Rushing Jumps

[MiniThymeAcres]

Hey everyone,

I recently began training Dancer for hunter. She was doing pretty well, but now she is beginning to go too fast for hunter and rush jumps. What should I do to slow her down?

~~Jessica~~

 

[Sanny]

Hey everyone,

I recently began training Dancer for hunter. She was doing pretty well, but now she is beginning to go too fast for hunter and rush jumps. What should I do to slow her down?

~~Jessica~~

Just keep working and give her a little more time. Don't know what jumps you are working her on, but make sure to keep them low until she is more confident and use a ground pole for a visual guide for her and to help keep her pacing. Also try to always work with several jumps set in different patterns so that she slows down a bit and learns to be attentive to ques from you. She is just anxious and eager if it is all new to her and she just needs to build up her confidence. Maybe she just likes to go a little faster though. Some horses do. By the way, I'd say 95% of people showing in hunter feel they need to go at a very slow steady pace like a slow jog, if she likes to go faster you just need to remember what pace you start her at she needs to maintain and keep steady for the entire course. We (well, my husband) won amateur hunter at nationals - both Under AND Over Divisions AND in the Over Division he won reserve champion with the second horse he jumped. He canters the horses in hunter because he (and our particular horses) don't like going slow. At nationals there were only a couple of other people that cantered their horses.....we were one of the families and it certainly didn't hurt us.

I stopped jumping at shows when I got too fat and pregnant and I spent the summer yelling at my husband that he needed to SLOW DOWN to do well in Hunter and I guess he showed me.

 

[shane]

HAVE YOU TRIED USING POLES IN FRONT OF THE JUMPS?? OR GO BACK TO BASICS AND LUNGE IN A CIRCLE TO KEEP CONTROL AND EASE OUT INTO A BIGGER CIRCLE ,ALSOA SERIES OF FENCES AT ABOUT 5 OR 6 FEET APART WILL TEACH HIM TO BEND HIS BACK AND TUCK UP HIS FRONT FEET.THIS EXCERSISE WILL PROBABLY BE OF HELP TO HORSES WHO ARE INCLINED TO TRAIL THERE LEGS OR RUSH.WHEN THEY ARE BEING SCHOOLED AT HOME IT IS QUITE A GOOD IDEA TO PLACE A CAVALLETTI IN FRONT OF EACH JUMP AT ADISTANCE WHICH WILL GIVE ONE CANTER STRIDE FROM A TROTTING APPROACH SO THAT THE HORSE SHOULD BE CIRCLED AT A TROT UNTIL HE IS CALM AND THEN BROUGHT IN OVER THE CAVALLETTI.HE WILL ALWAYS MEET HIS SECOND FENCE CORRECTLY AND CONFIDENCE WILL BE GAINED.HE MAY THEN SETTLE AND LEARN TO JUMP OFF HIS HOCKS AND CEASE TO RUSH OR REFUSE, I HOPE THIS HELPS YOU!!!

 

[Secret22]

What I done with Secret is when he rushed I put trotting 4 trotting poles in front of the jump to make him think and slow down. I also walked him to the jump and when i was 3 strides away I trotted him and then jumped it.

Hope this helps. Let me kow how you get on.

Charlie

 

[Sue_C.]

4 trotting poles in front of the jump to make him think and slow down.

Yup, that'll do!!

: Go back to the basics, same as if it was a riding horse. Trotting poles, and small/low jumps.

 

[MiniThymeAcres]

Thank you, everyone so much for helping me out! I tried one of the suggestions today: I lunged dancer over a very small jump with a pole in front of it and she is already beginning to improve.

 

[jleonard]

I have a quick question that goes along with this topic. What is the distance for troting poles with minis? I have never really thought about how long their stride is. What is the average?

 

[justaboutgeese]

Use a flashing caution light, oh wait thats for cars.

 

[Sue_C.]

Use a flashing caution light, oh wait thats for cars.

:lol: :lol: :lol: