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Jumping matters

By Mary: I see horses showjumping, held in with tight reins. Don't they need freedom for balancing?

By Jynx: Caprilli wanted a horse to think for itself and did not like "spot" jumping, where the rider tried to add in or lengthen the stride before the fence. Over the fence, the rider was to keep his seat out of the saddle, lean slightly forward and allow his hands to follow the horse's mouth forward.

By Writergirl: If a horse learns to jump with a rider setting their hands, it will be very hard to retrain him to use his neck correctly. A horse that loose-jumps, uses its head and neck to the full extent.

By N3: I have been taught that if you don't maintain light contact over the jump, you can be in big trouble for the jump after!

By LL: Hehe, this reminds me of my instructor once telling me that no matter how hard I try, I cannot slow the horse down while he is in the air, so there is no point in pulling on the reins!

By Ren: I don't really agree with giving so much rein over a jump that you lose all contact with the horse. Having a light contact doesn't mean pulling the horse's teeth out! But sometimes dropping the contact completely is necessary, such as when the horse jumps "away" from you and has to stretch a lot to clear the fence.

By DJSam: You should never "give" first. With soft elbows your hands "follow", giving the horse what it needs and then on landing you just sit up ... If you have the correct arms, the horse will not have its head yanked down – it has complete freedom of movement.

By Daemon Sadi: If you throw the contact away in take-off, you often spoil the jump.

By Writergirl: When my horse was younger, he ended up taking an entire jump with his forelegs, simply because he couldn't balance back on a related distance. Now that he's learnt how to keep his balance, there's no need for contact at all – in any case, in a bitless bridle "contact" is a debatable point! There's a beautiful photo somewhere of a woman jumping a massive, international A-grade fence with her horse in just a noseband with reins. The reins are fairly loose – she's giving him loads of freedom and both look totally relaxed.

By Seabreeze: Basically, a horse has to look at what's ahead of it. Would you not be "blinding" your horse by taking it over a jump with its head held in?

By Nikki: Have you seen the six-bar competitions on Supersport? Six massive uprights in a row, and the riders who cleared them all, were the ones that rode the first jump and then sat deadly quiet and let the horse do the rest ... the one competitor even said that after jump number one, he feels he could light a cigarette and have a beer ...

By DJSam: I think holding the horse in is an exception to the rule, although you see it a lot at the lower levels. It is sad because for most horses it only becomes a problem higher up and to rectify the mistake then takes much more work than at a lower height.