Refining jumping form

[dontskipthecafe]

I’m not sure where to ask this, exactly, but I’ll try it here!

I have a lovely little OTTB mare whom I would like to jump semi-seriously at some point. At this time, we’ve popped her over a couple of little ones, but nothing serious. Went a little higher free-jumping.

What I’ve noticed is that she has an enormous amount of scope and has absolutely no problems clearing the bigger jumps… but she does not bother picking up her damn knees! She just powers over stuff; doesn’t come close to touching the poles, but her form is uuuugly.

I’ve heard that some horses simply refine their own form as the jumps get higher and they can’t get over without popping their knees up, but I’m wondering if there’s anything I can do in the mean time to encourage her to look pretty I also don’t want to hurt or scare her if the jumps get big and she whacks herself!

[SidesaddleRider]

Gymnastics. Lots of gymnastics. Especially with multiple high x-rails.

Of course, start slow and build up.

However, there are some horses that just have not-great jumping form, but lots of scope and a desire to not hit the rails (but not dangerous jumping form, i.e., dangling, uneven, etc). My friend has one of those, and she does very well in the 1.15 m jumpers with her.

[Belmont]

My trainer suggested grid work with my old OTTB to try and refine his form. It kinda helped, and he got a little better as fences got bigger… But he never was a beautiful jumper. He had sloppy-ish knees, but he had GREAT scope. We never got a rain at shows, because that is the only time I seemed to micromanage less.

Trying to sell him was a lot harder, because I had snarkypeople telling buyers my horse ‘hung his knees’ and was ‘dangerous’. He wound up being just too quirky, and I wound up giving him away to a ranch owner in NV that I bought him from. She sold her confidence builder and wanted a horse that could jump the height, even if it wasn’t pretty. It was jumpers, so who cares!

As long as the horse isn’t dangerous, you are fine. You may never get a gorgeous jump, but you can always try practice and grids with your trainer.

You know… some people say Rothchild doesn’t have the best form.

[Janet]

One of the best exercises for improving form is lots of low wide oxers. Either on their own, or as part of a gymnastic line.

I am talking about building from 2’ square to 2’ high and 4’wide.

I got this tip from an article by a hunter trainer (Olin Armstrong IIRC), but Jimmy Wofford also advocates it.

[PNWjumper]

I agree with Janet - low wide oxers are a great tool. Gymnastics are also a great tool. But I will add that a lot depends on the horse’s natural style.

I’ve posted about my OTTB quite a bit over the years. He didn’t bother to pick up his knees until the fences hit 1.40m+. He has a massive hind end and he used that to propel himself way up and over the jumps through the 1.30m classes. Never touched a fence and won quite a bit along the way without ever using most of the muscles in his body. He still doesn’t jump in textbook form over the majority of jumps, but we get at least a few good photos at every show. The down side is that because he’s not “packaged” over the jumps, he makes them all look teeny tiny. I often see pictures of my competitors where the fences look massive and when I look at the pics of my guy they look half the size because of his large form hovering way up above, sigh. It’s hard to justify the panic over the fence sizes you had while walking the course when you look at the pictures later and realize that they look like they belong in a junior hunter class!

But at the end of the day it’s totally not a scope issue, and not something that bothers people who understand how to evaluate a horse properly (meaning a jumper doesn’t need to jump like a hunter).

Also, it’s probably worth mentioning that it’s often a next-to-impossible feat to get a scopey horse to jump like it cares over a fence that doesn’t require any effort.