IS YOUR HORSE GOING GREEN INTO THE FENCE?

Does your horse gawp at some cross-country jumps like they’re an alien being even though you’ve practised the same thing countless times at home? Before you put a call into the vet about your horse’s short-term memory loss, take a step back. “When I met a rider who had this problem, we managed to identify a pattern,” says Helen. “We discovered that there was always a jump that the rider didn’t like directly after the one her horse was going green at. “Instead of thinking about the jump in front of her, the rider was thinking about what was coming up afterwards. This made her horse think that she was worried about the fence coming up and, as a result, he backed off from it, even though it was something relatively straightforward.” The key to overcoming this problem is to focus on the task in hand. If you’re thinking too far ahead and worrying about it, your horse will sense your tension and think there’s something he needs to be scared of coming up.