Slowing and balancing a thoroughbred while jumping?

Question

I ride TB(not young-in his teens, and never raced), and i have trouble balancing him and slowing him down because he gets VERY strong and VERY fast while jumping. Any help??

Answer 1

practice gymnastics (1 stride between jumps) and stopping straight after jumps.

make him slow down before he gets too out of hand and if he gets really crazy make him stop completely by planting one rein on his neck and pulling with the other rein.(that makes it so he cant pull against your hand)

whenever you're asking him to slow down, dont stop asking until he has done what you have asked him to do.

Answer 2

This is the horse racing section. There is a pets>horse category that would be more appropriate for this question.

Answer 3

This is an issue of submission and obedience as well as collection, and you start the correction by working with your horse on the flat.  

You need to work with him so that he is light and attentive on the bit, really listening to your aids.  Lots of flatwork where you are using your leg aids to drive him up into the bit while at the same time working your hands to keep him light on the bit:  work to feel him give to the bit, and when he does, reward him by lighthening up on his mouth.  It's a lot of give-and-take:  the ideal is to have him "in front of your legs but behind your hands," so to speak.  

This is very mundane work that can be done at any gait, but you really have to be absolutely solid on it on the flat before you pursue jumping, or you're just going to end up having him "run through your hands," and then you're out of control.

You don't say if you're working with a trainer;  if you're not, this would be a good time to find a trainer, and paradoxically, I would recommend that you find one who works in dressage, not jumping.  A dressage trainer can really help you to understand getting a horse to be light on the forehand and listening to your hands, while your legs are driving the "motor," so to speak.

Eventually you want to work your horse on the flat, in the canter, so that you can easily do changes of pace (not gait).  If you cannot, on the flat, easily get your horse to go from a slow, collected canter to an extended canter, and back to a collected canter, in either direction and on either lead, then you're wasting your time trying to correct the problems you're having while working over fences.  You need to get the horse listening to your hands, your weight, your voice, your legs, and what they are telling him to do.  

If you can correct the problem on the flat, you should be fine working over fences.  I would start with small fences first, and work on getting him to listen to you when he lands.  He shouldn't be getting keyed up, anticipating, looking for more fences, he should be listening to what you tell him.  Maybe you'll tell him to jump more fences, maybe you won't.  Maybe you'll tell him to canter two or three strides after a fence and then halt or walk;  maybe you'll ask him to canter in a circle around some elements in the ring, spend some time working on the flat before he jumps more fences.  But he has to be listening to you .

I'm sorry there is no quick fix for this, but it's a basic horsemanship issue that has to be addressed before you can move on.

Answer 4

Gridwork to slow him down - make some small bounces.

My trainer makes me circle my horse on the approach if she rushes and she soon learned that whenever she rushed I circled her away so she slowed down and steadied herself and started to jump beautifully.

It's not good to keep yanking on their mouths as this might cause them to refuse.

Have you tried jumping on the lunge? This might help. Put a couple of  jumps on a circle and keep horse in trot.