that’s exactly the one i was referring to 
Just curious what the rest of you think is the amount of riding you need in order to make progress.
If I had the opportunity (e.g. I had no job and unlimited finances) I would ride three hours a day, six days a week, and I would be improving much more than I am now… HOWEVER, that is not to say that I am NOT improving while riding three or four hours a week (on a good week).
Having been in both situations (as a largely self-taught junior and as an impoverished A/A) I feel progress is NOT in direct relation to how OFTEN you ride; it is also related to your FOCUS during those times when you DO ride, and what you chose to do OUT of the saddle�i.e. are you watching other riders’ lessons? Talking notes? Reading Podhajasky? Doing yoga/Pilates/Alexander to improve your balance?
Anyone?
I sported an automatic release (my trainer has been working on mine for a while, she HATES crest releases)at a local show last weekend… well anyway, I won every class!!! Everyone else was using a cramped crest release with their hands buried in the crotch!! I could believe it because I even had a chip and there were a few others that hit every distance…I was watching after my class and the judge was near me and commented on how relaxed me and the horse was…Needless to say, I couldn’t walk for 2 days…that was my “once a month” ride!! Still haven’t found a barn…
Excuse my babbling!!
OH I FORGOT TO MENTION!! HE HEE!!! I borrowed a pair of my trainers breeches since mine were in ny and guess what color they were??? RUST!! HEE HEE!! My trainer actually said it looked really nice since her horse I was showing is dark bay…
Barb
I think the equitation riders should ask their coaches about letting go of their poor horses heads and getting off their backs. If your coach tell you that’s not what wins, tell them they have no way of knowing that because no one ever does!!!
I have been on a probably ten year rant about the current equitation position. I do not want to negate the hard work and talent of any current equitation rider, but with the exception of Emily Williams, the last time a real rider won the Medal Finals was Nicole Shihanian. She was not as bold as she could have been, but she let go, she didn’t perch, she used her eye, and she wasn’t in that artificial rigid, upright position being taught today.
I think the discussion of crest vs. auto is pointless because most of these kids aren’t letting go at all!! Now, I know they can because you see it happen when the good ones hit the other rings, but once they are sent to the eq. coach for that Finals ‘tuning’, they are too upright in the air and they have a completely inadequate release. What’s fascinating is watching when the course includes an opportunity to gallop to a jump. There they are, making the long gallop to the single, leaving a good gap [B]and not letting go!!![/B]
The kids are being taught this and unfortunately, the judges can only judge what is in front of them. If they all perch and don’t let go, there is no option to punish for perching and not letting go.
The horses are purchased and trained to keep their faces on or behind the vertical and they chest the jumps. Anything that looks like a hunter has completely disappeared from the Medal classes. Most of them look like they would be much more at home hitched to a plow and headed out to the back forty because they have heads the size of a whiskey barrel and a chest that barely fits through the in gate. but, boy are they forgiving because they just keep on jumping the jumps while children who should be good riders but aren’t because they are being taught to be bad riders are hanging on their heads.
I remember reading something about Francesca Mazella the year she won. She went to Florida and rode a bunch of jumpers, I wish I could remember who for, and was taught the auto release. When she returned to Beacon Hill, they said ‘No autos for the eq.’!!! and she was back to the crest release. Sadly, it has gone downhill from there.
I vividly remember Liza Towel producing lovely hunter round after lovely hunter round at Harrisburg. A good number of those were hard horses. When she got Fine Print to go around and come home with a tri-color, I decided right then she was just about the best thing to ever sling a leg over a horse. But there she’d be on Eq. day, trying to contort herself into the current fashion and having major errors.
How you can take a kid with such lovely natural horsemanship and try to fit it into a mold that is not only different, but wrong is beyond me.
Sarah Willeman is another example. I think her riding improved dramatically her last year because she had a hard hunter. He made her ride softer and more naturally and she learned a lot from him. It showed at the Finals.
I think the top equitation coaches should take a look at what they are teaching. I think the trainers with good kids should stop sending them to an Eq coach and give the judges a chance to reward good riding.
Hey Splendid I do the same thing.
I’ve pretty much got it down over single fences and simple combinations. Put me on course and its back to the old way (which is actually some funky hybrid of an auto release - except my hands kinda rest on either side of the neck - no real clearance). Old habits die hard. But I am working on it! When I do it right, it is quite evident that my horse jumps nicer and I have total control on the other side.
Go Bruins
But it doesn’t seem to work that way here. Maybe it’s different on the East Coast, but hereabouts, kids ride maybe 10 lessons before starting to jump - crosspoles perhaps, but still leaving the ground. Now, back in the dark ages when I was learning to ride, at 10 lessons we were still walking and doing exercises on a longe line. But apparently no more.
I don’t think I can quite grasp what you are saying.
Riding is a challenge. One normally rides to improve and learn and do better all the time.
In the “Olde Days”, many people were taught the crest release to start with, they were challenged and encouraged to move up to the Auto Release.
The crest release was looked upon as a “Beginner Release”.
The Crest Release is fine if that is where you want to stay.
It is easier and safer, and many trainers do not want to challenge their riders to try something they themselves were not taught.
It is really sad 
in the minds of many of us who are older than 18 and yearned to learn the Auto Release.
It seems many young riders today don’t try to learn more, and it is pointed out every month in the critiques that George Morris gives in PH that riders are ready to MOVE UP to using the Auto Release.
I realize it’s been 20 years since my A-circuit days but…the reason you see many more eventers using releases that more closely resemble an auto release (and there are varying degrees of it) is that we NEED it. If you jump up a bank, bounce over a verticle, then a bending 3 strides to another verticle, your never going to make the turn if you don’t stay CONNECTED. The whole purpose of the auto release is to stay connected and in continuous conversation with the horse during flight. The crest release breaks the connection which then has to be re-established on landing.
What kind of courses are the equitation riders having to jump that really requires them to land and adjust (that is adjusting on the landing or even in flight, NOT on the first stride.) I realize that there have been changes in twenty years but back then the answer would have been few if any. It’s the same reason you DO see the occassional auto release in the jumper ring (think Anne Kursinski.) The need arises.
So my point is: If you want to see more equitation riders using an auto release then design courses that require them.
My second point is if the hunter ring rewards a “horse that does it on his own” and the pro shows that off by riding with a loopy rein. Isn’t that the antithisis of what the auto release is all about? Not that anyone cares about it anymore, but riding a horse in the hunt feild on a loopy rein is just plain stupid and should be left to the idiots that imbibed to much of the stirrup cup!
Personally, I think the reason the GM mention the auto release in his columns all the time is feels guilty that he introduced the thing in the first place and it’s turned out to be like kudzu.
sbk
that “the system” can over-protect the horse’s mouth to the extent that true independent balance on the part of the rider is more difficult to achieve.
Grabbing mane is where everyone should start, but eventually, no hands (ie, no reins) at all is an excercise every rider needs to master in order to be totally independent balance-wise, and very few riders, even those who have been in the show ring for quite some time, reach this stage anymore.
Thinkbig - after looking around the Internet for a little while, I found some photos that might be helpful.
Short crest release:
Long crest release:
Auto release:
Michael Matz. This man has always had the most beautiful following hand I’ve ever seen. Here, it’s hard to see, but he’s just got a knack for giving total freedome to his horses.
Photos from http://www.ryegate.com, http://www.armstrongfarm.com, and http://www.horsesportsonline.com.
Cheers,
Susie
http://www.kachoom.com
Good points Twister.
Some of the posts on this thread give the impression that an advanced rider should always use an auto release. And that’s taking it too far. It does seem that overall hunters today do jump in better form than they did a few decades ago. I think we’re seeing this because they’re being allowed freedom in the air. The use of the crest release during the past few decades had and has a lot to do with it.
Now that GM is calling for automatic releases, it seems people are accepting it blindly and missing the fact that there are appropriate times for each type of release. Yes, riders should learn automatic releases as they advance. And they should be able to use whatever release is most appropriate for the horse and the circumstance.
“Always speak your mind, but ride a fast horse” – Texas Bix Bender
Margaret F - is that JES that used to be in Vienna, VA?? Just curious, I never got a chance to ride there, but rode my bike past it a lot when I was little.
I just found another great auto release photo from Steinkraus’ book. This Kathy Kusner riding Aberali in 1967. Sorry that the photo quality is not better, but the picture says it all.
I must share with you guys my rather new experience w/ the Auto. I’ve only actually perfomed the automatic release a handful of times, never truely focusing on it though. After discussing this topic w/ my trainer this past week though, she thought it would be good to play around with the automatic release in my lesson today.
The end result: I’ve learned how wonderful the auto can be while performing equitation courses. It keeps the contact, turns are more precise, balanced and overall, just TOGETHER! But then while doing more huntery courses, the crest release let my horse ‘do his own thing’ and flutter around the course.
So I too agree with all of you who say, there is a time and place for each type of release, and each situation brings on another opportunity to answer the question of which one should be used??
~~ Melissa & Sherwin Williams~~
When I watched my trainer ride “Awesome Elliot” in the Kevin Freeman clinic two weeks ago he talked about the auto release, and had them doing it.
He spoke of Kathy Kusner and Frank Chapot.
So much to my delight my trainer came back to the stable and worked on the auto release with her students 
So there are trainers out there who do want to see the return of more riders using the auto release.
“Have You Hugged Your Trainer Today?”
bumpkin!!!
oh man how could someone jump so big bareback w/o a bridle or anything!!!
oh man…the riding skills there…i only wish…i would be kissing dirt if i tried something like that!
As many of you know, I video horse shows. ALL kinds/disciplines/breeds. And the breed that I have the ultimate respect for is the Paso Fino, because they expect the breeders to aim for the epitome of the breed and they ‘permit’ the judges to require it.
Now, before you all wonder what this has to do with ‘big eq’ - let me bring this quote from page 2 or 3 to your attention - especially the part I bolded.
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>The kids are being taught this and unfortunately, the judges can only judge what is in front of them. If they all perch and don’t let go, there is no option to punish for perching and not letting go. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
What if the judge(s) said, “None of you are showing me appropriate technique for this level; therefore, I am not going to pin any of you.”
Oh yes, it’s done - on a regular basis. And under Confepaso (International) rules, a judge can pin 1st and 4th (no 2nd/3rd) - or 2nd and 3rd with no first. One horse classes can go unpinned.
Hey - I’m flameproof! Have at it! But consider what could be accomplished…
All my life I’ve heard the phrase, “Jumps with his knees up by his eyeballs.” Never had I actually seen it until Susie posted that picture of Beezie.
Thanks. A picture truly is worth a thousand words.
care to sell me!
American hunters are judged on performance, manners and way of going. The judge is looking for a horse that;
Is a good, stylish jumper(knees up, legs tight, rounded back and using hind end well), Executes the course correctly and mannerly, as in stays rhythmic, smooth changes, jumps straight and in the middle of the fence, Minds his manners and is a good mover.
Most hunter courses are in small rings and have a set number of strides in between jumps that are in a line, and the horse usually has to do the correct number of strides. This can vary a little according to how the line is set, and is a bit controversial. But adding or leaving out a stride usually disrupts the rhythm, which is penalized.
Hunters are divided, with divisions for green horses, experienced horses, and horses with amateur or young riders. The specs differ a slight bit according to the division, with style emphasized in the regular divisions, and manners emphasized in some of the lower amateur/children divisions.
We also have equitation, where the rider is judged on hands, seat, guidance and control of their mount both over fences and on the flat. The courses are usually a bit more technical than the straightforward hunter courses, and may have rollback turns, skinny jumps, trot fences, drop stirrups, halt, etc. On the flat, they usually have to demonstrate sitting trot, rid without stirrups and other skills not usually seen in the hunter under saddle (which is just walk trot canter).
