Youngster Rushing Fences

Ah_Yeah

And when I say rushing, I mean charging

This is only a recent thing, pre Christmas she was strong and quite quick to her fences, but nothing like the past week.

She is fine and relaxed on the flat, but as soon as she even gets near a jump (even circling around them) she just throws her head up, crosses her jaw and charges. She bounced a one stride and did a two-strider in one stride today, and she's only 14.2hh! She was bucking on landing so I think it is just purely excitement as she is fine on the flat.

I brought her back to working on the flat, did lots of transitions, changes of reins, circles, and she really settled and came back up under me again. Then start working on bringing her down the side of the arena beside the grid we had set up, and she threw her head up again and charged.

Settled again on the flat and then just worked her over the grid with only poles on the ground, and she was a bit more settled, but still charging a bit.

She is ridden in a Happy Mouth snaffle, and I ride with a very soft contact, lots of half-halts and try to avoid "grabbing" her too much, although it is hard not to! I give her the reins as soon as she settles and when she is settled, she is absolutely fantastic both on the flat and over fences.

She is only a 4yr old, and is quite "antsy" in the arena, so she can get quite worked up if she is not ridden very quietly. We had just gotten to the point where it only took less than 10 minutes to settle her, so I want to try and rectify this immediately!

She has not had a change of feed (in fact, she is only on haylage as she is a good doer, and still quite fat), but it is worth noting she has only been in regular work since November, so I wonder is it a combination of the cold weather and her getting fitter (and possibly cockier?!)

fits

Could be a twinge in her back as well? Does the saddle fit well?

Ah_Yeah

fits wrote: »

Could be a twinge in her back as well? Does the saddle fit well?

Good shout, fits. She's lost some weight since I first got her, so it could be that. Saddle seems to fit ok when I tack her up, but I'll give it a closer inspection. Might even just need re-flocking. Didn't even think of that but it makes sense.

I'll try her in a few different saddles during the week to see if it makes a difference.

Valentina

I would second getting the saddle checked out first. A friend's horse once inexplicably started bucking after fences - turned out the saddle was slipping onto his shoulders on landing and causing him pain.

Ave Sodalis

Once you've gone over all the checks for pain and discomfort, maybe try loose jumping her to see if she's the same then. How often do you jump her? If it is just excitement, maybe make less inviting (which is the opposite that I'd usually recommend for a youngster but maybe!) with fillers and interesting shapes. Try having just one jump in the arena, along the long side so you can concentrate on that jump alone, and not have to think about other fences.

Ah_Yeah

Just an update on this - checked her back and mouth, saddle fitting fine and no wolf teeth!

I spent a good 40 minutes on the flat with her today, transitions, extending/collecting, circling etc.
Then we worked with cavalletti, trotting her down over them, and then finally built up to a fence. Much better this way, no rushing or anything! She just needs more preparation on the flat and over poles before jumping, she hasn't learned how to balance herself yet

monflat

do you jump every day you ride her
maybe alternate it and spend ages working her in on the flat like you said you did today

are you pushed for time each time you ride her?
if so its best to do 20 mins quality work than 50 mins of work with no plan or anything

how often do you ride her 6 days out of 7 with a day off or have you a planed training programme of where you do flat work alternated with jumping and then hacking also ?

Ah_Yeah

monflat wrote: »

do you jump every day you ride her
maybe alternate it and spend ages working her in on the flat like you said you did today

are you pushed for time each time you ride her?
if so its best to do 20 mins quality work than 50 mins of work with no plan or anything

how often do you ride her 6 days out of 7 with a day off or have you a planed training programme of where you do flat work alternated with jumping and then hacking also ?

She usually gets jumped once or twice a week at most, the rest is all flat/polework, and is hacked once a week or fortnightly.

She's still not very fit so she's ridden 5 days a week, daily turnout.
Not pushed for time but I had been riding her in lessons so I think she wound herself up waiting for her turn too!

monflat

ye i think you may be spot on there as i had a similar situation once i had to ditch the riding club lessons as it made the horse anxious

as you were cramming in so much into an hour
that type of lesson is not really horse centered each horse is an individual and its hard to work on specifics to that horse where as a group lesson is about getting something done like jumping a course or a grid

Ah_Yeah

Huge change in her last night, something seemed to click over the last few days! Not all that balanced (we're still working on that), but very settled, even striding into the fences and once even broke back to trot in between them.

Would much rather that than have her tearing around the place