Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

In a message dated 1/2/2006 8:41:36 PM Pacific Standard Time, greymare56@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

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Hi Karen, my own personal observation is that it is the rider who causes the jigging (that won't be a popular theory!).  Over the years I've noticed that a person who owns one jigger tends to own multiple jiggers or their subsequent horses are all jiggers. I haven't noticed a correlation with conformation but with equitation there is most definitely a connection.  Watch next time you see someone on a jigging horse....they  usually have the horse's head cranked up and in (hollowing the horse's back) and are sitting extremely tensely (well jigging is not a lot of fun).  The horse has almost no opportunity to walk even if they wanted to....they are literally being cued to jig.

I think almost any horse is capable of jigging for a bit, but its what the rider does after that that makes the difference.  I also think that training a horse to have a good walk is a step that is frequently skipped....it seems like the horses I've ridden who had really good power walks will do that rather than attempt to jig.


Sylvia