How many times a week do you jump?

[Big Holsteiner Mare]

Or even better yet, how many lessons do you take a week? Moving our horses home and will be going from two to one lesson (jumping) per week. Will still be flatting and hacking the rest of the time. Interested in hearing how many lessons/jumping others do. I don't show but my daughter does and both horses are teenagers. Trainer is saying that one lesson a week isn't enough....I should add that both our horses are pretty made and we don't jump at home.

[flogarty]

Usually I don't jump at home, only at shows. If my jumper has a few weeks off, I'll jump once the week before a show. My jumper is pretty "made" though, so he doesn't need any extra jumps. My mother's hunter jumps twice a week- once in a lesson with her, and once with a pro.

Sometimes I'll jump one of my other rides, either my trainer's ponies, or another horse that I'm riding that day.

[ADD526]

once a week i have a lesson where i jump quite a bit and then one other day i do some simple little excericises just to throw something fun in there! the other days i do quite a bit of flat and one day we trail ride or very lightly hack!

[Giddy-up]

My horses alternate between living at home & the trainer's barn (and trailering back/forth too). I have to say I really only jump when I have a show coming up (no regular year round lesson program). The 1 horse I've had almost 10 years, knows his job & doesn't need much. I don't even lesson on him cause I only hop him over a few jumps myself (with supervision of course) just before the show. The young horse jumps a few times before a show--either with Mr Trainer or myself (again sometimes I lesson, sometimes I jump on my own).

All I can say is see how the horses do in the new program. If it doesn't work, you may have to go back to 2x a week. Another difference might be your daughter's riding--she's going to be cutting in half her jumping time so her eye might not be as sharp. I tend to find it's not my horses who need to jump, but it's ME that needs the practice. ;)

[mep0726]

I only jump once a week or once every other week, depending on how hard my horse has been worked, if we've been to a show, etc.

[Anyplace Farm]

I'm in the once a week camp but that's just for now. I am also of the belief that once a week is not enough for the rider. It might be OK for the horse (as long as he is getting time dedicated to his fitness on the flat) but I think a rider needs to jump at least twice a week.

[Renn/aissance]

If I horse show over the weekend, I don't jump during the week. (To practice courses and adjustability, I might canter a course of poles or flowerboxes.) Otherwise I have a jumping lesson during the week.

[starkissed]

I get lessons maybe once a month.
I jump at shows and lessons mainly.

I don't jump my horses at home too much, maybe a little combination once in a while. My made horses are pretty good and we get tune ups in the lesson.

I do jump them cross country a lot though, logs, coops, and such about once a week.


My green horse, however, I have been jumping him about 3x a week because he really needs to be schooled

[over the moon]

It really depends on the level of training of the horse; with our well schooled "been-there-done-that" show horses, they MIGHT jump once a week, but still not at the height that they show, unless they give indication that they need a little tune up. When they do jump at home, it's generally not schooling courses either, but rather gymnastics, etc. Time between shows is generally spent hacking and flatting. With greener horses, they will obviously jump more as it would be unrealistic and unfair to expect them to go into a ring and jump a course without mentally and physically preparing (training) them for it.

It also depends a bit on the rider; with a rider who is still green over fences, I wouldn't suggest only jumping at shows.

[theroanypony]

I only take one lesson a week, and jump in that lesson. If we don't jump in our lesson, we just don't worry about jumping that week. We do loads of flatwork through out the week, and trot hills/work outside of the ring once a week, so he gets a lot of exercise. He's great over jumps, our flatwork in courses sucks though so we mainly focus on improving that.

[LShipley]

I am a beginner - we jump 2' - 2'6" in lessons. My horse isn't green, but she is not highly trained either, so we are working on both of us learning new things all the time. We usually do two group lessons per week. I definitely feel like we struggle in the lessons a bit more when we can only do one jumping lesson per week - if you are working on learning new things, the twice a week repetition really helps you move forward.

[KaterasEqGirl]

I jump almost every day, but I also have three horses and other horses in the barn to do this on and the jumps usually are not very big in order to save them for the shows

[IsolaBella09]

We usually jump once a week in a lesson and then at shows. If he has a long show week ahead, we will only hack him. I focus more on my equitation and flatwork and take a dressage lesson when I can get one in. It does wonders for his jumping. :D

[MR]

I take about 3 lessons a month. I moved out of a full-training h/j barn and into a boarding-only situation about 4 years ago. These days, I take about 2 dressage lessons a month (something I just added to our work-outs in the last few years), and then my h/j trainer comes in to teach once a month.

