Some Philosophical Ramblings on Why I Could Never Jump Right

 

Long, long ago, when I first read of jumping horses I dreamed of effortlessly sailing through the air on my trustworthy horse.  Needless to say my first jump (accidental) was a horrible wake-up call as I lurched all over the horse's back (I did stay on but the jump was only one foot.)  Years later when I finally got my first horse I was DETERMINED to learn how to jump.  Having learned about the Forward Seat I finally got one week of lessons at a FS school and from then on it was a whole series of frustrating jumps with several jumping lessons thrown in.  My teachers kept on telling me that I would get it, but my body, slowly disabled from my undiagnosed MS, never got it.  I did not fall off much, just once or twice, but just about every jump was pretty bad, and except for two jumps in a lesson on following contact I never really progressed no matter how much I practiced.

 

When I got back to riding after my MS diagnosis I was so weak and unsteady that jumping was clearly out of the picture, first I had to get strong enough to stay in position in the walk, trot and canter.  When I finally found Debbie, my riding teacher, I was still very, very weak, but due to her constant corrections of my position my security came back and my old dream reappeared.  So I went back to the books, both the ones I had decades ago and copies of used ones I found on the net.  Clue by clue I realized what I had been doing wrong so many years ago.  I will have some references to earlier blogs of mine, as well as to another person's blog I read this week.

 

The first clue came from VladimirLittauer's "The Forward Seat" (1935) where he writes "Anyone who starts to learn jumping on horses that jump badly may be disappointed with his own ability.  All his efforts to keep a good position will be in vain.  He will be thrown forward, or backward, banging on the horse's back, jerking his mouth.  I want to console you.  No rider can sit well on a horse that jumps badly."  Well, that explains part of it, most of my jumping was on my wonderful horse Hat Tricks who I got as a green broke 5 year old with no jump training, I taught him how to jump while I was trying to learn how to jump.  Hat Tricks became a decent jumper to 3 1/2 feet (my limit) but as for me, while I stayed on and did not hit his mouth or back too much, I just could not get in time with the jump.  I NEVER felt secure over a jump though I trusted my horse who jumped everything I asked him to.

 

Then another clue fell into place as Debbie started working on the placement of my knees (barnmice.com/getting-my-knees-into-the), getting them forward into the knee rolls of the saddle.  This was what finally got me back into the Forward Seat, I felt so much more secure with my knees in the right place!  This is something I am going to have to work on again since I have noticed that my knees have gradually drifted back to just in front of my stirrup leathers, affecting my stability in the saddle.  It isn't just that my knees get into the knee rolls, at the same time my knees go DOWN into the knee rolls, making my heels go down further and stabilizing my lower leg.  I have been working on getting my lower leg stable for years and I have made progress, Debbie used to yell at me multiple times every lesson, now she yells at me just once every month or so.  Debbie is a firm believer in the necessity of having a stable lower leg to jump well and I agree with her completely.

 

Then I got Sergei Kournakoff's "School for Riding" (1938) where I picked up two more clues for my bad jumping.  The very first thing I tried was his method for fixing my shoulders (barnmice.comfixing-my-shoulders) which REALLY helped my problems with my upper body.  I had been slouching my shoulders while riding my whole riding life, but by pushing out with the muscles over my solar plexus my spine miraculously straightened itself out and my shoulders went back without any muscle strain or backache on my part.  This is wonderful!!!!!  I had a BIG problem with my upper body collapsing when I jumped, I just could never get my spine to straighten out between my shoulders.  Now I work on this every week, and it is starting to become automatic, my spine starts rounding, I push out with these muscles, and my spine straightens up and Debbie compliments me on the straightness of my upper body.

 

The next thing I picked up from Kournakoff's book was how to keep my head up, another BIG problem of mine (barnmice.com/maybe-now-I-can-fix-my-head).  Kournakoff says the rider should keep their face vertical, and when I did this all of a sudden some sort of balance came back into my riding.  With my MS I have big problems with my balance which is why I have to walk with two canes.  To my surprise when I keep my face vertical my front-to-back balance comes back somewhat.  I just cannot tell when I start to lose my balance when my head is looking down, but somehow my body can tell when I start losing my balance when my face is vertical and I can STAY in balance.  This little trick has also prevented me from falling when I am walking, meaning that sometimes I don't really need two canes to walk safely on my own two feet.

 

Even with all these improvements in my riding position I have not really felt secure enough to jump at all, even trotting over cross poles.  I can do two-point fine, with stable lower legs and independent hands.  But everytime I'm headed toward a jump during my meanderings around the ring my body has been saying "no, No, NO, I'm not ready yet!"  But this week I finally read something that may give me the final clue as to why my jumping was so insecure.  It is on the blog "The Crest Release...and how it Ruined American Jumping" on the Glenshee Equestrian Center blog (glenshee.blogspot.com/crest-release-and-how-it-has-ruined.html).  EVERYONE who jumps should read this blog!  I quote this blog with the author's permission (J. M. Elliot).

"The crest release forces the rider to open the knee and hip angles, which weaken the base of support and distribute the rider's weight and balance precariously between the stirrups, knees, and hands on the neck.  The rider's seat comes forward and out of the saddle and the rider's center of gravity is raised and moves forward over the horse's withers/shoulders where it unbalances both horse and rider in the air." 

And further down the blog I came across this "In order to give a crest release the hand must move from a position over the withers to a position about 6" to 1' higher up the neck.  Thisliftingof the hand unbalances the rider and, during the arc over the fence, can actually interferemorewith the mouth."  Bingo.  THIS was part of my problem. 

 

J. M. Elliot then goes on to recommend what she calls theLow Release"slide your handsDOWNthe neck a bit, following the slope of the shoulder forward, and press your hands into the sides of the neck.  When you feel secure enough, make the same motion down and forwards, but don't press into the neck."  I went back to Littauer's "Common Sense Horsemanship" and this is what Littauer recommends for intermediate jumpers, the ones who are jumping securely with the crest release, as an intermediate step to the "following release" where the rider keeps contact with the horse's mouth throughout the jump.  I had just never gotten there and none of my instructors had suggested it as a way out of my difficulties.  J. M. Elliot also says this about the "following release" (what George Morris calls the "automatic release"), "The following release allows the rider's seat to come backward while closing the knee and hip angles, strengthening the base of support and bringing the rider's center of gravity lower and closer to that of the horse, while freeing the hand to follow the mouth forward and down.  In such a position, with angles closed, the rider is also in a better position to absorb the shock of the horse's jump with the ankle, knee, and hip joints, rather than having to grip harder with the leg or being thrown out of the saddle."

 

I have some hope now.  Friday I started practicing the "low release" when I rode Mia, and next Wednesday I am going to ask Debbie to help me practice the "low release" properly (straight line from elbow to bit) so I can get the feel of it.  As I told Debbie years ago my goal is to be able to jump 2 feet safely and securely.  Maybe now I can get there in a year or two as I get strong enough.  Maybe, just maybe, the crest release was a big part of my problems jumping.

 

Some dreams never die.

 

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran   

 

 

   

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