I mean there are professional jockeys and show riders who must be doing *something* at a very high level, but I honestly don’t understand what. Like if I’m riding a horse that’s jumping over a fence, isn’t that all the horse? And I just need to not fall off?
In: Other
Jumping is a lot of different skills at once. Say you’re jumping one fence at a canter. You need to steer your horse to the fence, then understand what pace your horse is going at. So that means if your horse is too quick, you need to slow him down, or if he’s too slow, you need to speed him up. You also need to be able to see a distance as in where he is going to take off from. If you take off from too far away or too close, you can knock the fence down or be unsafe. So if your horse has a short stride or you know he is going to take off too far away, you’ll need to push him to the fence. If you have a horse that has a super long stride or he’s going to end up too close, you’ll need to condense his stride to put him at a better take off spot.
And we’re not even over the fence yet!
Once you’re at the fence, you need to balance yourself to stay out of your horse’s way. Yes, you want to stay on, but you don’t want to throw yourself forward and upset his balance, or get left behind and land on his back with a thump. You’ll also be looking where you want to go next, whether that is the next fence or the end of the arena. Your horse will be looking for directions of where to go after the fence. You will also be aware of his pace too. Some horses rush after the fence, and if there’s another one, you need to prepare for that. Or else you’re getting ready to slow down and stop and need to prepare the horse for that transition.
And that’s not even mentioning horses that duck out, or refuse, or are crooked to the fence, or are silly beans! There’s always something happening underneath you, making you actively ride at all times 🙂 Hope that helps!
Latest Answers