In competitive show horse jumping, what does the rider “do” that makes them better than other riders?
In: Other
Staying on the horse, steering it.
It is really difficult to stay seated on a half ton of jostling a bouncing muscle with a mind of its own. A beginner would have some balance issues staying on at a slow trot, jumping over something? Or even just running/turning quickly? It requires a lot of skill and practice.
Plus, the rider has to control and guide the horse. Those jump shows have specific paths to follow, and while the horse will generally get the gist of “there’s a fence, I jump over those” or “there’s a barrel, I go around those.” Remembering what order to do 20-30 of those when your cross crossing your own path isn’t easy, so being able to accurately guide the horse while also staying on top of it is important.
Obviously anything like this will also depend on the skill and training of the horse, a perfect rider won’t be able to do it with an untrained horse, but a perfectly trained horse also typically won’t be able to do it with out a rider. It’s a team competition really.
Source: my cousin did this stuff and I got to ride a horse once and man it is not a very smooth ride.
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