Call me stupid ...

[racaille]

.... but I've understood something at last! The other day we were chatting about jumping horses as opposed to horses that can jump a bit. I was sort of struggling to understand what it was that makes a good SJ nag.
But we had an SJ lesson ystdy and I finally got it. There was a 85cm x 90cm spread (as part of a course) that sorted the jumping horses out from the rest. One of the trainees was on a sporty pony who just flew over it in huge leaps every time.
Paco, on the other hand, was at the limit of his ability. If I made any error at all in the way I presented him - too fast, too flat, bad angle, too much on the forehand - he struggled. He didn't necessarily bring it down but it required a huge effort on his part to compensate for my mistakes and resulted in some not very pretty jumps. It came right just once, and he did it beautifully and I did what I should have been doing all along, so I called it a day there and thanked him a lot.
Finally I realised that Paco will jump (a bit) because he is generous and tries hard, but there are other horses who do have a natural talent and size is nothing to do with it. But then, we're not all built to be ballerinas, are we?
;D

[kateflashy]

my flashy has always been a volenteer to teach people to jump because she will do it perfectly no matter what is happening on top and she can see a stride better then most people her son , harvey is the same , as was masha , but she was a looney tunes, fredric wil rely on you to tell him when to take off , but if you get it right he jumps 1m10

[Maes Seren]

I can see a stride on Gem, even after having a break of 7 months i still havent lost the ability.

Bertha is quite like Paco, will jump the world for you if she can, she'd try as hard as she could to get over for you, even without the best styles in the world.

Eddie and Gem however, given their breeding i presume, are both good jumpers. Ive 'loose jumped' Gem, however she has to be led into the jump so has jumped about 3ft3 triple bar from a jog and 3ft3 uprights from walk

Eddies also a natural, clearing roungly about a 5ft spread.

[FirenLady]

Tiggy will get really close to a small jump and POP it, not pretty, not comfotable but he wants to please you.Fire is fab though. I was jumping yesterday a double with a scary filler on the second half. (which I not he was pretty worried about). first time i got to the second half wrong, he stuck half a stride in second time i ask him to take off to early and he took half stride out. Third time we had a really lovely forward canter and i could feel him stretching out underneath me and jumped it perfectly :-) He helps me out all the time.

[duckles]

Racaille, while there is no doubt about it some horses are much more athletic than others and some really love jumping, I think Paco did really well considering he doesn;t jump much. Keep up the show jumping and he'll get fitter and more sure of his scope and ability and will be flying over. I''m only saying this because I've seen it happen with a good few horses. I don't know if you have any show jumping ambitions so it may not matter either way.

[brigadier]

I agree- some horses do have natural talent and some need to learn and work at it- a bit like humans really and like humans the ones with natural talent can often fall by the wayside whilst the ones that work at it become the true professionals.
brig

[racaille]

LOL Duckles, no I've given up any SJ ambitions - I don't compete any more! I loved it when I was younger but get too tense now.
We jump about once every 10 days and he's fine over a small course, can even be quite pretty. But I've been lazy about his flatwork (actually, not lazy, but with good reason) and it shows over jumps. I really really need to work on his canter. It's my project for May.

[arumanii]

Yep def! Those who love it truly do love it. One mare I know will hear u clanking jumps in the next field n come straight to the gate n beg to come in n play.

Once made the mistake with her of being just over a whole stride out n thinking I'll just push on a bit to get more impulsion n make up the ground (yes, too late was my thinking!) -and she took off n cleared it from there!!! She could easily have put in a full stride but decided just to go for it! (was only low) She's one of those that even if you stood her sideways to it in completly the wrong place and just said pretty please she'd prob try her heart out to do it for you! (Of course she is also one of those who will deliberately try to lead you into a jump ur not planning to do by curiously forgetting to listen to u!)

I've also ridden some on class lessons where the instructor has set up a low bounce or double n had her take on the whole thing aka take the bounce as a spread n double as a bounce. Has taken some mega schooling to get her to stop flying! She's def got the ability tho and others don't. Often think it's a shame she's not doing more.

Can also remember one gr8 little pony in the same class as me jumping huge fences n clearing them by miles n putting the rest of us, on big horses, to shame as we carefully collected, set up and planned strides n turns to the last meter!