from doing that.
I would work on strengthening her to that direction too. Lots of trot circles, focusing on really bending her around that inside leg. She should make a crescent shape, and eventually be able to maintain that throughout the circle. Half passing away from the direction she is stiff, keeping her in a slight crescent shape should help a lot. (So for her, start on the quarterline and ‘half pass’ toward the left side of the arena. Keep her body on a crescent shape with her eye and bum to the right, her middle to the left) eventually do the same thing on a circle, using the same aids to maintain that crescent shape. I would do this at the wall and trot first, and when she masters that do the same thing at the canter. Working on those excerszes for a few min a day, you should see results fairly quickly. I have a slightly crooked TB too and I usually do this as a warm up, and he keeps himself straight for the rest of the ride.

[GrayTBJumper]

[QUOTE=findeight;8856722]
Take some Dressage lessons, the better HJ trainers have a good basic Dressage background and it is part of Eventing so there should be several options in your area, ride one of their horses at first, make it easier for you to learn.

If you are taking lessons, your trainer should have noticed this what should be obvious hole in basics. Plenty out there teaching that also lack basics. Unfortunately we tend to not see that hole in our trainers talent because we confuse personal feelings for receiving the correct guidance we pay for.

Just something to think about.[/QUOTE]

Trainer teaches up through third level dressage, in addition to h/j up to 3’6". I’ll ask her for a dressage lesson. She noticed a month ago that I sit crooked - when we canter right, I sit off to the left because of my mare’s lack of muscling on that side and I’m compensating. I don’t canter crooked when I ride other horses. She told me to sit centered/almost step right instead and put my right leg on - which conflicts with the stepping on my outside stirrup so she doesn’t lean in. But maybe step left but keep right leg on? Is that possible lol? Aah, I’m having trouble visualizing how to put it all together, much less actually executing.

[GrayTBJumper]

[QUOTE=StormyDay;8856940]
Yes, because when you step out, what you are really doing is preventing yourself from leaning in. You will feel like you are stepping out a lot, but in reality the movement you have is very small and it is only to help with your position. Remember to sit up through the turns too! She will always mirror your body. you will also need to keep that inside leg on to support through the turn, and if she leans on the forehand or wants to motorcycle around the turn lifting the inside hand can keep her from doing that.
I would work on strengthening her to that direction too. Lots of trot circles, focusing on really bending her around that inside leg. She should make a crescent shape, and eventually be able to maintain that throughout the circle. Half passing away from the direction she is stiff, keeping her in a slight crescent shape should help a lot. (So for her, start on the quarterline and ‘half pass’ toward the left side of the arena. Keep her body on a crescent shape with her eye and bum to the right, her middle to the left) eventually do the same thing on a circle, using the same aids to maintain that crescent shape. I would do this at the wall and trot first, and when she masters that do the same thing at the canter. Working on those excerszes for a few min a day, you should see results fairly quickly. I have a slightly crooked TB too and I usually do this as a warm up, and he keeps himself straight for the rest of the ride.[/QUOTE]

Makes total sense… she does have more trouble leg yielding that direction at the trot already, so what you’re saying is totally helping me see why and how all these pieces/the mechanics fit together. Looks like I have lots of good homework!

[Dewey]

You’ve been getting some great advice; I’ll only add that your mare is very cute, and you make a nice pair. Good luck with her.

[StormyDay]

[QUOTE=GrayTBJumper;8856972]
Trainer teaches up through third level dressage, in addition to h/j up to 3’6". I’ll ask her for a dressage lesson. She noticed a month ago that I sit crooked - when we canter right, I sit off to the left because of my mare’s lack of muscling on that side and I’m compensating. I don’t canter crooked when I ride other horses. She told me to sit centered/almost step right instead and put my right leg on - which conflicts with the stepping on my outside stirrup so she doesn’t lean in. But maybe step left but keep right leg on? Is that possible lol? Aah, I’m having trouble visualizing how to put it all together, much less actually executing.[/QUOTE]

Hmm… that does explain the leaning. You probably sit too far left, and then collapse your right side in, which causes leaning. i would try to sit more the the right side of the saddle, but keep that left leg long and down, and your upper body from leaning right. It might even need to feel like you are leaning slightly left. Right leg must stay on too.
The best way I can help to explain what you need to do is this. Sit on a hard flat surface, like a dining chair. Keeping both feet on the ground, shift your weight onto your left seatbone. Notice how your whole right side collapses when you do that, and you lean a bit right? Well, you are also doing that in the saddle.
I wouldn’t say focus on stepping right, I think that may make you lean more. Instead, you need to focus on your upper body, from your seatbones to your sides. Keep that bum centered, and your right side up and long.
I actually have the same problem

