I have a 6 year old OTTB who enjoys jumping, but isn’t super confident and has no idea where to put his feet. He isn’t graceful while jumping to the least. He jumps off of one leg sometimes and lets his front legs dangle all over the place. Sometimes he jumps way high over the fence and other times he plows right through it lol. I definitely don’t expect him to understand or have a break over since we’ve just been trying it out and have only been jumping up to 2’, but I’d like to start doing some gymnastics to get him thinking over fences, will help him gain confidence and will improve his form over fences. Any suggestions?
I suggest that you edit your post to include an explanation of what kind of training you’ve done thus far. In order to give helpful responses, people need to know your level of experience, what you’ve done with the horse to prepare him for jumping, and whether or not you’re working with a trainer at all.
Linda Allen “101 Jumping Exercises” is a great book.
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Very glad you are looking to go backwards to poles and cavaletti because nothing in your first post makes it sound like he enjoys jumping. You don’t mention whether he rushes / speeds up on approach, but I’m wondering if that’s why you think he likes it? That’s actually a sign that he’s nervous and over-faced, which is consistent with all of the other ‘symptoms’ you mention in the OP. Anyway, good for you to recognize that he’s not ready for the jumping you’re doing, and go back and fill the holes in his training so when you return to jumping, he’ll do so confidently. While you’re working on his basic skills, you could take a couple of jumping lessons on the trainer’s schoolmaster, to make sure your own form is where it needs to be.
Lots and lots of books on gymnastics out there. Jim Wofford’s book “Gymnastics” is a good, basic one.
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The books recommended above are great! 101 Jumping Exercises is great because you can build on the exercise every time you do them!
I do hope this comes through and while the second link appears to be in a foreign language, the diagram is what counts. Two feet is ridiculous for a horse who has no idea how to coordinate his feet…
Stop and back up! Start over! And do not expect it all to be learned in day.
Watch the video,BUT, do not attempt to ride it as did Mr Schramm. First allow your horse to master the trot grid. Then add the fist crossrail. then after that is mastered add the second. Only when all before is mastered do you add the jump.
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Many find it helpful by working on engaging the hindquarters in the horse and keeping the horse ahead of the leg in the rider. Until that happens consistently on the flat, it’s not going to happen when you ask him to meet a fence in stride and rock back. Start at the trot with extensions and collections and transitions to build his muscle and balance. Horses that plow through low fences as described are almost always dumped on the forehand even if they are high headed, hollow backed and they are always behind the leg. Please don’t say his flatwork is fine, there’s holes if he’s plowing thru 2’ fences, a reflection of balance and understanding.
Second issue is he’s not going to really jump over really low fences because he doesn’t have to, he can step over laying in the forehand behind your leg and split his front end. That’s why many exoerienced trainers do not start over very low grids, they don’t teach them anything and build bad habits and lack of respect for the fences. Most set a single at least 2’6" with a GROUND LINE AND PLACEMENT POLE for early schooling AFTER mastering the flat work to stay ahead of the leg, engage behind and well thought out ground pole excercises. These will develop the balance and muscle in the horse and the riders skill and strength.
At 6, this horse is not that young and is ready for a consistent schooling schedule aiming at preparing him physically and mentally to jump.
Not all horses can or want to jump too. Might be conformation issues like a straight shoulder preventing folding the front legs up or hip and hock angles that just won’t support rocking back. Might be backsore for a variety of reasons ranging from saddle fit to physical problem. Might just not care where hus feet are, some just don’t.
Rider needs to consider their input as well. Weak, unbalanced position, conflicting aids, fear can translate to performance problems in the horse. Nobody is ever perfect. Real rider always look to themselves in solving problems, not the horse which can only do what it has been taught. Perching passengers blame the horse.
If OP does nothing else, they need to get that Linda Allen book off Amazon, a tape measure and a make lesson plan of flatwork and work over poles for the summer. It’s the single thing you can do to teach and develop a myriad of skills needed to get around a course. Including setting up that course to encourage and allow correct basics over poles that will transfer to actually fences.
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What @findeight said. Also, if the horse is really hanging a leg, he maybe should NOT be jumping?? Sometimes this cannot be fixed and horse should not be trained for jumping. I’m unsure if “dangling” means the horse is hanging his front leg(s) or just not tight in front, due to lack of balance, correct flatwork, or fence height.
It sounds to me like this horse is really green to jumping. I would suggest putting poles on the ground and trotting and cantering them a lot until the horse is confident over them. Then put them up to 12 inches and repeat. The horse needs to be balanced too so remember to do a lot of flat work/ dressage work.
once he is good over the poles/low cavaletti, then place trot 3-5 trot poles (depending on your horses experience with trot poles) in front of a jump. The distance between the last trot pole and the jump should be between 8 feet and 10 feet depending on how tall your horse is and the jump height. Put the jump at 12 inches and work your way up. This will make him think, slow down, and get set up for a good distance.
Hmmm! Gone away!
I wonder if the OP was being a little bit trollish, hoping to provoke a more dramatic response than she got.
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