Monty Roberts Equus Online University | Monty's Horse Training Post: Rushing Horses when Jumping

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Watch Monty's horse training videos to learn how he demonstrates communication through horse training techniques that the amateur and professional alike consider to be the trainable skills of a horse whisperer yet Monty calls it horse gentling.
Monty's horse training techniques are non violent with intelligent natural horsemanship. In addition to video instructions, Monty has written many books related to natural horsemanship. Monty trains safe horses for nervous riders called Willing Partners. Monty trains world class race horses for sale.
“I am very proud to be a part of Her Majesty’s horse training and her passion for their welfare. I believe she is the leading monarch for the advocacy of horses in the world. She is a thought leader in this field. Her Majesty's horses are trained using the Dually Halter, making a difference in the training of sensitive animals by giving the horse the choice to partner in the training.” ~ Monty
“I communicate with a horse in what I call the Language of Equus; a silent language of gestures that is discernible, predictable and effective. Now you can learn from my videos, audio and notes to help you understand the horse as I do. This language is really quite simple, but simplicity becomes its greatest strength.” ~ Monty
Monty Roberts is a renowned horse trainer known as the man who listens to horses and the original horse whisperer. Monty's horse training instructions are accepted worldwide.
Monty has helped thousands of people globally through his Monty Roberts Online Videos to learn how to Join-Up with horses, training young horses, spooky horses, horses that bite. His mustang , Shy Boy , is his most famous horse.
Join-Up methods help horse and trainer to establish a bond of communication and trust. “You must somehow understand that we as horsemen can do very little to teach the horse. What we can do is to create an environment in which he can learn.” ~ Monty
Monty says, “We hear that ‘actions speak louder than words,’ but generally we do not live by it too successfully.” Now Monty has taught thousands of people worldwide how to build trust in animals through our actions and body language.
Monty’s principles really amount to common sense and immense patience. He believes that children and horses have the same behavioral patterns. They are both naturally “flight” animals. "If you frighten them and resort to confrontation, you’ll lose their trust." ~ Monty
"Simple one-on-one reassurances and praise reap long term dividends that can all be undone with the quick slamming of a book on a desk or shouting back." ~ Monty Roberts
"No one of us was born with the right to say 'You must or I'll hurt you' to any other living thing, animal or human". ~ Monty Roberts
"My life's goal is to leave the world a better place than I found it, for horses and for people too". ~ Monty Roberts

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University Suggestion Box

Rushing Horses when Jumping

By:

Reigning Phoenix

Date:

2020-Nov-12 at 09:23PM

I would like to see different approaches to dealing with a horse that rushes at fences.

I have one horse that is a queen jumper (she'll win champion without a doubt) but occasionally she goes through phases where she full-speed charges down the fence. I figure it goes into overcompensation as well as having different riders work with her occasionally, but it doesn't matter what height the jump is when she gets into rushing fences when she's set her mind to it. They could be cross rails or 3' oxers. She's better when trotting in (although still sometimes starts hopping the rest of the way) and when like this, nearly always rushes when cantering in. Trot poles and placing poles haven't done as much as desired in helping prevent this. She does better with grid work and bounces, especially cavaletti bounces after a fence, to back her off, as well as halts on the straight-away. However, it seems to all go out the window with a long-approach single or line.

I don't have this issue with my other horses, and it's been a long-standing on & off one with this one rescue OTTB who we've had forever. No medical problems that are obvious, her on & off phases do not correlate to any female 'season' cycles as they'll last a few months at a time, and we do plenty of pole work, alongside extension and collection. Perfect on the flat, and perfect with jumper roll-backs and short approaches to fences, but single fences and lines can get questionable fast. It's always a work in progress with this mare keeping the balance of not over-jumping her (she's 18 this year) but keeping her in enough shape along with mental workouts to help prevent her rushing.

She's been doing marvelously better in general behavior since learning from this online university and working with a Dually halter (she didn't have very good ground manners stemming back from her racing and rescue days), and she has terrible herd separation anxiety if left alone, as well as general anxiety as the bottom of the herd pecking order.