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Emily French
| | Posted on Wednesday, Jun 2, 1999 - 7:22 pm: |   |
I have a 2 year old Azteca filly that has shown on more than one occasion a natural ability to jump, and a general desire to do so. She is at least another 1 1/2 to 2 years from carying a rider yet she is fully ground trained with impecable manners, as well as haveing had a saddle on (she thought it was pretty cool).
I am a western rider but the desire to use this filly for somthing she is breed for makes me want to learn jumping. My question is : What excersises would be good for her now to begin teaching her the skills that she will need. I have readily availible to me an arena & 60ft round pen.
Thanks!
PS- Any good suggestions to make Wranglers stick to one of them funny looking saddles with no horn?!?! ;0)
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Chris Mills
| | Posted on Thursday, Jun 3, 1999 - 10:10 am: | |
The best book for my money on training a jumper is by Bertalan De Nemethy, called The De Nemethy Method.
He trained our Olympic team that was so successful in Montreal.
When you do start to ride this horse, I would wait until it was 4 or 5 before I started introducing anything but ground poles. I tend to be very conservative, but feel the restraint you show early on helps the horse maintain soundness throughout its life.
Now, you could use a couple of ground poles in your round pen to get the horse used to the idea of stepping over something. I'd start with just one, then add a 2nd and a 3rd over several sessions. When you add the 2nd and 3rd, first put them fairly far away (like at 3, 6 and 9 o'clock). This gives the horse plenty of space to coordinate its legs between poles. Then, you can space the ground poles for the horse's stride at a trot and work it. The spacing depends on the horse's size/natural length of stride. Start with just 2 then add the 3rd after the horse does well with 2 for a while.
You can also do some of the TTEAM ground exercises over poles. This includes the labyrinth, L and star. All help the horse develop coordination and awareness of all four legs and build confidence with objects.
Make sure your ground poles are readily visible, bright, colorful. Put plants around, plastic flowers, etc. The more your horse gets used to odd things around, the easier it will be for it to accept the appearance of jumps.
This should keep you busy for awhile. :O) |
Ida
| | Posted on Thursday, Jun 3, 1999 - 11:31 am: | |
Emily: wow, what a nice filly you've got there. A natural jumper doesn't come frequently. Anyways, I have some suggestion... the first one I would like to really emphasize is DON'T OVERJUMP YOUR HORSE AT A YOUNG AGE. I have seen many horses ruined and develop bad habits (mostly refusing and bolting) because their owners are aggressive competitors and believe too much that their horse is meant to jump for them. Take it easy. Some horsepeople will teach their horse to jump like let say when they are 4; and once their horse learns how to jump and seems enthusiastic about it, they will 'shut it off'... no more jumping for that horse... just flat work with poles and hacks. And maybe goes back to improve the jumping once every month.
Chris's idea about pole work is great. I think for a jumper horse, one of the most important thing you must teach your horse is to change the length of her stride when asked to and stay balance. If you want to do hunter, than the first goal will be to teach the horse to go at a regular, even tempo. Both of these skills can be taught by pole or flat work.
I think getting a good trainer will help a lot too.
Good luck!
Ida |
Emily French
| | Posted on Thursday, Jun 3, 1999 - 11:43 am: | |
Thanks Chris! I appreciate someone as conservitive as I am. My filly was born here and she'll be burried here, so I intend to keep her as sound as possible.
Hopfully this will keep her mind active in the mean time and she will stop jumping my pasture fences!!!
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Emily French
| | Posted on Thursday, Jun 3, 1999 - 11:53 am: | |
Ida - She definatly is a neat girl, her jumping antics keep us on our toes around here... She was but a young pup of 14 months when she jumped our back fence and ran about in a residential area eating and pooping on everyones manacured lawn at 10pm..*Sigh*.
I plan to have her xrayed to make sure her bones are closed before we ride her. She is a beautiful buckskin/dun and it would be a waste to ruin her. I look forward to start with these new excercises. We've done similar ones but these shall have a new twist... |
Jill V. Reed
| | Posted on Wednesday, Jun 28, 2000 - 12:51 am: | |
Chris-
Thank you for that VERY helpful advice. I have a 9 year old QH gelding that I'd like to teach to jump (small jumps). But I don't know where to go after the ground pole work. /do you have any suggestions?
Jill |
Christine C. Mills
| | Posted on Wednesday, Jun 28, 2000 - 10:44 am: | |
Jill,
That is where Bert's book is really handy. It helps you set up the horse for success. The idea is that you have ground poles exactly spaced for a working trot with jump standards on either side of the last pole and trot through the grid. When a horse is quiet and straight through this with a rider and doesn't speed up, slow down, stumble, bobble weave, etc., a ground person can then set a small X at the end - the exercise is just the same but the horse trots the X. Over time, there is a progression of difficulty that teaches the horse what it can do and helps it to learn distances, etc. Bert's method is outlined nicely with grids, distances, progression etc. in his book.
Plus, he discusses all the flat work necessary to support the jumping.
Since he wrote a whole book on it, I really can't be complete enough in a post, :O) |
Elizabeth Jopp
| | Posted on Wednesday, Jun 28, 2000 - 1:15 pm: | |
Hello Emily or should I say fellow convert.
