Improving Her Confidence

Well my confidence has improved (YAY), so 2' doesn't seem like a lo anymore but now the horse I'm working with, she has confidence issues.

For most of the last part of summer, I've been working her consistantly over 15"-18" jumps, crossrails, boxes, verticals, oxers. Well she had her first English lesson EVER and she balked on the 21" cross rail. It was her biggest crossrail. We went over it twice and then decided to knock it down =D

Terminator (the mare's name), is a great little jumper. She's got great knees and loves her 18" crossrails. But I want her to gain more confidence over jumps so I'm just wondering the best way to do that.

I've never relly progressed a horse over jumps too much. I more or less train them in the basics and then my sister ends up riding them and teaching them to jump. (Except Goose but he flew over jumps... he loved them).

So I'm just asking for advice, just to make sure. I don't want to ruin my poor girl.

I rode a little pony that was semi-new to jumping and I'm riding another now that hadn't been jumped in around 10 years or more. For us it's just practice, practice, practice and telling them it's okay. :)

Ok, thanks.

I'm forgetful tonight because I have more to add =D

I also want to teach her how to judge her jumps better and to get a better striding. We normally trot jumps but I want to be able to canter them. But I don't want to do the trial and error way and maybe end up messing poor Terminator up... So any ideas there would be helpful too <3

Ive ridden horse that get really really upset if they think theyre doing it wrong,and they panick and get flustered and then we have no hope of doing anything. Im not sure if your mare is the same as mine, but in every little thing she does I say: good girl! And really comfort her. If she's new with jumping maybe try free jumping her??? I think it might help her find her balance and get more comfortable with going over the jumpes, without a rider on her back. Once she is more confident in herself then maybe try a few grids, I've heard those are supposed to help with the horse and riders timing, control and strides. Haha im a dressage rider, used to be hunter, so I don't really know that much, but those are just some exercises that I learned when I did jump :P hope this helped!!Celebrity Jumping Exercises - Google Books I thought this was really good and mmight help you

If you want to teach her proper striding, you need to set her up for success. With the help of a person on the ground, determine what her current canter stride is, and use it to set up a gymnastic that lets her use herself over the jumps while you the rider goes along for the ride and stays out of the way. To a young horse, a jump all by itself can be very daunting. She has to figure out where to take off with no frame of reference since the jump is out there by itself. It's like giving someone directions without landmarks. They're driving down the street wondering where the turn is and all of a sudden it's there and they blow past it since they weren't ready for it. If you set her up with a ground pole to a cross rail and then another one or two strides to another crossrail, the correct striding is already set up for her. There's no getting there too early or too deep, so it builds confidence more quickly. Most horses find grids to be very fun, so hopefully she will too.

I would set up some gymnastic lines and let her go over and over and over them until they were not a big deal. Miles and miles is the only thing that will help her

What would the best gymnastics be? I know how to set them up but would a five jumps bounce work as well as like a three jump one stride to a two stride?

i personally like doing trot poles [3-5] to a cross rail, one stride, two stride

If there is enough room I add another jump a few strides away

Also, bounces are amazing for building strength