Do you have a round pen in which you can lunge him over a little jump? I think eventually he’ll get the picture to leave the ground right out of stride. Not a bad idea to let him get that feel without any rider interference first. My instinct would be to let him walk and rest after he does it correctly so he learns the “right answer.”
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Video would be very helpful to understand exactly what the horse is doing and the rider is doing. If you have a perfect distance, the horse shouldn’t willingly put in a chip stride. A chip stride is typically when the horse feels like the distance is too long and there is more room Before the jump. Usually due to rider error.
free jumping is a great suggestion to let the horse 1) see if he still jumps and 2) see if he chips in without a rider interference.
Next, the ground pole exercise is a good place to start. Place rails on the ground with a set distance between the poles and see if the horse will put in the correct distance every time, from both directions. Set a pair of poles at a one stride exercise , a separate pole set at two strides, another pole set at 4”3 strifes and another set at 4 strides.Someone suggested in the same related distance see about changing strides ( ie- in a walled distance of 5 strides, do 5 strides than do 6 or 4 strides in the same distance) but I wouldn’t do that because right now you want to horse to focus on getting the exact strides in the set distance. At this point you are not trying to teach the horse to lengthen or shorten to change distance, as the horse is already doing that, and you want the horse to learn correct distances. If you start adding or taking away strides that will confuse the horse more and where the horse is at, it’s more of an advance training education.
also, gymnastics lines with one stride between the jumps and a landing pole before and after the fences at 9’. I would start with all the rails on the ground first pass down the line than slowly build the fences, x’s than a small vertical.
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Thanks for the tips everybody!
I can definitely set up a jump chute for him and also lunge him over a jump.
I have other horses who I jump and compete so I am pretty sure I’m seeing the distance just fine.
His only rider has been me. I started him.
Vet issues are always a possibility, but he is very sound otherwise and shows no signs of lameness.
meeeh I’m gonna say that if the horse is really sound and the jumps are low and you’re the only person who has been riding it, it’s rider error. And the fact that you don’t sound 100% certain that you’re seeing the distances to me. Right it’s not really just about seeing the distances. Seeing them doesn’t really matter all that much if you’re not making them happen.
If you don’t have access to your trainer at this time I would recommend taking this time to really work on flat work, maybe a lot of shortening and lengthening the canter, and bag the jumping until you can get a professional set of eyes to help you. A chipping problem is pretty easy to fix tbh, a chip and slam on the brakes combo are not as easy. Which in my experience unless the horse is freakishly athletic and kind is what a chipping issue progresses to if not addressed. There’s really no reason to push it right now with the world being in its current state. Plus it sounds like you have other more solid horses you can have fun and practice your jumping with.
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If he’s new to jumping (and I’m not sure he is) he shouldn’t be approaching a stand alone fence anyway. It’s too much decision making for him. He doesn’t have those skills yet. Everything should be done in grids with set distances and placing poles, so all he has to do is jump and not have to figure out when to take off. You’re only job is to stay quiet up there and keep him straight (ie leg on). Once he’s feeling confident and thinks he’s all that, he can start to tackle single fences, even then it should be at related distances to set him up for success.
If he is older been there/done that, patting the ground before takeoff makes me think something is sore and he’s not trusting he can take off quite yet without experiencing pain, or his rider is too far ahead of he motion and hindering his takeoff efforts.
I didn’t read through the whole thread, but this is usually a lameness issue somewhere.
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I’m not sure what gave you the impression I’m not seeing the distances. I’ve been riding H/J for years and can very easily see a distance and make that distance happen.
I’m looking for riding exercises I can work on at home with this.
I put a colored towel under the standard today which seemed to get his attention more and make him jump properly. I’ve lowered the jump height to about 2ft, so super low so there is no chance of him feeling over faced. Next week I will try putting the poles 9ft in front of the jump, and the jump chute.
because you said, “I think I’m seeing the distances” and your evidence for this is that you have other horses you compete with.
And honestly if the horse is not lame or being over faced, you’re the only one who has been riding it, and you’ve completely trained it yourself, you are causing it.
This behavior is really super common with lesson horses that have a lot of riders that throw their bodies or get left behind and is easy to fix with a lot of leg and a little crop before the jump when you want them to take off.
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Ok, well my wording was wrong there. I know I’m seeing the distances. I’ve been doing this for quite a while. Not my first rodeo, not the first horse I’ve trained to jump. This horse is still green and young, which is IMO a more likely cause of the issue. I am not getting left behind or throwing myself over the jump.
I will try a crop at takeoff.
Just want to add that I’m not trying to be rude or anything or even suggest you’re not very experienced, but no one is perfect. Reading this really makes me think of a specific friend I have who is a very talented rider who has also trained a lot of horses to jump and he has this exact problem and a lot of greener horses don’t want to take longer spots for him. Even if you’re really good you can cause issues, and I think everyone to some degree projects their shortcomings onto their horses.
But really I think you should just wait for your trainer to be available, there’s no reason to rush. Good luck hope it works out, I’m sure you’ll figure it out.
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Is the horse propping or popping the fence?
A European Olympic jumper trainer taught me the use of the crop ‘over’ the fence to get the horse to jump ‘through’ their body It will help change the horse’s approach when they realize that the takeoff needs to change to match the length of the effort that they need to make their jump.
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crop over the fence is great for getting the horse to jump better but the problem here is that the horse is very green, jumping very little, and not jumping when being asked to jump. Those are different issues. I wouldn’t really worry about style too much until after the horse can actually take a distance when asked.
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Coming in on the half stride or the horse making adjustments to get in close to ‘bury’ makes me also wonder about rider balance issue (jmho). Maybe if the horse is green and sensitive enough, it may not take much for the horse to feel unbalanced with a rider getting even a little bit ahead and feel the need to add to be able to take the jump.
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My young gelding got into this habit as a greenbean due to me having NO eye and getting scared, and pulling him back. Now he he waits for me to pull (God bless his big heart) and I don’t, and sometimes I see we need to ride up so I have to TELL him to GO, grab mane to stay with him and ge will go. Other times I don’t see it but he does. Sometimes neither one of is sees it and we have epic chips. But we are learning. But if you see it, tell him to GO by closing your leg and clicking, but don’t get too far ahead of him or he may loose his balance and chip anyway.
No idea if something similar could be causing a problem with you, but I’ll share my anecdote:
My horse and I went through a phase where we’d get to a jump at a good distance but then we would end up either weak and long or chipping. My eye isn’t great - I generally see where we’re going to end up only a few strides before the jump (so too late to do much about it), but if the distance is really good I can consistently see that. What was strange is this seemed to happen at the jumps where I really thought we were going to nail it.
Then one day my trainer realized what was happening: I’d see the “good” spot, and basically go “ahhh, we’re good”, and relax with a really quiet seat. My horse is quite sensitive to seat and that shift to a quiet and heavier seat was enough to change the canter to a shorter or less energetic canter, which resulted in a lot of long and weak spots or chips. That problem was fixed instantaneously by me focusing on not changing my seat or the canter at all in front of the jump.
I learned that I have to ride “through” the fence on this horse. I also have a thread on here about how not looking at the jump AT ALL fixed some of our (=my) problems. Still not sure how I feel about that but my horse sure likes it.
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Thought I would do an update. He was stalling out before the jump which made him do a little extra ground pat before takeoff. A crop right before the jump fixed it pretty quick.
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I would set up an easy quiet 6 and then when that’s good add gas and do the 5.
But I start everything super soft and quiet doing the adds everywhere, so.
He could have a subtle SI thing going on too.
