Poll: How many times per week do you jump your horse?

[Xctrygirl]

Just figured I would go for the trifecta. I have asked this to my Facebook friends. I asked on the Horse & Hounds forums to see if life abroad was much different. Now I am asking here to see the variety of answers of the full American crowd. (I only have 5k friends on FB and many are east coast based)

I am not including horses that jump out (or in) their fields. I am likewise not including green beans overjumping poles on the ground.

When you do an actual purposeful jump school, how often do you do it? Or under what parameters?? (Show coming, issue, rehab, etc)

Emily

[atl_hunter]

It depends on the age of the horse, the footing, the weather, etc… My horse had 6 training rides/6 lessons a month as a 16 year old schoolmaster. He was only jumped for 10-15 minutes on lesson days. Some days he wasn’t jumped at all - he knows his job already.

At shows, we would skip the early week classes and do a mild school then I would show warm-up division and then the full weekend division. Sometimes I would skip the additional classic based on how he was doing (he has anhidrosis).

At my old barn, we warmed up 10 minutes and jumped the remainder of the hour. That barn had freakishly awesome footing and the horses were jumping 3-x week 3’+ (plus shows 1-2x month at 1.10M and up) into their 20s. I would attempt no such thing at my current barn - the footing is not so fortunate. As a result, the horses stay 2’6" and under for general jumping and only go up at shows. Better footing would likely change the routine.

I feel like a horse only has so many jumps in its life, so you had better make them worthwhile.

[Brutus614]

On average, I take 2 lessons per week with jumping year-round. Typically in the winter, we jump fewer overall jumps and lower fence heights (about 2’-2’3") and then ramp up number of jumping efforts and heights in the spring/summer for me and my young horse (now almost 6 years old).

May through September I show about once a month and typically school fences on Friday and then do 2-3 over fence classes per day on Saturday and Sunday at 2’6". Weeks that I show I either take no lessons or one short lesson, depending on what issues are coming up (or not, as it were).

[JenEM]

I’ll ditto that it depends on the horse/conditions/program.

Mine is 17 now, knows her job, and is sort of stepping down. She doesn’t need drilled over fences, we just need to stay sharp. So we do one real “jump school” in the form of a lesson, usually a lot of singles or grid/gymnastic work. I try to do that 2-3 days out from actually showing, and flat the day before a show. Depending on what’s set in the ring, I’ll pop over 1 or 2 fences most rides, because the horse actually likes to jump and popping over a 2’ isn’t stressful. At shows, generally warmup is roughly 3-4 fences–one that sucks, one that’s OK, and one that’s good. Generally one division and a medal round worth of showing.

[greysfordays]

My horse is 10 years old. We’re lucky to have really great footing at home, but at the shows I wish it were better. He does the 1.20s. At home, he does lots of poles and cavaletti during the week.

On weekends, he does one day over small gymnastics, like bounces or one strides on a curve, circle of death, etc. Then we do one course day. We warm up over one jump like at a show, then he does the course once at 1.10m. We may repeat any rough spots, then we raise the jumps to 1.20-1.25m for a last course and then cool down.

At shows, he typically shows in four classes, never more than one class per day. I would love to skip the training school, but he’s pretty spooky.

I have to say, I’ve put a lot more focus on my warm up and cool down lately and I think it’s been really beneficial.

[GoodTimes]

I lesson once a week, that’s the only time we jump other than shows. We do pole work a few times per week on our own.
Most horses and riders don’t need to jump more, they need to fix their issues on the flat first.

[dani0303]

Once a week or once every 2 weeks. We usually work on technical exercises over 2’-2’3 fences. My mare is 19 and even though we show in the 1m jumpers we rarely jump at height

[RugBug]

Depends, but on average 1-2x per week. I will also do a lot of poles as reminders for rhythm and to keep my eye sharper (or get it sharper on a different horse). I, unfortunately, am one that needs more jumping right now, but it’s because I need to get sacked out again. I haven’t jumped much and nothing of any real height for a very long time.

[FLeventer]

Usually 2x a week. Really depends on the horse though. My old schoolmaster I jumped maybe 2x a month because he had some joint issues and tried to keep the wear and tear down. He knew his job. My mare jumped 3x a week for a few months to figure out some things.

[StormyDay]

Depends on the horse. I know some horses that are only jumped at shows.
My 19yo has jumped 2-3x a week, pretty much year round, since he was 8. However, we do around 8-12 jumps total a day usually. Not a whole lot, just enough to keep him reminded we don’t need to Superman over jumps. I thought we would have more maintenance issues now, but he is still really healthy. I always thought that horses have a set number of jumps you get. Now I think it’s more about making sure you never overwork them and cause injury.

