Did any of you train your own jumper or did you purchase a jumper that had already been trained? I am wanting to purchase a jumper and while I have trained horses in other disciplines I have never trained a jumper. Did you use a professional trainer or study several trainers on your own and use a combination of techniques?

I would imagine that there are greater risks with training for jumping than training for other disciplines, so wouldn't this be one to consult a professional on? I wouldn't like to take risks.

Jumping is indeed a whole other beast. Its very easy to ruin a horse for jumping with lack of knowledge and deciding to do it yourself. It really is another case of green horse and green rider don't mix. So unless you've been riding and showing jumping for a very long time and worked from trained toward less trained mounts I'd suggest either purchasing a partially trained horse or getting professional help to train your own.

Training a horse to jump from scratch is indeed a daunting task. Especially in the early stages it is easy to misjudge how quickly to progress and cause the horse to be afraid instead of self confident which can effect their passion for jumping for the rest of their lives. Without good form over fences and a complete knowledge of what the horse should be doing its best to get help.