Ahhh, just you wait
Trends come and go, there will be a new one to take over the current version of the crest release. Sorry, but it seems we are constantly trying to change things. Guess it’s age. Whats wrong with the following hand, taught properly that is?
Beezie’s horse is AMAZING! Wow! That horse must get hoof dressing on its face alot 
Thanks for the pics, they helped
Just wondering, since we are on the subject of releases & critques, but is my release a crest release?
Lol, I grew up on British riding standards, and have only been doing the Hunter/Eq stuff for about 3 years…This happens to be a subject where my forgein colors are shining through^^! 
thnx
muah
kris
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OMG! Just when I was about to give up on the COTH boards (see the dreaded “What Is a Show Bow?” started by Yours Truly), a legitimate discussion begins!
I learned to jump for the first time in the very early 80s, and even though I was only showing locally I wasn’t allowed to settle for anything less than an automatic–which I didn’t even know was an automatic, it was just a RELEASE. A crest release was what you did while learning two-point or trotting cavaletti (which I did for about a year before I was allowed to tackle a course). This ALL changed when some hot junior rider joined my 4-H Club in the mid-80s and started kicking my butt in the ring using a NO-RELEASE crest release–I swear her hands were halfway up the horse’s neck at all times!
Flash forward: Asked my trainer just last week what in hell was the difference between a crest and an automatic, and what should I be doing now? His response, which I liked a lot, was, “What is it that your HORSE is telling you that you should be doing in order to get him over that jump?”
Yours forward and automatically… 
This is very interesting. The first time I have come across a jumping board with anything much to say about technique. Normally all you need to know generally falls under the dressage heading. Having the horse set up and working correctly to the fences etc.
Possibly the difference in UK / US. As far as I undestand from what I have just read you have classes based on style as opposed to just jumping against each other for clearness and then speed. Am I right? A good idea and would catch a lot of people out around here.
Anyway looking at the two pictures of crest release and auto release (and I had not come across a distinction before hand, you jump and you follow the horse - that was it) I did notice that the auto release seemed to give the horse far more freedom to stretch the neck and bascule. The crest release looked a little restrictive and it seemed as though it could lead to the rider fixing their hands more restricting the horse from using its whole body over the fence.
Then again thats just a very inexpert opinion. Have never studied means of releasing over a fence. A good jump was a good jump, a bad jump was a bad jump. Just set the horse up right, wait for him and go over following him with your hand.
Caroline
That’s a very dangerous website. I completed a set of one author’s work on it (bought mostly book club editions for economy’s sake), but I found $$$ first editions and the like if I had wanted them. I have to limited my visits or I would be bankrupt. Almost as dangerous as a tack shop. G
Paige I am slightly confused by your comment.
The photo in the Devon issue of the COTH shows Andrew Ramsey doing an Automatic Release!! I believe he was Jr Champion and was Small Hunter Champion.
That in itself should be some inspiration to those who are too scared to try the Automatic Release.
I watched an old volvo world cup on RFD TV the other day and one rider who really impressed me was Franke Sloothak (sp?) of Germany. He had a terrific auto release and was in perfect unison w/ his horse, instead of the rotating release i think most grand prix riders use today.
<<WEll no matter what anyones opinions are, the crest realease is what is expected in the top equitation levels these days, if you want to get to finals, and place, etc…its one of the things expected, whether its right or not, oh well, i am still trying to figure out the short crest realease considaring I have just started the big eq…but it is what is definatly expected, and what RIBBONS!>>
What a sad, sad, ignorant statement!! I am shocked- truly shocked-that any of our junior riders who have reached or strive to reach the so-called “upper levels” of our equitation divisions could be so ignorant and short-sighted as to think that a less advanced, intermediate-level technique would be sought after in preference to a more advanced, more precise, and more expert technique. Shame on your trainers, each one of them, for not providing you with a more complete academic understanding of the mechanics of our sport!! Shame on every trainer who does not try to make their students the best they can be. “Good enough to win” is sometimes not all that good, and shouldn’t be good enough, when it can be better.
When I am in the judge’s booth, the rider with the most accurate and advanced technique will prevail over those whose techniques are less advanced. It is up to the judges and course designers to present problems to riders and horses that reward those who are the most proficient at using these more advanced techniques. It is a shame that winning “ribbons” has replaced the goal of increasing knowledge and ability for so many riders and trainers.
Those looking for a reason we aren’t doing better internationally need only read the above statement, and wonder how many others are under the same misguided, second-rate impression.
As a true child of the 80s and 90s, I have many thoughts as to what is happening in our sport horse world. I remember being a teeny kid and US was the best. We won everything in show jumping!
When I finally started riding, I was one of the lucky ones. I started at a local barn with some crazy things that we all had to try to figure out. The dirt was my friend and challenges were second nature. Made animals were something that I sometimes got to ride, nothing I ever owned.
Now too many people start at show barns. It is all about playing it safe and never about riding. Its making it pretty and smooth. There is no such thing as riding off the seat of your pants anymore. Sure, these kids can ride lots of different made, prepared horses around. But can they handle a stopper? A spook? A spaz?
From the moment I started riding in the late 80s, to the boom of my show career throughout the 90s(98 was my last jr year) no one ever taught me a crest release. And I was fortunate enough to have experiences with many different trainers. I read about, knew about it, and asked about. But was told it was wrong.
My first trainer(small and medium ponies, when I was ages 8-11) just told me to reach to the ears. And that was all I did over the jumps, try to touch my ponies ears. Hey, I guess it was better than catching them in the mouth!
At 11 I got a new trainer and started doing the A-circuit. From medium ponies to Jr jumpers, this trainer and I did it all. And for everything I did, the answer was “press your knuckles into the neck” “Let your hands support your upper body”. This trainer just recently had an old star from the 70s working for her. And when she schooled her over fences, she would tell her to stop doing the auto and to crest release instead.
But ya know, the trainers aren’t REALLY the ones to blame. Anyone remember the letter about how lazy the kids in America are? THAT’S the problem. When I decided I wanted to know how to do a shoulder-in, I got a book out and read an article and learned to do it. My next lesson was “look what I learned Jane!” When I had a question on how to make horse bend better, jump better, anything, I asked all the professionals I knew and anyone I respected, tried a bunch of different things, and learned.
Now we are all robots. We do what we are told and nothing more. And we don’t ask why! We just do. And we can’t do anything new without asking how first…riding is no different. Keep the ammy’s happy, be cautious with the kids, don’t push too hard…making the customer happy is all important. And we tell, they do…kids at my old barn barily even ride without lessons…and you think they are learning new things? No, they are just going through the motions.
So after 11 years of showing and 2 years as a pro, I quit. I started working at the mall, stopped taking lessons, stopped showing. I flatted my horse a ton, jumped a little…took a look at the show world from the outside for the first time in 10 years.
I hate it. I really do. I loved it then, but I hate it. I feel for anyone else who grows up on it, as I did. Its all fake, processed, a long assembly of the same thing over and over. All little robots, forced into the same thing, all on horses who have been forced to go the same way.
How do we fix? I don’t know how, in this time when showing and winning and money are all that matter. Perhaps it will slowly evolve back into itself as it evolved out of itself. One can only hope…
<<I would much rather watch riders do the crest release all day long than see poor defenseless horses get banged in the mouth by riders attempting an auto release before they’re ready to do it well.>>
Most of us do see crest releases all day long, and from what I see, they are “saving” very few horse’s mouths–they are pulled back into the rider’s chest, whose legs have swung back, elbows out, seat forward of the pommel, while the horse draws his chin, complete with pelham bit and crank noseband, back to his chest between his knees, which are the only things that can move on his whole body in response to his arrival at the jump! Below the 3’6" divisions, I’d expect riders to use the intermediate technique, but I would hate to go to the big eq ring to judge believeing ahead of time that the riders I’m about to score are incapable of learning advanced techniques, if they don’t know them already…There is something wrong with suggesting that riders should not STRIVE for improvement. Unless it truly is all about playing it safe and getting a certain color ribbon on a certain day.
Now Margaret, you are going to bless us with photos aren’t you?
Do judges want to see the rider use the auto release at each and every fence in the round, or only where appropriate? By the last line I may need a crest release.
Perhaps, if the judges at the next finals asked for a test consisting of jumping out of hand, and the riders were caught off guard (not knowing how to do it),I’m sure by the following year all the kids will have learned how to do one properly. Maybe it should be test #20!
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Could the trend for longer stirrups in the equitation also be due to the fact that today’s riders must have a solid flatwork base, similar to that of a lower level dressage rider? Could their stirrup length be a direct result of the need to push the horse up in front of them into the bridle, into a frame, and it’s just evolved over fences too? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I don’t think so. If this were true, then event riders (who do much more dressage than eq riders) would also jump with long stirrups. But they don’t.
It is hard to tell now, because I now use different saddles, but when I was using an all purpose sadde for both dressage and jumping, I had 4 to 6 holes difference between flat work and jumping.
This is the release I learned- I was eight in this picture
This is an interesting subject and I hope that more people jump in on it.
I have not talked to my new trainer about auto vs crest release. Since I haven’t, I have no idea which one I am using in my lessons!! Talk about being old and just lazy enough to want to get over the fence.
I do recall a year ago I stated that is what I planned to use if I showed again, and Hoopoe wished me luck, in a good way not sarcastic, and hoped that I would actually follow through and use the auto release.
And we have commented that Andrew Ramsey showed an auto release in a recent COTH photo of Devon.
I kind of flipped through the Show Issue after that and did not see crest releases.
I guess my question would be, to the judges on this forum, would an auto release be rewarded over a crest release if the rounds were the same?
[This message was edited by Bumpkin on Jul. 07, 2001 at 11:21 AM.]
So, how would judges feel if someone came in the ring with the position of the rider in the picture that Spectacularkid posted for equitation?
That picture was the ideal that we all strived for when we were learning to ride in the 60’s and early 70’s. So incredibly different than today. Not only the release but the correct angles, the obvious balance over and with the horse and the ability to follow and allow with the body as well as the hands. Quite a nice horse too! I could stare at that picture for hours. It’s what equitation is all about to me - function and form. It’s so much more beautiful in all ways than the stuff we see in the Chronicle these days.
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> the people “in the olde days yearn to progress and learn more” or something to that effect… <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Nah. Not true.
But the people who were around in the oldey days AND ARE STILL HANGING AROUND THE COTH BB to talk about it, are probably the ones who did/do “yearn to progress and learn more.”
The ones who didn’t (yearn…) are either
a) no longer riding
or
b) still riding, but really not interested in talking about different releases.
Here’s an old pic of a green horse we got off the track in the’70s. Maybe my crest release didn’t help but it sure didn’t hurt either!
…Think I finally got the pic uploaded…
“Always speak your mind, but ride a fast horse” – Texas Bix Bender
Maybe some of those crest releases were not really good releases. As in you can screw up even the “easier” one. Hmmmmm 
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