My connemara pony Eric is almost 18 and he has to be the spookiest pony I have ever known that is over the age of 4. He mainly spooks when jumping, especially if there are fillers or showjump blocks and sometimes even with planks, but will jump fences with the blocks if he can be warmed up going through them at walk, trot and canter before any poles are introduced. He never used to be like this when I had to take him to Pony Club camp when we were about 10 because my 12.1hh gelding was lame - in fact he jumped everything I pointed him at!
I was wondering if there were any ways to get him thinking forward without stopping or leaping over things because I either hit the ground or tear ligaments (I was out of riding for nearly 3 weeks in summer 2009 because he decided to clear a scary one foot fence by about 3 or 4 foot!).
I'm not the most confident jumping, but even if I want to, he wont go near a fence that isn't made of plain poles. Even with a confident rider he is hesitant and after a battle of almost 5 minutes, they can get him to step over the scary fence or jump a fence with the fillers pulled out to the side.
I'm not sure that he is scared as he doesn't leap over the fences once I manage to get him to step over the offending object and he did eventing as a 4 year old.
A couple of years ag,o when I was jumping quite a bit, the yard owner has suggested maybe putting the smallest filler (it's about 1 foot high and 3 foot long) into the round pen that we have and either lunging him or loose schooling him over it, but my mum and I find it difficult to get down the yard during the week, but my mum is going to start going to lunge him in her lunch hour as she can't currently ride because of whiplash and therefore can't lift much.
If anyone has any ideas of how to get him used to fillers etc, I'd be very grateful as we are thinking of taking him out jumping this summer and we can't ask them to remove the scary fences for us!
aattura - I'm pretty sure tha
aattura - I'm pretty sure that his eyesight is fine because he never walks into things and never trips (unless he forgets what he's doing or gets distracted - he's a bit special like that
)
When the jumps are stored in the corner of the school, he only spooks at them as an excuse or if they have moved slightly - almost every horse on the yard hates the "jump corner" and I'm pretty sure the others haven't got any eyesight problems.
He also seems to be very bad if I don't jump him for a while, but even then, I prefer to stick to normal jump wings and plain poles because my confidence may have slipped and I don't need him jumping all over the place and he gets over it.
If I walk him past a fence that is scary, he'll tilt an ear towards it and maybe jump in "OMG, oh it's fine" kinda way and then walk straight past it
I was wondering if there were any ways to get him thinking forward without stopping or leaping over things because I either hit the ground or tear ligaments (I was out of riding for nearly 3 weeks in summer 2009 because he decided to clear a scary one foot fence by about 3 or 4 foot!).
I'm not the most confident jumping, but even if I want to, he wont go near a fence that isn't made of plain poles. Even with a confident rider he is hesitant and after a battle of almost 5 minutes, they can get him to step over the scary fence or jump a fence with the fillers pulled out to the side.
I'm not sure that he is scared as he doesn't leap over the fences once I manage to get him to step over the offending object and he did eventing as a 4 year old.
A couple of years ag,o when I was jumping quite a bit, the yard owner has suggested maybe putting the smallest filler (it's about 1 foot high and 3 foot long) into the round pen that we have and either lunging him or loose schooling him over it, but my mum and I find it difficult to get down the yard during the week, but my mum is going to start going to lunge him in her lunch hour as she can't currently ride because of whiplash and therefore can't lift much.
If anyone has any ideas of how to get him used to fillers etc, I'd be very grateful as we are thinking of taking him out jumping this summer and we can't ask them to remove the scary fences for us!
aattura - I'm pretty sure tha
aattura - I'm pretty sure that his eyesight is fine because he never walks into things and never trips (unless he forgets what he's doing or gets distracted - he's a bit special like that
) When the jumps are stored in the corner of the school, he only spooks at them as an excuse or if they have moved slightly - almost every horse on the yard hates the "jump corner" and I'm pretty sure the others haven't got any eyesight problems.
He also seems to be very bad if I don't jump him for a while, but even then, I prefer to stick to normal jump wings and plain poles because my confidence may have slipped and I don't need him jumping all over the place and he gets over it.
If I walk him past a fence that is scary, he'll tilt an ear towards it and maybe jump in "OMG, oh it's fine" kinda way and then walk straight past it