I have a habit that I just detest and I really wish to get rid of it forever, once in awhile when the distance is bad to a fence I will pull the horse up and turn at the last minute. I go through phases of doing this often and then it will go away for months. I just hate myself afterwards because itās sooo bad for the horse but itās a last minute almost unconscious panic. Had anyone else dealt with this habit before? Any advice? I do take lessons and o have 30+ years of experience. I tend to do it more when Iām riding alone not in lessons or at shows
Advice appreciated!!
I went through a phase of the circles as a junior. Basically nothing helps other than just deciding it isnāt an option. You have to quit cold turkey. You will jump the jump from whatever distance you see or even if you see nothing. It then gets easy to avoid pretty quick, because amazingly most things work out even if you donāt think they will, because the horse is the one jumping the jump and all he needs to know is that you mean to go over it.
Also, donāt jump alone. Itās way too easy to second guess yourself alone. I hate jumping alone and Iām a professional. Jump groundrails, same practice.
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What height does this happen at?
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I am going to preface my comments with that this solution is simple but it isnāt easy.
Simple, but not easy.
Thereās only one correct response to seeing a bad distance: sit up, close your leg and wait.
Thatās it. If we do those things, the horse can handle it and get to the other side without hurting either of you.
The problem is, youāre not realizing the distance is bad until youāre at a place thatās too late to correct it.
If it helps, remember that you, as the rider, are responsible for the pace, the balance and the approach. Thatās it. The horse is responsible for where and when he jumps, and what shape he makes over the fence. If youāve done your homework and taken care or pace, balance and approach, the horse will hit the correct distance and make the correct shape every time. The trick is to get you homework done 4 - 6 strides away from the fence.
Simple, but not easy.
That feeling of panic that youāre going to meet the fence wrong? Thatās your riderās instinct telling you that either pace, balance or approach is wrong. The answer is still to sit up, PUT YOUR HANDS DOWN and close your leg. Horses are generous, if you give them a chance, theyāll jump anyway.
No one has ever micromanaged a horse with the reins to a correct distance.
If you watch the really, really good riders, youāll never seem them make an obvious adjustment before a fence.
Everyone hates this advice, but everyone (except, you know, Beezie, Kent, McLain, et al) should occasionally canter a course of cross rails or rails on the ground, focusing on pace and rhythm. The purpose of this exercise is for you to create a muscle memory of what the correct pace and rhythm feels like on your horse so you can recreate it at will.
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What McGurk says. Donāt do it. Trust your horseās eye over your own. Your horse will save you, because heās smarter than you are about these things. You are probably better at math and spelling than he is (joke). But reallyā¦ the horse knows how to save himself, and solve the problem. Trust him to save you and jump you out of the trouble you have got yourself into.
When you blow a distance, itās because one of the necessary truths of riding to a jump is missing. Pace (too fast or too slow), line (your route chosen on approach) balance (on the forehand usually), rhythm (lack thereof), etc. You may not be able to entertain all these variables in your head on approach to a jump, but if you get there wrong, one of those is at fault. But often, a good horse can cover up for your mistakes. Put your leg on, sit up, give him his head, and let the horse save you. And figure out where the mistake was made. But donāt stop the horse. Put your leg on, to ask him to save you both.
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Youāve gotten some great tips, but Iām going to emphasize this:
Not only could you get dumped and hurt with no one around, but you could slip down a rabbit hole of misery where youāre second-guessing every approach. Thatās hard to repair on your own. You need someone on the ground who can encourage (demand?) that you keep riding forward and get over the danged jump.
I think weāve all gone through phases where we temporarily loose our eye for a distance. Sometimes itās just not there. But if it has become a habit, then you need help to break out of it before you train your horse to doubt you and doubt himself.
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The therapist in me wonders if you have had experiences in the past where NOT pulling up has caused an issue. IE something scary happened, someone got hurt etc. If thatās the case, might be worth working on the fear/panic/anxiety with a performance and/or trauma therapist.
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Have you tried a neck strap?
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Thirding this advice. Any time thereās a mental block involved, it can be really helpful to have a trusted ground person (whether itās a trainer or a friend) be there to hold you to your job and make you do what youāre supposed to do. If youāre scared or worried, having someone you trust to tell you to keep going, to just jump. Even if itās ugly, even if the distance is shit, just kick on and jump the jump.
