I have a 6yr old 17hh OTTB who I have trained on my own over the past 12 months to jump. He’s a very comfortable and willing guy to ride, however I am having a little trouble with teaching him stride control. He has a huge stride - he can trot in and canter out in the horse step easily. However he is a lazy guy, so I am always moving him off my leg. Most of the time he tends to be strong up front and curl under the vertical. I am sure this problem stems from the fact that he is very weak in his hind end and struggles with collection. Our chiropractor has told us that he has a weak hind end mainly from being on the track and partially from hormones. Does anyone have any tips/tricks/exercises to help with 1) teaching this big OTTB baby how to control his own stride over the jumps 2) collecting exercises for horses that struggle with collection.
If you’re barn is not land locked, go out and hack…a lot. Trail riding and hacking will help him build up his hind end very quickly and give him a break from ring work at the same time. If his hind end is not strong enough to jump, you might want to hold off on doing any jumping until he has more muscle back there. Your description of how his is traveling on the forehand with his front end curled up does suggest a weak hind end, so he can’t possibly use himself properly. Only bad things can happen if you continue to jump him with a weak hind end. Hock, SI, back issues can all come into play and might even result in a horse who no longer wants to jump. Better off to take it slow and get the muscle on him.
If you can’t get out of a ring, lots of long and low work will help. I’m talking long and low in contact, not reins flopping. He needs to learn how to stretch over his back to the bit to develop his topline. Dressage lessons will help a lot assuming you take them from a trainer who understands TBs.
Is it possible that you have not learned to ride him from your seat? Because that is the way to control his stride length. By posting slower but with the same energy, you will shorten his stride. The same principle applies in the canter.
I would look for an instructor who can help you with this. This ability is also part of helping him to engage himself, and get off his forehand.
As a self test, see if you can shorten and lengthen his stride within the trot, without pulling on the reins. Pulling on the reins affects the front end, It doesn’t help the rear.
Put him in a mild bit. Like a kk ultra bean bit, or shaped mulled mouth happy mouth.
. Canter circles, spiraling in, and add leg. Go just until he feels like he is really working then spiral out.
. If he curls under, boot him. Add leg. It’s a forward resistance.
Learn to correctly ask for bend, using leg.
Trot poles can help build hind end.
Hill work.
Spiral circles, bending correctly.
Transitions.
Ummmmm…no…being off the track and hormones (?) do NOT cause a weak hind end. There are many reasons including conformation, discomfort, injury, illness, immaturity and lack of condition but, sorry, hormones??? You need to ask your vet about the possible causes of the weak back end. Some Chiros are great, others not so much and anybody can call themselves an equine chiropractor tomorrow, there’s no recognized educational track, no certification by a recognized central organization, licensing or standards.
Back to your question. Generally if you have one that struggles to collect and is weak behind, we don’t want to send them over fences until those issues are resolved with conditioning and flatwork. Do you have an instructor? If you do are there others that might be worth checking out? Sounds like you need some educated guidance. As do we all at times.
Do you have any pictures you can link us to? Many on here have had OTTBs and are familiar with the journey you are on hence can be a good source of honest information. Offhand, bigger horses mature more slowly and often have late growth spurts causing some minor coordination problems. If horse has a long back, straight shoulder and hip angles it very hard for them to collect and hock angles also can figure in. Without seeing 5his horse, can’t even guess what the issues might be.
Honestly, wouldnt ask him to jump much if he’s obviously having issues collecting, fix that first with the help of a good instructor. Possible your riding is not helping him too much, things like half halts and laterals are very helpful strengthening the horses back end to prepare it for jumping later after mastering the basics.
What findeight says.
All horses must progress from the basics of the classical training pyramid, to as far up the pyramid as necessary. If your horse is still dropping behind the bit (as many OTTBs may do), you are still struggling with the first step of the pyramid… Free Forward Relaxed Motion. Because of the evasion of overbending his head, he’s not yet moving forward correctly, he is evading contact. UNDOING race training is always the first step of retraining a racehorse to be a show horse. You are FAR AWAY from asking for “collection” of anything, from his stride to his body. Pursue “step one” first (FFRM), and when you get SOME success with that, walk, trot, canter stepping forward from behind on a loose rein, head and neck extended and relaxed, then you can move on to the next step.
FFRM does not use the reins at all (other than basic navigation). You want him to stretch his neck and head down, learn “relaxation”. And you use your leg a LOT, to encourage him to engage his hind end. As a race horse, he may well not know a lot about leg aides, as many exercise riders ride fairly short. He may have had a bit of this during his breaking, early schooling. But with later race training, the leg cues are replaced with cues from the stick, or voice. So this would be your first goal. There is no point in even starting to jump anything until the race training is replaced by classical training. To do so will only bite you in the butt later, when he does not know how to carry himself correctly, and develops unsoundness and lack of performance as a result.
For hunter/jumper careers, it is not necessary to attain the highest level of the classical training pyramid with any great perfection, like it is with goals of high level dressage training and competition. But those early steps of the pyramid are crucial to success of every sport horse. If you can not find a coach who understands this theory of training horses, you will have to investigate it yourself as best as you can, if you are looking for success with this project. Good luck.
What findeight and nancyM say also. Hormones? Oh really!!! OTTBs don’t know about leg—which is a good thing and a detriment. When you try to take their mouth—that means run in their previous experience. I’d work with a basic dressage trainer at first. It’s made a WORLD of difference to my boys. First off the track they are really tight. Give them a little time to be horses and start with BASIC dressage (and I’m a H/J person!) and they will start to learn how to use themselves. BOTH my young OTTBs who are total opposites in energy—benefit. As do I IMMENSELY! Learning how to first get them straight, move their shoulders, and then from there—it is making my boys a WORLD better before we start to jump. And me too. It’s so much fun!!!
I am with Nancy M. Collection is an advanced concept that comes from the development of carry power. You should not be asking him to collect since you mention you do not have consistent contact to the bridle.
collection has nothing to do with bits, the mouth or the head.
you may wish to seek the help of a dressage trainer to get you some guidance on correct training progression
Oh god, poor guy :lol:
Look at it this way, he’s 3 miles long and mostly legs. He’s a long horse who’s whole job was to get as looooong as possible, with as big and fast a step as possible. Now you’re saying lift and hold that together for extended periods of time.
Go get a pole, around 3’ long, tie a weight to one end and lift it repeatedly in front of you from the other end. Now repeat with a 6’ long pole, same weight.
The bigger/longer the horse, the longer it takes to build the lifting strength. It is just SO much harder because of physics. So, he needs strength. Long slow work that builds strength without getting him sore. Once he has the strength? Then you can start asking him to collect. Otherwise you just get a horse with a short weak step who can’t jump higher than 3’ without getting in trouble.
