Horse Training Success

Want to start jumping your horse? Think you can hop on, point him at a jump and sail over? Well, you might get away with that. Like some people can live on chips and not get fat - until they're 40. But it's not actually a hot idea.

Here's a better one:
Find yourself some cavaletti, or even just poles on the ground and place them so that they are spaced out nicely for your horse to walk over.

cavaletti.jpg

Yes this will take some practice to get right, but one trick is to lay them in a fan/semi circle shape (NOT pictured) so you can lead and/or lunge him over the poles at a walk at different points in the layout and find the right spacing without having to constantly readjust the poles.

What's the point of cavaletti?
To teach your horse to measure his stride, to pick up his hoofs and not hit things, to go forward over poles when asked. Groundwork for jumping.

In later sessions when he's going over the poles nicely, you can start asking for a trot. Later on, get in the saddle and ride him through the cavaletti.

|    
Labels: horse problems, horse riding jumping, horse showjumping, horse training, horses jumping, horses jumps, jump horse, jumping a horse, ponies jumping, pony jumping, riding jumping, training horses