Getting jumped loose, bad eye level

[Foitin]

I showed my horse for the first time two weeks ago after a 1.5 year rehab. He is feeling great and jumping well. We do the 3’6 amateurs, which is the division he is most competitive in, because he canters over anything lower, and even the verticals at 3’6, despite efforts to clean up his front end. He is not dangerous with it, but jumps in variable style unless impressed. I am getting jumped loose over the oxers, almost jumped off twice in the last show. This is especially the case if we are long coming out of a line or I’m going a little slow in a rollback to an oxer. We are otherwise fine, we find the jumps well consistently and get the lead changes.

I have always had crap equitation over the top of the jumps, I look down, my leg swings back, I usually throw my hands too far up the neck. I am great fodder for ridicule on this forum, but I do want to change. I am an effective rider and pretty natural, but not if I am falling off, being a 55 year old woman who has not had the opportunity to jump big in 1.5 years. My trainers have kind of given up on my equitation, in that as long as the horse is happy and we have a good round, they don’t care. But I want to look better and don’t want to fall off.

Besides general conditioning and fitness, are there any things I might do to better my eye-level, anything that you’ve told yourself that was effective, any visual exercises? I am also vision impaired in one eye, which doesn’t help but is not the reason for my issues.

Thank you so much!

[NaturallyHappy]

Try posting at the canter to tighten your lower leg and improve balance. You can do the same at the trot…up 2 beats, down one, up two, down one. I hope this helps you.

[CBoylen]

You are rusty. You’ve also presumably been jumping lower for some time, which lowers your eye level. Think, look at a point eye level above the top front rail, keeping the rail in your lower viewpoint so you stay on the same plane, and make sure you keep your leg on at the jump so it stays in place. Trot some oxers, it will help you slow things down and focus on the vantage point.
Edited to add I was focusing on eye position to the jump. Over the jump, it’s just a matter of discipline. Look straight ahead. There’s nothing to draw your eye down.

[NancyM]

I’d look for a new coach, who doesn’t “give up” giving you information to be more secure and safer in the tack.

I’d ride without stirrups for extended periods of time. Age is no excuse. I’m older than you LOL. When you have your stirrups, pull your knee OFF the saddle, put the calf on your leg on your horse’s sides. Don’t pin your knee into deep knee padding on your saddle. If you have a saddle with big cushy knee padding, try a saddle with NO knee padding. Big knee pads just invite you to pin your knee, which gives you a point of rotation on which to lose your lower leg. Your weight needs to go right DOWN to your heel, not get caught up in your knee. If your weight is low, it acts like a keel on a sailboat, to keep your upper body under control, with no point of rotation caught up in your knee. Thus, you are far more secure in the tack.

For your eye, look to your next jump.

[equest]

I agree that the trainer situation sounds a bit concerning. If OP is insecure and being jumped out of the tack, trainer should be noticing this and working on exercises and gymnastics to help her position over the bigger jumps.

[Dr_Doolittle]

This! ^^^

And CORE. Core is the key to everything. I’m 67, and strengthening my core over the past 10 years or so has made a huge difference in my riding - nice thing is that there are variety of core exercises you can do, and they really don’t take very long

[SuzieQNutter]

Looking up starts on the flat. You should be looking at the horizon, not the ground or the horses head.

If you can’t ride on the flat without looking down you can’t look up while jumping.

[mmeqcenter]

Not really sure what you mean by “bad eye level” or “better my eye-level”??

Sounds like you are not strong enough for the height you are jumping. A trainer not being concerned with your equitation is not the same as one who is letting you jump higher than you are ready for. There’s lots of people with not-great equitation that aren’t almost falling off in their rounds.

You need to work on strengthening your position, as other posters indicated. No stirrups, two-point on the flat, etc.

[BostonHJ]

Why don’t you do the adults or 3’3 division for a show and see how it goes? You may not pin as well** but you’ll get some confidence back and can presumably think more about your own position over a lower fence. After this much time out of the show ring, it feels likely he’d still be impressed enough to jump decently. You could also have a pro do a round or two on him earlier in the week and see if that gets his jump to a place that’s easier for you to stick.

Outside of horses, if you can hit the gym for any core/leg strength, it is a game changer. It’s wild how much muscle we lose as we age, particularly women.

For where you’re looking, I like to focus between their two ears over the fences. It’s too low of a view on a hunter flatting for sure, but it sounds like you mostly need a target for over the fence. If you can figure out throwing your hands and not your body over the jump, that can help too - think hands forward, butt back.

**If you are truly almost getting jumped off, this can’t be great for your placings anyways

[Rumorhasit93]

Aside from fitness, I think it very much depends on your horse. I can jump a 1.20 vertical on my horse easily, but make a 1m oxer and I’m jumped loose because of the effort she makes over a spread.

My trainer told me to think about squeezing with the back of my thighs over the jump and that helped immensely.

