Hi guys,
Looking for advice on free jumping my horse. At the moment I jump him about once a week - mixture of showjumping and cross country fences and I'm aiming to build his confidence and just mix things up in his training by including an occasional free jumping session.
Any advice/comments/anecdotes on how to start this or any experiences had would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Oh,that is a big subject to cover in a few lines. Free jumping is great for building a lot of things when done correctly. :)
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Short version:
Unless you are experienced at it, my advice would be to find a very good book on the subject and - most preferably - someone who does this fairly often and maybe you can be there for a couple of sessions, maybe even bring your horse?
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Plan B (loooong version!) would be to build your own little course and just wing it. ;)
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First thing to do is make sure the footing is safe! A horse jumping loose can get up to some speed and get careless, and easily slip or stumble in to the fences.
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Fence in a corridor that is long enough that the horse will get a proper "runway" up the fences as well as after. Meaning , you can let it go before the corner into the corridor, and after it gets to blow some steam and slow down. If it just opens up, it might bolt.
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The fence also needs to be safe so the horse can't hurt itself should it try to get through. The best scenario is when you can fence off an entire circle, so the horse stays in the corridor at all times. (Close the arena gate/door!!!) A barrel with oats on is great for reward and catching after the jump. Try to enlist at least one other person to help you!
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Start out with two low fences - no crosslaid poles! That is for humans, not horses.
The first one is just a help to get the last stride, before the actual jump off, correct in length, so be sure you have a table for measuring strides at both trot and canter, and knows what the length of your horse's normal stride is.
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Start by walking your horse across the poles lying on the ground several turns until he is familiar with the set-up.
Raise the second pole a couple of decimetres (about one foot) and let him trot/canter over them loose.
Start in the direction your horse is best balanced in canter. (Usually the left side.) You can change when he gets more used to this exercise.
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If this works fine, then raise them both a bit so the second fence is about 50 cm (less than 2 ft) and the first one either on the ground or slightly off it.
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In time you can raise the fences more and more and even add a third one.
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What takes lots of skill here, aside from knowing distances and heights, is how to help the horse maintain energy and proper speed.
In Sweden it is common to have someone with a lounge whip that stands a bit before the fences and decides if the horse needs a bit of urging or not.
The whip is ABSOLUTELY NOT for beating the horses - that would be counter productive - but to help urging and encouraging them. Too much and you just chase the horse around; too little and the horse might loose confidence and find ways to get out of work.
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OK, I said it was the looong version. ;) But this is just my two cents on the subject!
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My main advice stands, though; read up on it and try to join some real sessions before you try it out yourself! Safety first and incremental steps! ;) ;)
Wow, interesting stuff Kicki! I am doing a of of thinking here......and may revisit this to ask more questions :-)
Thanks for your detailed comment Kicki! Sorry I wasn't very clear - I have free jumped horses before but they have always been older, experienced horses so was looking for advice on introducing it to my inexperienced horse.
Finally got round to introducing Jim to his first free jumping session today and it went very smoothly! Did a short long-lining session first to get him nicely warmed up and then sent him free over trotting and canter poles and then he popped a tiny jump of about 25cm which he had a good look at and jumped from a standstill first time around but then he went nicely and finished with a slightly bigger jump of around 55cm which he popped no problem!
Can't wait to build his confidence! So nice to watch him jump as well!
And all my effort wasted!!! :D :D :D LOL!
Well, I did include the intro part somewhere in there, so I hope it was of some help! :)
Great to hear that it went so smoothly. Have fun with him now!:)
Not at all always good to recap! Your efforts were much appreciated!
Hi Jo,Jim
We start all our horses free jumping in the round pen. Having them running around first over poles and have the poles at quarter marks, so 12, 3, 6 and 9. Send him/her around until happy going over properly, then start to raise them up. When happy in the round pen, take to the schooling area etc... ;)
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We herd our horses together and set up jumps for them to go over, so as we herd them in a direction the jump is in their path. They have the choice to go over or around, but once one starts going over they follow. :D
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Photo of them :D
https://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniehetfield/28516224166/in/dateposted-public/
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We found starting in a smaller space and making it fun just follows on to being out in the open. .
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Hope it helps
Mel
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