Looking at the arena you’re working in, it would make sense that she’s having trouble discerning the black standards from the background and mis-judging her takeoff point. When you say you build spreads with two sets of black and have trouble, are you just using poles or also using something with a substantial ground line?
And, thanks, btw, for putting up so many pics and a video clip. It’s always hard to give meaningful advice when you can’t really see what’s going on.
I normally use either yellow fillers or white and blue or I put the top rails and a slanted rail under the front one (one end a hole or so below top rail other end on floor)
My guess is that the jumps she is coming down onto are ones she isn’t seeing. I really can’t follow your “wings” and your “black” descriptions, but in general, it seems very clear to me she just isn’t seeing the ones you are having trouble with.
If there are certain jumps she isn’t seeing, and therefore isn’t jumping correctly, make sure you put some lighter/white in it for her to latch onto, visually.
Make sure there is a Ground Pole at the base of the jump. If she is taking off too early, its because she can’t see the base of the jump in that case, so give her a white striped base ground pole, set just in from where you want her to take off. Its just not fair to her not to give her these markers, because she clearly just can’t see them.
Its entirely possible that her eyesight is poor, but frankly, you have to realize that horses just don’t have good depth perception to begin with. For example, us Eventers, when jumping cross country out in timber, we walk the course to check out at the time of day we will be riding, where the shadows are for our jumps. Often, our horses can’t, or will heisitate, or run out suddenly, to jump INTO the shadow, from the sunlight, if a jump is in the shadow. But, they can jump out of the shadow, into the sunlight.
Its amazing that our horses jump so willingly for us, frankly.
Its clear your girl is game, and she jumps so boldly and obediently. I think she only crashes or runs out when she just can’t see.
Listen to her, and make the jumps so she can see them, such as riding right up to the base of the jump for her, for spreads, something you have to do anyway. She shouldn’t be taking off until you tell her to, so if she is taking off too early, you don’t have control of her take off.
Ride her into the base of the jump - that way she sees it, that way she is confident because you are telling her what to do, and that way she has enough scope to clear the oxer or debth of the jump.
Practice on smaller jumps so she gets confident of your signal to jump.
If you let her continue to choose her own take off point, and its too far back, you are going to have a horse start stopping and not being confident of its rider.
Give her ground poles at the base of the jump whenever you can. It helps her ride into the base of the jump, for spreads, and give her a bit of light on the poles she jumps so she can see them
If she crashing, she can’t see them, period. Ask her to wait and don’t take off early, and give her more light colors/white in the jump its self.
Interestingly, in the video, there is one jump that she breaks to a trot almost every time to it. It’s off a short corner but isn’t black schooling standards…they are white.
In the “Breaking Through” video, she also lands stops/lands in a jump (she has a shadow roll on) and it really looks like she didn’t even realize there was a jump there until too late. She also doesn’t seem nearly as confident and is second guessing herself. Interestingly, most of the jumps are darker. (It also could have been in the past when she was still learning?)
At any rate, she’s older and could be having some vision issues. There isn’t a lot of contrast with the black schooling standards and your arena footing.
O.k., wing standards are wide like the white ones in the first picture. The black standards are just standards, or uprights.
[QUOTE=RugBug;7932759]
In the “Breaking Through” video, she also lands stops/lands in a jump (she has a shadow roll on) and it really looks like she didn’t even realize there was a jump there until too late.[/QUOTE]
The fall at a show? She tripped round the corner just before the jump, she had jumpedit fine in the class before and jumped it fine after 
Have you had a vet out to examine her vision?
Though I’d agree with some other posters it’s probably the fact that the standards blend in with the footing, and the poles blend in with the arena railing, visually, so it’s hard for her to gauge. I know at an evening show this summer, my mare plowed right through the top rail of a fence, which is exceedingly unusual for her, and I then realized it was at dusk, and the “natural” colored pole blended right in with the sand footing, visually.
Have you tried using the black standards with colored (either white or some kind of striped pattern) poles? Does she read the fence better then?
[QUOTE=JenEM;7932827]
Have you had a vet out to examine her vision?
Though I’d agree with some other posters it’s probably the fact that the standards blend in with the footing, and the poles blend in with the arena railing, visually, so it’s hard for her to gauge. I know at an evening show this summer, my mare plowed right through the top rail of a fence, which is exceedingly unusual for her, and I then realized it was at dusk, and the “natural” colored pole blended right in with the sand footing, visually.
Have you tried using the black standards with colored (either white or some kind of striped pattern) poles? Does she read the fence better then?[/QUOTE]
I tried different poles and fillers, she still did the same thing, she felt like she knew how high, but not how wide, in the air we got a kind of extra stretch sensation as she came over the first rail, her eyes were checked in july/august
Just a couple of thoughts here, the play of light and shadow with the hedges around your ring are very pretty but I can’t even see much detail. I don’t really think she has a vision issue based on what I can see.
What I can see is you don’t use a lot of standard groundlines, those help horses gauge distance. You are using false or no groundlines. You also have many airy, almost skimpy, type fences with substantial distance between bottom rail or filler and the top rail. Those trick a horse into thinking there’s no back rail and is a question course designers often ask on more advanced tracks. It’s also sometimes used to fool a horse to “get them a rap” in schooling.
To me, those black standards are hard to see when combined with a brighter set and with no groundlines and the airy/skimpy use of rails? She just cannot see the fact it’s a spread. Give her a nice, big, bright groundline at the base and a few more rails between the standards or move what you have closer together. That will help her correctly judge the jump.
When you school/practice at home, you don’t want to create too many tricks and traps. You want to build confidence. Doesn’t matter what others do, they need what they need. That’s them, your mare is yours and you need to help her needs.
One other thing…your mare is a nice, brave type but when you say sometimes 3 strides out you have nothing? Tsk, tsk. It may be she is worried she can’t judge the spread and is trying to run at it. You should never, ever let any horse leave long unless you asked for it and it’s not a spread. That’s something you need to work harder at, she has to trust you and go to the base, not try to race over it leaving long and weak. That will leave you into the middle of the rails, could get her flipped worst case. Need to fix that.
I know you can ride to the base and she will willingly take you to the base, even without groundlines, because you do it well about half the time in the video. That’s why I think she might be getting a little nervous when she’s not sure what she’s seeing. You can fix that. You may have to build some gymnastics and grids and you certainly need to do more flatwork to get her to rock back and put another stride in there instead of taking over.
You ride well. You two are a good team, think you can work this out. If you place her at the base and build around those black standards to help her out a little? Should eliminate the issue.
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