[Joyrider]

Such great advice already. Maybe try…

1. Have another rider jump your horse around that is roughly your same size and see if they report the same feeling…is it just you? … or is it the horse’s jump at the oxers?
2. Try some different saddles. You might fine one that supports your balance better - so many factors in saddle fit for both horse and rider.
3. Ride more strongly across the oxers - think in your mind that you are in a jump off and need to get across this jump more quickly. Your horse may have so much thrust “up” because he is a little behind the pace and/or behind the distance and thus a little long and thrusty. Of course you don’t want to create or encourage a rushed, flat jump but just having the mindset of …“jump off - gotta get across” might tighten your leg in a good way with the horse’s pace carrying you vs. popping you.

[trakehners]

My horse used to jump me out of the tack a lot (never sat on anything before that jumps as round as he does) and for me it was just a lot of practice and improving my own fitness. What also helped was getting a neck strap that I can hang onto for mostly emotional support, lol. Using it did really help me with hand placement on my release—I tend towards more of an auto release now, but as @BostonHJ said, it got me in the habit of hands forward, body back because I had to follow my horse’s head and neck when I had a couple of fingers hooked through it. Even if you can’t use it at shows it’s definitely a good tool to use at home to get yourself in the habit with your position, and it’s easier than grabbing mane because you truly can just hook a couple of fingers through it and hang on because, as long as your reins are the proper length and the neck strap is adjusted properly, it won’t impede any normal rein aids.

During my first jumping lesson on my horse my trainer gave me a mantra in the form of “heels down, eyes up, shoulders back, soft wrists, low hands, don’t chase.” It sounds like a lot but actually saying it functions very similarly to counting for a consistent pace, and it reminds me to maintain my position. I don’t need it quite as much these days but I still recite it when I’m going around and it helps me to not pitch forward and to keep my leg under me (and thus makes me less likely to be jumped out of my saddle). For the “eyes up” part of it I just pick something on the other side of the jump to stare at (be it a tree or my next fence) and I let my peripheral vision pick up the jump as we approach rather than fully looking at it.

[equest]

Good advice! I recently started leasing a horse with a jump that was much loftier than that of the horse that I had been riding for a long time. At the start of my lease, I also had been riding sporadically for a few months due to being horseless and also between trainers! Of course I had to get myself back in the swing of riding with more saddle time, which I got once I started the new lease.
I also knew that I needed more physical fitness to be able to stay with the jump on this horse. But hitting the gym has been key. Lots of core workouts, squats and cardio. It has been noticeable and I am feeling good about my progress!

[Alterrain]

Keep your leg on ACROSS the jump. In hunters, most people tend to take their leg OFF as the horse leaves the ground, so it jumps up higher and less across. But then the jump is harder = more chance of getting jumped loose. Yes it may make him jump “worse” for a round or 2, but as someone mentioned upthread, if you’re getting jumped that loose anyway, you have bigger problems right now.

Leg ON across the arc of the jump = flatter jump = tighter rider.

[Foitin]

Wonderful advice on here, I am really grateful and the wealth of knowledge and variety of perspectives here never ceases to impress! I am definitely out of shape and overweight, both of these are true. I have been doing Peloton walking and running, but not the strength workouts. I also do not doubt that my trainers have not wanted to comment on my crap fitness level and too small show jacket…totally. I would step the horse down, but I don’t want to waste his legs and try to show him as infrequently as possible so that he can be at home and jump only at the spookier shows, where he is best. My goal for this year is to qualify him for indoors. This is probably the last year I’ll be able to do it (we have previously with modest success) with this horse for a variety of reasons. I realize to some that it is a stupid goal, but it is my goal. Thank you to all who have taken time to write suggestions.

[Foitin]

This really makes a lot of sense. I do feel like we are hanging up there for a while, which makes our landing in the lines shallow.

[Foitin]

I think the neck strap will be helpful. That way I’ll know where to stop releasing. I just disregard the martingale because it has been there for so long.

[Foitin]

Yes, the stronger ride across the oxers, I think this will really help us. The other day I was going down to one and had the thought that if we met it deep and quiet, I was gonna go flyin’!

[Foitin]

Going to give this a go. I just need one to find one of these mental prompts that clicks.

[foursocks]

You can do it! I’m in my early 50s and I put a lot of effort into fitness so I can ride my big-jumping horses without feeling like a sock monkey.

One thing I always found useful when I was having the same issue was to think about the fact that your (general you) head weighs a lot, and if you tip it down over the jump, you are putting that extra weight on your horse’s front end. I focus on the top rail of the jump as I’m coming to it, then put my eyes on the next one, and so on. I haven’t had this particular problem for a long time because a) I do jumpers and if you look at the ground while jumping big and turning quickly and so on, you are going to end up there; and b) I started riding with eventers and learned dressage, so that has been a game-changer for me in many ways.

My trainer will sometimes have her students look straight up at the rafters for a few steps and then level their eyes again to realign body position on the flat- you could try that, too. It’s both a mental and a physical reset, I think, and seems to help.