Training Stubborn Gelding to Jump!!

But refusals occur through the riders error in their form.

They look at the fence
They drop their head
They drop their shoulders
They lurch ahead
They drop their horse
They stop riding with their legs
They stop driving through their seat
Their upper body leans forward

Horses jump blindly. They cannot see the fence at all when they are 2/3 strides away from it. When they are on approach to the next fence from landing - the fence is in 2's through their vision.

They need the riders seat, legs, hands, eyes to guide them in the right direction

Then as they get closer, the fence merges from 2, to 1. Now they are locked on the fence. They see it, it is in their head. This is where the distance and the height gets locked in.

Now the riders job becomes that much more important. This is where the rider needs to be tall. This is where the rider needs to not be looking at the fence. This is where the riders seat must be driving, legs wrapped around girth aiding the seat and keeping the impulsion. The riders hands must be carried and supportive. This is where the rider must be behind their horse, with the knowedge and the positivity that they are going to get over.

Now that the horse is 2/3 strides from that fence, they cannot see it. That is why the riders job must be 100% sure. They now turn to their rider for the "YES WE ARE" through their form, aids, eyes.

If the rider, at all - fails in this in any way, big or little - the horse will stop.

Not all horses. There are horses out there who know their job and do it regardless of the countless errors their riders commit on approach to the fence. But there are others out there, who will not.

My TB Gelding, will stop dead in his tracks if I take my leg off him, or if I drop my shoulders.

Top Level riders, from GP to Olympic. Many Trainers - all stress 99% of refusals, faults, veers - are rider error - whether they know it or not.

It also has to do with tone of voice, it's much easier to say 'good boy!' in a positive tone than it is to say 'stupid horse!' They can also learn words like other peoples said. My horse knows when I call her a certain bad word that it's a not so nice word and gets very upset with me.

MIEventer, you make a great point. A pony I've trained will give you two mess ups when it comes to jumping, but the third time, she lets you fall. She picks her head up to keep you on and drops it to let you fall. Some of the kids don't understand that when they freak out about going over a crossrail with flowers that the horse immediately assumes something is scary about it.

Folks, I experienced a potentially dangerous situation with my own horse DiDi last night. In the stable of all places. After thinking about the train of events for 24 hours I realize that I had shouted at DiDi in her stable. It was involuntary, I don't know what I called out - all I know is that they heard my shout across the yard. I checked this morning.

What had happened was that my sub concious brain - that's the operating system which makes all the muscles and ligaments work before our concious brain has had time to think - had had a panic attack - we older folks are prone to those. That part of my brain I have little control over - it comes into operation before I can even think of calling out and certainly before I have worked out what to do in a given scenario. It is all part of the human survival mechanism.

So I had shouted and I don't actually remember shouting. Mea culpa.

But it was that shout of mine which provoked an already frightened horse
into running around within her stable. DiDi had started the incident off but I compounded it. To even raise my voice was inexcusable - regardless of the words which I spoke.

Luckily nothing serious happened, Neither I nor DiDi was hurt. I stood and calmed her down. We parted good friends.

But I must be very very careful next time I dismount from her, I must always close her stable door after her leaving it and I must think carefully of where I chose to dismount from her - never again in front of her stable. Otherwise if it all happens again, DiDi will get the idea that it is always going to happen. Then I will have a real problem.

I shall write the incident up. But I don't know why DiDi did what she did to set the incident off. I have to learn from that experience and I have to make sure I don't make the same mistake again. Similarly DiDi has to learn something - but exactly what I am not yet sure?

One thing I do know, one never ever shouts at a frightened horse nor does one chastise it in any way. Even if one has a ultra protective sub concious brain. One must somehow suppress one's own fears and one's instinctive angers. The horse needs calming down - and that's the rider's immediate job. Otherwise only too soon, the horse will refuse to work with you.

If Eldorado refuses to jump a mini fence, then there is a reason.
Are you absolutely sure you did not provoke the refusal?
Is there an incident now firmly embedded in Eldorado's mind that makes him fear a small fence???

Once you think you understand the problem, then you can start to try to rectify it.

Do you get my drift?
Barry G

Me too!!