Why are so many show jumpers..........

[hatters]

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Please don't shout me down for this.. I think it is to do with girls forming emotional attachments to their ponies and horses when younger. Not wanting to sell or move on, but boys are different. While girls are happy to do all the grooming, feeding and riding the boys like their mounts handed to them ready to go, so don't form the same attachment. Therefore they tend to move onto better horses faster, take rides rather than buy and go through many more horses than the girls. That is not to say this is stereotypcial but I do think it happens.

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Definately agree with that!

 

[mat]

Richard davidson is an awesome trainer.. didnt he compete GP show jumping and GP Dressage?

I have to agree with people who say that schooling for the two disciplines is different.

I jump my dressage horses, but when I warm up, I ride in a lighter seat, with my elbows probably out a little bit, getting the horses supple, but letting them choose a bit more what frame they want to approach the fence in etc. as most of them dont want to jump looking like a dressage horse, and if I tried to make them, they would probably p*ss off with me!

SJ riders do school their horses well, they need to be able to shorten/lengthern, do handbrake turns or turns on a tight circle etc, even a bit of counter canter!

I think the thing is you need to look at the suppleness of the horse, rather than the style of the rider..

there was a very interesting article in hh months ago, where CH rode WillF's Hickstead derby winner, and commented on his surprise about how responsive and well schooled it was.

 

[Sal_E]

I don't disagree with the fact that SJ'ers do (should?) have to school well on the flat, but I can't imagine there's many people out there who wouldn't agree that they DO ride them too deep. They also don't 'do' trot either!

 

[Rambo]

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you mean by riding 'too deep' but nonetheless, who's to say SJ'ers are doing it wrong and dressage riders doing it right

We're trying to achieve different things and so there are bound to be differences in the way we train our horses to go. The key is that we are both training our horses to a high level...Apples and Pears and all that