Anyone at the medal finals? I stopped in for a bit today. Saw some great riding with the exception that the top two in the open class DEFINATELY posted the canter…A LOT. It wasn’t just a touch once or twice it was honest to gosh up and then down and then up and then down and then up and then down - 4-5-6 strides in a row at the ends of the ring throughout the course (not just at the beginning). Granted - the top rider did this AND found all the jumps beautifully AND had a nice position AND had great control of track, pace, balance and rythym. Is posting now an accepted thing? My judge friend said that people are calling it “feeling” the canter and newer judges are ok with it. Thoughts?
No ma’am.
To me, it means the horse is behind the leg.
Also, I think it helps a rider with seeing a distance. That’s just my intuition from riding. The problem of riding to fences if getting your body to correlate the “unit” or the stride, or each moment of suspension in the canter with how much distance you have closed toward the fence. I have weird eyes and prolly not the depth perception that the rest of you baseball stars have. So I find myself liking to ride in a deep half-seat. I watch Rich Fellers ride-- he really has his body up over the horse and hovers up there. But he is very accurate. I don’t think I could be accurate without my body being so tied to the feel of the canter. So I think the posting-at-the-canter girls are giving themselves a way to create and feel the kind of rhythm it takes to find distances.
Either way, I don’t think it’s good equitation.
I see a lot of people mistaking a light seat for posting at the canter.
I also think it’s kind of lacking in class to make a post like this calling out specific people’s rides when they didn’t ask for any critique and probably don’t even post here, but that’s JMHO.
It takes nothing to be kind.
7 Likes
No offense to the riders at all. The winners/top placers executed their rounds beautifully overall. There were many open sections before the actual medal so my intent was not to point out any specific rider. I just saw this posting at the canter druing one of the open classes - one out of numerous sections. It was meant in all innocense to ask if that technique is being accepted now. Not to say it is good or bad.
I think that it’s becoming more “acceptable” than it has been previously. Still not preferred, but if you can have a flawless ride aside from that and its smoother and more pleasant to watch than everybody else, it makes sense that she won.
I think the point is, the observation could have been made & the discussion could have commenced without naming the actual Medal Final, thereby passing judgement (inadvertent or not) on some poor kid showing there.
3 Likes
