What is it with kids thinking it’s cool to jump high?!

[Elf On A Shelf]

The biggest difference between now and then - evidence! Back then you have your memories but no photos or videos or snapchats etc. No technology!

Kids have been pissing about with ponies forever and if anything less so nowadays with elf and safety everywhere you turn! What kids do is nothing compared to what kids did back then. Theres just no way to prove it!

 

[Red-1]

I can remember going through the woods with string to tie the branches down low enough to jump. Then kapow through the woods leaping everything. Goodness only knows what would have happened if the string had broken and the branches had flipped up!

One time the arena was being renovated, and the drainage ditches were freshly dug. We got all of the fences and propped them over the ditches, behind the ditches, on angles over the ditches, in front of the ditches. Of course, the surface was all gone so probably not sensible at all. Who could resist ditch training though?

I have a photo somewhere of a makeshift jump made with a kitchen table.

 

[scats]

We regularly used to lie under jumps and do all manner of daft things, it’s just in those days, there was no social media to plaster it over- thank god! I had a friend who announced one day that she had never fallen off her pony and that she wanted to, so, mid-canter, she flung herself off rather dramatically... much to the amusement of the rest of us!

Another two friends used to play jousting with whips in the dark winter evenings. They would gallop towards each other and see how close they could get the ponies whilst jabbing each other with their crops. One day they clashed knees. I remember the scream from one friend! Safe to say her knee swelled up to twice it’s size and turned black. I don’t remember them playing the game after that so I think it put them off...

 

[gunnergundog]

Do they not run Chase-me-Charlie competitions at shows any more? I think I jumped higher as a 13/14 year old than I ever did as an adult. This was...........errrrrrm............in the 1960's. Also, hunt gate competitions anyone?? 1m60?? (in modern parlance) or 5ft??

 

[MotherOfChickens]

Do they not run Chase-me-Charlie competitions at shows any more? I think I jumped higher as a 13/14 year old than I ever did as an adult. This was...........errrrrrm............in the 1960's. Also, hunt gate competitions anyone?? 1m60??

ha, quite. when I was a WP at Patchetts, the resident pro sjer was beaten in the Puissance by a WP on her Welsh pony-they were frankly terrifying to watch but that pony could jump anything.

 

[gunnergundog]

It may have been scary, but we believed in ourselves, we believed in our horses/ponies....we thought we were invincible and we DID it! I'm not saying that that was the right thing to do or that it was pretty, but we got on and did it......there was no technology, no social media to critique and scare us or snipe at us. If anyone had something to say they generally said it to our face or if they didn't, someone close to them did. Life (to me) seems to have been a lot more straightforward then. Far fewer big livery yards, more genuine nags people. I only wish that half of the nagsmen I knew could have put what they did instinctively into words. The number of times I asked someone, 'how did you do that/ how did you avoid that/how did you get the horse to do X etc etc' and the answer I got was 'dunno....I just did it'!

We seem to be losing feel and getting more analytical.....does the one totally compensate for the lack of the other?

 

[emilylou]

Circa 2009

 

[Snowfilly]

As everyone else said, I think there's just a lot less evidence of what we got up to!

I distinctly remember the humans as jump fillers stage, amongst other daft things.

 

[Bob notacob]

Round these parts ,fun Gymkhana games such as "chase me charlie " could geta bit intense. I remember one particular game (lol , it sure wasnt a game). A winner had been found at about 3 ft 6 ( thats just over a metre for you kids) So having both tipped a pole over my , Ihateshowjumping dont askmetodoit pony and another ,jumped off for second place. Single pole ,no ground line . We both came joint 3rd (how the hell does that work out?) as they ran out of holes on the full size showjump wings . In all honesty ,I learned a valuable lesson that has stood me in good stead. You can only give your horse his best shot at a jump, the rest is up to his bravery .But if you also believe in him and let him know , he will also believe in himself.

 

[Red-1]

We had a competition called the Manequican. As in Man- Equi - Canine.

First up was a Chase Me Charlie on your horse, knock it down and you're out. Your height was measured in feet. Then the dogs. Same thing, refusals and knock downs meant you were out and your highest height measured. Then you, on your own own feet. Add the heights together and top score is the winner.

So not only did we jump the legs off our horses, we then put our dogs in peril over jump poles! It was fun though, and I won!

