From: Jacqui
Dear Jessica, I have read many of your articles but so far have not come across one which cites the basics when educating a young horse to jump. First of all, I have a 14.3hh 4yo purebred crabbet Arabian gelding. I am definitely not jumping him for at least another year, as he is expected to reach 15hh and is experiencing quite slow development at present. I do ride him at the moment though (I'm 5'9" & about 55kg) and I think he's going okay. I was told by his previous owner 1 year ago that he has jumping education (the prev owner was considerably smaller and lighter built than I am). But I have faced him with a trotting pole and he is very shifty at going towards it. His approach is very crooked and he stops and starts and often plain refuses to go over the pole. He often seems confused as to why his crazy new owner is trying to make him walk over poles and this leads me to my question--is it possible that a year out of jumping has caused him to forget. Is it more likely that he never had any jumping training to start with? I am getting very suspicious of his owner, who recently sold all her horses and left the country. If I do find that Shariq (my hores) needs to be retrained for jumping in a few years time, how do you think I should go about it? Being a beginner myself, and having no training experience (my jumping skills are not very elite either) I don't think I should try to train him for fear of making a mistake and causing a bigger problem. Do you think I should have him professionally educated to jump? Shariq is a very calm horse--contrary to the reputation of Arabs, particularly young ones--and I have never had a problem with him. He is quiet and trustworthy and I am very confident on him. Your assistance in this matter would be greatly appreciated, or if not, a simple referral to an article that can give me my desired information would also be very helpful. Cheers, Jacqui
From your description of his reaction to poles, it sounds to me as though your young horse has either no experience whatsoever with poles or jumps. If he had been trained to jump and learned his lessons well, he wouldn't be confused by being asked to walk over poles. If he had been jumped badly or inappropriately, he would probably make a point of avoiding anything that seemed like a jump, including all poles on the ground. What you've described sounds like a young horse reacting to something that is not frightening, but that is entirely unfamiliar.
Be grateful. He's a very young horse, and if he HAD been jumped as a two- or three-year-old, I wouldn't want to bet on his long-term soundness. If you've simply been, let us say, "misled" as to his experience, and he has had no jumping experience at all, that's actually a very good thing. I suggest that you do what I do with every new horse, regardless of its age and (reputed) experience: start him from the ground up and teach him exactly what you want him to know, so that he will do it in the way that you want him to do it. Some horses with "jumping experience" have been taught to run very fast toward an obstacle, lurch over it with the rider waterskiing on the reins, land painfully, and race away - and, as you can imagine, a complete re-education is required if the horse is to learn to jump WELL, that is to say safely, confidently, with pleasure, and in a way that is designed to build him up rather than break him down.
You are very sensible to think in terms of getting help for him and for yourself, and you should indeed put off his jumping education until he is older and more mature, and until both of you are more proficient at your flatwork. You have plenty of time!
You are a lightweight yourself, so your weight should present no problem; in any case, Arabians are well-known for their ability to carry weight, and a Crabbet-bred Arabian should be especially well-built and sturdy (lucky you, to find one!). Your height may be a bit more of a problem over jumps, especially if you have a long torso (no problem if you just have long legs). But that is something you can deal with - there's no reason for you NOT to learn to jump, and there's no reason for your horse not to learn to jump, but I would like to suggest the following course of action:
1. Find a really good, patient instructor who can help you with flatwork - and, eventually, with jumping. The better rider you are on the flat, the easier it will be for you to learn to jump, the more quickly you will become good at it, and the more you will be able to help your horse stay sound and happy.
2. Spend at least the next year focusing on flatwork and on helping your horse develop correctly and become stronger, more supple, and more responsive, whilst you become a more proficient rider. The tie and money involved will be an investment in his soundness, your security, and your mutual future in riding and jumping.
3. When your horse is five, evaluate him carefully and decide whether to begin his jumping education or put it off for another year until he is nearer physical maturity (as you know, I would probably vote for putting it off for another year). At the same time, ask your instructor to evaluate YOU. ;-)
4. Whether you decide to begin his jumping education then or a year later, YOU should learn to jump only when you are in good control of your own body and reasonably proficient on the flat. When you begin learning to jump, you should be taking lessons on another, older, more experienced horse - perhaps one belonging to your instructor. Meanwhile, your instructor can be helping you introduce your young horse to the basics of jumping. The two of you can learn some things together, and then should learn other skills separately, then be re-united by the instructor. On the day when you and your young horse go over your first real jump together, you should have enough experience, and enough confidence in your ability, to at least stay out of his way (if not actually help him).
4. In either case, most his jumping education should be carried out by you and by your instructor, working together. Your instructor may be the one who will ride the horse over his first single jump, his first combination, and his first line, but really, by that time much of the work will already have been done - by you. I cannot stress too much that most of jumping is flatwork. There's an old saying amongst good jumper riders: "Jumping is just dressage over fences", and it's very true. Every bit of flatwork you do will have an effect on his jumping, and a good jumping education begins with 100% flatwork and ends with 90% flatwork!
If you're in any doubt about this, consider the typical jumping round at a competition - there will be somewhere between 10 and 15 jumping efforts, and if you actually count the strides that the horse takes from the time it begins the round to the time it ends it, you will typically see somewhere between 100 and 150 strides, depending on the size of the arena and the layout of the fences. 100 strides, less 10 strides over jumps, leaves 90 strides on the flat.... that's 90% flatwork.
Easy steering, quick, smooth transitions between and within gaits, straightness bend, lateral movement, strength, responsiveness, impulsion, engagement, the ability to lengthen and shorten stride effectively and immediately - all of these things are needed for jumping, and all are created through work on the flat. When you and your horse can do all of this on the flat, jumping will be easy for you both to learn.
There's another matter to consider, as well - a psychological one. When you jump a course, you and your horse are exchanging the role of pilot. On the approach to the fence, YOU are in control. After landing, YOU are in control again until the next fence. From takeoff to landing, though, the HORSE is in control, and your job is to stay in balance and not interfere with the horse. This is much, much more difficult than it sounds. Humans generally want to be DOING something, and learning to be quiet and wait, and learning how and when to hand the controls over to the horse, is an essential part of good jumping. This, too, is something you can learn on the flat, and then practice over jumps, in lessons, on a more experienced horse.
There's so much more to good jumping than just pointing the horse's nose toward a fence and kicking on. Invest some time and effort in finding the right instructor, and then invest some money in lessons, and some more time and effort in good practice between lessons. By the time you and your horse are jumping courses happily, you will both be fit, strong, competent, and confident, and you will have an enormous amount of fun!
Jessica
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