I typically ride 4-5 days a week. Jumping usually entails 1 "lower" day (gymnastics, just 1-2 jumps, etc) and then one "higher" day (full courses, set to our regular/show height). I then have 1-2 flat work/dressage days, plus usually 1 "fun" day (trail ride / bareback / whatever). We have a small group of ammies like me who get together to ride & jump, so we watch & help each other when it's not a formal "lesson" ride.

I was in full-training pretty much my whole life. My gelding was well-started and seasoned before we moved out of the FT situation. These days, we just ride with friends most of the time, then have our 3-4 lessons a month for "tuning up". Works fine & we're both happy with it. However, our focus is also different than it used to be. More focused on "fun" and just enjoying riding - I only show a couple times a year now, and mostly just 1-day shows. If I wanted to show "A" shows consistently, I'd need to get back into FT probably, to be really competitive.

I agree that it totally depends on the rider's ability and how "made" the horse is. I'm an adult whose been riding h/j for 20+ years, and my horse is a safe, sane, and a pretty made gelding. So, I have plenty of years of training under me, and he doesn't do anything that could be dangerous. We can't get in *too* much trouble, and the 3 or so lessons a month are just enough to keep me/us from slipping into too many bad habits. :)

[GallopGirl]

Our barn is a full training barn. We lesson Tues-Sat. Usually Tuesday are flat lessons or work with poles. Weds, Thurs, and Fri are a combo of flat and jumping, but usually not a ton of jumping... maybe 10 to 12 fences. Saturday is more like the clinic day. More jumping, bigger jumping, etc. That's if you lesson 5 days a week. On the days you don't lesson, the trainers ride. Sometimes flat, sometimes popping over a few fences, but none of our horses are pounded into the ground. The greenies are jumped more than the experienced horses just because they have more to learn.

[Green Acres]

I trailer in for lessons but there is not a set schedule. Some weeks I may have a jumping lesson weekly leading up to a show but then I may go a few weeks without a lesson. I jumped a little this morning on my own but just a couple of individual jumps - no lines or anything. I don't jump allot on my own but have lately been doing courses of poles as advised by my trainer. My horse is green but I would rather do lines and courses with my trainer and usually I ride alone when at home.

[otwist123]

Usually just once a week, unless we have a big show coming up then twice a week. If I have a bunch of shows in a row, I won't jump in between.

[DMK]

My horse could pretty much go a year between jumping without forgetting anything. Me, on the other hand? I should jump 3Xday 365 days a year. :rolleyes:

That's not realistic, especially with an older horse (17) but i have a youngster (2) that I would like to be reasonably sharp of eye when he is started over his baby fences. So I jump 2-3 jumps almost every ride (ends up being 3-4 times a week). They are usually 2'6 or smaller and just enough to keep my eye in tune. But since I am not really showing my older guy right now, I only jump courses or bigger gymnastics/fences (3'3+) every other week or so.

But when I was showing him regularly I would still jump those 3 tiny fences almost every ride, jump a course the weekend before a show, and as long as he was showing at least 3X over 2 months, that would be enough.

[Milocalwinnings]

I'm not riding now, and won't be jumping anymore for awhile (rider injury)..... but when I was showing last year (occasional jumper shows during the summer and then a couple events), I had 1 lesson a week, during which we did both jumping and flat work. However, I would also jump outside of lessons on my own.

So including lessons, I'd probably jump 3x a week. It wasn't anything big and it wasn't full courses though. We'd usually do course work during the lesson and then I'd usually work over one or two fences outside of the lesson.

[billiebob]

I jump my boy usually twice a week out of 4 or 5 rides. He's a super greenie, so I also incorporate a lot of work over poles to help with his rhythm--sometimes those are "secret" jumps. :)

I mainly use our little jumps (tonight was a banner night, we jumped our all-time high of 2'3! Be impressed!) as a reward if he does something like pick his right lead up and NOT race around like a maniac. And we only do 4 or 5 of them, so it's definitely not a school!

[kellyb]

Greatly depends on horse's experience...

For me, if it's a packer and knows its job, we jump 1-2 days per week, maybe one course, or a grid, or some natural fences outside the ring.

If he's just learning, then perhaps 3-4 days per week. Not a lot of full courses, but plenty of singles, bounces, ground poles, etc to get him thinking.