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

We had a competition called the Manequican. As in Man- Equi - Canine.

First up was a Chase Me Charlie on your horse, knock it down and you're out. Your height was measured in feet. Then the dogs. Same thing, refusals and knock downs meant you were out and your highest height measured. Then you, on your own own feet. Add the heights together and top score is the winner.

So not only did we jump the legs off our horses, we then put our dogs in peril over jump poles! It was fun though, and I won!

That actually sounds likr good fun!

 

[ihatework]

I’m talking about the kids who are not ready to be jumping 1m+ but are doing it to film and show off to their friends. Maybe I’m cynical in my older age, and perhaps jealous because I never had that phase. I don’t mind kids jumping high, if they are balanced etc enough to do so

ETA: I realise there are adults who do this too. But I just see a lot more teenagers - probably because of social media

I hear you - it’s completely daft and really not good for the horses/ponies. I’d never do it now, and if I had kids would try and stop them doing it, but I’d be a complete hypocrite if I condemned the antics because as a teenager I did similar (we just didn’t have phones to video it).

We would jump anything vaguely jumpable. Benches, fence lines, those metal barriers 😱, Heston straw bales etc and would regularly play chase me Charlie in the school. I couldn’t ride for toffee.

 

[turkana]

We used to go to the park and jump the park benches 😳 god, people must have hated us!

Me too!
I was also proud of the fact that I didn't open gates, I either jumped the gate or the fence/hedge/wall next to it; I don't leave the groud at all now.

 

[hopscotch bandit]

I’ve seen a lot of teenagers jumping well above their ability and plastering it all over the internet. I’m all for people doing what they want with their horses but it seems there’s a trend among teenagers to think it’s more important to jump big than it is to jump well?

Is this just me?

I've seen this too. Anyone/horse can jump a high fence, its a bit different jumping a track though and that's what they don't realise.

 

[J_sarahd]

I’m kind of jealous I missed the crazy confident teenage phase! Like I said, highest I jumped as a teen was about 75cm! But then at the same time I cringe when I see unbalanced riders throwing their horses at 120cm fences with their legs off. Like who jumps that big without putting their leg on. You all say you jumped these crazy things, but I bet you could actually ride your ponies properly! That’s the difference in my eyes!!

 

[Daughter of the Moor]

We did in the 1960s, made jumps out of anything to hand. The bigger the better. The only difference - nobody much saw us doing it!

 

[wren123]

Another thing when we were kids we never thought about getting our ponies in an outline, I passed my bhsai without using that phrase, however we either rode on the buckle or with a contact and I was taught to ride forward into the contact.

 

[Sasana Skye]

Guilty...I used to jump some stupid things when I was a teenager. I would ride around the fields near the yard and point and kick at some ridiculous hedges, walls, gates, footpath stiles - anything that was there and the bigger the better.

Same goes for in the arena and I cringe to think of the crappy surfaces I was jumping so high on too. My horse jumps better now but I wouldn’t dream of jumping these heights again.

What does annoy me is people, kids and adults likewise, moving their horse up a competition level before it’s ready because it sounds better to be doing a BE100 or Novice than a 90 even though they still have a limited and fairly unsuccessful record at the lower levels. I’d personally rather be jumping clear regularly at an 'easier' level before moving up. If your horse is regularly demolishing a 90 fence it's going to demolish a 100 too and kill the horses confidence.

 

[J_sarahd]

Another thing when we were kids we never thought about getting our ponies in an outline, I passed my bhsai without using that phrase, however we either rode on the buckle or with a contact and I was taught to ride forward into the contact.

This is another thing that annoys me! Kids pulling their horses into an outline even though the horse isn’t working properly at all!!

 

[J_sarahd]

Guilty...I used to jump some stupid things when I was a teenager. I would ride around the fields near the yard and point and kick at some ridiculous hedges, walls, gates, footpath stiles - anything that was there and the bigger the better.

Same goes for in the arena and I cringe to think of the crappy surfaces I was jumping so high on too. My horse jumps better now but I wouldn’t dream of jumping these heights again.

What does annoy me is people, kids and adults likewise, moving their horse up a competition level before it’s ready because it sounds better to be doing a BE100 or Novice than a 90 even though they still have a limited and fairly unsuccessful record at the lower levels. I’d personally rather be jumping clear regularly at an 'easier' level before moving up. If your horse is regularly demolishing a 90 fence it's going to demolish a 100 too and kill the horses confidence.

Whoa that photo!!

I do think the horse world has become so competitive, and not in a good way, with the increase of social media. Like I think you guys did this stuff for fun, whereas now it’s to gain some sort of respect??

 

[Sasana Skye]

It was definitely just for fun for me and it was nice finally moving off of the stubborn Haflinger pony I had before and having a sportier horse who was more capable, but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't think that jumping big made me a better rider - of course I know better than that now. I do generally agree with you though.

This is another thing that annoys me! Kids pulling their horses into an outline even though the horse isn’t working properly at all!!

This! Errrrghh drives me up the wall, and again it isn't just kids. We all see horses with their heads jammed in and the rider/owner thinks it looks pretty but the horse is downhill, not tracking up, unbalanced and falling all over the place. Again I was probably once guilty of this too but thankfully, for my horse, I grew out of it. Perhaps there is a lack of proper education on what it truly means to be 'on the bit'.

 

[J_sarahd]

It was definitely just for fun for me and it was nice finally moving off of the stubborn Haflinger pony I had before and having a sportier horse who was more capable, but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't think that jumping big made me a better rider - of course I know better than that now. I do generally agree with you though.



This! Errrrghh drives me up the wall, and again it isn't just kids. We all see horses with their heads jammed in and the rider/owner thinks it looks pretty but the horse is downhill, not tracking up, unbalanced and falling all over the place. Again I was probably once guilty of this too but thankfully, for my horse, I grew out of it. Perhaps there is a lack of proper education on what it truly means to be 'on the bit'.

Oh yeah definitely see adults doing the same. And we are probably all guilty of it at one point or another. I know I am - when I was at a riding school I got taught to put a horse on the bit by sawing. I cringe thinking about it now. Since I stopped riding at riding schools, I’ve learnt the error of my ways

 

[cbmcts]

LOL, when I was a kid I used to quite literally throw myself at the fences, sometimes the pony came with me My ankles would be crossing behind the saddle half the time (Paul Darragh was my hero!) but the pony knew his job luckily and as long as I didn't fiddle with his head or try and count strides - what were they? - would lock on to a fence and clear it. If I interfered he would put in a dirty stop and I'd clear the fence solo... Again, we didn't open gates, just jumped over or around them. I was an adult before I learned to open a gate on horseback. To get across the dual carriageway to decent hacking we popped the barrier in the central reservation and got banned from the beach for jumping windbreaks. Apparently, we should have checked for people the otherside first?!

I didn't appreciate what good ponies we all had until I was 16 and started on horses - they really wouldn't tolerate the nonsense that the ponies were up for and I had t learn to ride at that point.

 

[Hormonal Filly]

Guilty...I used to jump some stupid things when I was a teenager. I would ride around the fields near the yard and point and kick at some ridiculous hedges, walls, gates, footpath stiles - anything that was there and the bigger the better.

That is woah! Serious scope there!

 

[windand rain]

My cousin brought his fiancee to visit from Australia she asked to have a gallop on the beach on my boy he was a scopey 16hh. I advised her not to gallop back to me but if she did to turn him into the sea if she couldnt stop She thought she knew better galloped back towards me the horse jumped up the bank and cleared the beach hut just a stride in front of him ran to look for the carnage at the other side to find him standing next to a gorse bush eating the prickly flowers with a rigid with fear rider still on his back

 

[Bernster]

Wow! A beach hut 🙊

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

You also see kids come out of the ring having had some poles down & saying they need a jumping lesson? Actually they couldn't be further from the truth, they actually need some flatwork lessons. The horse is only in the air for 5% of the time the rest of the time they are on the floor & they need to learn to put their horses in the correct place to jump. It becomes even more important when they move onto horses & that's when many first realise how much their pony actually did for them & may be much of their success was down to the pony & not necessarily them as a rider?

 

[Gloi]

There was waste land near us where all sort of rubbish had been dumped and we made jumps from whatever we found there. Old mattresses propped up and bedframes, the ground was terrible, full of rubbish, wouldn't like to have landed on some of the stuff there if we fell off.