How to teach young horse to jump?

[chestnutwithchrome]

I’m riding a 4 yr old warmblood mare for my friend. She had 30 days pro training as a 3 yr old, and I’ve been riding her consistently all spring/summer. She is green, but a very good girl. Knows forward and stop, soft and responsive face, starting to work on leg yielding. She placed 3rd at training level at her first show last weekend! I have longed her over xrails and BN/novice XC fences, and she is willing enough, as well as trotted her over them under saddle.

I would like to start really working on teaching her to jump now, and am looking for suggestions and tips. She is bred to jump, and is willing enough, but doesn’t seem to actually pick up her feet and jump square unless she is going at a pretty fast canter. I have been trotting her into things, so she doesn’t start rushing, and she just clambers over them…

How do you teach a young horse to jump?

[retreadeventer]

Seriously…buy a book or two.
– Pippa Funnell’s Young Horse book
–Phillip Duttons’ Modern Eventing book

there are so many ways to start young horses over fences, we could be here for a decade discussing various methods. They all have to do with rails on the ground and small jumps, etc. Unless you have an Irish horse. And they come with “Jumping 1.0” already pre-installed…just like Thoroughbreds come with “Canter/Gallop 1.0 and clickable option Gallop 4.0 available”…unfortunately at times!

You really ought to have a ground person – barring that, a lot of jumps. I don’t have the first and so I work on the second, I have a lot of progressive options in my ring so if the first two or three things work, I can go on to the next without getting off and moving the jump heights or distances. I keep things quite low, always under 2’6" pretty much and create things that make them think and pick up their feet. Jumper trainers have a lot to teach and I always listen when I hear someone talk about gymnastics and setting jumps and what the exercise is meant to accomplish. The US Eventing magazine has a gymnastic section each issue which I always study. (By the way if anyone has any links to Jumper trainer’s stuff like that, please post.)

[bornfreenowexpensive]

Just keep trotting things. Often I will make it a verticle fairly quickly as they seem to understand that better than a xrail. Roll the ground line out…and don’t be afraid to jump fillers right away. I typically stick mostly to single fences for the first few jumping sessions then maybe do a baby gymnastic line. Some do best trotting logs ect xc. The biggest mistake I think some people make is they keep the fence too small. Most horses will very quickly be trotting 2’3" to 2’6". If you keep it at 18" or below…they just don’t jump but trot over it.

Here is a video of my 3 year old and her first fences. We started her over a pile of poles. Then over the little flower boxes (she wanted to eat the plastic flowers)…the the jump. This was the first homebred horse that rider has started from scratch (but she is a good rider–she had started some OTTBs before)–AND she had good experienced ground help there helping her. After every jump, we had her make a huge fuss over her. You want to act like they just jumped into the head of the lake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlH4ln-6LE8

Since this is a 3 year old…we likely will not do any more with her…but the next steps would be to keep trotting little verticles and little oxers (I would probably introduce an oxer in the next jump session)…keep jumps with filler and rolled out ground rails. Then maybe a little gymnastic…typically a verticle to oxer set at 18’ then another little fence set 20-21’ (adjust so it is an easy one stride and start with poles on the ground before building a fence. DO NOT canter the fences or trot fast…stay behind the motion but go with her over the fence (grab mane or a neck strap)…canter on landing…and supportive leg off the ground. Just give it time for them to sort it out. Your job is to think about keeping them straight and staying out of their way…let them sort out how to jump.

If you have never brought along a greenie…really take her to some lessons with a good ground person. You don’t really want to be feeling your way through this as it is important to lay the ground work well now.

[ThirdCharm]

If you have not brought along a green jumper, get with someone who HAS. There are so many ways to really mess up a promising horse right from the get-go…

Jennifer

[chestnutwithchrome]

Thank you for the suggestions. I didn’t put it in my OP but my friend (the owner) is always along as a ground person, and I have a trainer I work with regularly. This will be the 3rd horse I’ve started jumping, the other two were simply older/more broke when they were started over fences.

I took the advice of making the fences a little more substantial and we made up a small course of 2’3" vertical and oxers, and we worked on trotting in and cantering away. Mare was very good, and although she still isn’t sure of always what to do with her feet, had several good fences where she actually jumped relatively square. I will also be getting some jumping lessons on her in the future.

[yellowbritches]

Don’t worry. Just keep trotting little things and slowly work her up. Basically, everything bfne said.

I figure the first lesson they need to learn in jumping is get to one side to the other. As they get stronger, the fences get a bit bigger, they start doing more gymnastics, etc, they will learn to use their bodies and develop a jumping style. But, even once they are going well, their form will change and improve. I’ve ridden a lot of babies with great style and form…but they were often half a click off in their timing, and sometimes for quite awhile. Even now, at 9 and going solidly at prelim, Toby’s form is changing and improving as he gets stronger.

One of the silliest things I’ve ever had a good baby do was step BETWEEN the ground line and the jump before taking off. It was her first time jumping, and she was a little befuddled and perplexed. She knew to go to the other side (she’d popped logs out hacking and as a weanling would gallop around the indoor while I rode my older horse and jump things…so she KNEW the objective). She just couldn’t work out quite where her feet were meant to go, and stepped down behind the ground line. It was hysterical (I have pictures SOMEWHERE of it, but on an old computer, I think).

Even just a couple of months later, she was a classy, safe, athletic little jumper. So, don’t worry. She’ll get it.

[bornfreenowexpensive]

[QUOTE=chestnutwithchrome;7115987]
Thank you for the suggestions. I didn’t put it in my OP but my friend (the owner) is always along as a ground person, and I have a trainer I work with regularly. This will be the 3rd horse I’ve started jumping, the other two were simply older/more broke when they were started over fences.

I took the advice of making the fences a little more substantial and we made up a small course of 2’3" vertical and oxers, and we worked on trotting in and cantering away. Mare was very good, and although she still isn’t sure of always what to do with her feet, had several good fences where she actually jumped relatively square. I will also be getting some jumping lessons on her in the future.[/QUOTE]

She will not be organized for a while–that is NORMAL Just keep trotting and cantering away. Really focus on staying straight and being very quiet with your upper body. You really have to be careful not to get ahead as that will slow her front end down. Even then…they will still have moments of not sure what to do with their legs! My current 5 year old who is a very good jumper still has those moments.

[Eclectic_Horseman]

I don’t know why no one has mentioned free schooling? IMHO, that is the best way for a young horse to begin to sort himself out over fences. Far easier for the horse to figure out how to move his own body and train his eye without a rider, before sticking an imperfect rider on his back (how many of us are perfect?)

You can make a chute down the long side of your arena using jump fencing and standards, and then start with trot poles, then trot poles to single cross bars and low fences and eventually to a gymnastic grid. This does wonders for their confidence!

Here are some videos of free schooling over fences-

http://www.fermebeaulieufarm.com/videos/