ideas for a fearless young horse.

[Claudius]

My four year old will go over anything in his way. When I sent him to a professional to restart him this spring, he proudly demonstrated how he would trot over everything in the ring! Woopee!! legs everywhere, knees down, hohum attitude. in the round pen he jumps respectably over a wiiiiiiide barrel jump. So what do I do???/ cavaletti are only interesting the first time. cross rails are lethal. I don't want to jump high enough to get his attention. So what should I do to teach this fearless horse a respectable technique?????

[Dixon]

Gymnastics. If he's not impressed by individual jumps, impress him with combinations. Set and ridden properly, gymnastics will improve his form.

If you're asking what kind of jump to set that will spook him into lifting his knees more tightly, stop. You could scare the jump right out of him. You don't want to set anything solid (even barrels) until he jumps in safer form, which gymnastics will help. Otherwise you'll both crash, and you'll have a stopper. Who cares how tight his knees are if he's been scared away from jumping?

[hoppipolla]

I agree with the previous poster--gymnastics should definitely help. Also, I think it's important with the young ones to be a "jumping chute" when you're riding them. By that I mean, not getting them to the perfect distance everytime, rather just keeping a decent rhythm/stride and letting them work out the distance themselves. By getting there deep or long and having to work it out, they can acquire a little more self preservation.

Mixing up the type of jumps you're doing might help too--I think that getting them exposed to as much as possible when they're starting is good. They don't have to be big jumps, but even crosspoles with a little fill (or weird colors, or brush, whatever) will help get them acquainted with a variety of jumps. Personally, it doesn't bother me if the greenies stop at strange jumps here and there, because at least they're looking at it and paying attention and will likely be a little more careful when they go over it.

[Queen Latisha]

I agree with gymnastics, it should make him think about where he's putting his feet.
Be thankful he's brave!!:D

[vbunny]

I like to set up a grid or an exercise and change it every time they go down it. It's not that uncommon to have a smart horse that will be bold and confident like that, they can make great event horses once they learn some form and get a few tricks in their pockets. Consider yourself lucky.

[neigh.neigh]

Yay for you! Gotta love the fearless ones! My mare was the same way as 4/5 year old. She had no idea what she was doing but would jump anything in her path. I would try halting in front of the jumps to get her to stop and she would walk over them anyway! Gymnastics helped a lot, a lot of bounce excercises too. Once we had a little more control, the bigger jumps helped ALOT!

[Trevelyan96]

Another vote for gymnastics. We just started our 5 y.o over a few cross rails, he really likes it, but he's already 'meh... not worth picking my feet up'. Threw in a bounce and and he's like 'ohhh... my feet belong up THERE!' :yes: