Frustrated with my jumping

[Rel6]

How does your horse respond when you’re not getting in perfectly? Do you see a general, overall, upward progress in your lessons? And I mean over months - not between one lesson to the next.

If your horse is getting mad, bucking, pinning ears or acting sour with you - then I would step back and focus on pole work for a month, let the pro jump him, and revisit. If your o/f is going worse than it was months ago, I would say the same.

But if your horse pop chips and lands and comes back to it kindly, and if you’re seeing progress - however slowly - I personally don’t think you jumping your horse once a week at 2’3’’ and not being perfect is going to ruin him.

That said - if you are getting harder and harder on yourself, and more discouraged, and need a mental break that is totally valid too!

For me personally, mine doesn’t care. He doesn’t get pro rides and we jump once a week a max of 2’6’’. We can completely trip through a fence and he will come back around kindly and calmly. I know he would be progressing faster and better with a pro, but as long as he is happily tolerating my mistakes and I can keep my frustrations with my own mistakes in check, we’ll keep going as is. And, when I step back and look at video from even a month ago, I do see things that are already so much better.

[SugarCubes]

Oh my gosh, I have been in your shoes! I bought a super green baby a few years ago after retiring my packer and dealt with a LOT of the same issues. My trainer made her look SO easy, meanwhile I was struggling over 2’ jumps with her.

That first year, my lessons were a ton of trot in, canter out which really allowed me to just focus on keeping her straight and in front of me without having to worry about the distances.

Another benefit to that was I could literally get in two point, grab mane, and just keep her straight down the line. She wasn’t easily offended, but this allowed her to figure out her feet and make mistakes without me getting in her way.

A year later, we were schooling 2’9” courses…it just all came together. Give it time and as long as she’s not getting a sour attitude about it, let her figure it out. It’ll all work out

[DarkHorse1]

He’s got no clue anything wasn’t perfect. Bless his soul. Unless I catch him in the mouth (which I’ve only done once), it’s all the same to him. No drama at all. But I want to KEEP that quality about him. I’m afraid that one time it’ll just be too bad, and a crash will happen.

That’s possibly irrational, because crashes at 2’3" aren’t the norm. He can (and has) jumped that from a standstill. But you catch my drift. I want him to stay the Honest Abe he is today.

[Salty]

Another really good book is Linda Allen’s 101 Jumping Exercises. The first half is nothing but poles on the ground. It will definitely help with forward and straight.

[Rel6]

I think the fear of messing up a young, green, very kind horse you have purchased for yourself is completely understandable (and relatable!)

But. It sounds like you have a sweet horse who is willing to let you figure things out along with him and that you are doing so in a safe and appropriate manner. I would try to be a little less hard on yourself and try to look for general trends of improvement over longer stretches of time.

[BlueMoonJumper]

Yowza @DarkHorse1. I’m riding with you on the Young Horse Struggle Bus, but it sounds like you’re being incredibly hard on yourself. Your horse can and will figure out where to put his feet and when to pick them up even if his human doesn’t manage every muscle group of his body.

I don’t think you should stop jumping him, but maybe make your jumping goals more incremental at the moment. For instance, make a goal of keeping your heel down over a single jump or two jumps, then stop. Break it down into components. This might look like the following:

1. Put a brightly colored ribbon in your horse’s mane to give you a visual of where to place your hands with your release so you don’t have to think about it.
2. Establish good canter rhythm and try to keep it. I still find the old method of counting 1, 2, 3… on the approach to be useful for that.
3. Focus on really sinking your heel down and leg forward at about three strides out.
4. Let him figure out his legs while you concentrate on yours. Push leg forward. Heels down. Hands to ribbon.

If you achieve a better leg over the jump and his distance was reasonable, allow yourself to stop there for the day with that accomplishment, or maybe one more then end on that.

Don’t we always say, especially with green horses, that when they are struggling with putting all the pieces together, to break the puzzle down and let them taste success? I find that almost all of us are willing to do that for our horses but far less willing to do it for ourselves. Good luck, and I’d love to hear updates from you.

[pony_grandma]

Gymnastic jumping is not just for eventers…

Especially good for striding balance and forward. Can use v poles for centering if necessary.
Develops GOOD habits.

It helps a young horse figure it out with the least interference and it also can help strengthen the rider.

[fivestrideline]

So much good here - and I’ve been exactly where you are! Super frustrating!

I would certainly focus mainly on ‘forward’, with some good poles to teach him to think about his feet. I would also see if it’s possible to switch from jumping singles or courses to more gymnastics!
Gymnastics are fantastic for baby brains and ammy brains - they take out 99% of the guess work and you HAVE to sit still and let pony figure it out. Focusing on gymnastics for a month or two and letting trainer hop him around might just get you over the hump!

Also, years 5-6 are SO tough. Even on the best baby I find that around that time either our brain falls out or all of our talent does - and it makes for a VERY humbling rider experience. Then they turn 7 and suddenly we have a decently functioning horse! I think it has something to do with being in their ‘teenager’ years and finishing growing.

It would also be worthwhile to ask if there’s a been-there-done-that horse you could hop on for a lesson here and there to work on yourself - even just taking the 2’ schoolie around a few courses can do WONDERS for your position and as a reminder that hey - you CAN actually ride!

[IPEsq]

I took a lot of years off from riding after being very successful in my jr and young amateur years. I rode greenies and problem horses. But my eye was mostly there. Just bravery was not. Then I bought a horse who could never get on a training trajectory due to one vet bill after another. When he was going, I initially did get somewhere with his jumping, but after years of injuries and behavioral issues and some very exuberant tantrums on his part, I lost my nerve and it took a hit to my skills as well. I mean, if he made a mistake to a cross rail, you’d better hold on because even if you didn’t jump the standards, you were gonna need to sit up on landing.

Then I bought a wonderful horse, but one who will listen to his rider to a fault on course. Like you tell him to leave too long and he will likely do it instead of chip. He’s learning though . So then I was scared I was going to wreck my lovely horse. Being someone who used to have a fantastic eye, I already was too much of a perfectionist on my distances. I also had trouble developing the right canter on the new horse. All recipes for disaster.

So I did a lot of poles and cavaletti to work on my eye. And a ton of canter gymnastics. I’d set the first jump very small or an X. I’d also set the distances tight at first for purposes of helping the horse’s back to then create the better canter that would let me open the striding up later. I could survive no matter what distance I got to the X. I did so many of these. Some days I kept it all low and worked on the canter. Some days I played with putting the out jumps up if he felt good, to let him get some more fitness.

This horse is broke but gymnastics are great for the young ones. Also if you don’t want to trot in and canter out, you can do the same kind of thing by setting a line with a very low first jump so you are working on really riding to jump 2 where the distance is set up for you. Again you may want to shorten the lines if your jumps are very low, even if the horse has a huge step because one with a huge step will need to learn to balance in the lines once the jumps go up.

[MzCarol]

Oh do i feel you! When i was teaching my mare to jump it was awful going over xrails! Its awful because the obstacle was so low they can trot over it so there is no oomph from the hind end which makes position horrible, but thats where it starts. My trainer told me it gets easier as jumps get in the 2ft range because horse has to start really using their body which helps rider have better timing and position. Its the truth, but your horse is still a baby. For now work on getting both of you strong so youre both ready when the time comes. Jumping is all about the flatwork anyway. Transitions, adjustability in the gaits, shoulder in, leg yield - all of that will be so helpful!

[StormyDay]

Jumping the young/green ones at first can be terrifying. First off, they sometimes kind of throw themselves over the jumps with their front end at first which feels absolutely horrible. You may not even see it on the ground, but you sure can feel it when they jump. Eventually with a lot of practice they work it out.

I find that it’s not even worth jumping a horse until I have straightness and impulsion. Without that horse in front of my leg, I’m setting us both up for a not so pleasant experience. I will do a lot of poles on the ground though.

I like to do a lot of trot in canter out grid work once I do start jumping them. Once the horse is doing that pleasantly I will do a ton of cantering really little jumps, like 12 inches or under. I want them to realize every jump is not a reason to speed up/slow down/wiggle/launch into the air. Then I slowly raise my jump height every week or so.
I also don’t like using oxers when they are young because everything I set up for them I want them to have an easy time over it. If they get a weird distance, I want the answer to that to be easy and not ‘oh crap, that jump looks wide and I got a weird stride, better stop/make a flyer/deer hop over this’ I usually don’t even introduce any fill until they can canter a 2ft course nicely.

I know this is probably all old news for your horse, and he’s beyond the point of some of this. But for your sake, it may be useful to go back to the basics and make sure he is straight enough, has enough impulsion, is nice enough at the little stuff, for you. Beezie Madden can get on and hold a green horse together over jumps that I couldn’t. I can get on and hold a green horse together over jumps that my students couldn’t. We all have comfort zones on how green a horse can be at things before we feel good jumping it.

There’s a person I know through acquaintance who isnt a particularly accomplished rider, but he’s strong and very brave (or crazy). I’ve seen him get on OTTB’s mere days off the track and steer them around a 3ft course. I certainly can’t do that; I do not have the guts to even try (or maybe I value my neck too much). Point is, we all have comfort levels on how much a horse needs to know before we jump it.

[2bayboys]

@StormyDay this is pretty much exactly how I do it with mine.

I also like the trot in canter out exercise for teaching riders to develop a feel for rhythm and train their eye to what a good distance looks like.