Beginning to Jump... me and the horse

OK... so... I'm not going to do this for a few more months... but I'd like to begin gaining knowledge about it.

I'm wanting to work with one, maybe two of the horses at our stables, and teach them how to jump. Only one of the horses knows how, so I might learn (myself) how to jump on her, but then I'd like to teach a few of the others how. It'll make them more desirable for people who want to ride or own them.

How would I go about it? Do I use rails on the ground to begin? What are some exercizes I can do (with me or with the horse) to help?

Thanks!

I taught my horse's to jump, I don't know if it was the correct way or not, but I think they are both fairly decent at it (my one pony has a lot of natural ability) and definitely enjoy it.

I started with cavaletti's/trotting ground poles to start building muscles (that I think helped with jumping). Then I started with a crossrail and went up from there. I am sure there is a proper way to go about it, but just start going over smaller jumps to see if the horse even likes it and basically to build their confidence/muscles/all that good stuff. Then when the horse and you are comfortable at that height, raise it a bit and start doing some grid work to help the horse out with it's striding/distances/etc.

That's basically how I did it. It doesn't have to be perfecto, learning is a loverly process.

Personally as a trainer I don't think someone who is learning how to jump should be teaching a horse that doesnt know how to jump, to jump.

This can cause a lot of problems in the beginning and in the end

I would recommend either finding a trainer to help you out or even having a friend, or someone from the barn with jumping experience, to give you lessons. Honestly it's very difficult to know when you're doing it right without someone on the ground giving you advice. Especially if you don't have any jumping experience to begin with... There are many things that could go wrong if you tried to do this all by yourself and it could result in injury or complete frustration on both you and the horse's part.

But to begin with you need to be practicing a LOT of work without stirrups to strengthen your legs and also practice your two point position. It would be ideal to be at the point where you could ride through all of the gaits in a solid two point and be able to post well without stirrups before beginning to really jump. This will ensure that you have a solid enough two point and strong enough legs to be totally independent as the horse jumps without yanking on his mouth, getting left behind, or laying on his neck.

Good luck, and please take our advice into consideration.
:]

Thanks for the tips. I really wasn't wanting to go about jumping things like "REAL" jumps, not for competition or anything. Just like things like logs and stuff on the trails. I'd really like to be able to do endurance with this horse I'm going to be working with, so I was wondering about that kind of jumping. Sorry if I might have confused you. Do you still have to go about it the same way?

No matter what kind of jump it is, you still need the same basic skills! In fact, if it's a natural object which isn't collapsible and doesn't have perfect footing around it, you'd better make sure the horse and you can both jump well, because if it goes wrong you're in a lot more trouble.

But green horse + green rider is a bad combination, as you know. I agree with the comments about learning to jump on a horse that can or getting a good jumper to train your horse.

Kk... got it!

I'll probably see if someone could teach me on the horse that already knows how... OR... I might be able to get lessons from another stable (it's about an hour or two away)... like... take lessons every saturday or something. I dunno.

But until I can really get lessons, I won't try jumping. ;)

I would find a trainer to help you and the horses.
PasDeCheval