Gaited Horse Jumping #3 -- Terrible Courses

Ever think your jumper is the worse thing to ever knock a rail? Don't worry. I work hard to suck this badly so you don't have to. Pet your horse and be glad they're at least better than mine.

Ideally, we would like to suck less. Tips? Comments? I love advice and will try hard to get better, promise.

My trainer and mother are talking. Sorry 'bout that.

First tip be more positive about yourself!! I think your probably saying that in a joking silly way but still your doing just fine :) . The videos arnt super clear but your horse is beautiful and if most people went to jump horses in a open type area they would miss or plow threw the jumps so good job.

PS I LOVE your moms accent and your coaches way of coaching, a fun teaching method but still teaching

The whole thing looks painfully rushed. The trot, albeit a smooth trot, seems strung out. Her canter is also rushed and her jumping looks anxious. I know nothing about jumping a gaited horse. Maybe whatever you two are doing in these videos is exactly how you ride a gaited horse to a fence... but for my eye, i'd rather see a calm, collected, and keen jumping effort.

McKellar:

Ha ha, thanks! My coach is cool. She deals with me very well!

Oxer:

It is WAY too fast, not going to disagree. I'd rather it be calm and collected too. The weird thing is it doesn't feel fast when I ride, so I when I saw this video, I was like, "Whoa. That looks crazy." I'm not too terribly sure how to approch the calm aspect. She isn't actually hot or even excited. She's super lazy over fences (she wanted to stop and walk after every fence), so her mind is in the right place. She's just fast. Her natural, prefered canter and gait are fast. It's just how she moves.

Meh. :/ I wish I knew what I'm suppose to be expecting. There isn't really a tried and true way to jump a gaited horse since I'm the only one who seems to do it...

Any more comments?

I guess I'm curious as to why you're attempting to jump a gaited horse, something they're not terribly well suited for?

Why not enjoy THIS horse doing what he does best, and if you truly want to learn to jump, that lessons on something more suitable or even lease something?

A general observation is that horses get quick and rapid when they get anxious. I'm wondering if some of this horse's speed isn't because she's anxious because she doesn't understand what's expected of her? Isn't asking her for a slow, steady gait at the trot pretty much the opposite of what a gaited horse is usually asked to do?

Did you start jumping her using cavaletti, crossrails and gymnastics? Might be wide to go back to that for a while. And if you are going to jump single fences or courses, I would highly recommend ground lines on *everything*, rolled out from the base of the fence to help her out.

Maura:


We jump purely for cross training. She's an endurance horse. We do a ton of conditioning on trails, to the point of trails starting to become too much like work. It gets boring and doesn't work her brain. Occasional arena work mixes it up (for her and me!), is great cardio, and uses different muscle groups.

Her racking gait is suppose to be performed quickly, with energy and rapid footfalls; while trotting is suppose to be slower, steadier, and with a long, flowy stride. I COULD trot her if that would be better. She's trained to trot and gait.

You're probably right, on that she doesn't know she's suppose to canter slowly. Not sure what to do about that... I've been working on transitions, and that's slowed it down a bit.

We did gymnastics and trot poles to start out. I wouldn't mind going back to those for a while. This is only our second time doing courses, so going back to the basics wouldn't hurt my pride too much.

I know nothing about gaited horses so found the last comment from you quite interesting :) ..

Id be inclined to do more grid work until you get her into a comfortable pace (Whatever that is for gaited horses) as she does look like she's a little worried still... but the more you do it the better shell get

Do you jump natural jumps and stuff out on the trails

She's a beautiful horse :)

Whats a racking gait..?

To quote your signature "The reason people give up is because they don't see how far they're come. Only how far they're got left to go. Put some distance between Point A and Point Whatever, look back, and enjoy the view."

We have a few gaited horses that jump. One is really terrible at it. One is ok, and one would love nothing more than to jump, jump, JUMP!! For that last one, we slow down, do a true trot, and trot to the jumps until she will jump them and come down without an increase in speed. Once she'll do that, we begin cantering. If it doesn't FEEL like rushing to you, I would possibly say to space the jumps that are in sequence a little bit farther apart so that you (and she/he?) have time to regroup between them for now. If you're planning to canter between, figure out how long the horse's stride is, and add 2 strides between the jumps, once you've gotten that down, shorten the distance by 1 stride, and when that's good, shorten one more. :)

If you're planning to trot between, make sure that you can maintain a steady trot, one jump at a time, before you add a second jump in sequence.

Most of all, have fun and feel safe!

Jody:


Grid work for sure! And thank you! A lot of days I think she'd make a pretty rug on my hearth. We jump on the trail all the time. We'd been jumping logs, ditches, and creeks long before we saw our first stadium jump. If she weren't gaited, we'd be eventers for sure.

A rack is a type of gait. Baby Girl does either a rack or a stepped pace (another type of gait) depending on her mood. Gaited horses usually have several middle gaits to choose from and will do all of them if you don't insist on one.


Calicokatt:


We could do that. I'll ask the trainer to set up more of a hunter-y course to give us from straight lines to re-collect on. Next time we do courses again (after some more grids), I'll see if I can get her to quietly hard trot before trying to canter away again.