Working With Green Jumper

Question
Hi my name is Kimberly ,
My friend & I have been working with her Mare , She is green and is 16.2 and clumsey. We have been trying to free jump her and she is doing terribly , She can't even jump 2 hands off the ground with out knoking the poles and we are very set on getting her jumping even a little bit higher without her knocking over the poles as we are working with younger horses and they are doing great ! She can jump and we know she can she has cleared alteast 7 hands high and with scope (she was close to the jump) How can we get her to jump higher with out nocking the poles

Answer
Kimberly,

Well, there are a number of things you can do.  You said she's clumsy.  I don't know how old she is but I assume she's young since you said she's green.  She needs to learn to handle herself better before you ask her to jump.  I would spend some time working with her over ground poles and later, cavaletti.  Not just 4 poles, 6-8 of them.  Also do some basic dressage work with her.  Teach her shoulder and hindquarter yields, side-passing, turns on the forehand and hindquarters.  

If she is young she's simply not grown up to herself yet.  Just like a kid who grew really quickly and didn't have time to learn how to handle himself.  You need to be patient with her while she figures out what to do with her feet.  Horses all learn at their own pace, different for each individual.  Be very positive and encouraging with her. Make sure she understands what you are asking her to do.  Horses learn much better when you spend time with them.  I think you'll find that when her coordination gets better she'll do better.  The cavaletti will help a great deal but she needs to start with ground poles.  This is not a process that can be hurried or have steps skipped when doing.  If you do, you won't get the results you are looking for and may really mess the horse up in the process.  Once she's doing well on the cavaletti then I would start with slowly raising the last pole and moving it out slightly each time until it becomes the jump at the end of the cavaletti.  She's not going to get very high at this jump but she'll figure out what to do with herself and how to handle her legs and body.  Once she's got it moving from the cavaletti and up to jumping is a snap.  Lay the proper groundwork and this can be a fascinating experience watching how she learns and adjusting your training to fit her learning pace and little quirks that might show up along the way.  Horses can be dyslexic just like people. I would swear some definately have ADD or ADHD.  But millions of years of evolution have set that up.  Their attention span is short and they need a lot of repetition.  Some are dumber than others.   They are willing but have an extremely difficult time interpreting your requests.  I've had to get very inventive in a couple of cases but did eventually with love and patience get the idea across.  Biggest thing you need is patience.  I can't stress that enough.  This cannot be rushed.  

Good luck.  Invest the time now and you will be rewarded well with the results.  A willing, happy horse eager to please you and ready to try to do what you ask.  With mares it's especially important to remember that they are girls.  They need to be treated like ladies and asked, not ordered around.  Your're a girl, think how you like to be treated.  

Lyn