Question # 13: I need help with my stadium rounds. My horse gets revved up at shows and as our stadium course goes on it gets worse and worse.
He is fighting me the whole way and not really in control. We meet a lot of jumps awkwardly, and we usually have lots of rails down. I use a regular full cheek snaffle and a running martingale. I haven't gone to a stronger bit, since he actually has a nice mouth the rest of the time. We do fine on cross country, it's only like this in the stadium jumping. Can you help us?? (Anonymous)
I could certainly answer you much more specifically if I could see a video of what is happening. Can you submit a video?
Generally a good, smooth, clean stadium round happens when you have the right quality of canter, and your horse is adjustable. Because it sounds like your horse is lacking in adjustability, the quality of your canter is diminishing as your round goes on, and you then are unable to fix it.
What do I mean by the right quality of the canter? The right canter to jump out of is balanced, rhythmic, straight, and in self carriage. With the appropriate amount of impulsion for the jump in front of you.
It takes adjustability to be able to maintain that canter throughout a course. Your horse may approach the first jump with the right canter, and land from the first jump running, flat, and out of balance. If your horse is adjustable, you can easily put him right back in the same quality canter you had before the jump. If you do not have adjustability, your rounds will get worse and worse like you describe.
Here is a great exercise to improve your horse's adjustability: (Click on Question title above (in blue) to read full answer)
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