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Post by jimmy on Aug 19, 2016 17:35:37 GMT
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Post by jimmy on Aug 19, 2016 17:36:13 GMT
  There are several more. I don't know how to post them so they are bigger. |
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Post by horseguy on Aug 19, 2016 20:02:09 GMT
They are thumbnails and if you click on them you get a bigger version.
The first jump over the table is a very nice jump by the horse. I generally like the rider's position but see two improvements, (1) tight elbows that prevent following hands. Solution is to relax. (2) It always worries me to see that show jumping foot placement with toes on the irons. Not only is it tiring in cross country but it is risk. It's too easy to lose an iron. I like to see feet at least securely on the ball of the foot or back from there. Personally I ride "home" (irons all the way back to the heels).
The second jump over the roll top is nice all the way around. I like the horse and rider. Both are relaxed, reins nicely loose but contact is easily obtained. Some might say the rider is behind, and she is but I'm good with it given the whole context of the jump. Besides, Jim Wofford says, "If you have a choice of being ahead or behind in a jump, take behind because no one ever fell of the back of a horse."
Third picture, two riders standing still, I see the woman rider with her Stadium Jumper foot position and I think her stirrup length is also very stadium jumper, too short for cross country in my traditionalist view.
Last picture over the spread logs is for me the best of the good bunch. I see relaxed following hands, more secure foot position in the irons and a very nice defensive and still centered all around rider position. I like the horse here but in this and the previous picture it looks like he has an App left eye. Not a fan of that eye, hard to sell in a bay.
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Post by jimmy on Aug 19, 2016 20:45:54 GMT
That is Squiggles. She has an eye you can see the sclera clear around. Spooky looking eye. Yeah, like an Appy!
Darn, I thought for sure you would notice. Check out the hands on the reins! That was the quiz. The reins are coming out over the top of the rider's hand, not the bottom. Like holding driving reins.
I am told, the point of the rein/hand position exercise is to instill a following hand, as you did notice the following hand. The rein hold not only lines up the forearm line straight down the rein to the mouth, it removes the leverage you have when you hold the reins normally. So it purposefully weakens your hand hold. You are more or less forced to follow, and not interfere. I thought it was interesting technique. Katy says she has not competed using this, but uses it in practice.
This same idea has come up recently in some Vaquero style riding as well, coming from some old photos, showing old cowboys with the reins coming out over the top of their hands.
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Post by horseguy on Aug 19, 2016 21:06:22 GMT
I ride with my reins out the top in through the space between the pinky and next finger. It's traditional and I like it. Been doing it for 63 years. Argies ride with the reins out the bottom, which for me is a reason not to. I didn't notice but you see both. Horse looks great. Didn't realize who it was. What's with the short stirrup length? I am glad to see she is riding in such an optimum defensive position like in the last picture. I worry about young riders, they often take unnecessary risks with their position.
And I will not buy a non-App horse with an App eye because a couple times having one in a horse like a bay has ruined a sale for me. It means nothing functionally but in the business it's been a problem. Buyers can be so superficial. No pig eyed horses for me either. I have a list as a result of many years, no big wide blazes, the list goes on.
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Post by jimmy on Aug 19, 2016 22:00:16 GMT
I didn't realize it was traditional. I have seen those old US Cavalry movies, and their reins were went under. I thought.
Squiggles was a free OTTB.
I don't know nothing about stirrup lengths! I have no influence in the matter! LOL! They don't look short when she competes. She was riding with a coach that day, so maybe his idea? She also has really long legs and thigh bones.
Maybe she will read this and chime in.
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Post by horseguy on Aug 19, 2016 22:44:51 GMT
They no longer use the method of determining optimal stirrup length I was taught in 1953. The students were in a line facing the instructor. I command was given to measure stirrup length (we all had McClellan saddles). In unison all the boys stood up straight in the irons and put our fists between our crotch and the saddle seat. That was considered the correct length. You may recall, my instructor only accepted men and boys for lessons. Can you imagine a group of young girls in pink helmets doing this today? Traditions are lost in many ways. Maybe losing this one is not such a big loss.
Maybe the stirrup length in the pictures is correct for today. I don't know, but I do know when things get difficult on ice or terrain giving way under you, longer stirrups are and advantage.
Free horse. Wow. I can't remember being that lucky. She can make money even with the eye.
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Post by jimmy on Aug 20, 2016 0:05:52 GMT
Credit goes to her mom for picking out horses. I usually just see a feed bill!
I wouldn't think the fist idea would be so bad, as long they were using their own fist!
This is Katy's new promising prospect. So not for sale at the moment.
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Post by horseguy on Aug 20, 2016 18:59:32 GMT
This is Katy's new promising prospect. So not for sale at the moment. I got my first paid real 7 day a week training job at 21. Before that I did pick up work. I had a great teacher and I learned a lot and didn't care how much money I made. 10 years later I had three kids and every penny mattered. That was when I learned that I might love mares and I don't care a hoot about coat color but I had to change when buying prospects. A refined looking, good moving, gray gelding is the best seller ever. An App eye, big blazes, huge white stockings, high tails... can screw up a sale. Superficial BS yes, but it's a business. Almost 40 years ago I had kids, owned my first farm, a run down place with an old dairy barn A nice young woman neighbor who helped us with the kids accidently got pregnant. She owned the worst looking gelding you ever saw. I have seen camels that look better. She came to me in tears over her "barrel prospect" wanting to sell this piece of crap horse, saying she was broke and needed money for medical bills. I gave her $500 for this equine, which would be like $1000 today. Neck short and thick, short legs, long hollow back, head too big, and of course a big wide blaze. I owned this untrained 5 year old and I could not believe it. So, I trained him. He was smart and handy way beyond his conformation. I started using him in club polo games and he was smart as a whip about the game. Years went by and of course I could not sell him, but he was a good lesson horse and my son learned polo on him. Then one day I got a call from the polo club president saying the US Polo Club Polo Ambassador would be visiting our club next week and we needed to provide six horses for him. Would I come to the game with an extra horse? Sure, I said, what kind of rider was he? Unknown. The Polo Ambassador is usually a well off type guy who needs a cover job to look like he works. He travels the country inspecting polo clubs for the Association making sure clubs were safe, following standards, and had a lot of free booze. I thought about it and figured this ugly, put together by a committee horse would be the best bet for a guy like that. I was told to tie the horse I was lending to the other side of the president's trailer on game day. I arrived, unloaded and walked this disturbingly unsightly horse to the proper place. Just my luck, the Ambassador was there looking at the horses he had received for the game. As I walked up to the trailer this guy could not hide his emotional response to seeing this horse that I was leading. All the other players respected this horse and never gave it a thought, but this guy was insulted, humiliated and probably angry. I tied him and said, "You'll like him." He said something back to me like, "Indeed." Well, the Ambassador played him in the third or forth period and afterward came galloping up to me on him. His face looked like he'd seen a space ship land on the field. Incredulous, he shouted to me as he approached in an extended five word sentence, "Thissss Issss A Goodddd Horseeee". I smiled. I never could sell that horse. He played a long career of club polo, taught lots of lessons and when he got old I gave him to my brother. The moral of this story is that if you are in the business and you have any sense, and the need to make a decent living, how a horse looks is 100 times more important than what they can do. That is a nasty sad truth. It looks like your daughter is making a life in the horse business. I love this new horse of hers, but I hope it's her last with an App eye. |
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