she has been living at my barn for 3 years, (since she was 3) and it's a pretty secluded place. only 3 horses, nowhere near roads, and no arenas or big barns.
I moved her to my lesson barn, with tins of horses arenas, you know how it is.
she is naturally nervouse, and is improving alot with me, but aice moving she's been a little hard to ride. She is fine with th other horses, and indoor arena, and in the grass jumping ring by a road she is fine with the cars.
but.. she is constantly a little tense, nothing major, but it makes it a little challenging to ride. I'm giving her lots of time, and taking it really easy, but I'm a little concerned about her jumping.
at home I had her at the point where she would jump anything, I'd move jumps around, put new fillers in, and she would look, overjump, but do it. Now at the new barn, her first jumps in the indoor where just awkward. little impulsion, and juSt wierd timing. I figure it's justa footing pob, something shell get used to.
but in the grass ring, she is nervouse about jumping now. I've only taken her over simple crossrails, but she appraoches crookedly, and then leaps over. after a few rides I tried going over a small bundle of logs. She refused and tossed me, her first refusal since I started training her.
so what can I do to help relaxe her, and get her jumping and riding like normal again?
oh, and I understand she is green and just nervouse about her new surroundings, I just want to see if I can help her.
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Suggestion:
Just keep giving her time and be patient – keep in mind horses don't like "change" at home. Keep things small until she gets comfortablee before moving up to something more challenging. I work with some mares who are 9 and 10 years old and never left the farm they grew up at – the first show or two I took them to were interesting, as it was this winter when we boarded somewhere with an indoor. But each time it gets easier. Keep in mind there's also safety in numbers – try and ride when other, calm horses are working. If she sees her new buddies are comfortable, odds are she'll take her cues from them and be ok.
I would make the suggestion that once she is settled andcomfortablee, see about getting her out more to other farms. Show horses are fairly good with change because they're just plain used to it – so the more you can get her off property once in awhile, the better for her. Take a few people from your barn with the first few times if you can before trying it alone. But it helps.
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Tell your horse to go see a shrink, take some pills, grab a beer and chill out.
I'd say you need to just give her some more time to get used to this totally different environment. It sounds like she was pretty secluded for the first 3 years of her life. It would be a good idea to just go back to flatwork, getting her fundamentals back in place (forward, straight, relaxed) and doing simple exercises, lateral work and transitions and rewarding her liberally.
When she's happy and calm in her flatwork, start back with simple gymnastics with low obstacles, and let her get her confidence back.
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