I started riding English/Jumpers 3 years ago after riding western for 14 years. My suggestion, take lots of jumping lessons on a horse that is not your horse! I have found that I need a whole set of upper body muscles and flexibility that I never needed with a western horse. Good Luck.
Liz. |
Heidi Cross
| | Posted on Thursday, Jun 29, 2000 - 2:45 am: | |
Agreed w/ Liz. Learn to jump on a horse that already knows the ropes. It takes practice to get the correct postion over fences. Another excellent book is Anne Kursinki's new book. It is available thru Amazon.com. It is very thoughtful and planned out in stages. Beginning w/ the importance of solid flatwork, to groundpoles, cavalletti, cross rails, and on up. A great book for anyone serious about training hunters or jumpers. :) |
Helen Weedon
| | Posted on Thursday, Jun 29, 2000 - 9:50 am: | |
How to teach a yougster to go from ground poles to a tiny jump - easy! Practice cantering over the ground poles (approx 9 feet apart) for a bit because a jump is only a canter stride that leaves the ground really. Then go back to a line of trot poles with a little cross pole jump 9 feet away from the last trot pole. This will put the horse in just the right place to take off for the jump which is better for the rider too. As with the other comments - DON'T OVERDO IT. Let your youngster see jumping as fun. Rather than raise the height of the jumps as you both get better and more experienced, widen them a bit and introduce fillers such as traffic cones, oil cans, a pole with a coat or blanket draped over it, anything your imagination can come up with that is safe to use so that your youngster becomes familiar with scary things. Aim for straightness and calmness at all times and keep things low so that the horse can just step over the jump if your approach goes wrong. Don't allow the horse to turn away or stop - she must go forward and over even if you both have to sit there all day until she does. |
Laurie-Ann
Member
Username: Maggienm
Post Number: 5
Registered: 2-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, Apr 6, 2004 - 9:38 am: | |
Hi, Concerning a young horse, just how much work is too much? Twice a week on soft ground of walking and some jogging(not flat out trotting)on a 2 1/2yr old? Perhaps 45 min ea time? Perhaps an occasional longer trail ride of hr 1/2?
You always hear not too much but how much is too much? I know the concern is cartilage damage but does legging up help? Thanks |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM
Moderator
Username: Dro
Post Number: 10232
Registered: 1-1997
| | Posted on Thursday, Apr 8, 2004 - 12:22 pm: | |
There is much controversy and debate on this issue Laurie-Ann and you see recommendations that horses should not be ridden until they are 5 or 6 years of age. There is really very little scientific information to guide us but centuries of experience. At this time I don't see anything wrong with that amount of work in a well developed horse of that age.
DrO |
Sylvia Pemberton
Member
Username: Sylvy
Post Number: 15
Registered: 4-2005
| | Posted on Monday, Nov 21, 2005 - 3:07 pm: | |
4 year old registered quarterhorse 14.1h filly, green broke with some trailriding, quite well balanced. Started over ground poles, and small jumps What sort of schedule should we proceed with to turn her into a hunter jumper without jeopardizing soundness? Thanks in advance for any advice. |
Sarah Blanchard
Member
Username: Sarahb47
Post Number: 8
Registered: 4-2005
| | Posted on Monday, Nov 21, 2005 - 3:44 pm: | |
Concentrate on small gymnastics with CORRECTLY SPACED elements to improve her balance, rhythm and judgment. (Spacing is described in many books, including Micklems Complete Horse Riding Manual as well as deNemethy's book mentioned below. Bounces, one-strides and two-strides, with crossrails, verticals and oxers, are all important. Then keep the jumps low but introduce her to as many varieties of jumps as possible -- walls, boxes, offset oxers (no square oxers until she's fairly advanced!). Turns, bending lines, adjustment of striding between fences -- all are important.
A good book is "100 Jumping Exercises", compiled from a number of top hunter and jumper riders' favorite exercises. The first 25 exercises are just poles on the ground, to help your horse understand striding, ryhthm, distances and balanced turns. Jumping is 90% flatwork, so the basics of stride adjustments, pace and bending must be firmly established to create a confident, responsive jumper.
Don't rush the height -- get her really confirmed at 12", 18", 24" before you go any further. And don't overjump her! Twenty fences per session, twice a week, is plenty for a youngster. The rest of the time, work on the ground pole exercises and flatwork. Think of it this way: Your horse has a certain number of "jumps" in her before something breaks down. You don't know that number, and you don't want to find out. Automotive engineers know how many times they can open and close a certain model's door before the door falls off; but each horse is unique, and we can't test the mechanisms until it breaks just to find out how long it will last.
Stick with little jumps, build her confidence, and keep her relaxed and eager. take the jumping outside the arena, too -- hopping down a bank or popping over a log on the trail is a good way to keep her fresh and keep her enjoying the training process.
Sarah |
Sylvia Pemberton
Member
Username: Sylvy
Post Number: 17
Registered: 4-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, Dec 6, 2005 - 2:13 pm: | |
Thanks Sarah. Our little quarterhorse is doing great! She loves to jump and is proving to be very smart. Not bad for a throw away horse sent to an auction eh!! |
