Hi there again, I’m kind of lurking over here since I’m new to the foxhunting thing and all. I’m going out for my 2nd time ever on Wednesday and I can’t wait. Sometimes I get the impression from folks of other disciplines that foxhunters are not as strict in their training of horses as in they don’t teach their horses how to jump properly, etc. I had a dressage instructor tell me that alot of foxhunting horses have incorrect muscular development as in their underneck muscles are too big ,they throw themselves over fences, etc. It seems to me that to have a good horse at foxhunting means having a horse who really knows how to jump over varying terrain in a variety of ever changing conditions and also have the mental amptitude to deal with all of this in a sensible manner. It reminds me of that saying "just a trail horse’. In my limited experience a good trail horse is worth their weight in gold and I bet the same about a good foxhunting horse as well. Anyway has anyone else run into these “prejudices”.
that is the distressing part, horses so dull from endless trips around the indoor, riders taking ever more lessons only to demonstrate that they have advanced their horse to the next level of training. what a waste, forever training without an end use. a green horse might need a few lessons but if they will go, jump, and stop the rest is OJT. of course some of our members like Maria are in to other riding disciplines scroll down to the 3rd and 4th photo but i think they and their horses enjoy both the hunt and the event.
trainers and boarding barns that rely on training income do not favor fox hunters [generalization, sorry] clearly there is little training revenue from those who want to just rest before the next meet and let down all summer. I just retired my horse after 10 years of hunting. outside of working with a trainer the year after purchase, I am one of those fox hunters who has avoided the training cult, where the training is the end product, ribbons are the measuring stick, and fun/cost ratio minuscule. looking at a new horse sunday.
Vickyrider, what a great story. We have several people in our hunt who began riding in their fifties in order to hunt and have (expensive) very made mounts who cart them around the hunt field. I actually think the best thing these riders can do is just sit there and not interfere with the horse. They still fall off because even the best hunter will have to pop a ditch occasionally and those riders can’t stay on. All in all, better than snatching and pulling and ruining these wonderful babysitters.
I’ve seen very few horses be able to “do it all.” But they do exist. Ranch work is probably the closest thing to foxhunting, so I could see a good ranch horse also being a good field hunter. A lot easier for the horse to go from the hunt field to the show ring than from the show ring to the hunt field. Is that why we’re misunderstood?
I also think US ‘hunter’ classes are a bit of a joke in that they bear no relation to hunting whatsoever - perhaps they should be renamed ‘show horse over fences’ or something similar? Then ‘hunters’ could be reclaimed by those horses who can actually hunt!
Amen, sister girl.
I found that sitting out in the boonies whilst whipping-in is a great dressage “schooling” opportunity! Thrashing through the woods is also a good time to school flying changes!
The backcracker thread/question is actually posted on three forums. I thought we weren’t supposed to do that…
And everyone is giving the same answer anyway.
I’ve heard people say about really good horses: “He’s too good to be just a hunter”, to which I usually reply, “A good hunter may be too good to compete”.
We are approaching our hunting season and I have a new horse to start. The horse I have hunted for the last two years is now too valuable to hunt. We jump wire fences and he is now an extablished intermediate eventer. I cannot risk him getting injured, simply because he is awesome to hunt.
A really good hunter is hard to come by. They will gallop in a crowd, jump anything in front of them, take off from any terrain and then when the run is over will pull up and stand quietly or walk quietly home. A really good hunter could cross into any discipline and make a good job of it. (Except prehaps hunter jumping, because that is really about anything but the horse!)
The hunt field also makes really good riders. Take a young rider out hunting to see what they’re really made of - most kids wouldn’t cope.
Originally posted by Delphi:
Well, thats foxhunting. The rider sits there and enjoys the scenery while the horse does all the work of getting from where you are to where you want to be. Speed, terrain and obstacles fall under “duty of horse” while enjoying scenery and sights fall under “duty of rider”. Its lucky horses enjoy foxhunting as much as us and willing to take us with them.
Personally, as someone who is young, but has been foxhunting for 8 years and around foxhunters (the horses) for 12 (I’m only 22), by saying that I just sit there in the field is kind of insulting, and most that are on here should take offense. I have made nearly every horse I have ridden out hunting, minus one horse that I had to ride becasue no one would ride him because although he is a seasoned hunter, he is a pain in the ass. Anyways, I have a 6 y/o TB that is wonderful and one of the most comfortable rides you will ever have out hunting, but if you just “sit there and enjoy the scenery,” you may end up in a tree or on the ground. I’m not out there for the scenery, I’m out there for the sport and the hounds, and I know to most this sounds crazy coming from someone who is young, but that is how I was raised. I know I’m not going to go out and win an equitation championship, but I do try to look good over fences because you end of getting hurt if you do something wrong. Foxhunters are priceless, but they can make mistakes too.
As for training, every horse I train is first started on trails, and jumped over logs to teach them they can’t crash through jumps. Then they go in the ring where they start their dressage work and grid work. Also, after working with a race horse trainer for years, every horse of mine is fit to go hunting and is worked on hills so we don’t lag behind out hunting.
And as for foxhunters not being pretty, some don’t, I agree. But, go tell that to Beth DeStanley, or Elise Daniels, who both show the “big stuff.” Not to mention the top eventers that foxhunt. The master we board horses for is one of the most stylish foxhunters I have seen, and come to find out he used to be a big time jumper rider. Go figure. He also expects his horses to hunt, but be able to do other stuff just as well.
Have any of you been to any Hunt Nights? I don’t see any of those winning teams looking “sloppy” over fences.
Sorry to rant, but it kind of irritates me when foxhunters get generalized, just as show hunters, eventers, and dressage people do.
I hunted for most of my childhood though I stopped in my mid-teens because of discovering boys 
and because the antis started to become VERY agressive in England at that time. However I have hunted as an adult occasionally since, and in all those years I have seen the widest variety of riding abilities in the hunting field than anywhere else in the equestrian world.
Once I was asked to take the wife of one of my husband’s business friends hunting (now that is business entertaining!). I can be a bit of riding snob at times but honestly this lady was over the top. I guess she wanted to go back to London after weekend and brag she’d been hunting. Anyway, I was assigned to bring her back alive 
, even though she had hardly ridden before but a good hunt livery fixed her up with a giant school master who looked after her safely for a full morning, and she had an absolute ball on him. BUT she really did just sit there and the horse did everything. There was I escorting her on my tiny 15.2 welshx, covered in mud and sweat, but I promise you she still looked pretty immaculate (well, relatively) by comparison when we returned. The horse was so big and really had just stepped over the hunt jumps, while over the same fences I had been flailing away with whip and spurs on my little chap!
But if you had put this same lady on my boy over 2.6 pole fences in an arena she wouldn’t have lasted the first fence - she really was that bad a rider - but in the field on a sure footed experienced hunter she looked like she had been hunting all her life.
I have also seen many regular ‘rich city’ hunters who really do 'just ride to hunt’and are absolutely oblivious to the feelings of their mounts - cantering on tarmac roads or coming back not caring that their horse’s legs are either lame or bleeding heavily.
BUT at the same time I have many friends who hunt who have very little money, and ride superbly and would never over extend their horse out hunting or ride while lame. You really can’t generalise.
Three different forums…shoot I didn’t mean to,thought I deleted those other posts. Darn too busy smokin crack behind the barn to notice 
.Why did I think “backcracker” might be an insult…Number one I wasn’t familiar with the term, No.2 I’ve heard less than nice things about this horse ,some of it from instructors too. I’ve got a new instructor who is the first one to tell me not to sell this horse short because you never know what he might end up doing, Granted she doesn’t blow sunshine up my A** BUT it’s better than hearing “oh , he’ll never be able to handle foxhunting” or “he doesn’t extend enough for dressage” or “he’s a lousy jumper”…I’m out to prove em all wrong and Already am starting to do that on a few things. Ah, I digress, really I was just curious about the definition of “backcracker” that’s all.
I have to say everyone that has posted is pretty much right on. When I first discovered foxhunting about 8 years ago, it was a whole different style of riding that I never really knew existed. It made my horse much braver and bolder, and it made me much stronger and tight as a tick over fences. And you absolutely do learn to ride alot more defensively and not pose-y. Catching your horse at a show in a ring is one thing, catching it in thousands of acres of hunt territory is another entirely
Now the jumps that used to be scary to me at shows are like “Is that it?”, and it’s almost offensive they are called “hunter” shows. Most of those horses and riders have never seen a hunt field and couldn’t handle it if they did. Note I said most and not a slam at any trainers or anything, I know many trainers do hunt and do it well. But the little mistakes and incorrectness that you can hide or get away with at a show could get you killed in the hunt field when you’re tearing along at a dead gallop flying fences with 50 other horses. And forget about this recent trend of lying down on the horses neck over fences (which also looks yucky to me by the way)
I really think most people that have those prejudices about hunting either a) don’t know what they are talking about because they are too chicken to try it, or b) are jealous of those of us that hunt so talk badly about it
bovon -
There are quite a few prejudices about foxhunters and their mounts. I run into this all the time. I have hunted for many years and have capped with numerous hunts and the dressage instructor’s comment with respect to a lot of foxhunters not training their horses how to jump properly is very inaccurate.
A number of foxhunters come from hunter/jumper backgrounds, dressage backgrounds, eventing, etc. Their mounts, also have had been trained to jump properly. You will get a few riders/mounts that do not have perfect form over the fences, but that does not matter out the hunt field – as long as they execute the jump safely and don’t hold up the rest of the field – That is what is important in foxhunting.
Well - I hunt my horses in the winter, show them in dressage in the summer and take jumping lessons between shows. What does that make me?
My horses hunt on the bit, are forward in dressage, and don’t rush fences!
I know we get sloppy during the hunt season. So when the season is over we’ll do some light work for a month. Then we do dressage work and jumpers during the summer. But that’s just so that we’re ready to go for the next hunt season.
I can understand jumpers and eventing but I don’t get dressage and hunter competitions. Seems like an awful lot of work just so that you can ride for two minutes at a very slow pace.
jswan…
for grins and giggles, I posted the “backcracker” question on the H/J forum since It happened at a H/J show and posters there say "it’s a compliment?? Either way, I love my guy and he’s going to be great on Wednesday…Iknow he wil iknowhewilliknowhewill…
riding him in an open field over jumps and some schooling in a ring is vastly different than foxhunting…lots more excitement and distractions on the hunt field, you may want to consider hilltopping him first. Had someone come out first flight on a greenie last weekend that got so wound up he thwacked a hound going past…not the way to get invited back!
Vickyrider, what a great story
It was both one of the funniest and most stressful days of my life. We don’t have kids so I’m only guessing but freting about whether she was going to kill herself at each fence or ditch must be the same worry experienced by a parent. And by the end of the morning I was even beginning to admire her, all her pluck and that but then she went and spoilt it all by saying something smug about the horse (who had just looked after her neck for three hours) not being all she had expected. 
I’m laughing at the “defensive riding” comment, because the first time I took a lesson with a 4-star eventer from Britain, he watched me for about 5 minutes and said, “Right. Well. You have obviously been riding a lot of green horses and foxhunting and you have excellent defensive riding technique. That’s great, we don’t want to take that away from you, but you don’t need to ride like that ALL the time. You can ride with a bit more finesse most of the time, and you’ll find those defensive skills are still there the moment you need them.” LOL
You do find a huge range of riding ability and horse training in the hunt field, as Jaegermonster said. People have different standards of what they’ll put up with from a mount, and what they expect from them. The longer I’ve hunted the higher my standards have become. When I think about some of the greenies I rode when I was young and fearless and broke and had just started hunting, well, you’d better believe I developed some serious defensive riding techniques or, quite frankly, I wouldn’t be here today! Almost two decades later, I do not want to deal with that crap anymore. Older and wiser. Those techniques are there in a pinch, but not something I need every hunt any more.
bovon - don’t fret about that nobody calling your horse a backcracker. Chances are that brat can’t ride a horse to save her life. Folks often say nasty things because deep down - they’re jealous or resentful or need to switch to decaf.
That’s want my mom used to tell me.
I think it’s a shame we tend to pigeonhole our horses. “dressage” horse “eventer” “hunter” - any average, reasonably sound horse should be able to do some lower level dressage, safely jump a few fences xc or in the arena, clip, tie, load and be good for the farrier and vet. Such a horse would indeed be a worthwhile candidate for foxhunting. Or any other horse sport.
