Many riders find that jumping horses or ponies is an exhilarating sport.
The initial training of a young or older horse to jump should be done gradually, beginning with ground poles spaced apart to fit the length of stride of the animal. This can be graduated to using cavaletti, which is simply a pole set on 2 x's that give you three training heights: 7", 12" and 17" for gymnastics. Four to six cavaletti set in a line at the lowest level can improve a horse's trot; and set at the highest height they can make a small bounce jump.
Used reguarly, cavaletti can be an integral part of your training. Variations can be set up to keep the horse/pony interested in the work.
Later, once horse, pony and rider have accomplished these varying heights without over practising, they can move on to small jumps with a few poles and a ground pole. A ground pole provides the horse or pony with a distance marker to judge when they should begin to jump. A ground pole set too far from the jump confuses the horse or pony and there may be an accident where the rider and animal crashes through the fence.
Before raising the height of the jumps or cavaletti, it is of benefit to make a spread jump in the early stages. It is easier for a horse to jump wide than to jump higher.
Often, riders think they have prepared their mounts properly at home before shows. If a rider jumps their horse or pony too much, the animal will become "sour" (not wanting to jump) and will often act out their frustrations in the show ring. Apart from being embarassing, the rider could be bucked off resulting in injury. Also, jumping a horse/pony too high too soon before it becomes comfortable with an easier height will often cause refusals at the fence.
It takes time to train a horse/pony to jump properly and consistently, which is why the jumping levels at shows: pre-green hunter/jumper, green hunter/jumper, are set at graduating levels to prepare a rider and horse for the next level. Often, I have seen riders and horses not ready for their level and need to take more time at home with practice which should include long hacks to break up the intense training. Horses need breaks from their work just like humans do. Too much repetition makes for cranky, reluctant workers: humans and horses or ponies.
The video section shows what happens when rider and mount are prepared or not. Another good video of using bounces at a show in practice can be seen on You Tube: Girl Doing A Bounce.
‘I’m Going to Fight like Hell’
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3 comments:
I totally agree with what you are saying. I bought a very strong willed horse, he also knew his strength. I had a jumping lesson on him, everytime he landed he squeeled in excitement, stopped dead and bucked. Somehow I would end up standing next to him. The instructor told me he was playing around, so she increased the size of the jump "to make him think about the jump and not the game afterwards." The height of the jump terrified me, we did it three times and then I didn't jump him again for four years. Now we happily pop over fences and he really enjoys it, we both do. We took it slowly after that lesson. Debs x
Strange I had a quarter horse gelding like that once, who turned out to be a fab eventer. A friend took him over a short fence (his first) and he started to crow hop which he was spanked for. He started to buck, going higher with each jump until he was at the top of the standards (regular height) and coming down with all four legs together. She used to ride with Doug Henry, a former rider on the Canadian Olympic Jumping Team, knew her stuff and whomped him good each time he bucked. He finally stopped all tuckered out, and he never bucked again at jumps. He'd been a western performance horse, switched to english before I got him and I think he'd been confused about what was going on. His new training with me went much slower and finally ended up a much better behaved little horse (well, he still had tricks he liked to play on people). I'll post some of the escapades later.
I had meant to add that I don't think too much of your old instructor. You should never have been the one to take your horse higher, she/he should have done it themself.
I taught 4-H students dressage and pre-jumping (18"), making certain I never taught them anything beyond their capabilities.
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