Tips for slowing down enthusiastic jumper

[Max's Mom]

Max is a very enthusiastic and speedy jumper. He gets going and if he had his way he would canter full speed through the course. But charging the jumps is obviously not a good thing for hunter, and frankly it gets hard to keep up with him. I can slow him down easier than my daughter can, simply because I weigh more, but even so he often gets ahead of me after the jump. We've done work with setting up trotting poles before and after jumps, which keeps him from charging or taking off afterwards. But, of course that is not how it is at a show! We taught him "gee" which helps in making right hand turns.

He is 19, and this is his personality. He has energy and likes to go. He has generally good ground manners and we do fine with obstacle. I think he just gets excited and wound up when he jumps, especially in a show setting. At least we know that he enjoys it...

Any suggestions? I don't know about using a chain or other device for better control. What has worked for you?

 

[amysue]

My Bond bred stallion "Blue" loves jumping and competed as a youngster. As he aged, his enthusiasm did not slow but his ability to keep up did so we began doing hunter rather than jumper. It was a good fit for him....accept for the speed thing. To teach him to maintain a steady pace we began schooling him in a snaffle bit and bridle with driving reins over poles, then cavaletti. It allowed us to essentially teach him a "half-hault" like saddle horses do to maintain control. We taught him to associate the word "easy" with half haulting as "whoa" in my barn means stop NOW. So by gradully teaching him to slow down and take his time over fences he became more pleasant to run over fences.

 

[targetsmom]

We have one that does this and our approach is a bit different. His "reward" is to be allowed to jump, so as long as he trots along nicely, he can go over a jump, but if he starts to rush, he is either stopped or led around the jump. I would never do this in normal training but only for one whose reward is the jump!! He was entered in the on-line hunter class I mentioned on another post and he rushed the jumps - and hit one - so he didn't place very well. He did great in jumper in Pinto though, several years ago, and with a young, long-legged handler!

Here is a video of him with a 4-Her (from the on-line show): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuUbou_3h44

 

[fourluckyhorseshoes]

How is he when you lead him? I would practice trotting on a lead rope without the jumps. If he is rushing or running in front of you gently jerk the lead and say "easy." I have a gelding that also gets excited over jumps and this helps him. I find that once I practice a bit he will slow down.

 

[Max's Mom]

He leads well and we have worked at trotting at our speed. He does pretty well until he starts jumping. Then it all falls apart!

 

[minihorsecwgrl]

I have had the same problem with minis I have taught to jump. You can try something that I call the slowmotion attempt. Set up a course of ground poles, walk him through the course as if you were running a show course, don't go any faster then a walk. Once he can handle himself at the walk try it again, but this time you will walk to each pole and trot him about 2 steps from the pole, then back to the walk after the jump. Continue this until he gets the idea of slowing down. Then you can trot the ground pole course. once he seems to get the idea then raise it up a few inches and start with the walk again, etc.! Don't get frustrated! The more frustration you show, the more frustration the horse is going to show, which isn't going to get anyone anywhere! I hope this help you and your daughter gets to show him !!!

 

[sfmini]

With the full sized horses, we would put a cavaletti just before the jumps to make them look and slow down a bit before the main jump. Somethimes a ground pole was used instead, or a set of ground poles.

 

[Max's Mom]

Thanks for your good thoughts and suggestions! This week we've been working on Minihorsecowgirl's suggestion of the "slowmotion attempt" and I think it has been helpful. Sometimes the best thing is just to go back to the very beginning! Work on jumping a course of 6- 12 inch jumps calmy and in control before moving up. It is kind of funny, as Max mostly just steps or trots over them, but hopefully he will learn to slow down as he is rewarded with great praise for not rushing.,

 

[wingnut]

Last year, when starting our training with my then 4 yr olds for hunter, we were getting a lot of refusals and a lot of pushing around the standards. This was especially a problem for my young friend (11 then, now 12) who was outweighed by at least 100lbs. While watching her, I had a brainstorm. I grabbed a second lead and put a lead on each side ring of her halter and then we went over the course *together*. This kept the horse from pushing or trying to go around a jump or throwing themselves into the handler. It also taught them to jump over the center of the jump (before I knew to cross the jump to give them something to aim for). It was amazing how quickly they realized we had outsmarted them and they simply started doing what we asked instead of what they wanted. Any time I see them getting the idea of "misbehaving" we simply grab up a second lead and remind them who is the leader and who is not!

 

[horsefeather]

Another method of keeping your horse at the jump....several years ago we were teaching a young boy how to jump the horses over jumps. He kept doing 2 things wrong..he would look back at the horse as he began to jump & he would pull the horse toward him by not letting him have enough lead line. We worked on both, he got better at not looking back, but we just couldn't break him to let the line slip thru his hand. So...we got a piece of pvc pipe, ran the rope thru it and tied a knot on the end of the pvc he was holding. It worked perfectly! He was able to control the horse better also. Eventually we just tied a know in the rope and he knew he had to slid to that knot at every jump.

Pam

 

[poniesrule]

Another thing that has worked for me is stopping after the jump & resting for a beat before going to another. I have a 29" guy who is extremely pushy because he just wants to get done with the course! jump, stop, walk, trot, jump, stop has helped him. Also walking & trotting serpentines & circles both ways.

 

[FurstPlaceMiniatures]

I would set the jumps low, trot up to, walk over, then trot off them. There are a few reasons horses rush, but the two big ones are a lack of confidence and improper striding.

I would only do low and slow courses with him. Make it so he doesn't have to go fast or even think he has to go fast to get over. Plenty a good horse has been ruined by jumping too high too soon. None have been ruined staying too low too long.

Another reason they rush is because they don't see the striding or you don't set them up for proper striding. Lunge him over fences a lot. Small fences that is. Let him find the distances without him having to wory about a handler. It makes me sick to see some 'courses' or 'lines' set up for minis that are just randomly slapped together with no distances calculated. Start with one fence. Build up to 2 or 3 or even a bounce with distances calculated. A ground pole

In front of the jump for him to step over before he jumps can help him to see the distance too. Stride it out for your individual horse and try that as well.

Read some hunter material or have a hunter coach help you. I rode 3'9" equitation, hunters, and jumpers on the a rated circuit with a lot of success before minis. Anything George Morris has published is pretty much the hunter jumper

Bible. His resources would be a good place to start for horsemen of any level looking to tune up their jumping!

 

[Max's Mom]

Thanks for the great advice! We've had some success with the slow it down method and lower jumps. And you really can't go wrong with George Morris! Our horse is older (19) and I think his issue is less about not being confident and more about his forward moving, somewhat hot temperament and our need to TRAIN him to do what we want. He does a lot of things, and we are super proud of him, but with everything we've done it has required patience and gentle but firm handling and taking our time to do it right.