{"id":3449,"date":"2010-11-29T03:25:26","date_gmt":"2010-11-29T03:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.89.31.130\/~thehors5\/thm\/?p=3449"},"modified":"2015-01-22T07:37:51","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T20:37:51","slug":"emma-mason-part-3-are-you-ready-for-a-young-horse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2010\/11\/emma-mason-part-3-are-you-ready-for-a-young-horse\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Mason – Are you ready for a young horse? Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emma Mason looks at the highs and lows of taking on a youngster. This month, Emma and Harley go showjumping with Andrew Barnett\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Photos: Peter Stoop<\/h3>\n

I don\u2019t think many would argue that a child\u2019s early education shapes their attitude to learning and desire to work in their future years, and I think the same can be said for the young horse.\u00a0 And just as children come in a range of shapes, sizes and personalities, from class clown to shy computer geek to moody little turd (my maternal instincts have yet to kick in), so too do horses, so the \u2018right\u2019 approach to their training will not always be the same.<\/p>\n

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My showjumping coach, Andrew Barnett, has had the benefit of training with two of the country\u2019s best in Jamie Coman and Rod Brown, and has a talent for coming up with exercises that suit each individual horse:\u00a0 I have training sessions on a number of different horses, and while we want a similar result \u2013 that good shape, smooth way of travelling and a healthy respect for the coloured poles \u2013 the content of the lessons can be quite different.<\/p>\n

This makes it a bit difficult for me to write a generic article about jumping the young horse!\u00a0 But there are some broad ideas that I keep in mind when starting any horse, and this month\u2019s article will go through these.\u00a0 We\u2019ll then focus on the exercises that have been useful in the training of cheeky young Harley.<\/p>\n

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General principles<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The importance of good flatwork doesn\u2019t end after you and your horse have left the 20 x 60.\u00a0 All the things we talked about in last month\u2019s article \u2013 the respect for the leg, the transitions within the pace, the rhythm \u2013 are just as critical in the jumping arena.\u00a0 Be prepared to spend as much time as necessary on the horse\u2019s flatwork before even pointing him in the direction of a jump \u2013 after all, if he\u2019s not responsive to the aids, working in a nice frame and relaxed, how can we expect him to travel sweetly between fences and produce a soft jump?<\/p>\n

I have poles randomly lying about the jump paddock, and I incorporate them into the flatwork in the warm up.\u00a0 I want the horse to learn to trot and canter over these poles calmly and in a rhythm.\u00a0 The presence of a pole should not make him burst with excitement, and if it does, the exercise needs to be repeated until travelling over the poles is almost boring to him.<\/p>\n

Ideally, the jumping should be a bit of a game for the young horse.\u00a0 It\u2019s important that we don\u2019t put the horse through too long a session, in which he becomes tired and begins to despise the coloured poles.\u00a0 The whole experience should be something he enjoys.\u00a0 Having said that, I\u2019ll also be careful to lay the \u2018ground rules\u2019 early on:\u00a0 If I present him at a jump, he needs to make every effort to get to the other side, without questioning me or coming up with reasons why he shouldn\u2019t jump it.<\/p>\n

This can happen only if the horse is confident.\u00a0 To develop this, I begin with the fences quite low, particularly if there is a spooky filler such as a brick wall or dazzleboard underneath.\u00a0 In this case, I\u2019ll even put one end of the top pole on the ground to make the fence as inviting as possible, and low enough that he doesn\u2019t scare himself (or me) if he makes an awkward leap over it.<\/p>\n

In the beginning, the young horse won\u2019t be very adjustable \u2013 in other words, we can\u2019t really come through the turn, see a waiting distance and expect the horse to be able to sit on his haunches and collect his canter.\u00a0 What we can<\/em> do is have the horse in front of the leg in a good, active canter, keep an even rhythm, and make sure that our own position is helping him produce his best jump.<\/p>\n

The importance of the rider\u2019s position over a fence cannot be overemphasised, and Andrew is a stickler for it (either that or he just likes to nag).\u00a0 If we\u2019re too low over the horse\u2019s neck, throw our body forward on take-off, or have our eyes down, we contribute to the horse being a little too heavy on his forehand, and interfere with his ability to be \u2018quick off the floor\u2019.\u00a0 If we sit up too quickly, we prevent him from finishing off his jump, from letting go\u2019 behind.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t give enough rein over the fence, we risk him becoming tight in the neck, hollow and worried…\u00a0 And the list goes on.\u00a0 Thus, whatever your level of experience, you can always benefit from a pair of eyes on the ground, be it your coach or a knowledgeable friend.\u00a0 I am very lucky to be riding in a Vega jump saddle, courtesy of Brighton Saddleworld, which is beautifully made, comfortable and designed in a way that makes it very easy to get my lower leg on the horse.\u00a0 The only downside is that if my position isn\u2019t up to scratch, I can no longer blame my saddle…<\/p>\n

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Hone in on Harley<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By the jumping stallion, Wirragulla Hamlet, Harley loves spending time in the air.\u00a0 But he can get a little untidy in front, a little \u2018long\u2019 in his jump and has a tendency to drift if I\u2019m not on the job.<\/p>\n

