Teach Your Horse to be a Confident, Safe Jumper

While we may never really know what gives some horses that special quality of heart, it is not a mystery how the all too common problems in jumping develop, and, fortunately, they can be both prevented or retrained through correct work.

A horse and rider are cantering around a jump course when, at the third fence, a sizeable oxer, the horse stops short in the last stride. The rider gets thrown up the horse’s neck, pushes herself back, and then holding the horse in front of the jump, gives him a loud “thwack” with the crop.

They turn away, canter around, and approach the jump a second time. Once again, the horse hits the brakes in the last stride. This time, as the rider fights to regain their balance, the horse jumps quickly to the side, but the rider once again pulls them around back to the base of the jump and punishes the refusal with a smack of her crop.

Once again, they pick up the canter to make another approach. As they straighten out in the approach, the horse starts to rush forward, now anxious about the jump ahead. In the last stride, he stops and quickly leaps out to one side, getting away from the space in front of that fence as quickly as possible.

While the rider was attempting to punish the horse for stopping, can you recognize what really happened?

The horse was lacking the confidence, and perhaps the balance in his approach to jump, so he stopped, but because of the use of the crop, he associated being in front of the jump with being hit, so became anxious about the approach and learned to quickly run out to avoid the smack of the whip.

Many horses develop problems in jumping because they are pushed too fast in their early training. They develop habits such as rushing, stopping, or running out as a result of a lack of confidence around jumping.

Unfortunately, in an attempt to solve the problem, many riders, such as the one in the example above, inadvertently make it worse.

The amount of physical learning that is needed for a horse to jump confidently is underestimated.

Many horses are started over jumps by being pointed at obstacles and expected to leap. The result is that every approach will be slightly different, not providing the horse an opportunity for trial and error learning of how to use his body correctly from take off through to landing.

As long as the horse continues to go, the height is raised and courses are built.

The margin for error becomes smaller as the horse has never learned how to jump out of bad spots when he gets in too tight or doesn’t have enough impulsion in the approach.

As a result, the horse’s confidence can plummet when he has an accident, or a pattern can begin when he stops or ducks out, unable to jump out of a bad spot or a poor balance.

A horse who lacks confidence over jumps will also tend to rush, running forward due to a combination of anxiety and poor balance.

The more the rider attempts to hold the horse back, the more compromised the jump can become, as the horse approaches with too much weight on the forehand, and is unable to reach with their neck, and use their body effectively during the jump.

The key to building skills, confidence, and perhaps even the heart of a jumper, is to build exercises that set up the same approach to the jump each time.

As the horse’s confidence grows, the exercises are expanded and changed, to teach the horse how to adjust their stride, reach with their neck, and round their back over the jumps.

Through the grid work, the horse learns how to use their body, how to jump out of different distances, and they develop the strength and coordination necessary to handle longer courses.

In this kind of jump training, the horse is able to develop confidence, due to the exercises setting them up for success, and for learning to jump without being micromanaged by the rider.

These exercises are important not only for the young horse learning to jump, but also for the horse who needs to be retrained for jumping.

Specific exercises can help the horse learn to jump with confidence again and perhaps rebuild the heart and spirit they once had.

I would like to invite you to join me in the new online course Building the Showjumper with Angelo Telatin.

In this course you will learn the psychology of training a showjumper, and get exercises to practice groundwork preparation all the way through building and riding courses, creating confidence, correcting problems, or preventing future problems from ever developing!

Many horses develop problems in jumping because they are pushed too fast in their early training. They develop habits such as rushing, stopping, or running out as a result of a lack of confidence around jumping.

Learn to rebuild your horse’s confidence through the progression of exercises with Angelo Telatin in Building the Showjumper.

In this Course you will learn:

• To retrain bad habits such as refusals, run-outs and rushing
• How to calm the anxious horse who rushes
• The training of a young horse who has never jumped before
• Why investigative behavior should be allowed, even in the last few strides before the jump
• How to train your horse to jump from any distance

Whether you want a confident, responsive horse for the showjumping course, a steady, even rhythm for the hunter ring, or just to jump a few crossrails in the arena or logs out on the trail for fun, this course with Angelo will improve both you and your horse.