Green Welsh Cob Mare Jumping Crit!

This is my 10 year old 14.2 black Welsh Cob pony mare, Bliss. She has had really bad back problems so we are not able to jump over 2' right now, but please crit her! You can critique me as well, but I know what most of my faults are(:

She has been out of shape for about 5 years, and had just been started back up in october(by me(: ) so she is slowly gaining muscle.

I think she's really cute:)!

I like her! She's really cute, squares her knees up nice, and I actually perfer a more 'square' hold than a touch-your-belly tight hold, but that varies with different people.

From the angle I can't tell if that little strip above her loins is her back or ground, but from her neck placement I'll go with the benefit of the doubt and say she is pretty well rounded. One thing I see ... she may be overjumping just a tad. But I think if you just keep working with her, she'll pop out of it. Maybe try some gymnastics? Bounces, one strides, you name it, make it fun ;)

I would be werry about the back issues, but im a worrry wort. I would lay off the jumping and just really work with ground poles and cavaletties and a lot of good flat work to really strengthen and build those muscles, then start with small fences. But I don't see anything bad about the picture
Good luck!

Thank you all!
And don't worry, she is clear to jump and we take it easy by doing mainly xrails with some 18" and 2'. :) the chiropractor and my trainer both said she has enough muscle and it's safe to jump. But thank you for your concern! (:

Well, so long as she's given the clear, I would just ... be careful.

I think that bounces would be really good for her overjumping, but I don't think they would be ideal for her back AT ALL. So I would steer clear untill the back problems were completely cleared. Maybe you could start with lines? But big lines - 3 or 4 minumum. I think putting ground poles down for 4 or 5 strides before the jump would be awesome! Just trot everything (trot poles 3 steps apart, 6 steps right before the jump). Start with small jumps, and build up slowly.

Oh I guess I made her back problems seem much worse than they actually are! Right now she is almost duly aligned and has enough muscle to do what I ask.
She over jumped this because I told her firmly to "get" before we jumped it to let her know we had a jump. Thank you for your concern but I would NEVER do anything not in the best interest of my horse.
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