[QUOTE=Linny;7680194]
Actually the slavish use of striding is relatively recent. When hunters showed over hunt courses judges weren’t sitting there counting to 24 between fences. The jumps mattered, getting lead changes mattered and way of going and manners mattered.
Certainly at the division level, the horses should get the strides. Not getting the strides will always decrease your score but at certain levels it is far less a fault than many other common occurrences.
As an announcer I often sit with judges and at local and entry levels. There, in a class of 10 horses at 2’3 or so, only 2 or 3 horses CAN make the lines (without running) judges prefer a well ridden add that results in a good jump out over a charging line resulting in a leap out. At “entry levels” it shows thoughtful riding and most judges want to reward that.
Once you move into the higher levels it is far more important. By the 3’, yu should be getting the numbers and certainly above that.[/QUOTE]
It’s true that counting strides has not always been a focus… but counting is just one way of determining the length of stride/quality of the canter-- and that has always been a focus. There was a time when rings/courses were big enough that jumps were set far enough apart that there was a little more wiggle room… but in a small ring with jumps set 4-5-6 strides apart… if you aren’t getting the numbers it’s almost certainly because of the length of stride/quality of the canter. The number is just a proxy, but what it’s a proxy for has always mattered.
