Why is it when I look at the pictures from all the fancy hunter rounds at Devon this week, and other shows in the past, many of the riders are lying on their horses neck and looking down at the fence. I know that hunter shows are judged on the horse making a pretty picture but my gosh it would be easier to notice the horse looks pretty if the riders looked pretty too!!!
Yes, and the horse would look prettier if the rider were giving him a good ride and not just being a passenger! But my brief experience with the hunt seat was so long ago, and the style is so different now, that I will say no more …
Gotta find myself some pics of Devon, though …
Oh hey, I haven’t seen this topic in a minute.
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-29251.html
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-236240.html
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-189154.html
This is my favorite topic! I can’t wait to see what fresh, original insights will be shared.
Oh come on, lots of awful jumper riders do this too haha I like when Denny Emerson posts 40 year old pics of himself doing this and then proceeds to mock himself.
Yikes, sorry I’m new here. Never mind.
If you don’t like it, then don’t do it. Easy peasy.
Welcome to the BB.
I’m glad you started the thread, WhiskeyBuddy. Sorry others are being sarcastic.
As for jumper riders, they are not judged on form, nor are their horses. Just clearing the fence in the time. Hunters is a completely different discipline, and equitation does matter.
Not unless you’re showing equitation which is the only place it matters
Come on “new poster” how about a more controversial topic next time?
[QUOTE=Anonymoose;7597821]
As for jumper riders, they are not judged on form, nor are their horses. Just clearing the fence in the time. Hunters is a completely different discipline, and equitation does matter.[/QUOTE]
Wrong. Equitation matters in Equitation classes. That’s it. Hunters are judged on the horse’s form only, period, end-of-story.
yawn
Instead of some snarky, rude comment belittling the OP, why not just, oh I don’t know, not comment at all?
Equitation is so overrated.
Personally? I end up this way quite often because my horse actually does have an enormous jump that is very hard to stay with. She is a great hunter, but holy cow does she launch over those fences. I’ve had many highly skilled riders get off her and go “How the **** do you jump that horse!?”
I just know that back in the dark ages when I was learning to ride hunters, if I had looked like that I would’ve got yelled at and probably not been allowed to show until I was worthy. But that was a 1000 years ago and I guess things have changed.
This is one of those thread topics where people come on and reminisce about how everything was better in the olden days, when people had perfect equitation, horses had perfect bascules, the pace was more forward, and everyone walked barefoot in the snow, uphill both ways, to get to the barn to clean their tack with a toothbrush. And not one of those fancy electric ones!
OP, welcome to the boards. Just as a heads up, if you post a thread like this one, which is basically “why do all these hunter riders have horrible equitation, back in my day…”, it will probably not be well-received overall. It’s been beaten to death.
Happy posting!
Everyone needs a nap now and then.
Yeesh–no need to bite OPs head off. I think this is a legit question for anyone who has read a George Morris book which describes eyes up, heals down, legs staying put, don’t rest on the horses neck etc. It sounds like OP was just trying to understand why that may be the case.
17 responses - and still no one has answered the OPs question.
Yes, I know it’s been discussed at length, but is there a simple explanation for why many riders choose this style?
Well, since it has been discussed and argued over and rehashed a billion times, the OP could go look at some of the threads provided above to get the gist of what people think about it.
Or we could go over it again in this thread. Fun!
My input: there is no good reason for it. It is a style that developed a couple of decades ago-ish in part to demonstrate how big and round the horse jumped, and it has stuck around.
On the other hand, it’s not hurting anyone so maybe it’s not as bad as other things. Like…draw reins!!! HAH HAH HAH HAH!!! <---- OP, since you are new here, draw reins are another topic which causes lots of controversy.
