[Roleysnewmom]

So Roley is pretty new to jumping.. I've only had him for 4 months now, and the lady I bought him from said he had jumped before but that he ALWAYS ran out on the jumps so she stopped jumping him. (great idea right?! ) So I knew we had to bo back to basics and really boost his confidence to get him comfortably back into the hang of jumping over things.

He's coming along well, we're taking it verry slow and have been jumping about 18" pretty steadily. Since the hieght is so short I prefer to trot him over the jumps as it helps him maintain his mind and not freak out and dodge the jump at a canter. What I've noticed that kind of annoys me is that he will actually jump the poles with his front half but then just trots over them with his back half. Is this pretty common? We're going at a pretty swift working trot and still he trots the back half over. Now, this doesn't happy ALL the time, usually about 25%, so I know he CAN do it right. What can I do to get him to pick up his back end without pushing him into a trot that would be just as fast as a canter? (he's a NSH who's not gaited, but he has a strange very swift trot just beyond the working trot if I ask for it)

He has done all the jumps fine at canter, (a little higher run out rate) but I'd prefer to stick to the trot till he's perfected it, and it helps my riding and timing better when we trot the jumps anyway.

Any suggestions? I'm kind of mad at myself for doing so much work with ground poles before asking for an actual jump, I feel like he's so comfortable just trotting any jump that that's all he thinks I want. Ugh!

Thanks in advance!

[Roleysnewmom]

ten lookers no leavers?

[PizzazzandMe]

Well, an 18" jump is barely more than a ground pole to him. Once you get up to 2' he should start actually jumping it more.

[Taxi Jumper]

I'd let it go. The jumps aren't high enough for him to really make an effort over and a lot of horses would trot over it without even jumping with the front end. I don't think it's a bad thing, I'd prefer it to flipping out.

I would make sure you don't have a too fast trot going up to the jump. A slowish trot with enough impulsion to get him over them, rather than 'rushing' at the trot.

Chances are when you do higher fences he will stop trotting with his back end, and actually use it.

I am glad you are taking it slow with him, that is the best way to go

As for his frea.king out about jumping have you tried doing canter work with ground poles/cavaletti? That is something that was beneficial to my rushing horse. I'd also recommend grid work.

[Roleysnewmom]

Good to know.. I just didn't want to be accused of making things higher to fix lower problems, but sounds like this really isn't a problem, he's just being as lazy as the jumps call for. I HAVE tried working with grids, and it's strange to me that they don't really help him. He seems so focused on the poles on the ground that he forgets he's got the jump in front of him and most of the time they result in horrid jump departures. Maybe I'm setting them at the wrong lengths.. Is there a general rule for how far apart poles need to be for grids?

Another question; Is it acceptable to use a round pen when lungeing over jumps? I feel like the wide open area of our arena would be too tempting for him to dodge around a jump while lungeing. But if I just put up one jump in our round pen (60' I believe) would that be okay?

[KayCee_Lady]

I've used pens to lunge over fences, but you are kinda limited to one fence, and not a high one. Another option would be to create a shoot so that he can't dodge out of the fences in the arena.

It sounds like you did alot of work over poles before... but did you do a lot poles in a row... you could try that and then raise some of them to make a bounce or one stride grid.

This website has excellent grid work and distances labeled...

http://books.google.com/books?id=1j3...tances&f=false

[farmeress]

I tend to find when a horse is jumping in the front and trotting in the hind...height is not the issue.

It is the "distance" to which the fence/cavelletti has been taken at...often...it is an added half stride or one single tempo step that has the horse come close to the base and need to "pop" his front legs up and out of the way or risk hitting the pole while the hind end is still capable of trotting..just with a bit more lift.