Iām not a brave rider but will jump just about anything if my trainer is there and tells me itās a good idea. I may think itās a stupid idea, but if she says to jump it Iām gonna jump it. But my myself, even a little bitty jump can look like the side of a house and I get nervous that Iām going to make a bad decision that is going to get me or my horse hurt. Just having a friend in the ring to be there to scrape me off the ground adds to my confidence.
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Iām going to chime in with letting you know that Iāve watched world #1 riders, Olympic gold medalists, World Cup ranked riders tank fences plenty of times. There is no such thing as a āperfect distanceā other than the one the HORSE choses and jumps cleanly. Our job is to support that choice, not to dictate that choice. Realize that if they arenāt perfect (they just handle imperfection better than most) then you arenāt either.
How do I develop the skill to NEVER pull up or circle with a ābad distance?ā I practice like I show. Every course at home can only be done once. Even on my green horses. Job #1 is to get around. Period. Even in the hunters, if you donāt jump all the fences the first time, no ribbons. With that in place, I can then work on āfixingā the things I need to on the next iteration of the course. And of course this has developed to āI donāt even get a do over courseā when schooling. This has resulted in my typical lessons/schooling being on the order of 20 minutes or so because I practice like I show. And the BIG key, I DONāT tell the horse where to jump. They own the take off. I practice riding rhythm, balance, keeping my body quiet and leg on. I still suck but my horse is so happy owning his job he makes me look good.
Maybe this will help you? Always pretend you are in the show ring. There is no schooling ring. Which has the ironic result of making the show ring nothing more than a schooling area and competition pressure goes away.
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Ok, minority opinion here. You have 30 years experience. Probably not as sound or brave as 20 years ago. See a really bad distance and want to pull up? Do it. In an organized manner. You will not ruin your horse. Take a moment to diagnose what went wrong. Go back to work and fix the root problem then re-approach the jump. You need to take control of the situation to control the āunconscious panicā. As you learn to diagnose your pre-jump issues, you can fix your approach on the first attempt.
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I agreeā¦ work over poles. Practice adding a stride and leaving out a stride. Count backwards to a single pole starting from 6ā¦5ā¦4ā¦3ā¦2ā¦1. You will learn how to see where you are in time to make minor adjustments.
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Probs repeating the wisdom above, but I have a product recommendation!
- lower the fence height. poles and cross rails. practice everything at this height. even toughie jumper courses with rollbacks and slices. practice lines and bending lines, vary the stride amount between. practice your turns coming in - practice what rhythm gets you the right result. Make it SO boring that youāre begging for the height to be raised because youāre so perfect at this that you can do it literally with your eyes closed
- jump only with a trainer (this includes the cross rails above) - poles can be schooled independently but always have eyes on the ground and preferably someone to video / give you feedback
- use a neck strap - but THIS kind https://ridecorrectconnect.com/products/double-safety-strap?variant=43351855399144¤cy=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwz7C2BhDkARIsAA_SZKaHH7PxWYnIFSwx2SM72D83C6XXbKzgoC699xXNQNilIukfAPcGjwMaAlHNEALw_wcB
This allows you to keep normal rein contact and doesnāt disrupt your hand and jump position like an old stirrup leather can
- close your eyes (in a grid or in a line) with a trainer
- if you can - ride out of the area with a trainer on a very good xc / hunt horse and canter / trot jumps following another horse. something about a old schoolmaster that just DOES this out of stride is so confidence boosting
- see an equestrian sports psych - I have a few recommendations (DM me if interested)
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Has anyone elseās trainer made them close their eyes going to the fence five strides out so they stay out of the horseās way? Is it just me?
I am usually fairly good about committing to the distance no matter what it isāhaving a greener horse forced me to build that habit because for his sake, he had to jump the jumps; not jumping wasnāt an option for him.
That said, I do completely understand the urge to micromanage a distance and want to pull up/stop/etc. My trainer on a couple of occasions had me close my eyes so I just stayed out of the horseās way non matter what the distance was. It was really quite eye-opening (pun not intended, but there it is) to realize how little I had to do and distances would just work themselves out, even the tight ones.
