Ready, Set, Jump!

Foundation before specialization is a fundamental tenet of my approach to horsemanship. My intended specialization for Finn is eventing, but a person might not guess that by observing our day-to-day work. The process doesn’t look like the product, but it results in a product that tastes all the sweeter.

That said, Finn’s progress in the last couple of months has caused me to reconsider my long-term schedule for his development. While I certainly don’t want to push him too fast, there’s no benefit in holding back for no reason other than he was prepared before I was. It is a horsewoman’s challenge to set goals, but let the horse dictate the timeline. Although that often means slowing down when I’m impatient, it can also mean keeping up when Finn is improving full speed ahead.

In particular, I’ve begun thinking in concrete terms about teaching Finn to jump. Until now, jumping Finn has been out there in the ether… it’s something I always planned to do, but assumed it would be so long before we were ready that I might as well not think about it. That’s no longer an accurate picture of where we are or where we’re going, and so I feel it’s time to take hold of this fuzzy dream and turn it into a plan.

Finn will be far from the first horse I’ve taught to jump, although it has been a while. I’ve taught horses that were quite talented, horses that were rushers, and horses who destroyed whole grids without batting an eye. Once, I taught a horse that was quite talented, but very nervous and easily over-faced. Knowing Finn as I do, I expect that’s the experience I’ll draw on most. I believe Finn will be an excellent jumper, but I’ll have to patiently and deliberately develop his confidence in order for him to shine.

That’s why I think the time to begin is now. I’m still working at getting Finn centered and straight, following my focus on a loose rein, but he’s centered and straight enough that I don’t think adding ground poles into the equation would be detrimental to the process. In fact, I think it might help. And there is definitely no such thing as too much practice at ground poles for this horse.

With the nervous jumper I trained before, my then trainer recommended a different progression than what I’d been used to. Whereas we had usually started our green jumpers with lots of grid work, the nervous mare was mind-blown by that challenge. So, we changed gears and gave her lots of experience jumping tiny to very small single fences. I competed her in four Elementary level horse trials, jumping courses of 18” fences, before we finally returned to her grid work in the Fall. This plan allowed her to blossom into a confident jumper, and I expect my approach with Finn will be similar.

So, over the next several weeks, I plan to incorporate poles into our rides a couple times a week. We’ll start out very simple, and gradually increase the challenge as Finn tells me he’s ready. I’m in no hurry, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m actually jumping this horse before I know it.

Another thing I plan to do is give Finn opportunities to practice cavalletti and small jumps on line or at liberty. While my focus has shifted away from working on the ground so much, I believe there’s great value in allowing a horse to develop his agility and skill over fences without a rider on his back. Although I will still take this only as fast as Finn tells me he can handle, I certainly expect he’ll see complex questions here long before I feel we’re ready to try them from the saddle.

There are also a few elements outside of Finn’s confidence that will also shape our progress. First, my own skill. I haven’t jumped seriously in over a decade, and I’ve gotten very out of the habit of using my leg as my base of support. Considering Finn’s sensitivity, I owe him more than what I can currently offer. Until I feel I’m secure enough to do him justice, even when he falters, I will stick to ground poles and cavalletti.

My Ansur dressage saddle is also a limiting factor. I’ll happily take on the tiny stuff in it, but for a couple reasons I’ll definitely want something more appropriate before we go too much beyond that. For the last year or so, I’ve been dying for a nice western saddle to take out on the trail. Finn’s recent progress, though, has made me realize a jumping saddle needs to be my next acquisition. Conveniently, it will no doubt be less expensive than the western options I’ve been eying!

Lastly, there is the dearth of jumps I have access to. Where I board, we have four ground poles. As tight as my budget is, buying my own toys is not an immediate option. While I will have an eye out for affordable alternatives to regular standards, I will also be very conscious of keeping things safe and secure. With a horse who’s confidence is as tenuous as Finn’s, at least at the beginning I want to stay away from anything so lightweight that a tiny nick can send it flying. Besides, Finn has already shown me he takes more easily to natural looking obstacles -- a log versus a row of plastic barrels, for example. Naturally, I’d like to begin with what comes easy to him, so I’ll be avoiding some of the cheap options I’ve seen employed elsewhere.

Speaking of my tight budget… I would love to take lessons to help Finn and I through this process, and I likely will at some point when my finances are a little more feasible and I find an instructor I trust. Stay tuned for that. For now, I’ll do what I can on my own.

I really look forward to documenting and sharing this process. It’s an exciting development in my adventure with Finn, and will add some pleasant variety to our current routine. So here’s to my little buddy, who’d suddenly feeling very grown up and ready for the future to be here now.