cross-country and reins

[Elaine]

I was watching the olympics and I saw some of the cross-country. All the riders had tons of slack in their reins. Is that how it is in cross-country? I know they don't want to hold their horse's back when jumping, but they had what looked like little contact and when there was contact, the rider had to bring their hands almost to stomach. thanks.

[Sarah]

hello!

When you ride cross country you are wanting your horse to go like a steeplechaser, not a showjumper. Therefore you are not working him forwards into a contact. This is because as the jumps are solid in XC, if the horse is collected and has a very rounded back, if he hits the jump he will somersault over it. With the horse going a bit flatter he is much less likely to somersault over the jump if he touches it.

Therefore you do want to have slightly longer reins to let the horse stretch its neck out for the cantering and jumping. When you do a drop fence you want to really give lots of rein to the horse so that it can stretch down over the fence. If there is then another fence quickly after that there may not be time to shorten the reins enough so the rider pulls their arms right back for it

bye!