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Jul. 10th, 2009 10:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickI got two books on teaching horses to jump in the mail today -- both look to be pretty helpful, with diagrams and exercises and stuff to, indeed, try this at home. From the happy advice offered in the books, the basic idea here is to set the horse up with simple, structured problems that progress from easy to more difficult so that the horse kind of figures it out on his/her own.
Right now, we've mastered trotting over four equally-spaced ground poles, in rhythm. We can also shorten or lengthen trot stride to work around poles spaced on an arc, at different points of the arc. Trot poles on the ground hold very little interest for us at this point though we still review them as part of our warm-up exercises. (Raised trot poles may yet hold some interest but I need something to make raised trot poles with before I can figure this out.) We can jump a simple vertical up to about 18" high (or 20" high -- measurement is not exact) with one rail and a ground line. Horse jumps happily and confidently over this vertical without even wobbling very much on approach, lands into a relaxed canter. We're still trotting up to the first jump at this point, for better control.
That's the story so far. Today, I tried a new thing, cross rail to about 14" and then a 12' space to an 18" vertical. The first time I tried her at this combination, she coasted to a stop, walked (messily) over the cross rail (on new standards -- there was eyeballing involved) and then jumped the vertical from a walk. I dismounted and reset the jumps because I'm not professional enough to have a grounds person to save me and put stuff back together after I bust it up. I hopped back on and gave it another whirl.
The second time around, she jumped the first jump, landed and did one stride and jumped the second jump, like she'd been doing it for years. These are still, yes, very small jumps, but now there is one jump and then a stride and then another jump right away. It's complicated, compared to being run at one single low jump. I tried her two more times with the combo and she did a fine job so then I went and did other things for a while. I hit her once more over the jumps before heading back to the barn and she nailed it again. Nick is fairly bright and may become a technically competent jumper. I don't know what she looks like from the ground, but she is smart enough to think her way around these problems and she appears to be enjoying them so far.
I'm building confidence at this point, trying not to bore her or wear her out or overdo this stuff. Small steps, careful progression and all that.
Right now, we've mastered trotting over four equally-spaced ground poles, in rhythm. We can also shorten or lengthen trot stride to work around poles spaced on an arc, at different points of the arc. Trot poles on the ground hold very little interest for us at this point though we still review them as part of our warm-up exercises. (Raised trot poles may yet hold some interest but I need something to make raised trot poles with before I can figure this out.) We can jump a simple vertical up to about 18" high (or 20" high -- measurement is not exact) with one rail and a ground line. Horse jumps happily and confidently over this vertical without even wobbling very much on approach, lands into a relaxed canter. We're still trotting up to the first jump at this point, for better control.
That's the story so far. Today, I tried a new thing, cross rail to about 14" and then a 12' space to an 18" vertical. The first time I tried her at this combination, she coasted to a stop, walked (messily) over the cross rail (on new standards -- there was eyeballing involved) and then jumped the vertical from a walk. I dismounted and reset the jumps because I'm not professional enough to have a grounds person to save me and put stuff back together after I bust it up. I hopped back on and gave it another whirl.
The second time around, she jumped the first jump, landed and did one stride and jumped the second jump, like she'd been doing it for years. These are still, yes, very small jumps, but now there is one jump and then a stride and then another jump right away. It's complicated, compared to being run at one single low jump. I tried her two more times with the combo and she did a fine job so then I went and did other things for a while. I hit her once more over the jumps before heading back to the barn and she nailed it again. Nick is fairly bright and may become a technically competent jumper. I don't know what she looks like from the ground, but she is smart enough to think her way around these problems and she appears to be enjoying them so far.
I'm building confidence at this point, trying not to bore her or wear her out or overdo this stuff. Small steps, careful progression and all that.
