Trying to build width to go with height - advice pls!

Bronya

Bronya

New Member
Jan 17, 2006
1,405
0
0
My girl is very happy jumping 1m-1m5 and will do 1m10 but uprights only. She's never been amazingly keen on spreads, but probably that's my fault as we haven't done a lot. I tried her out today and got about 3 stops in all - mostly due to her trying to speed up to make the width and ending up on funny striding. Anyway, I want to help her both build the right muscles and to build her confidence - grid work has been suggested which I'll do - what else should I do? She jumped a 90cm high 90cm wide triple bar, 1m wide 85 high parallel, and a 'scary' one with a water tray underneath tonight. She's very confident with lower jumps, so will happily do 60cm wide 60cm high, or 70x70.

So any recommendations on grids/heights/other ideas?
 
Id concentrate on small spreads and get her jumping those without any probs before you increase the height. Also try putting a large cross pole as the first part of the spread and a straight bar behind ive always found horses like jumping these as it draws then to the centre of the jump and gives them someting to focus on, and when she get confident over these take away the cross and put up an oxer.
 
start with a spread literlly 10cm wide maybe at 90cm or something, and get someone to make it a few inches wider each time u come round to it so its a gradual thing and you dont seem like your pushing yourself
 
have you tried lunging her over spreads so that she gets use to them then get one was she is confortable in her footing for them.
 
Agree with the above about seeing how she lunges over spreads and watching how she copes with them. Also maybe if she's mixing her striding up use a ground pole when you're jumping her. Agree also with the gradual building of the fence and the width. Just don't push it too much each time and she should become more confident and happier to do them, from what i've been taught spreads are better for horses when jumping than uprights and easier for them.
 
Thanks for all the advice/ideas.

I have free schooled her over spreads, and she adjusts her striding pretty randomly much like she does when I'm on board. She also runs out a LOT and it takes two people to make her jump. Lungeing, she rears up and refuses.

Today we did 2ft3" high, 2ft3" wide, and that was fine - only refusal was when I was a bit asleep approaching the jump. We also did one 3ft high 2ft3" wide which she did first time, no problems. I'll keep practising at these 'till she finds them easy, the way she does uprights, before going higher/wider.

Placing poles are a nightmare with her, she's been known to take off at the placing pole, sometimes clearing it all, sometimes not. I tried them some time ago and even when she used them properly, she didn't learn anything about how to adjust her striding when there wasn't one.
 
I would start by trotting over 4 poles on the ground, then raising the last pole to a cross, then a small upright. I would then canter over 4 poles on the ground, then raise the last pole to a small upright, then a bigger upright. If your girl is happy doing this I would then introduce a small spread, still with the 3 canter poles before the fence. When you make the spread bigger and wider, rest one end of the back pole of the spread on the front pole, so it doesn't look as wide. When she is happy jumping this, put the back pole into the normal position before increasing the width of the spread. I find this way, you are regulating your stride pattern, maintaining a good canter rythym and the poles will help you 'feel' /'see' your stride and hopefully, before you know it, she'll be jumping larger spreads quite happily.
 
What about small gridwork?

You could do a crossrail, one stride, small upright, two stride, oxer. I find this works as a confidence builder, much the same as free-jumping.

If you happen to have free-jumping facilities then this is probably the best way to allow her to 'figure' herself out over an oxer without worrying about the added weight and unbalance caused by a rider. (Jumping through a chute is different than jumping on the line as she's not going in a circle and it requires a little more athleticism, so builds coordination.)

If you can't make a chute then gridwork with you riding is good too, try to just ride through the grid with little interference aside from keeping her going forwards and straight of course.

Ramped oxers are supposed to be the easiest jump for horses, also solid fences (with boxes under them) are easier for a horse to see and judge distance than airy empty fences. Many refusals at these types of fences are brought on by the rider's own concerns about a fence. So keep that in mind too.

I noticed you said she sees the oxer and takes on a bigger stride before which messes up the distance. When approaching the oxer, hold her on a shorter stride to allow her to get to the very base of the oxer, get as close as you can comfortably take her. Distance/approach to an oxer is key, not speed, speed does not necessarily = spread covering power. Encourage short bouncy steps to the fence, which will present her with the shortest and easiest distance to cover the spread. So hold hold hold wait wait wait and support with your legs, don't let her run at it and if you see a long spot, just circle away and come again.

