Belgian/TB Crosses. (Only if you have one, or know one, comment)

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Permalink Reply by Mary H on November 14, 2009 at 1:32pm

I am currently leasing a horse that I am guessing is a belgian cross. See my profile photo - he is the palomino in my profile pic. I also used to ride a full clydesdale. I have jumped with both and they are much heavier than Bella appears to be. Rita, the clydesdale was a logging horse and we taught her to jump. Because of her past she was always very heavy on the reins and I had to constantly remind her to shift her weight to her back legs. She didn't go far in jumping because she started to have trouble with her pasterns. She was probably just to heavy. Rita was also kinda clumbsy. I did go down with her once but luckily I landed on her neck and she didn't flip. The clumbsyness was helped by keeping her head up and weight shifted to her rear instead of her forehand. Oh yes, when we first got her she would run off with any little bit of leg you gave her. I had to do a lot of starts and stops and upward and downward transitions to keep her from becoming an out-of-control freight train.
The palomino belgian I currently ride was a trail and western horse before. His owner had only walked and trotted him for the past few years. Even though he is 10 he didn't really seem to know how to canter and rushes at first. I start the canter going toward the side fence of the arena and keep him on a 20 meter circle at first until he calms down. I have started jumping with him and he absolutely loves it. One day he actually jumped over an orange cone! We have jumped a huge log and he was okay. He has an amazing jumping ability for a horse so big.
You need to find a very good trainer. Start jumping only a bit at a time at first and check her legs to make sure they aren't getting sore. Do lots of starts and stops to make sure she is in control with every step first. On the day of the fall did you stop Bella with a pulley rein, by circling her or pulling her head to the side? If she is clumbsy I would imagine she could trip easy if you just crank her head and neck to one side.

Permalink Reply by Michelle Miller on December 15, 2009 at 4:34pm

Yeah, I forgot to mention that Bella is also extremely energetic so when I touch her with my leg, she jumps into a frenzied gallop, and it's kind of scary. She's a lot better to the left, but I get scared whenever I canter her to the right. She leans a lot in her turns. Do you think she will slow down and get better? We are using her in a regular bridle with a twisted bit (I forget what it is called), and no curbchain yet.. But for hunter I have to ride in a snaffle, so I am kind of nervous to take her back down in a snaffle when it is time for us to do that, because she used to run away with her head up high and the bit in her mouth. She was exactly as you said "A runaway crazy freight train". She still runs a bit sometimes, but only for a few frightening seconds. What do you mean by starts and stops?

Thank you for your advice, it was really uplifting!

Permalink Reply by Ann Neal on January 21, 2010 at 1:38pm

I have a Belgian/Tbred that I bought out of the nurse mare as a weanling from Kinghaven farms. He's a big boy but surprisingly light on his feet and now at 18 is a schoolmaster. He was dressage trained, showed as an Ami-A Jumper and then the kid nabbed him & showed him hunters then evented him when she was 13. My younger daughter rides him sidesaddle and is hoping to get out to an event sidesaddle this season. In our case, more leg is best, that is the more you apply the leg the more he "sits" on it and lightens in front, but it took many hours of training to get there.

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Permalink Reply by Sherry Cassetori on December 7, 2009 at 12:27pm

Hi, I have a belgian tb he just turned 6, He does sound like your horse in a way, I have only had him for about 6 months, he is 17.1 hands and I do love him. I keep him at a barn that the owner breeds and trains Oldenburg's. She picked my horse out for me. YES they can jump, and really do like to jump, I left my Moe out in the area with the jumps just to run around one day, He was running and having fun jumping some of the cross rails,. Once while in a lesson I jumped through the horseshoe, Moe thought there was a rail in the middle, because when he jumped it , the jump was huge, My trainer just looked at me and said Yes he can jump. I do have to say Moe would rather jump while in a canter opposed to a trot, and yes being young things do frighten him, I stay calm and get him in a circle and he calms down quickly. When I bought Moe he was used for Fox hunting. Give her time, she will be everything you want her to.

Permalink Reply by Michelle Miller on December 7, 2009 at 1:22pm

Thank you very much for responding! I really needed to hear that. Sometimes we have good days where she makes so much progress, but we more often have the bad days when I'm wondering "Why the heck did I buy this animal!?" But I'll stick with her, because I really want her to be everything I've dreamed of.

Permalink Reply by maureen hall on December 9, 2009 at 10:40am

We have a belgian/tb mare - she is 7 and a big girl - my older son events her - pics of our horses are at www.hotelfun4kids.com/horses.htm - she is the bay with no white on her - lots of jump pics there.

Permalink Reply by Jordan Brown on April 15, 2010 at 8:46am

Hey! I have a Belgian x TB who I successfully compete as an eventer. I have attached a photo for you to see. It is very possible for them to jump, but I think it also depends on the horse. I have a 17'2'' mare named Molly (Good as Gold), who I bought from a previous owner who had done Training level with her. I currently compete her at Pre-Training with hopes of moving up this summer. I know she is a Belgian cross, however I am not sure as to the exact proportions, we think her parents may have been a TB and a TB x Belgian.

Here is the pictures:

The thing that I have found with Belgian (or draft) crosses in general, is that they are very well mannered, are willing to please, and for the most part very sane minded. Molly fits all those criteria, but she is a mare, and sometimes acts like it, Belgian or not. Sometimes I think that she thinks she is a full TB. She is never unsafe, it is just sometimes hard to keep her attention, and she will have a ton of energy. Other times, she is pokey and I can throw three tiny camp kids on her to take around on a trail ride. Mares will be mares, and I know of very few ones that sometimes need to be a little girl :P. With Molly, I ride her in a KK (which is a fancy double jointed loose ring snaffle basically) and it is a fairly soft but. I do have a flash and a crank noseband, but I rarely need to tighten them. For cross country I usually ride her in a Waterford. She is a great cross country horse, loves to jump and is athletic and can do the galloping in between. She comes back very nicely with voice and little reign, but occasionally needs a little reminder that I'm up there when we are heading towards home.

We also had a bad accident a few summer ago. Molly has the mentality sometimes that she needs to use momentum to get herself up and over a jump, which is not safe at all. She is learning to rock back on her bum and push from behind (which is easy for her, she has a big bum) to get herself over the now bigger jumps. When we had this accident, Molly wasn't really paying attention to me, I had lost her attention before the jump (she was in a mood) and we took off too early, she caught the front rail of the oxer between her front legs, and of course when she landed she crumpled and I got thrown 20 feet over her head. We were both fine, and she hopped right back up. It has taken a lot of slow jumping work to get us back to trusting each other, she needs to be able to trust me to get her the right distance to the jump everytime, and I need to trust her not to run when I set her up correctly.

In my opinion, she is one of the best horses I have ever ridden. She is athletic, talented and tries extremely hard. She can jump like crazy!!! For the most part she is extremely calm, but sometimes does act like a mare, which most mares will from time to time, no matter what breed.

I don't know if this helped at all, but feel free to respond with any questions or comments :)

Have a good one!