Replies

Well, then I don't understand why people do it...any more then I understand bronc riders, and bull riders...

And I also know that jumping is hard on a horse, usually breaks them down before they would if they weren't jumping.

Just don't get it.

Becky

It's fun... that's why people do it. It's a challenge, it's a rush... Some people live for hard, dangerous sport, and some don't.

I loved jumping as a kid. I had a limit... I started getting spooked when the jumps got bigger than about 4 feet. Some people's limits are set lower, some higher. :~)

Becky:

I have never understood why people who know nothing at all about a subject feel compelled to spout off about it.

To better inform you:

The show ring today is a prepared surface, free of stones, hard spots, soft spots, etc.

The show horse is the best kept, best fed, best cared for animal other than maybe some elderly widow's poodle.

Most large show stables have their vet set up on a weekly farm visit schedule.

The horse rarely works over 45 minutes a day, is sheltered from flies in the summer, vaccinated for many diseases on a regular schedule, etc.

Most show jumpers that go lame would have done so anyway from genetic reasons, such as navicular or arthritis related problems.

Today, 9 out of 10 show jumper riders are young women who baby their horses in every way.

There are some horse sports that are harder on the horse. Chasing and eventing, for instance.

But show jumping is the movie star life of the horse world.

Please learn something about a topic before you spout off.

By the way, I do not show jumpers. I did many years ago and I have a granddaughter who is doing well riding in the jumper classes.

Hunter classes are even easier, if you know the difference, which I doubt.

Jumping's like anything else -- you set parameters, you know your limitations, you know your horse.

I've been jumping all my life, since I was an itty-bitty, and I'm still at it in my 50s. I don't jump as high as I used to, actually the height of the jump doesn't matter so much as the approach and the turns. Anything over about 2'6" or 3' is not really educating you or the horse.

The times I've been hurt, it's because I was ignoring one or another of the "rules" - I overfaced myself or my horse, or rode a horse I wasn't really familiar with a little too adventurously, or did "just one more round" when the horse and I were tired.

The older I get the more careful I am about the rules. I look for a way around some stuff in the hunting field that I would have tally-hoed over 20 years ago. But so long as you're reasonably sensible, it's safe.

The very worst riding injury I've ever seen the rider was breaking just about every rule in the book. On the other hand, an agriculture secretary in the Reagan administration was killed practicing for a team roping event when his horse fell on him. So far as I know he wasn't doing anything wrong, it just happened.