How can I make my horse more responsive?

Question

I ride hunter jumpers and the horse I ride is fairly young, like 5 or 6 and can get pretty excited when we ride a course. She often tries to take off and when she does she gets into all these funky lead changes and I'm scared to death she's gonna slip. she has quite a tripping reputation and has fallen on her rider twice. She doesnt charge at fences so much as taking off after them. what are some excercises that I can do with her to make her more responsive to my half halts and make her slow it down. Her canter on the flat has been pretty nice lately, its mainly just between and after jumps. We are also gonna work on flying lead changes on tuesday. And hopefully also do some gridwork sometime soon.

Answer 1

You need to practice gridwork and bounce fences!

Answer 2

well being that she cant seem to handle a whole course, i would take her back to the very basics. do alot of half-halts on the flat until she is very good at them. then put up a low crossrail in an arena, and make small circles at a trot, going over the jump as part of your circle. gradually get bigger in your circle when she is calm and responsive until it is as big as you can make it. then do it at a canter, but still keep the crossrail the same height. when she is calm and responding to your aids to slow down in a large circle, make the crossrail a small vertical, but still very low. do the same circle exercise. then canter randomly around the arena and go past the jump, circle around it, just kind of mess around and take her over a few times. through all of this, she should be calm and respectful. if she isnt, go back a step or two and repeat the circles until she is. when shes doing well with the randomly jumping, make 2 jumps and go back to the beginning with the trot circles. do the same steps i listed above but with two jumps. then add one more. as you add more jumps, she should stay calm and responsive. then you can try the course again. but dont do a course every time you practice at home, just mess with her a bit. sorry if this wasnt what you were looking for, but it might help! =]

Answer 3

Everything the previous person said definitely applies.

First, when you do course-work, vary what you're doing.  If she thinks she knows what you're doing, she'll be more likely to follow her "own" instructions, at her pace.  Ex., take a line the first time around, but the second time only jump the first fence.  Or jump, then halt before the next fence.  Since your main issue is making exercises like these possible without her getting excited and antsy, try at a walk (obviously, over cavalettis), then a trot only when you feel that she is responding to your cues, and so on and so on.  Eventually, have her waiting for your signals instead of taking her own route after jumps.

Also, when you have her listening, then work on making her more sensitive to subtler cues.  Have your goal be to be able to ride completely reinless, if need be, with her listening to your body and weight as much as your legs and reins.  That way, when you DO use your reins, especially for the half-halts when safety becomes an issue, they'll be a stronger cue than they would be otherwise.

I don't know exactly what your riding level is or how you ride; for all I know you routinely ride without tack and never repeat the same course twice.  But I hope that these suggestions can help you a little bit.

Answer 4

I have a 6 y/o TB gelding, and he does the same thing. I don't work on courses with him all the time, because it makes him anticipate the jumps. He has a tendancy to be spooky, so I don't want him charging the fences, and then refusing them at top speed. I do a lot of pole work to keep him calm. Canter poles work great for helping thier stride relax and flow.

good luck!