Wondering if this might be a beneficial exercise. Highly recommend youāre on a horse you trust to start, and I also recommend a ground person. I needed someone to shout at me to open my eyes after the fence so I could focus on track, otherwise my horse would just lose his sense of direction afterwards and drift aimlessly.
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Yes, @Ponyplusaninch - this is such a good one. I have a visual disability where I have about 70% of a normal personās depth perception. I ride mostly off feel because I cannot ātrust what I seeā. I have been told to close my eyes often 5 strides or less out and even ride whole lines like this.
Another alternative for me is actually looking at the horizon beyond the out of the line - the jumps come to me based on my track and rhythm and the actual fence is in my periphery.
from the above ^ I learn what type of canter can allow my horse to do what it needs to doā¦
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Ride a green horse. Youāll stop pulling up if you want it to jump! Iāve learned the hard way. If its gonna be ugly, do the best you can to support off the ground and stay out of the way via mane.
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Iām guilty of pulling up in a damned gymnastic when it was a nasty entrance. My trainer reamed me and I never did it again, but you are not alone in the urge, OP. You just have to sit up, sit deep, and put your leg on. Grab mane for whateverās going to happen, and get out of the way! 
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As a teen and young adult it was nailed into me that I must have a perfect distance every time (or at least that was the perception I had of the message). Obviously that is the 100 wrong message to get.
From time to time (or more 
) I have the same habit. It frustrates me beyond anything. I often get to a point where I just canāt keep going. Something in my brain tells me I cannot under any circumstance jump the jump unless I see that perfect distance.
Only recently Iāve figured out why I do it. Previously I had no idea and couldnāt verbalize it. My issues are not having enough pace and the fear of a long distance resulting in the horse horse crashing. Has that ever happened? No of course notā¦ or as my brain would say Not YET but it could! My horse is pretty lazy and his lazy canter feels so amazing that he tricks you to thinking he has enough pace.
Pace is our friend. Having enough pace provides you with more options for a distance. Always make sure you have enough pace. Practice adding and subtracting strides between two cavalettis (poles are cheating for me- the easy option) so 4,5,and 6. You can also do this with 3 cavalettis 4 to a 4, 4 to a 5, 5 to a 4 etc. even a 6 to a 4 if you want to be fancy!
Practice approaching a jump at a normal canter, a collected canter, and a hand gallop. Worst case scenario- grab mane and let pony do their thing!
Another thing to check is straightness. Is your horse on one track or more than one? Are you crooked making the horse crooked? Are you still coming around the turn approaching the jump? You must be straight.
Oh and paceā¦did I mention pace? Make sure you have paceā¦
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Use a grab/neck strap (an old stirrup leather will do), over small fences or in a grid where a miss wonāt matter until you get that muscle memory to work better and more confidence.
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OP, you just have to decide that thatās not an option. And who told you that was OK to do to a horse in the first place? I donāt think itās fair to expect a horse to go to a fence and always jump it unless we slam on the brakes hard, with no warning to him.
But easier said than done. So rather than telling you what NOT to do, you need to know what your job IS to do, where to put your mind on the way to the fence.
Your only job is to be ready to leave the ground when the fence arrives. Thatās it.
So everything is track and pace, or rhythm and track.
The suggestion above to count down the strides to when you leave the ground is great. But even easier is to count out loud, with the strides. You can count 1ā¦2ā¦ 1ā¦ 2 or to 4 or whatever. But you have to do it out loud.
There is something about counting your strides out loud that gets your body tuned into what you are seeing and feeling such that you do feel capable of just being ready to leave the ground when the horse comes to the fence and not micromanaging or second-guessing your distance or even having an opinion about the distance, LOL.
If you can change your job description to that one of being ready to jump when it arrives, you have a new task to perfectā¦ and that is not finding a distance. Your job is to look for the next fence early and find the rhythm that will tell you when you guys are leaving the ground.
Also, you can do this over a course of poles on the ground to great effect, with minimal mileage on the horseās legs and until it seems as easy as just cantering around. Try that until you are so confident and bored that you donāt think youād ever need to pull up again.
I rode with a couple of BTNs who liked to put single poles in the ring that were part of a course. When horse or rider got too worried or too flat and fast, theyād tell you to go to one of the next. That would teach the rider (mainly) but also the horse, how to calm down, mid course, and find an easy, soft canter to an easy, soft distance.
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