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  Discussion on Frightened Jumper
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Posted on Thursday, Jun 29, 2000 - 4:19 pm:

Hi,

Can anyone out there help me?

I have a 6 year old mare who has the most fantastic jump, however, she gets really frightened in the process. I have only just started jumping her again after 4 months on pure flatwork.

During our schooling sessions, the first jump she does is fine, the second she gets a little more fizzy at and by the fourth she is really tense.

What she does is try to run side on at the jump, or even backwards to it! Its as if she has had a really bad experience at some point in the past.

I have tried placing poles, 'A' frames, tramlines and everything.

I have booked some sessions with a professional show jumper, but they do not start until mid July and I was hoping to improve things a little by myself prior to this (I don't want to look like a complete idiot!).

Any tips would be gratefully received.

Thanks

Sharon

Posted on Friday, Jun 30, 2000 - 8:50 am:

Hi there Sharon,

Don't have much time at the moment (have to head to the barn as soon as my coffee cup is empty!) but I was thinking about your problem and had a couple of thoughts...

Your mare sounds talented, and I'm inclined to think you're right about her being frightened. I was wondering some things... how high are these jumps? Are you trotting to the first one and cantering the rest--or cantering from the start? FWIW, my approach would be this one: if she's fine over the first one, then that's your starting place, and it's a matter of just building up her confidence to jump again in the same go. If you're seeing that she's "fizzy" by jump number two, then she's probably telling you that she wasn't ready to handle a second jump yet, much less three and four, so I wouldn't even go there. You might back it down to just one (low) jump followed by ground poles where 2, 3, & 4 would have been. Gradually, you can raise #2 up, leaving 3 & 4 on the ground, etc. Think in terms of how incremental you can be... break it down as much as possible--jumping a line of four jumps is more a goal than a schooling exercise at this point.

Another thing you might pay attention to, is if there is anything in your *riding* that is changing after the first fence. Not saying there is, but if you feel her getting worried, it can become a snowball effect, and this breaking it way down can then help you as well.

I don't ride jumpers myself, but a friend of mine does a lovely, quiet job of starting horses over fences, and they really enjoy working for her. She believes that any sort of rushing or avoidance behavior is due to the horse having been advanced too quickly, and she's extremely incremental. Her horses really look for the jumps and look bright and eager, but quiet at the same time; it's neat to see.

Hope this is of some help... Good luck and have fun with her!

Amy Coffman

Posted on Friday, Jun 30, 2000 - 11:47 am:

Hi Sharon (again!). My mare goes at her jumps with increasing speed each time, cuts corners to get there quicker and generally ignores me. Once she has her radar locked on she can be like a missile, even if she and I are looking at two different jumps. I don't jump her much at home, just the odd one here and there and try to incorporate it into my general schooling, so I may canter a circle, pop over the jump and then go off and practice reining back to canter, trot a figure 8 and then do another jump etc. That way she is not able to anticipate the jump quite so much.

Is your young mare the same when you loose jump or lunge her over a jump? It is horribly true that many horses rush at jumps because they are in pain, either from their tack or from an unsympathetic rider. My monster improved noticeably after I changed her saddle. It might be worth having her back checked out. Jumping is a very athletic thing for a horse to do and sometimes they can twist a bit trying to go clear for you, or even just pull a muscle rolling or bucking in the field. They soon learn that jumping is painful and rush to get it all over with.

Posted on Friday, Jun 30, 2000 - 12:31 pm:

Are you jumping the same fence over and over again or different fences? Like Helen said, keep it interesting and keep her guessing.
~barbara

Posted on Friday, Jun 30, 2000 - 4:01 pm:

Amy / Helen / Barbara,

Thanks for the above.

Currently I'm doing like Helen said. I'm introducing the jump within a flatwork schooling session, so it is just the one jump; very low (no more than 1 ft).

Like Amy said, I think I just need to take it very slowly with her.

I have recently had her back/teeth checked, and last week got her saddle checked - all is OK so I really do think it is a fear thing.

Also, I think you may be right about the change as the jumps progress, so on jump 1 I'm quite calm & relaxed, but as we progress I would be a liar if I said I didn't also get a little tense. I put this down to breaking 3 ribs last September in a jump off! (I wasn't riding this horse).

Tomorrow I have a session with my 'flat' instructor so I'm going to ask her for some tips also as she knows the horse a bit.

Maybe I should have also said that we have spent the last few months getting Mel to accept the aids (she used to freak on the flat).

I think this is perhaps a sad case of an abused horse.

She is very talented and it would be a shame not to release her potential.

I'll let you all know how I get on.

Thanks again for the tips. I will be trying them out over the weekend.

Bye for now.

Sharon

Posted on Saturday, Jul 8, 2000 - 9:37 am:

Hi Sharon. Jumpers are my first love, so I understand your frustration. I was wondering about a couple of things. In your original message you said you'd started jumping her again after what sounded like a 4 month layoff. What was the reason for the layoff? Had she gotten hurt? What was she like before the layoff? Also, how is she on the flat? Is she normally nervous and it gets worse when you jump her or is she just a completely different horse when faced with fences? How much riding experience have you had?

If she's only nervous over fences and if you're not a beginner (nothing wrong with being a beginner, but if you are I'd definitely wait until you have your trainer with you), here's what I'd try. Start with cavellettis (poles on the ground). Start with one and just walk over it. Once she will calmly walk over the pole, then proceed to the trot. If when you start to trot the pole, she starts to show signs of nervousness, go back to the walk until she calms down again and then back to the trot. All this can be incorporated into your normal flat routine. When she stops noticing the single pole, add a second. Depending on the stride of your horse, the second should be 4-6 feet away from the first, but you can adjust it as necessary. Same procedure start with the walk then the trot and don't be afraid to back track. Continue this until you have four poles in a row. You may be able to do this in a day or it may take a few weeks depending on you and depending on the horse. Remember lots of praise and lots of reassuring words. Once you're up to four poles add an X (with the middle of the X about 18 inches) to the end. Start back with the walking. Walk through it (any horse can walk over 18 inches :) ) then onto the trot. Once you're trotting through with no noticeable excitement, start removing poles until you're left with one cavelletti and then the jump. Again, this may take a day or weeks, but don't rush the process. Once you're down to one caveletti and the jump, try the canter. Whatever you do, don't rush into the canter and immediately head into the jump. Be sure you have a nice, steady pace that you're both comfortable with. If she rushes, go back down to the trot (or even the walk) until she calms down again and work your way back up.

Throughout the process you must be sure to do three things: 1) Give her the opportunity to be good. In other words, since she's been bad, if you start to anticipate that's she's going to be bad by getting tense or pull on her face before there's a reason to, you, in essence, punish her or at least send her a signal that this really is scary. 2) Don't get left behind on the fence. As you're going through the cavelettis exercise (even at the walk), 2-point. It lets her get used to the movement of your body and insures you won't wack her in the mouth over the fence (not that you are, but everyone gets left behind from time to time :) ) Be sure you're not pulling yourself up with your hands when you move into the 2-point. 3) Don't be afraid to go back in the training if you hit a snag. Some days you may have to go back to walking over a single pole in order to end on a good note. Just keep in mind, horses have moods just like us and pressing a bad position will do more harm than good in the long run.

I might change my tune after I've read the answers to the questions I started with, but in the meantime, I hope this helps!

Good luck!
Nancy
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