My pony naps towards the gate when i am competing, how do i stop her from doing this?

Question

every time i ride Mollie in a show jumping competition she will veer off towards the gate when i am riding past it and this loses me valuable seconds in jump offs.

i have used my outside leg and have made my signals as clear as possible but she just ignores me.

i hate having to resort to the whip and i really dont want to use spurs, does anyone have any advice please?

thankyou

rosie

Answer 1

I had the same promblem with my horse too.  Try getting to the arena a little earlier and walking her around the jumps.  It may be that she is nervous and wants to leave.  Keep your eyes on the jump and your give constant squeezes with your outisde leg and inside rein this should keep her centered.

Answer 2

Try and use your outside leg more strongly. And if you see her starting to pay attention to the gate, move the bit (using the reins) back and forth to keep her on the bit and her attention on what you want her to do. I do this a lot and the results are positive :).

Using a crop won't hurt. Trust me, horse's hides are thick and they only feel a little tap.

Answer 3

When you know that she is looking at the gate or is about to go to it then youy must kick and kick hard. Keep practising over and over again. And if you put people by the gate and shout whenever she goes to go by it. She should start to understand thaty the gate is bad. when she passes the gate then praise her.

Answer 4

I wouldn't ever take her through the gate as one poster mentioned (my opinion), but what I would do is leave the gate open and tempt her with it.  The moment she even leans towards the gate take her into small tight circles, and work her pretty good, make her give you her face and trot and really make her form and work for it.  Make her do it both ways a few times, and then take her back to work.  Keep repeating this till she realizes that when she leans towards the gate, she will have to work.  Also make sure that you don't subconstiously think or look at the gate to send her mixed signals (not saying you do this, but sometimes people do things their not aware of).  Since you know she will do this, people will be afraid their horse will do it again, unfortunately causing the horse to do it again.  This isn't too bad of an issue to correct.  If she doesn't do it at home, but only at shows, pick a few open schooling shows, and do just that, school.  Don't worry about placing, worry about correcting the gate issue so when a bigger and better show comes along, she is not going towards the gate.

Answer 5

when you school at home.  leave the gate open and when she veers to it take her thru it.  BUT DONT STOP OR GET OFF.  work her there if you can or make her keep going further away and trot circles if you have to .  She does it because she associates the gate with you getting off and her getting to stand still.  Work her till she sweats up a few times and she'll stop it.  Make her work till your ready to stop,  Then take her back into the arena and get off.