Will you share exercises to fix this? Rider is a middle aged re-rider. She has a great leg, nice seat and hands but she leaps up the neck upon take-off.
Grids without stirrups or hands helps. Planting her hands helps, but when the heights go up, she makes a play for her poor horse’s ears.
Lots of bounce exercises and also having the rider ride into the jump in the two point.
Try a grab strap, or braid some coloured yarn into the mane right where she should be releasing. I do this for my students who struggle with lying on the neck and jumping ahead. For a grab strap, I use an old stirrup leather and put coloured tape on it as a visual aid.
Then, as they approach the fence I have them think about sitting up and back. I generally am saying “shoulders up” and “sit back” right up until takeoff. We work on getting a very solid forward/light seat with core engaged and weight in the heels. Then all they do is keep hips back and press into the crest.
This also helps cure the “floating” crest release and shows them how to really press into the actual crest of the neck for support. Much easier to move to an auto-release when they are ready.
Tell her to pretend there is a giant knife sticking up out of the withers. Sounds silly but it fixed me, lol.
Does her saddle fit her? Can she canter a figure 8 with a simple change without stirrups?
I am still working on correcting my tendency to jump ahead. What has helped me has been fixing saddle fit, strengthening my leg at the canter without stirrups, and concentrating on “hips back” at two point rather than hands forward.
Yep, saying “Hips back” cured me! I must think it every time, but it worked better than anything else I’ve tried.
Does anyone have any good off horse exercises for strengthening your base? I’m doing the same thing as the OP (after more than a decade of not jumping) and would love to get stronger!
Point out to her that intentionally sending her hips backwards results in her hands going forward. If she thinks of the release of being the after affect of the hips going back, it might change her mindset.
Maybe try the driving rein?
Hands out to the side of the horses neck like you are pushing a wheel barrow. My coach loves the driving rein, and really so do I. It forces the rider to use their leg to keep them from tipping forward, since you can’t use your hands to balance on the horses neck. Since she can’t lean on the horses neck, she may stay in the center of her saddle.
If she only does this as the fence gets bigger, it could be nerves or anxiety over the size of the fence. Perhaps work on ways of calming and focusing and not worrying over fence size?
Well as a middle aged re-rider who was used to jumping much bigger jumps when I was younger than I am now I think I was still releasing like the jump was 4’6". Somehow I got in the habit of releasing with my shoulder instead of my hand. What works for me is two point and don’t move my body. I keep my reins shorter than I naturally want and keep my hands out in front of me so really no release is necessary. Stay still! Suddenly the jumps feel small when you aren’t jumping them for your horses. ??
I cut myself slack when the jump is bigger and I’m jumping it the first time as I’ll likely revert but the I can go back to staying still.
I’m with the think “hips back” group. Denny Emerson had an interesting write-up on this somewhere recently (maybe Facebook?)
She doesn’t have a functionally great leg if shes jumping ahead. That’s usually a sign the base is weak and her weight not truly going down thru the glutes and hamstrings to the heel. Some riders manage a quiet lower leg and deep heel without really getting the weight distribution right. To the less educated eye it looks good but it’s fundamentally weak and will get them a nasty bite in the rear as the fences go up and they have a bad spot or stumble as low as 3’.
Learning to keep butt close to the tack and shoulder back until the horse closes the hip angle is hard for riders and, unfotunately, seems too sophisticated for some trainers to teach as they don’t seem to grasp the concept. Pretty is as pretty does and if pretty is not fundamentally correct and therefore strong and 100% in control? It’s not so pretty and can quickly get downright ugly.
Nothing personal intended. Just a general observation about the average level of coaching from those who lack basic understanding of fundamentals, let alone the ability to teach them to many clients who lack correct fundamentals.
OMG, I sound like GM…
small grids, working up to no reins and no stirrups.
I agree with findeight, if the issue occurs/gets worse as the fences get larger, her base of support simply isn’t strong enough for the fence height. She needs to strength her position - grids with no reins and no stirrups, lots of no stirrup two-point and transitions, etc.
For those that tend to do it out of anxiety or inexperience, I’ll take them back to small X’s and trot them in half seat, without changing their position at all over the fence. Then up to 2’ approaching in a tall 2-point without changing their position at all over the fence. The point is teaching them to wait, that they don’t need to jump for the horse, just stay with it.
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