Oh HEEEEEELLLLLLL NO, thinktwice!!! That’s what I WANT to see hunters jumping like!!! OMG! Amazing!
I think every hunter rider and breeder should be asking themselves what happened. 
The other thing you have to take into account is the timing of the photo. In the old days, the picture was taken at the top of the arc, as the horse was about to descend. So in many cases the horse is starting to “open up” in preparation for landing.
Today’s pictures are usually taken while the horse is still in the takeoff phase (hind end is still much lower than front end) so the horse is still fully “folded”.
I just looked through your whole album and I love that horse! Now THAT’s great riding, great jumping, and outside courses.
I’m amazed by that giant LOG under the one jump indoors and the “backwards rolltop” on the outside course! Stunning.
[QUOTE=ThinkTwice;2515434]
With pictures, that is, not the controversy.
Well, maybe a little.
Here are some “hanging knees” from the 70s… 
http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2750076020058571225vJwVmt?vhost=pets
http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2256146260058571225AkLxKk?vhost=pets[/QUOTE]
Oh-My-God!!!
Incredible!!! That horse and pics totally ROCK!!!
I know who think twice is
You can run but you can’t hide!
Those are truly the kinds of pictures I was hoping would show up. What horse is that?
You know the only thing that could make them better is BRICK breeches!!
[QUOTE=ThinkTwice;2515434]
With pictures, that is, not the controversy.
Well, maybe a little.
Here are some “hanging knees” from the 70s…
http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2750076020058571225vJwVmt?vhost=pets
http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2256146260058571225AkLxKk?vhost=pets[/QUOTE]
Wow! Now that is a gorgeous team!
Great point Janet!
Here is a sequence of three photos of one horse over different jumps in the same class, mid 70s.
The first photo in the sequence shows a picture more typical of today. It’s taken early in the jump and shows a tight front end.
The third photo is typical of the professional photos of the 70s. The horse is centered over the jump and the front end looks less impressive.
More proof of your argument: we bought and framed photo #3!!
http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2612811010058571225IzxuqK?vhost=pets
Think twice is my hero…
I LOVE THESE PICS!!!
[QUOTE=ThinkTwice;2515532]
Great point Janet!
Here is a sequence of three photos of one horse over different jumps in the same class, mid 70s.
The first photo in the sequence shows a picture more typical of today. It’s taken early in the jump and shows a tight front end.
The third photo is typical of the professional photos of the 70s. The horse is centered over the jump and the front end looks less impressive.
More proof of your argument: we bought and framed photo #3!!
http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2612811010058571225IzxuqK?vhost=pets[/QUOTE]
If I showed up somewhere and saw that log jump as part of my course, I would put the horse back on the trailer and promptly drive home :lol:
taken in '76
I found this photo a couple of years ago on the internet and I don’t know the rider or horse.
http://pets.webshots.com/photo/1339607062052670998hymHcl
I love the log jump ThinkTwice posed. We should have more jumps like that in the hunter ring.
I don’t have any pics scanned but I also started showing in the 80’s so they wouldn’t be all that exciting. What I love in all these pictures is that the horses would still do well today. I love seeing the TB, the palomino and the QH. Maybe these horses wouldn’t do as well when counting strides tends to count more in the score but they can really jump.
I remember showing at Rose Mount Farm in 1990. You had to jump out of the ring, canter one jump in the valley behind the ring and then jump back in. I loved it when they did that because my horses were great at that! I remember stabling in the back at Culpepper and getting on our horses bareback on our days off. We would “walk” out to the the cross country course and as soon as we were out of sight we would pick up a gallop and jump those jumps!!! (And my horse had the highest withers… ouch!) And I remember the last outside course I got to do in Cleveland in 1993. I was on a pregreen horse who’s eyes nearly popped out. My own horse was coming back from an injury and what I would have goven to ride him around that course. He would have loved it. After that… they changed the show in Cleveland and now it doesn’t even exist. I jumper “natural” jumps that were at indoors when GM judged the finals.