Hope this helps :)
 
If ive got this right, then horses can jump the same width as height, right?

So why not do spreads which are at lower heights, where the width is slightly larger than the height? e.g. 2ft 3 high, 2ft 6 spread?
Surely that will mean that her confidence ove spreads can increase, without worrying about taking out the top of a higher jump, she can just focus upon the width. then the height pressure is minimal, so as she gets better with wider jumps, you can combine that with height (much the way you would if the height was an issue), and then keep building both up?

Thats a purely logistical idea though, not an experience based one by any means :)
 
horses bascule over fences therefore create the rounded shape in the air, to get the width they have to get height too, its more difficult for them to just jump flat across, thats why open water is so hard to jump.

you have to be careful you dont go too wide and not high enough. you'll end up loosing the jump of the horse as naturally to get width they must go high. like others have suggested try grids and also just increase the widths gradually little bit by bit.
 
Horse do not have problems with the spread of the fence, riders do. A horses jump from takeoff to landing will cover approx 12' so a 3 foot spread is hardly going to cause a problem. The problem arrises because the rider thinks the horse has to be going faster or have a longer canter etc so changes the way they approach the fences. This makes it difficult for the horse and results in the problem. Just ride the fornt rail of a spread and let the horse deal with the back rail.
 
Bronya said:
due to her trying to speed up to make the width and ending up on funny striding.
Click to expand...

This sounds more rider error than horse error (I can't stand seeing people say my horse wont do this, cant do this, got that wrong - 99% of the time its down to rider error!)

Sounds like you are running her a little long and flat into a jump with any width to it as YOU feel there is a bit extra effort to be made. Don't change anything about the way you approach it - the collected bouncy canter you use for upright jumps which it seems you are more confident with will work exactly the same - the hrose doens't need speed or length to stretch or reach for the width.

And I'm another who thinks you should drop the height right back - to build up YOUR confidence with jumping a spread/parrellel fence- rather than focusing soleley on the horse.
 
I may be completely wrong here, but when approaching an oxer, surely the horse cannot see the width? The poles are the same height, so surely until they are actually in the air they have no idea it is not an upright? Obviously water jumps are different. If I'm right, then I would have thought your mare would have no reason to refuse them unless you are telling her (subconsciously or not) that something is different? Are you having regular lessons? If so what does you instructor say?
 
The earlier suggestions worked very well :)

Horse is same with or without rider. Rider has no probs jumping a different horse who if anything has done less jumping, at any width - but then that horse is fine loose jumping too. Horses can see the width - because they can see the wings if nothing else!

As said, the early suggestions on this thread worked a treat thanks!
 
re

i have a simple excerise you can try which i use its hard to describe but hear you go take a cross pole and use this as you basis put up 4 jump wings on the diagonal to each other and if you have your crosspole you are litrally picking it up of the floor and tuning it around so one bar goes to one wing and the other bar to the other wing so you creata a sort of star shape with two poles you basically have a flat x in front of you it doesnt seem wide but its a start of and as you get more confident put behind it another bar thats perfectly straight you have a flat cross pole turned into an x shape on your wings with a bar behind it this will encourage centre jumping then you can add fillers underneath to fill the gaps in its a parculiar fence but i find it works as ifs different then when you have mastered it move your cross pole away and add a straight bar to it the x shape must be flat you will probley find that you have to jiggle the heights on the bars and also move the wings around a bit aswell nther thing to bear in mind is at 4ft away from the fence its out of the horse **** the last few strides are on how you ride it be positive and think positive if this doesnt make sense i will take a photo of one tomos and post it up here for you to see what i mean
 
DavidH said:
Horse do not have problems with the spread of the fence, riders do. A horses jump from takeoff to landing will cover approx 12' so a 3 foot spread is hardly going to cause a problem. The problem arrises because the rider thinks the horse has to be going faster or have a longer canter etc so changes the way they approach the fences. This makes it difficult for the horse and results in the problem. Just ride the fornt rail of a spread and let the horse deal with the back rail.
Click to expand...

SPOT ON!

Spreads are to scare the rider not to test the horse. If a horses jumping stride is 12foot then a 3 foot spread is only a quater of that. When coming to a spread ride the same as any other jump dont mess about with strides.

If you make an issue out of it so will the horse and you may get left behind so just start small and build yoursef up because I think its to do with your sicology(sp?) not the horses capabilities.
 
newrider.com
Top Bottom
Back