Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Well Kat, while I generally agree with your logic, you're out on the wrong limb here. Jumping is a man made event. I have yet to see a horse, of its own free will, choose to jump over a man made jump. We are responsible for the consequences from the activities, events or lack thereof that we present our horses with.

Left to their own devices and choosing, horses are pretty much generally satisfied standing in their pasture with plenty to eat and drink. I've had some escape their paddock here at home, but they never went to the arena and started doing cavaletti, running the barrel pattern or going over the jumps. They always choose to graze in the yard.

Barry Cole,  Kansas

---

From:  k s swigart <katswig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To:  k s swigart <katswig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To:  Ridecamp <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject:  [RC] The Horse's Perogative (was: Truman, BH, Colic)
Date:  Tue, 25 Jul 2006 18:21:04 -0700 (GMT-07:00)
Truman said:

> On the other hand the rider chose for herself to
> make that jump. She made the choice - she paid the
> price. The horse didn't have a say. The horse is an
> unwitting partner in our activities.

Only somebody who has never jumped a horse would say such a thing.  Anybody who has every jumped a horse KNOWS that you can't make a horse jump, and the horse has all the say.  Horses only go over jumps by choice (which is why competitors get penalties for refusals).  Saying "Uh uh, ain't doin' it!" is well within the repertoire of all horses that are put to a fence and asked to jump it.

Horses only try to jump jumps that they think they can successfully jump (which is why many of them refuse); sometimes they can be wrong in their assessment of their abilities, and sometimes they perform badly (and sometimes they perform badly because the rider rode badly) and might injure themselves in the process, but make no mistake, if they don't think they can do it, they can and WILL exercise their prerogative to refuse.

Training horses to jump obstacles is an exercise in building enough confidence to get them to try.  The trying part is entirely at the discretion of the horse.

Refusals on the part of the horse (i.e. the horse having its say) are, in fact, probably the biggest cause of RIDER injuries on a jump course.

Contrary to apparent belief here, very few horses die (or suffer catastrophic accidents) in three day eventing, and it is virtually unheard of (this is the only one _I_ have heard of) at the Junior Novice level.  A horse is probably more likely to fall and break its leg or neck at liberty in a pasture accident than at a Junior Novice three day event.

kat
Orange County, Calif.


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

  Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
  Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
  Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

  Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

 Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
 Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
 Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

 Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=