Jumping to Conclusions?

["Karen J. Zelinsky" <kjz2@juno.com>]

I have heard several times:  "A horse has only so many jumps in his
lifetime."
(don't we all?!) I tend to understand concepts better when I have an
extreme picture in my mind's eye.  A horse jumping, like a dressage horse
doing piaffes (correct term?) stresses out the "hind end" in the take
off, then the "front end" in the landing.  I hear that many trainers
working with grand prix jumpers practice on low jumps and tend to do the
hugh ones only in the ring.  Please help me if I'm off base. I've worked
on grand prix jumpers (massage-wise) and boy are they stressed!  Just
worked on a reining horse - a young arab mare and she's already getting
hock injections!  Something tells me they aren't designed to do these
things like we want them to.  Anyhow, isn't a horse doing a jump
"landing" a bit akin to a horse going down hill?  A variation of the
theme?  Do horses have only so many HILLS in their lives?  I guess we
could go back to their evolution and what kind of land they were designed
to truck over. Do horses run, canter, extended trot STRAIGHT downhill
when left to their own devices?

Am I asking a dumb question???
Karen in PA

________________________________________________________________
YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET!
Juno now offers FREE Internet Access!
Try it today - there's no risk!  For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=