Need help with jumping?

My horse was a three day eventer that was going intermediate (US) and could jump just about anything (including large round bails for fun when galloping in the field). Sometimes when warming up, he would run out on me, if I wasn't completely paying attention. If she does this with just the first few jumps, I wouldn't worry, she's just warming up. If she does this the entire training session, then she may be having problems with arthritis in her hocks. At the end of my horse's career, he once stopped in stadium warm up (the day after cross country) it turned out he had a little arthritis in his hocks (after 14 years of eventing, that's not bad) I tried having his hocks injected with adequan, but I didn't like doing it, I thought it was cruel, and I just retired him.

You know when I was competing, I only jumped Sherman like maybe twice a week if that. If you are jumping you mare everyday (accept when she has a day off) it may be too much. Also, if she is over ten, she may be showing some mileage. Try cross training in dressage instead of jumping all the time. I went to an exhibit of the Dutch olympic show jumping team back in '96 (when the olympics were in atlanta), their horses could do all the stuff the olympic dressage horses could do, and then some. Food for thought. Good Luck!

A better solution rather then a quick-fix tack piece to get the job done is to find the reason as to WHY she is acting out. That way, you can find a better solution that is more likely to work.

From your description, It's hard to say what might be causing it. It might be how your feeling. If you're an emotional person, she may be sensing that from you (perhaps using your aids more storngly or not communicating effectively, or maybe body language) and is reacting to that. It may also be a changein her routine. Think about it: does anything, anything at all, change during those two days? It could be anything from more pasture-time to anything as small as having pasture-time with one horse versus a different one on another day. This oculd possibly affect how she's reacting when jumping. Also consider her surroundings. Do you ride with others on certain days and alone with some? Do you ride outside and therefore near pastures where other horses may be distracting her? has the weather happened to coincide with your riding days to create a pattern with her attitude? This also may affect her change in attitude. Try and revise all these possibilities and see if you can come up with something that may have changed to create this change in behavior.

It sounds like you need to go all the way back to poles on the ground and start again. You obviously haven't trained her properly because it doesn't sound like the horse has very much confidence in jumping.

You need to start small and do lots of work in grids and over really small courses and gradually build up the height over a period of 1 - 2 years regardless of how talented your horse is.

If she can jump up to 1m40 that's great. But you need to get a good foundation on her before you jump the big ones.

Hope this helps.

You might want to start keeping a very detailed diary on your physical and mental health each day, on the filly's and anything else you can think of like whether it is raining or scheduled to rain.

Also she may have an old injury that bothers her on some days and not on others. It maybe just a bit of stiffness that shows up just before it rains or after her day off.

A dairy will help pin point whether it is something she is responding to that you do or if she has issues.

Ahh yes my same problem. Perfect form one day and then the next they are banging crossrails!! Try to figure out exactly what was different those days. You could have had more stress or not been as hydrated or in my case I wasn't getting enough sleep which was causing my lack of focus and drive but one I made sure to sleep well the night before it fixed my problem instantly! Good luck finding a solution!

I'm not a jumper, yet but my best advice is work her back to smaller jumps until she becomes consistent and then slowly move back up.

trainer.