Food for thought…
There’s a lot of talk of FB about the pros–at indoors most recently–ducking and ruining the overall picture of the hunters. Then, a great “Defender” jumps in to point out the round is being judged on the horse, not the rider. While this is all true, it is some of these great “Defenders” who also post on FB about kids being more serious at shows, leaving their cell phones back at the barn, and watching and listening to the masters.
But if The Masters are exhibiting poor form, and essentially form that can throw the horse off balance, then I feel The Masters should work on their equitation!! Chris Payne, Geoff Hesslink, Scott Stewart, and John French get incredible jumps out of their horses–there’s no arguing that. But so do Liza Boyd, Vanessa Brown, Kelly Farmer, Peter Pletcher (and the list goes on) all in good form.
If we are coaching our juniors to exemplify “The Masters”, then shouldn’t the very best example be put forth? The comments on FB about these pros “ducking” is not really that far off!!!