jkitten
Well-Known Member
(For background, as a child/teen I rode once a week at a riding school for 7 or 8 years and attained about the level you would expect from that, kind of competent riding school novice. I took it up again properly in November last year and since January having been sharing a horse at my riding school 3 days a week.)
I recently started jumping again and it turns out that it's still very ingrained in me from childhood (unlike many other things which I feel like I am learning from scratch!). The first time was entirely accidental, I was supposed to be trotting over a pole on the ground but my horse decided to have some 'fun' and took off with me instead, cantering up and jumping over it. I discovered that even though it was totally unplanned, I still knew exactly when to fold in order to stay with the horse and pull him up afterwards. Since then we've started proper jumping lessons and it turns out that this old instinct is still pretty reliable, even when my horse takes off like a freight train (he is lovely but can be a bit of a bugger) my body seems to know exactly when and how to move in order to stay with him. My instructor has even commented that he is impressed with my jump instinct and reaction speed, and I know he wouldn't do that unless he meant it.
I'm obviously pleased with this, since I love jumping and would like to progress to hunting and cross country in the future, but one thing that has occurred to me is that on an intellectual level I actually have absolutely no idea what I am doing. I mean I'm not even sure when in the stride I move, I just do. Every jump is effectively like that first one, my movement being dictated entirely by some childhood instinct that says 'move this way right now if you want to stay on'. During the whole process my mind is completely devoid of any thought, all I'm doing is sensing that 'thump thump BOUNCE' rhythm of the stride and going along with it. I'm pretty sure if I tried to think about it at all coming up to the jump I would mess up and probably fall off and/or cause a refusal.
My question is, is it a problem to be operating entirely on feel like this? I'm also conscious that I've only had a couple of jump lessons so far and still on basic small beginner cross rails. Can I keep going like this or is my lack of actual understanding/awareness going to become a problem for progressing to higher and wider jumps down the line?
I recently started jumping again and it turns out that it's still very ingrained in me from childhood (unlike many other things which I feel like I am learning from scratch!). The first time was entirely accidental, I was supposed to be trotting over a pole on the ground but my horse decided to have some 'fun' and took off with me instead, cantering up and jumping over it. I discovered that even though it was totally unplanned, I still knew exactly when to fold in order to stay with the horse and pull him up afterwards. Since then we've started proper jumping lessons and it turns out that this old instinct is still pretty reliable, even when my horse takes off like a freight train (he is lovely but can be a bit of a bugger) my body seems to know exactly when and how to move in order to stay with him. My instructor has even commented that he is impressed with my jump instinct and reaction speed, and I know he wouldn't do that unless he meant it.
I'm obviously pleased with this, since I love jumping and would like to progress to hunting and cross country in the future, but one thing that has occurred to me is that on an intellectual level I actually have absolutely no idea what I am doing. I mean I'm not even sure when in the stride I move, I just do. Every jump is effectively like that first one, my movement being dictated entirely by some childhood instinct that says 'move this way right now if you want to stay on'. During the whole process my mind is completely devoid of any thought, all I'm doing is sensing that 'thump thump BOUNCE' rhythm of the stride and going along with it. I'm pretty sure if I tried to think about it at all coming up to the jump I would mess up and probably fall off and/or cause a refusal.
My question is, is it a problem to be operating entirely on feel like this? I'm also conscious that I've only had a couple of jump lessons so far and still on basic small beginner cross rails. Can I keep going like this or is my lack of actual understanding/awareness going to become a problem for progressing to higher and wider jumps down the line?