Andrew has assured me from the very beginning that the looseness in front will eventually improve, and sure enough, Harley is now much neater, much more together with his forelegs.\u00a0 We haven\u2019t gone crazy putting him through difficult grids \u2013 at most, we have had 3 fences in a row, with just a bounce distance between them.\u00a0 It\u2019s a difficult exercise for Harley, so it\u2019s not something we do too often.<\/p>\n

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To address the length of the jump, we have done quite a bit of work with a placing pole on either side of the fence.\u00a0 The distance is a little short, ie. 8 feet on either side, to encourage Harley to jump \u2018up\u2019 more than \u2018out\u2019 (see diagram).\u00a0\u00a0 We also tend to have the distances slightly shorter in combinations or related lines, so that Harley takes off from a deeper distance and has to \u2018use\u2019 himself, rather than becoming long and flat.<\/p>\n

Any drift in the air needs to be targeted early on, as it can quickly develop into a habit and really affects the quality of the jump.\u00a0 The solution isn\u2019t rocket science \u2013 if he drifts a little to the right over a fence, I\u2019ll adjust my approach slightly so that I\u2019m heading a little right to left.\u00a0 In other words, the horse will take off from slightly right of centre and land slightly left of centre.\u00a0 And vice versa for a left drift.\u00a0 Another good, simple way to teach the horse to stay straight is to have \u2018tramlines\u2019 (see diagram) either side of the jump.\u00a0 I remember working on this with Jamie Coman, and it was really effective, as the poles (rather than too much interference of the rider) encourage the horse to stay straight.<\/p>\n

The cross country<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The horse\u2019s confidence and obedience in this phase is absolutely critical, and this comes down to schooling.\u00a0 I am very fortunate to be sponsored by Over the Top Equipment, who build and supply terrific cross country fences, so my horses have the advantage of becoming very familiar with the types of jumps they\u2019ll come across in competition.\u00a0 But if you don\u2019t have cross country jumps at home, there are still ways of giving your horse a proper preparation.<\/p>\n

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Firstly, there may be cross country jumps in your area, whether part of a pony club course or owned privately.\u00a0 Make enquiries of your local instructors and professional riders \u2013 you can be sure that they will have sussed out the best places to go and school!\u00a0 Most venues will insist that you have a qualified instructor with you, and you can also expect to pay a small fee to use the facilities, but it\u2019s well worth it.\u00a0 Or you can attend a cross country clinic, which is fun and social as well as beneficial to you and the horse.<\/p>\n

Secondly, be creative with what you have available at home.\u00a0 It\u2019s not too difficult to buy or steal 44-gallon drums or those big blue plastic drums, and combined with a couple of rails, you have yourself an arrowhead and apex to school over!<\/p>\n

For the arrowhead, I place 2 poles at the edges of the barrel, sloping outward in sort of a \u2018V\u2019.\u00a0 The most inviting approach for the horse is where the rails slope toward him as he canters up to the fence, framing the barrel.\u00a0 At least in this way, if he is slightly off-centre, he still has to jump.\u00a0 When he\u2019s confidently jumping from this direction, you can approach from the other side, which has the illusion of just a barrel on its own \u2013 a true arrowhead.<\/p>\n

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Your apex, in the beginning, can be more like an oxer, and as the horse grows in confidence, you can make it more and more apex-like.\u00a0 Be very disciplined about your approach \u2013 choose a line and stick to it!\u00a0 I had a really good cross country session with Prue Barrett not long ago, and Prue reminded me that, although a few centimetres off here and there doesn\u2019t seem that significant at the time, if the horse jumps 50 fences like this, he learns that he doesn\u2019t have to stay exactly straight.\u00a0 We get away with it for a while, but when the fences start getting big and ugly-looking, the run-outs start to sneak in.<\/p>\n

Schooling your horse in water is a very important part of your cross country preparation.\u00a0 The water jump is a fence that is guaranteed to come up, sometimes twice, on course, and you\u2019ll come unstuck if the horse has water issues.\u00a0 Fortunately, Harley finds the water intriguing, rather than frightening, and has been willing to take it on from the very start.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t wait until the competition to see if your horse doesn\u2019t like getting his feet wet:\u00a0 Chances are, you\u2019ll be full of adrenaline, desperate to avoid having 20 penalties next to your name, and your horse won\u2019t get the patient introduction to water that he deserves.\u00a0 Make plans to attend a clinic or a local facility, perhaps more than once, before competition day.\u00a0 I always make sure there\u2019s another horse present that is confident in water \u2013 it can save a lot of time and stress if your youngster is able to take a lead from the other.\u00a0 The old adage \u201cif your friend jumped off a cliff, would you do it too?\u201d can in fact be answered in the affirmative when it comes to horses.<\/p>\n

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Emma Mason shows how you train a young eventing prospect…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[381,377,379,77,380],"class_list":["post-3449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eventing","tag-andrew-barnett","tag-emma-mason","tag-eventing-trainng","tag-showjumping-training","tag-young-horse-training"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3449"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20792,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3449\/revisions\/20792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}