[Calvincrowe]

2-3 times a week. 2’ max of 2’6". She can certainly do more height but why? Technical questions, lots of eq type things. My old school master jumper we would do lots of conditioning as he aged with very few jumps. He knew his job and loved it. At shows, school the fences that might be tricky due to color or placement. Before a class, light flat to loosen up the horse and get my leg on then maybe a jump or two. My old guy hated jumping in the schooling area so we didn’t jump at all. Just cantered a pole or x, then into his jumper round. At most, two classes a day.

[AmmyHunter]

My horse is 14 and knows his job, but I’m rusty and need the practice, so we try to jump twice a week, usually 2’3"-2’6", occasionally with something 2’9" mixed in. My trainer also does a jump tune-up a couple of times a month. So it is about 50/50 on whether he jumps 2 or 3 times a week, nothing big. The farm also has excellent footing, so no concerns there.

In the week of a show, he’ll get a flat school and a jump school from the trainer, do a couple schooling trips with me on Fridays, and then shows one division with me over the weekend. Then he has a light week with trail rides and light hacks after the show.

[supershorty628]

I almost never jumped my mare over our show height at home, but I’d work a few small (3’ or under) jumps into most of her rides, even if it was just hopping over something once. It always made her much happier and it was a way for me to assess how well our flatwork really was translating.

I’ve never bought into the whole thing of “a horse only has so many jumps in them” - it’s just like saying people only have so many steps in them - you can increase that number with proper conditioning! It’s not static.

[ktm_here]

@supershorty628

I almost never jumped my mare over our show height at home, but I’d work a few small (3’ or under) jumps into most of her rides, even if it was just hopping over something once. It always made her much happier and it was a way for me to assess how well our flatwork really was translating.

I’ve never bought into the whole thing of “a horse only has so many jumps in them” - it’s just like saying people only have so many steps in them - you can increase that number with proper conditioning! It’s not static.

This!! Mare is 8 and just lives and breathes to jump. I usually flat 4-5 days a week (45 min at least) but usually pop over a little vertical (3ft or less) as part of the flat work. It find it really works on her ridability. Jump a jump and then come back to me with the soft gooey canter we had before the jump. One day will be more gymnastics and technical stuff–lots of raised trot poles in our life I have my own arena at home and pending my motivation and time, I will try to set a course at 1.0/1.10 (we show 1.10/1.15) every other week. My trainer doesn’t live near me so usually have friends come over for a jump day :). Trainer comes to town usually every 4-6 weeks.

[ohmylivia]

Usually 1x a week, mainly with shorter courses or grids at 3’ or below. Maybe once a month putting the jumps up to/slightly above show height to make sure we’re both staying sharp for the 1.10-1.15m. Other days are lots of flatwork/pole work/hacking out/etc.
When we first got him in the barn and needed to work on some body awareness, we did small jumps more often just to let him figure himself out a bit with repetition. Now he’s an old pro at this whole thing and we focus more intensely on conditioning and precision in our flatwork.

[eclipse]

Usually once or twice a week (not always full height generally upto 3ft and then in my private I’ll probably do some bigger jumps and a week or so before a show I’ll do a couple of full courses at bigger than I’m showing , 1.10m ish!), but then after a show we don’t jump for the next week we just do flat and maybe some pole work. From End of November until beginning of February we also don’t “jump” , in fact all of the jumps are removed from the arena and cavalettis and poles are brought in, then February is gymnastics work.

[Jeepgirl311]

@GoodTimes

I lesson once a week, that’s the only time we jump other than shows. We do pole work a few times per week on our own.
Most horses and riders don’t need to jump more, they need to fix their issues on the flat first.

This is me as well. At most twice a week if we are not at a show.

[DMK]

@supershorty628

I almost never jumped my mare over our show height at home, but I’d work a few small (3’ or under) jumps into most of her rides, even if it was just hopping over something once. It always made her much happier and it was a way for me to assess how well our flatwork really was translating.

I’ve never bought into the whole thing of “a horse only has so many jumps in them” - it’s just like saying people only have so many steps in them - you can increase that number with proper conditioning! It’s not static.

You, me and PNWjumper share a brain on this topic as I recall. It’s all about the fitness to the job and not pounding them!

[ammyforlife]

We usually jump twice a week. Once low, technical gymnastic-type stuff, and then once bigger with either a grid with some course type elements thrown in, or actual course work. Generally we don’t jump big at home though, everyone generally jumps 3-6" lower than their show height, but closer to show height if there is a show coming up or for younger horses that need the experience.

[LovieBird]

Usually 1x a week