[cnvh]

My horse is a 6-year old OTTB, and we only really started jumping about 6 months ago. We do 2'3" classes at our monthly schooling shows. In between, I ride 3 days a week and we usually jump on at least 2 of those days. If we're riding in the ring, our jumping generally consists of a few singles, maybe some lines, 2 or 3 times each direction, nothing huge (usually about 18" or so). Now that the weather's getting nicer, we're doing a lot more trail rides; if we happen to be near the XC course, we'll pop over a few logs and coops (<2').

We're certainly not "in training" for anything; I'm very much a pleasure rider, not a show rider... to tell the truth, I never thought jumping more than once a week was unusual until reading these boards. Hopefully our low jumping is OK, because I love it and my horse seems to enjoy it; I think we'd both be bored if we only jumped 1 or 2 jumps every other week! :eek:

[To My Surprize]

I do the same, normally we jump 1- 2 times a week, but my horse has been in training trying to break alot of habits so its been alot or 3-4 times a week for the past 2 months...but now we are going to whittle that down to 1-2 .

[eclipse]

I'm also in the twice a week camp. But that is only if we haven't any shows, the 2 weeks after a show it's mainly flat with some pole or cavalletti work thrown in. Then in winter (Nov-Feb) it's stictly flat work. In fact, my trainer actually removes all of the jumps and brings in the dreaded cavelletti (circle of death is my dreaded nemesis during those months)!

[equest]

I half - lease and have one jumping lesson per week. His owner, who is my trainer, normally jumps him one other time during the week.

[Fun Size]

during a normal week, Max gets a trainer ride Tues - Wed, and I lesson Thurs - Sunday. Usually Thurs / Fri are flat lessons with poles or one jump, and weekends are courses. Mind you I've been jumping for exactly 4 weeks now, but that is basically the formula all the other riders follow as well.

I'm just doing cross rails and tiny verticals though, so we could jump every day and it wouldn't bother Max!

[Bobthehorse]

I just twice a week, but I have 2 horses, so they only each jump once a week. The older one actually had October to May off jumping, just flatwork and hacking, and he is jumping just as well now as he ever was. But I stayed fit jumping my young one once a week. Its been really good for me, since they are both very different types, and the young one is jumping 3' while the older one is jumping more like 3'6''.

Riders will only be better riders the more they ride and the more horses they ride. However, a horse can only take so much pounding. IMO its not worth it to run my horse down to better myself, so if I didnt have the second one now, I would still only jump once a week, for the benefit of my old horse.

[OakHollowVA]

Horses have a mechanical breaking point. Every jumper has an optimal number of jumps in him: an unknown number of times he can jump an obstacle at a certain height and width, before the stress of jumping and landing will cause him to go lame and end his jumping career. We can't know what that number is until his career has been suddenly ended by that last jump. Your goal should not be to "find out how many jumps he has in him." The goal should be to keep the horse sound and healthy for a long, productive life, so you will never have to learn what that number is!

Like any athlete, a horse must be in excellent physical shape to perform at his best. Many soundness problems, especially in older horses, could be prevented if riders always made sure that their horses were properly conditioned (though training) for strength, stamina, and agility. A well-trained experienced horse does not need to jump very often to keep his skills sharp, but he does need regular work to build muscle strength and stamina. Distance work, hills and occasional agility exercises with cavalleti and small grids are FAR more beneficial (and less stressful) than repeated drilling over high jumps.

To answer the question, :) I only spend about an hour a week in actual jumping. The bulk of my horses and my clients horses training regimen consists of conditioning work on the flat that includes lots of exercises to increase suppleness and strength.

This answer is also assuming that the horse's flatwork is solid enough to begin jumping with a rider on board. I use the requirements of a First Level dressage test as a standard personal preference ;) First level requires balance and bending on 15-meter circles at the trot and 20-meter circles at the canter, leg-yielding, and lengthening stride at the trot and canter. Rhythm, relaxation, obedience to the aids, smooth transitions between gaits, straightness, and willingness to go foward are all basic requirements. If I got on a horse "doing 3'6 courses" but he can't balance on a corner or lengthen stride, or rushes or balks or won't pick up his right lead or won't move foward off the leg, I know he will have to go back to kindergarten basics before I can make any progress in his jumping career. :yes:

[Aliascml]

I have 1-2 lessons a week that last around 60 minutes each. About half of the lesson is jumping (from a singe practice jump to lines and courses). I do not have my own horse, so I ride one of the lesson horses.