Curious to hear everyone’s thoughts about throwing a cooler/scrim/towel etc over the top rail of a warmup jump before you go in the ring with a spooky horse that maybe has a tendency to peek at the jumps. Do you find it helpful? Or do you think it can make a spooky horse more spooky or upset?
I think it depends on the horse.
Knew an eq horse in the barn when I was a junior who had that kind of prep, but he wasn’t spooky–more lazy than anything, and he sharpened up when the warmup fence had some added decor.
We couldn’t use that technique with my current horse, who I’d say can be a looky louie depending on the day. He needs confidence building before going into the ring, and that just spooks him more/he jumps in worse form.
I think if they are more made up and just need to know you will ride them through a spook they do well. If they are green and unsure it can hurt confidence. That is my humble experience. If they are brave and lazy it can help. I’ve also had trainers drop a towel in the ground if they are crooked so they jump away. That works well.
Works for some and not for others, as has already been mentioned. With the last one I sold, we had great luck just figure-eighting over a vertical with a cooler until he took take a deep breath and then would walk in the ring and jump around like a pro. He was green, but more than capable and just needed to confidence. In his case, it worked perfectly. They’re all so different, so you can’t know for sure until you try it!
It really depends on your horse. I’ve found there are 3 kinds of spooky:
- lazy and think a spook will get them out of work. Horses that do this need a forward ride in the warmup and to the first jump, and benefit from as little down time as possible in between warmup and their round.
- horses (or riders) who think the dressed up jumps in the ring look bigger than the warm up fence. These horses (or riders) need to school higher than their show height in the warmup so the jumps in the ring look smaller.
- horses that are actually afraid of the jump filler. Usually these horses are young, and with age the spookiness will go away. With these horses, the best thing to do is trailer out to school a lot. Making one jump at the show look different with a towel isn’t going to be enough to mentally prepare that horse for flowers, boxes, etc.
The reason I would use a saddle pad or towel on a jump is not to get a spooky jump. It’s to create something for the horse and rider to actually be able to focus on. Most of the time schooling jumps are one airy pole, usually a neutral color, and it can be so hard to find a distance when the jump is so airy, especially if you are jumping higher than 3 ft. To me, your only goal in warmup is to give yourself and your horse confidence. Getting bad distances because the pole is giving you an optical illusion isn’t helpful.
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What @StormyDay said! I’ve only ever used the “cooler over a jump once “ ….my horse was green, he’d never seen a solid looking jump (barrels) so my trainer wanted to make sure “I” was confident enough to ride forward to to it if he spooked! I was….he didn’t even look at it and didn’t look at the fence in the ring (probably Wouldn’t of even if we hadn’t schooled the way we had, but it was for me not for him!)…we’ve never done it since!
When my horse does spook and run out now, it’s because I’m letting him….he’s lazy by nature, and if I don’t have a nice forward canter, keep my leg on and hold him straight at something I know darn well he’ll take a look at, well it’s my own darn fault if he’s all “hey looky here, air amateur has eased up, let me see what I can Get away with” LOL….BUT if I don’t slow down and keep telling him “hey lazy dude, you don’t get to act spooky today to get out of work” he’ll jump everything without question! LOL As my trainer had to teach me “YOU are braver than than you think you are 
”
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