[findeight]

[QUOTE=GrayTBJumper;8856972]
Trainer teaches up through third level dressage, in addition to h/j up to 3’6". I’ll ask her for a dressage lesson. She noticed a month ago that I sit crooked - when we canter right, I sit off to the left because of my mare’s lack of muscling on that side and I’m compensating. I don’t canter crooked when I ride other horses. She told me to sit centered/almost step right instead and put my right leg on - which conflicts with the stepping on my outside stirrup so she doesn’t lean in. But maybe step left but keep right leg on? Is that possible lol? Aah, I’m having trouble visualizing how to put it all together, much less actually executing.[/QUOTE]

Perfect, you are working out what’s wrong on your own. That’s always better then being told how to fix it and not understanding why it’s happening in the first place.

Take a few Dressage lessons from your current trainer, she’ll know what makes sense for a primarily HJ rider and you understand the problem and are ready to listen and learn to fix it.

[IPEsq]

Your mare is cute. I agree your biggest problem is lack of proper release. You round your back rather than bend at the hip, so while you start a release, you get popped back in the air and catch her in the mouth. This will encourage a horse to run on landing and also not have much respect for other times you pull on the reins.

GHM would have you do a lot of trot jumps getting into 2 point early, grabbing mane as you give a long crest release. You can also work on it with gymnastics. It takes a steadier leg and an independent seat, which comes from core strength plus core flexibility (being strong but able to follow the motion). You can work on that by doing more work on the flat without stirrups. Taking the stirrups away should also help you with your leaning issue you describe, because you can only lean so far without a stirrup to brace against

Not trying to be harsh, and really don’t feel too bad. You are getting a lot of good advice. Now, I’m not saying allow her to run through the corners, but you’ve got to give her a break over the jump and right on landing. If you don’t reward her for what she does right, she won’t learn what the correction is for doing something wrong.

So, after your jumps at home where you work on really learning that crest release, you can set maybe a landing pole. Either as a bounce rail or a one stride. For this horse, I like the 1 stride pole better. Clear the pole by being soft in her mouth, then ask her to halt before you get to the end of the arena.

I judge some local schooling shows from time to time, and I see people make your mistakes all the time and some of them haven’t gotten any better in the past couple of years. I’m glad you are working on figuring out the problem and how to fix it…wish the others would do the same!

[Justice]

I have an amazing tb jumper that goes best in an eggbut plain snaffle gag with the newfangled converters. I would try a gag, we started with 2 reins and worked out the system that kept her happiest. You don’t want too much gag action, it is a good thing when they want to go to the jump

[PNWjumper]

You’ve gotten some great advice and I agree with what’s been said.

I have a young horse who was like this for his first few shows. In his case it was because he’s young and was super green at the beginning of the season and most definitely did not have all of the correct muscling built up to “hold” himself appropriately. He would canter nicely up to the fence and them leap over it with a ton of forward momentum and land super flat and pull me down to the next jump. I could always get him back in the corners, but the lines were pull, pull, pull, pull!

I did play around with bits and found that I really liked bits that worked on more than just the mouth (more specifically, I added a gel-cover topped curb chain to a simple D-ring Myler bit I use and found that the chin pressure/lift of the curb action helped him get the idea of lifting much better than just a mouthpiece).

But what really made the biggest difference was conditioning work. We started doing hill work and also played around with some exercises at home including:

>jumps with take-off and landing poles (sometimes one or the other, sometimes both) - 9’ before and/or after the jump. Also, we would often school a small vertical at shows with a landing pole 9’ after the jump (no take-off pole) as our last few jumps before walking into the ring.

>pole - 4 strides - jump - 4 strides - pole - this was probably the most effective exercise for this particular horse out of everything I did. It really seemed to resonate with his brain that he had to stay the same speed after the jump as he did before the jump.

>Bounces - I set up a line of 6 crossrail bounces (set at 9’6"-ish) and had all of my horses use that as a little warm-up exercise all summer. This was another that really helped this horse think about staying round over the jumps and maintaining a steady pace.

Doing those exercises (and focusing on conditioning) has made a world of difference for my guy who is now jumping around without getting flat and pulling me around.