Knees Down...

My mare drags her knees over a jump...how do I get her to pick them up....

Lots and lots of gymnastics and bounces.

Trotting cavellettis.

Look up some previous posts about how to set them up if you don't know already! Ask if you have any more questions though.

Good luck!

Cross-rails are also a good one. This was she kind of has to pick up her feet, and tuck them in the middle. Hope that helps.

Would try giant cross rails, they worked wonders for my old mare.

I know that this sounds dangerous and I have personally never tried it with any of my horses, but maybe if you try tying some light fishing line or thread above the rail so that if the horse dangles its legs it will hit the string and will be too scared of leg dangling again.......this is sometimes used with water jumps so that horses reach for the back of the fault line.

I would only use it as a last resort, depending on whether the jumps are heigh or not, and only if nothing else seems to work as it can ruin your horses confidence

some how I don't think this is the safest way to train a horse.

This sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, and I do NOT believe anyone should be doing this to "train" their horse to jump "better."

Work on what others have suggested before (gymnastics, caveletti etc) and if that doesn't work, then your horse may not be a jumping horse.
Horses, just like people, have different talents - I've met a few horses that couldn't jump to save their lives (knees hung) but made beautiful dressage horses.
If this horse still hangs its knees after working on some strengthening exercises and bounces and whatnot, please do NOT try the fishing line thing, and maybe consider the fact that this horse wasn't cut out for it... and if you want to jump, perhaps a different horse might be in order.

I don't think it's that drastic that she needs a new horse or disipline, only if the horse doesn't enjoy it, but she didn't say that.

If a horse dangles one leg more than the other you can have a crossrail or vertical and one side [the side with the lower hanging leg] and the horse will have to pick that leg up higher, and equal it out, but don't over do this because then it could go to the other leg and so on! Lol. Othwise a lot of caverletties in a row, not very high just some raised poles not to jump but for higher knees at the trot. And lots of gymnastics. Good luck!

There are 2 aspects in a horse's jumping... 1) they rock back on their hocks and launch their body over the fence with plenty of arc and 2) they lift their legs evenly up high to clear the fence. A naturally talented horse will be able to do both, but you often see an uneducated (or nonathletic) horse do one or the other until they are taught otherwise. Gymnastics (bounces in particular) are one of the best ways to teach a horse how to properly and efficiently use its body over the fences because they don't have the forward momentum to get them over, they must learn to use their body and tuck their legs. The fishing line trick may or may not work, but to me sounds like an accident waiting to happen. Gymnastics (and cavelettis) are safe and effective and teach much more then just lifting up knees.

I wouldn't consider dangling knees as a sign of not being cut out for jumping unless it becomes dangerous or they show other signs of not being talented over fences. There are several jumper trainers I know that actually prefer a low kneed horse that has the scope to get over the fence as long as they don't touch the rails. (in fact, it's much easier to teach horse to lift his knees then to use its body) In fact, I saw a jumper last week with dangling knees jump a 4"6 course and go double clear in a class of over 30 horses.
Rare, but does happen.