One of my horses has the unfortunate habit of wanting to absolutely bury himself into the jump before takeoff. He would much rather do a half stride and get way too close to the jump and then launch himself straight up in the air then take the nice distance I give him. It seems to have become a habit for him.
I’ve lowered the jump height. He has a nice rhythmic canter and doesn’t pull to the jumps. He has all the basics for good flatwork down.
I need to teach him a nice arc over a jump is much more comfortable than what he is doing now. Usually a trainer would be involved, but coronavirus.
A gymnastic maybe? Any suggestions?
A pole on the ground before the jump?
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Question- do you ask with your leg at the spot you see, or just see the “right” spot? Asking because my trainer has me ask every single time with my leg, even in related distances with my young horse. I’ve really never had to do that with my other one (or was never told to?), unless it was a less than ideal spot .
Age and training level? Any possible vet issues that would be discouraging him? Are you carrying enough pace (as a canter can be rhythmically too slow and/or flat)? Does he chip to the out of a line when you’re on track to make the strides, or just to single jumps?
Wide low hogback oxers in short gymnastics? I don’t have my copy of wofford handy, but I recall those showing up in adjustability exercises.
I created this problem in my horse overcorrecting from liking a long spot. He needed to learn to trust again I really meant to send him forward to to jump. I can hold his rhythm with my core and without hands after I set him up, so practicing that and basically not touching the reins at all in the last few strides helped a lot. Lots of repetition. Lots of groundpoles. Lots of forward.
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A tap with the bat while in the air over the fence, seems counter intuitive - not before the fence - but it works. Then land and go.
edit to add: You repeat, it helps a horse to learn to jump through their body. By the 3rd or 4th trip the horse should be responding.
I’d start with placing poles both before and after the jump.
Also, you might want to do a search for DMK’s pile-o-poles.
I did pole placement. That was my first thought too. He either will kick them/step on them to get closer or actually step over them and take off. 
Penny well bay: no, I’m not, just getting him to the right distance. I will try that.
Redlei6: no health issues. He does tend to be slow but I get after him to have a better pace. He chips out of set distance lines too.
pony grandma: I will try that too.
whatever it takes to get through to him to not jump like a deer!
I’m confused on what you actually mean. You say he doesn’t pull to the jumps, but what you’re describing sounds like there’s a nice distance there but he then makes a bid and “takes over” and your nice distance becomes a short one. Is that right?
I get him to a nice distance, but instead of taking off he pats the ground and adds a weird half stride, burying himself into the jump, then springs up straight off the ground and over the jump.
Are you SURE there are no vet issues? I’m not one to say everything in life is pain and never training, BUT not every soreness creates a lameness you can see or feel. For instance, if the issue is in the body or there are issues with more than one leg, you won’t always get a limp or asymmetry. But asking them to do certain things (like go forward or jump) can trigger behavioural reactions. Especially something to look at if it’s a new/increasing behaviour (unclear when you say “made a habit of it” if it means it’s becoming more and more frequent, or if it’s a green horse who never figured out another way). Maybe that nice arc you seek isn’t actually the more comfortable thing to him right now.
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It is likely that what you see as a nice distance he sees as a flier.
Put ground poles on either side of the jump, 3.5 feet out front and back. Then ride him up as close as you can to the base in your regular canter.
Many horses are just not comfortable with a longer distance especially as they are learning. You don’t want the short chip stride, but a nice tight distance to the base is really good for the young horse (all horses!).
If you need to put a spacing pole out for the canter, put one 8-9’ in front of the placing pole (for the canter) and less if you trot in.
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How old is he, and is he really green? Is this new behavior, or has he always done this?
In my experience, it’s not uncommon for a green horse to prefer a shorter distance over the longer one. They don’t have their own eye yet and they may simply not realize that it’s possible.
What you’re describing sounds extreme - it’s much harder for most horses to chocolate chip than it is to make a nice arc from a good distance. Which is why I was curious about his natural talent and more fundamentally, if it’s possible that something hurts.
Do you know his training history? Any chance he was scared by riders getting left behind one too many times?
Can you build a free jump chute with a grid? Might give you some interesting data points. I personally would be nervous to jump through a gymnastic on him if I wasn’t sure that he’d figure it out, but if the jumps stay tiny then perhaps a grid would be helpful to him.
I would try a bounce. Start closer and then widen a little bit.
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How high are you jumping? What is his level ? and what is yours? are you sure you can see a distance that is correct?
My mare when I first started to jump her would get in to deep to the jumps, soon realized I was riding her like I rode my actual jumping pony who could jump off any stride as long as the rider could hold on, basically he was the point shoot and fold when you wanted him to take off type. Also figured out she was not as balanced and couldn’t adjust herself should we have met the fence wrong, hence her getting into the bottom of the fence, and then becoming a little bit of a learned habit that I actually created as I was not riding her correctly for her level of training. Spent a while on managing her canter and getting her to be able to adjust her strides with canter poles.
Would set out 2 poles 5 strides apart and see if I can get 4 or 6 or 7 in there without her tripping, breaking into trot, rolling the poles, and also listen to my legs and half halts without going on the defensive.
Did also fanned poles starting with the widest part and her having stretch herself a little ( she found this easiest)
Then I set out bounces stared with just 2, the worked up to 5.
I also allowed her to figure it out a little bit on her own, so I didn’t try to hold her as much as I was before she’s very forward towards the jumps and I had to fight the urge to micro manage.
I wouldn’t try a bounce without EXPERT supervision. It is as likely to backfire as to help.
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Bounces are not that hard and can be set low.
I used it on a grey given to us. First complaint was that we called to say we were feeding him as he was agisted on our property and they needed to feed him or pay us to feed him or feed him themself.
The next complaint was that he was too skinny.
Once given to us he became younger and younger each day. He was a red coat horse so he only knew how to walk and canter.
I taught him to trot, but when he jumped he did so in a funny way, the hind legs leaving first. A bounce taught him to have the front legs leave first.
Bounces are not difficult.
What? I’m trying to picture hind legs leaving first when jumping. That sounds ummmmmm dangerous? Do you have any pics or videos of him jumping like that? I’d really like to see what that looks like.
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Sorry if this has already been said but you should talk to your trainer because in my experience this is usually because of consistent rider error over time, at least if the jumps are super small. Usually by riders that ask their horses to move up by throwing their body forward rather than using their leg. If it’s not rider error than you’re probably jumping too high for the horse and you should stop and get help before that chip turns into a stop.
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No, way before the time of mobile phones.
We did end up having lessons on him, but this was at the start of riding him. He was fairly old but had never jumped before, as I said the only thing we knew about him was that he was a red coat horse and they only did walk to canter to do a lap of honour. We think he had Arab in him.
I think I taught him to trot and jump before he went to lessons. I was a teenager. Later Mum had lessons on him when I had lessons on Pepper. He only had dressage lessons. I had lessons on Pepper in Dressage and jumping and Tommy ended up going around a few One Day Events with me and even came third in one that was run by the EFA.
