Jumping in this saddle and tips for starting a young horse?

http://s386.photobucket.com/albums/oo301鈥?/a>


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6BlzLx33鈥?/a>





The picture and vid above are of me and my 7 or 8 year old cob gelding who i have owned for a year and 3 months now. When I bought him he was terrible on the roads, could barely trot and had terrible ground manners. I have a feeling he was abused before i bought him by previous owners.


Im now hoping to start him jumping this year as last year we established the basics and got him almost bombproof on hacks. My confidence in him has also ground greatly.





I dont know how he will be with Jumping but i want to try him with him and see how it goes. He is very forward going and gets silly and spooky if put in new situations. Ive found its easy to take it slow with him. Are there any tips that i can use to start him?


I live in england and keep him on a farm. We dont have an arena, just fields.








Another thing is my saddle. I believe it is a dressage saddle and am not sure how jumping it will go. Theres no chance of buying a new saddle as my parents simply dont have the money, so any tips on how to make it easier for me would be appreciated.


I know in that video and picture my stirrups are a bit long.





Any Help appreciated :)


Sorry this is so long xx|||Hi katherin.


He is a nice sturdy sort of horse.


Before you start jumping him, you need to be doing work on poles on the flat - trotting and cantering poles, this will build up the balance, and a regular rhythm with the horse.


Try and pick a flatish type of field and the quietist one, so you will get the horses full attention - try to have someone with you though and they can also alter the poles when needed.


Always use a odd number of poles so he has to work out the striding rather than rushing forward.


Keep riding circles etc included within the lesson.


When i teach, i would normally put trotting poles approx 3 of my feet apart - one foot in front of the other. This will normally suit a 14.2 - 15.2 hh.


Always aim for the centre of the poles and keep looking ahead, if you look down, you will be altering your body position and it will distract the horse, so sit tall and keep the leg on even though he is forward going.


With the spookiness, try and get the horse working in an outline, and bending around your leg - when he works correctly, he won't have time to be spooky, so give him plenty of exercises like circles, surpentines, changes in pace etc.


This is a dressage saddle, and unfortunatly, it will not give you a good position when jumping. The panels are very straight, and when jumping, the stirrups should go up approx 2 holes to make the leg bend abling you to push the seat back and fold forward with the horse. If you put your stirrups up in this saddle, your knee will come forward and off the panel, when you should have the panel there to help with the leg position.


The only way is to get a jumping saddle, it doesn't have to be new, aslong as it fits.


Where in england do you live, because there are various horse and tack sales around - i used to go to leomnster and abergavenny. Look in the paper as well, and some tack shops do second hand tack.


In the meantime you can save up.


Well done for taking your time with him, it does pay off in the end, and keep taking your time with the jumping, get a instructor to help you aswell.


Good Luck.|||Sorry i dont have many tips maybe try lunging over a few jumps?(Very small jumps)


but you can jump in a dressage saddle as i have its just not as comfortable for you


iv done xc in a dressage saddle the horse didt mind it just unbalance you quite abit





Sorry its not the best help but its something :)


good luck!!|||The saddle you are using isn't a dressage saddle, it's a GP saddle which is designed to accommodate jumping, dressage etc. an all round good saddle BUT it also looks like a dressage/GP :S


You can jump in a dressage saddle but because the knee rolls and flaps are long to encourage longer legs you might find it a difficult to get into a jumping position. You can always swap it for a jump saddle or a GP, I'm sure some one would swap it :D





As for the jumping:- Start with getting him used to trotting poles without you being in the saddle but make sure you can control him if he spooks or doesn't like the look of them :P When he's used to them on the ground and after you've lunged him over them, you can get on his back :) walk him over them until you're certain he's okay with them. Slowly introduce trotting and cantering and call it a day :)


The next time you ride, try putting a cavelletti up and see how he goes, if he goes well pat him and do it a couple of more times and gradually put a cross pole, straight etc. :)


Hope I helped and good luck :D x|||Jumping wise, introduce him to poles first, get him used to trotting and cantering poles to get him happy with them. Then pop a cross pole up at the end of a line of trotting poles to dictate his stride, make the cross pole small enough that if need be you can walk him over it, and let him sort himself out - give him plenty of encouragement but give him time to sort his feet out and suss the jump, once he's got the hang of it a bit try doing it without the trot poles to help him to work his own strides out and then build up slowly from there - he'll tell you when he's ready to move on a bit more.





As for the saddle, it doesn't quite actually look a dressage saddle, but there isn't much knee pad in the front - I think you should be fine doing basic jumping in it, but if you move up to bigger jumps you may find it becomes more of an issue.|||well the seat isn't so deep that it will interfere with your horse, but the stirrup flaps will cause problems for you. when you raise the stirrups to an appropriate length, your knees will poke out in front and it will be awkward for you when you jump. like someone else said, try to see if you can trade it in for a jumping saddle or at least an all purpose geared more towards jumping.





as for starting him over jumps, you might want to ask around and see if you can rent out time at a farm to use their arena. that way you'll hopefully have the right equipment and an enclosed (and controlled) environment (you may want to just take him out there a couple times before actually riding him). but set up a single pole in the middle of the ring. bring him past it, on both of his sides. when he seems comfortable or even curious, bring him over to it. if he wants to investigate it, let him. once he's done, ask him to go forward. be patient and calm until he goes over it. you may want to be prepared for a leap. once he's comfortable and walking over it with no problems, repeat this at every gait (trotting a few times should be enough for his first day). then you can start adding poles slowly.





only start jumping when he's completely calm, comfortable and relaxed. then you can get a couple standards with a pole between them and repeat the exercise above. once he's solid with this, put up a VERY small crossrail (so small he should be able to trot over it in just an elevated step--not even 6 inches). only progress in small and slow steps. you shouldn't take him jumping in a field until he's 100% trusworthy and solid in the arena (he won't be mentally prepared to handle the higher jumps that you'd find in a field anyway). anyway, i hope this helped at least a little :)|||The saddle is an All purpose saddle so it could be used for jumping. As for the horse just do a lot of ground work and desensitizing. It looks like you have a good horse. He is really pretty too!(: I dont think youll have much trouble breaking him with what he currently knows it should go pretty smooth. Nice video too!(: