The third and last day of expo focused on jumping problem solving. Fortunately both horses were cooperative and attentive mounts, so we didn't need to solve any problems specific to them. So we went through some general exercises for resolving the most common jumping problems: refusals and running out (or, stopping at a fence because of lack of impulsion and running past the jump instead of going over). The first exercise we worked through was called "The Zipper" because of the back and forth through the course. For the purposes of this session we focused on steering, as running out is almost always a steering issue on the rider's part. It can be rooted in other problems as well, including lameness, fear of jumping because of having been over-faced, or pain, so it is important to rule out medical issues before you address this particular behavior as a training problem.
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| The top right corner is the layout for "The Zipper", though the angles should be about 90 degrees with as many poles as you like. Standards in each corner so each jump pole can be raised individually. The higher the fences, the faster the pace, and the more accurately you attempt to ride the circles the more difficult the exercise. |
The next common problem we addressed was refusals, or the horse just stops in front of the jump. Again it is important to rule out physical ailments and pain before assuming it is a training problem. We went on to demonstrate and work through an exercise that will increase a horse's impulsion without increasing his speed. We discussed energizing the rider's center of gravity to increase the horse's impulsion, to the point where it feels like the rider is mounted on a cat sneaking up to pounce on a mouse.
This exercise involves walking up to a set of ground poles, and walking through them. Gradually the center poles get raised, one hole at a time, until the horse is jumping quite high, though still from the walk. The ground poles on either side of the fence must be gradually moved away from the jump as it is raised. The distance from the ground pole to the jump is the same as the height of the fence. When the horse gets the hang of this exercise he generates quite a bit of thrust as he takes off, and the series of pictures pasted into a filmstrip style show just how much Cole was pushing to clear this fence out of his walk.
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| Jumping out of the walk |
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| Discussion of the three seats in riding: two-point, half seat, and full seat |
Feel free to leave any questions in the comments section of this blog, or contact Kim Leonard through the website!
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