SJing- How important is flatwork??

[PapaFrita]

Personally, I'm quite a fan of flatwork; it get's PF listening (she can be a bit hard of hearing!), engaged, responsive, balanced. It has helped enormously over the last year in turning her from speed-demon to pretty-nifty-little-jumper.
Something similar could be said of Antifaz; he's a big, strong lad, with speed issues, and being out of control is very, very scary (I know this from experience!)
Now, I realise that at the level I'm jumping, a well-behaved responsive horse whilst more fun to ride is probably not essential and some horses are just so gifted and/or generous that they'll just jump and jump and jump, and then there are other horses that just don't DO flatwork.
HOWEVER, I was watching a BOFer ride the other day. Not only is she a pretty average rider, but her horse goes with his head in the air and his hindlegs trailing. He's as honest as they come but recently has been having fences down in the 80cm jump off (where previously he was a clear round cert) the owner is disillusioned with her horse, and wants a new horse, which unfortunately her parents will most likely get her. He's getting less and less work, which mainly consists of pulling him out of stable, jumping, then putting him back. Personally I think she should get her arse into gear and give the horse some proper work, help him get going correctly and give him the chance to regain some of his lost form. Not least because she wants to sell him and get back more than the sum she paid for him... (Not going to happen!)
Anyway, basically how important is flatwork? Does it depend on horse? level of jumping? etc. etc. Thankies

 

[KatB]

I personally think its very important whatever the level, yes you can get away with having less established work at lower levels, but you always need the ability to be able to shorten/lengthen, and get your horse to use its back in order to make a decent shape over the fence!

I dont think you horse necessarily needs to go around on the bit all the time, but it does need to be engaged, balanced and responsive, and the only way this can come about is from working on the flat, and working correct muscles.

I personally believe alot of the "over bitting" seen in alot of jumping circles could also be avoided by good schooling. In no way am I critiscing people that have to bit up their horses for jumping, I know it does sometimes have to be done, but I have come across so many people that put an extra gadget, or new piece of equipment in their horses mouths to solve a problem that could be rectified by correct schooling.

Sorry, rant over!!

 

[Bri]

I've always been taught that a good background in flatwork is essential if you want to showjump properly.
By building up the horses ability to work from behind and power itself forward your increasing it's ability to power over a jump, rather then as you say about Bofer's pupil...
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but her horse goes with his head in the air and his hindlegs trailing

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[Haflinger]

I think it is very important - it helps teach them to be more balanced and helps them listen.

 

[TGM]

I think it's very important - after all 90% of a SJ round is on the flat anyway!

 

[Rambo]

It's more important than the jump training IMO. A horse can either jump or it can't. Our job as riders is to get the horse to the jump...we can only do that if they are well schooled on the flat.

 

[brighteyes]

Hear, hear

 

[Peanot]

I agree, at a lower level you can get away with a lot but, with BSJA when the fences are more solid and built big and wide, you need to be able to lenghten and shorten in order to reach the fences at the correct take off point. You can get away with it until Discovery IMO, when the jumps are at 1m.
If you have no flatwork, then you have no control, turning slowing etc. I do flatwork about 3 times a week.

 

[Helena88]

agree with you completely rambo

 

[teapot]

HAve always been taught that jumping is 90% flatwork and many a time I haven't been allowed to jump as my flatwork wasn't good enough.

It's very important personally, when I was helping old share pony's owner out with her other pony and giving her a lesson as such, the difference in her pony after just 20mins of concentrating on the flat aspects was huge and made his actual jumping that much better

 

[Honeyb060674]

IMO Flatwork is the key to jumping at any level. To achieve a responsive, balanced horse capable of carrying out the difficult turns etc you have to base your ridden work on mainly flatwork. I have friends who compete at a high level nationally, who rarely jump their horses at home. The flatwork helps both horse and rider.

 

[tuscanyD]

As everyone rightly points out if a horse can't canter a 20m circle in balance how can anyone expect him to take on 10 or more show jumps in a row? A lot of horses lose their confidence due to lack of schooling and use speed and goodwill to get over fences - of course as the jumps get higher any mistakes get more serious and make it harder to get away with.

ut the flatwork doesnt necessarily have to be high class dressage. A lot of professional sj's will school mostly in canter - circles, changes of rein, counter canter, flying changes - they teach the horse to be supple responsive and balanced the way they need it to be. Heard it said many a time "typical showjumping horse - lovely canter but can't trot". most of us would go for a broader education as we want our horses to be allrounders but these guys are schooling the horse to do a particular job [any prof sj's outthere who might give us more detail on their training programme?]

so if you know this person but they are very resistant to doing any 'dressage' maybe you could persuade them to do some schooling based on the showjumpers approach ... she may find it glamorous and exciting enough to try [if she's that sort] which is better than nothing at all!

If not you'll just have to grit your teeth and hope she comes a cropper and stops jumping before she ruins too many good horses. Or am I just being spiteful?