Riders Don’t Influence How Horses Jump
Popular belief has it that riders strongly affect their horse's jumping technique. Through their body position and movement, a rider can direct a horse's speed and stride, as well as take-off and landing points. Surprisingly, results of a study that measured all these factors while horses went over vertical jumps suggest that this belief is mistaken.
Researchers at the University of Limerick in Ireland filmed ten seasoned horses being ridden over jumps 1.05 metres (3.5 feet) high. Either an experienced equestrian or a novice rider rode each horse.
When the video footage was analyzed, the researchers found that the rider's level of experience had no significant influence on several aspects of how horses went over jumps. There were no differences among riders in a horse's speed, nor its length of stride when it approached the jump. Similarly, the distances from the fence to where the horse took off and landed were the same among riders. Horses took jumps in a consistent kinetic manner, regardless of their rider's body position or movement.
These findings imply that riders might be given more credit than they deserve for horses' jumping performance. Additionally, if an experienced jumper isn't responding to its rider's guidance, as was the case here, this makes further training of the horse difficult.
4 comments:
Interesting research/read indeed Rade, however, when it comes to Horse Racing or any equine sport, I would think it would be pretty stupid for a jockey/rider to ensure that a horse would fall - for example, by taking off at an obstacle a stride too early (or late). Injury is something they can do without, or am I missing the point here mate?
P.S Did you email me? If so, I'll look at my emails lol
Hi Guys - that research ? is not worth the paper its written on in my opinion - horses don't jump the same each day or at each jump of the same obstacle - watch animals at open poles riderless... they get distracted so easily - "look at that?" paper - "look at that another horse wowowowow" if that distraction comes before the fence
at speed - who do you want on its back? McCoy or Martin?
Richard Dunwoody was a master at getting into a position in the lead where he would reduce his pace quickly but slightly, before a fence to get the chasing horse distracted enough to leave the ground at the same time as Dunwoody's mount He had even good jockeys on the floor with that manoeuvre -- Heaven help a claimer or conditional who tried to get past him on the inside!
I send you an email martin
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