The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread 11

[BladeRider]

She'll go most anywhere you'll point her and she'll stand still when you want her to too. I'm having second thoughts about selling her!

I never thought you should sell her. She is alot easier to ride than Bob. If I had the $$ I would have bought her from you before you had a chance to think about it.

[AnAmericanMother]

You shouldn't jump much higher than that anyhow - too hard on the horse's legs. The part that takes learning is the in-between parts anyhow - the approach, turns, pacing and the getaway.

You could build some cavaletti and just work on trotting over them, then raise the last one and trot into a jump. It's not that hard!

[FrogInABlender]

Oh, one more thing, I don't know about you, but I'm so sore I can barely walk. The tops of my thighs are killing me, so it's not the usual riding muscles. I reckon it was all that hill climbing and rock climbing I did. I guess that just shows me that I need to get off my butt and do a little more of that kinda thing.

[CindyDawg]

I haven't jumped anything yet unless you can count the all 4 feet in the air and moving sideways. What's it feel like?

[FrogInABlender]

...You could build some cavaletti and just work on trotting over them, then raise the last one and trot into a jump. It's not that hard!

'cept my hoss don't trot! You'll have to tell me how to do it from a rack. ;o)

I was racking her up to them, then at the last couple of strides giving her a little kiss and a bump and she'd jump on over and keep on going. It's when I try to do it from a canter, which we don't do all that often, that we get discombobulated.

I really gotta go now. I'm here talking to y'all 30 minutes past my quitting time.

[BladeRider]

Oh, one more thing, I don't know about you, but I'm so sore I can barely walk. The tops of my thighs are killing me, so it's not the usual riding muscles. I reckon it was all that hill climbing and rock climbing I did. I guess that just shows me that I need to get off my butt and do a little more of that kinda thing.

I thought I would be more sore, but I am not. Maybe a little tightness in my calves but that is all. I'll bet Amy is sore though!

[Beaker]

There's a lot of grounds for conflict is all.

You're right. Luckily, she's not the type to get into a snit about small things, and neither am I. I think that our personalities mesh well enough to pull it off, but I do think that she needs to learn a little bit more for her sake, which is why I suggested that she take a step back.

[AnAmericanMother]

Depends on if you have a good jumper or a bad jumper.

On a good jumper, it feels like an extra-big cantering stride. The horse will approach the fence at a canter and you and the horse working together (this is one of the things you have to learn) pick a takeoff spot that will allow the horse to reach the fence without stretching or shrinking his stride. At the takeoff point you will feel the horse drop his head very slightly and then set both hind feet instead of just the off hind as he would do for another canter stride. You rise slightly in the saddle and give the horse his head, the horse rises up under you, you both sail across the fence and land on the other side. It's the effect you get when you swing really high on a rope swing and get that *big pause* at the top where you're weightless for a moment. Very exhilarating.

If you have a Bad Jumper, the horse doesn't jump out of his stride, so you're sort of herky-jerky up to the fence, then the horse loses his forward momentum and has to heave himself over the fence. It's sort of like being hit in the rear end by a 2x4, then landing hard on the other side . . . not pleasant!

Good jumper:

You can see how she has risen gently up under me, and I've risen slightly in the saddle to let her come up. Her neck is nicely arched to balance, and I've given her a free head because we're jumping in the field (and she was getting tired - we'd been out almost 2 hours already). My lower leg has slipped back, probably because I was tired too!

I looked around the internet for some Bad Examples, but I guess nobody wants to post those! My son would kill me if I put up some of his early jumping pics as bad examples. (My bad examples predate the invention of photography . . . not!)

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Back from today's ride....so far so good:) But man were the trails muddy, slippery, slimy, sucky...

I got a few pictures, but Harley does not seem to care for boggy spots so most of the ride was a 2 handed operation.

I'll get them loading and read all the posts I missed while I was gone.

Becky

[AnAmericanMother]

Yikes! Then the trotting poles won't work, she'll just step all over them.

You're going to have to put canter poles out, measure her stride and space them so she can canter over the poles. Then just canter poles (no jump at the end) until she gets used to the idea. Then raise the last pole on bricks, and so forth.

My horse and I both hate to trot fences, she has a really nice slow, slow canter so when we are facing a new fence we canter up slow and then hit the gas two strides out.

[CindyDawg]

Don't do that to your son:'). I was just curious. It has it's purpose but I don't enjoy cantering so I probably wouldn't like jumping. I just remember when I was a kid I would fly with my horse and it was almost like a gliding, up and down thru the air. I thought it was cantering and was disappointed that it wasn't. I've cantered on 3 different horses and it's the same. I feel like we are going down hill with each stride. Maybe I just imagined it from a kids perspective or I thought she might have been leaping over small stuff.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Great pictures from everyone. Enjoyed them very much.

I've not done much jumping either, and what little I have wasn't by my choice:). I try hard to keep them from jumping:)

Becky

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Well my pictures are not nearly as much to look at as the others posted today, and yesterday, but their pictures:)

First, I took these first three while I was on the way home from town with Jenny. These horses belong to a family that owns about a mile of land along this road. They raise palominos, I think they show and sell mostly. They have lived here for years. There is about 4 generations of them living along this road. Anyway, once in a great while they turn their horses out in this field, it is actually the hay meadow, so mostly you don't see the horses, I think they are mostly kept in pastures way off the road. But they were out today, so I snapped a few pictures.

Ok, Now for a few trail pictures of my ride today. Lots of water on the trails.

One of Harley after we got back. I didn't spend to much time gooming today, just knocked off the mud where the saddle and straps were and called it good.

Becky

[AnAmericanMother]

If you feel like you're going downhill, your horse is cantering on her forehand. That is an uncomfortable feeling - like riding in a wheelbarrow. There was a horse that I borrowed once who had the heaviest forehand I ever experienced. She made my arms ache. I gave her back!

Probably as a kid you weighed a lot less (didn't we all! I was a flyweight) and your pony naturally had a high forehand. That would give you the flying sensation. To recapture that as an adult you'll have to collect your horse and get her weight more on her hind end, so that she leaps into the canter stride instead of falling into it, if that makes sense.

[AnAmericanMother]

Looks like a nice ride, even with all the water. Bet the Lab didn't mind though.

My horse is definitely not a mudder and will pick her way around rather than step in mud or water.

[CindyDawg]

Ok thanks. Something to work on and look forward to then. Right now a slowwwwww trot is more my thing:') I heard somewhere that a horse will not unexpectedly jump over something that they aren't sure they can clear. Anything to that?

[AnAmericanMother]

Depends on how dumb the horse is, I guess.

I've known horses who would FLING themselves at stuff. And the occasional clumsy horse will fall. That's how I broke my hand, years ago.

If you set up the poles the way Hair has them in her pictures longing Bay and Cyn, you can start with poles on the ground and then add bricks under the last pole. It's good for your horse's balance and stride even if you never jump.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Actually Grizzly is not a lab:), but everyone thinks he is. He is catahoula/blueheeler...

Harley didn't like walking thru the boggy areas. As long as he didn't sink any he was OK, but if he started to sink he would kind of start lunging around. We're working on that.

Becky

[AnAmericanMother]

In that third picture, he's swinging along just like a Lab. Even the tail is at the correct angle.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Well, I don't think that is true, altho the few times I've seen horses jump in the creek, who knows if they thought they could clear it, or were just jumping in:)

If you're walking up to something, or even trotting, you can tell when the horse is gathering themselves to jump, and have time to take action either get ready for it, stop them, or rein them back to keep them from it...which doesn't always work:)

Becky