Of course, now I foxhunt so I can jump all the outside courses I want. And I can go school the local eventing courses… if only I could figure out how to make a circle so they won’t laugh at me in dressage
i hope you don’t mind Nikki i got this from your picture collection:
NOW THIS IS SOME SCOPE:
http://pets.webshots.com/photo/1331944876052670998UgMMbF?vhost=pets
ahaha
That log jump is great! Also, I was at a show last year, just a local one, and the owner had a beautiful log jump (smaller) with beautiful landscaping around it and standards with a natrual pole to adjust the height. Nearly everyone who had to show in classes that day over that jump threw a fit and complained!
Go figure at this years show last weekend, it was no longer in use.
[QUOTE=GreystoneKC;2515096]
Really neat old photos! But…
I really have to say it: Am I the only one here who thinks that while the riders look amazing on these older photos, the horses are jumping terrible!? Some of them are hanging knees, many are stiff and flat. Uhg. I hate it! The only horses that I think look very good are some of the ones moving into the later years with the crest releases… Give me our big soft, round, tight, square hunters any day! I would really love to see more of our nice hunters today over outside courses like that, but I hope they don’t have to give up fantastic form to do it.
We need the riders’ form from the 70’s, the horses’ jump form from now, and the outside courses of yesteryear. Then we might start getting it all right.[/QUOTE] Things were different then. The horses had to be able to jump much higher. None of this 3’ stuff, and none of the inbetween divisions. Green horses showed open as well as green because it was all one hunter division. All hunter courses were big fences…4’ to 4’3" and we did the real hand gallop around the course. The horse poking around the ring with the big round back was not in vogue in those days…and would have been laughed out of the arena. So critique away if you like…but really…it is like comparing apples to oranges.
[QUOTE=Weatherford;2514346]
well, guys, you have POSTED the change from the true auto realease to what I call the beginnings of the “crest release at all times” - look at the pictures from the 60’s and look at the pictures of the 70’s right here!!
The 60’s all have auto releases, and the 70’s have some form of a high CR - either floaty or just broken line from bit to elbow. Granted those 70’s riders are not leaning on their horses’ necks, etc etc - but THAT WAS THE BEGINNING!! I remember - had to CR to win in EQ - started in the early 70’s - just before I aged out… Having read the book, where it stated (still does) that the CR was an intermediate release, I didn’t understand what was going on… Should I say, I still don’t 
:lol:
LOVE thos BRICK BREECHES!!!
my outside course photo circa 69, I think…[/QUOTE]
I remember a brush jump exactly like that at the old Des Moines show
I also remember when you HAD to do the CR in order to pin in EQ and for the life of me, I couldn’t understand why. It was like taking a giant step back.
I’m glad that I was lucky enough to grow up and show when I did. If I were doing it now, I don’t know that I would have had the experiences that I did
I LOVE those buffalo jumpers. My daughter’s first pony’s head looked like a buffalo, and she was AWESOME>
speaking of auto releases… we had a three jump grid in my lesson today, and every time I did it I practiced my auto release, and did it right! 
I was thinking to myself oh, the COTH ladies would be so proud.
[QUOTE=skrgirl;2515600]
If I showed up somewhere and saw that log jump as part of my course, I would put the horse back on the trailer and promptly drive home :lol:[/QUOTE]
I think my horse would drive himself home, at that point. :lol:
Great photos everyone! Thanks so much for sharing, they are all wonderful. Gorgeous riders, beautiful horses, fun jumps. I hope the hunter divisions are able to make some changes in the coming years (as suggested by GM and others) so that we take the best from the past and current styles and help the sport evolve in a positive direction.
I <heart> hunters.
i love seeing those old pictures!! I think a huge part of the differences in jumping style between the photos from back then and now has to do with the timing of the photography, as someone already said, and also the fact that they really galloped the fences, which even in a super horse leads naturally to a flatter (but not neccessarily better or worse) jump.
