Western point of view on jumping...

[Nikita88]

i am a show jumper, and i was telling the girl about my age that rides western that my horse got injured while jumping. she looked at me like i was evil or something and started getting up in my face about how cruel i am to horses. i was like how am i cruel? i spent $700 just getting my horse checked out, thats not including medications. she was like "You think horses are meant to jump? You notice that horses have skinny legs for their bodies? and you think horses are meant to jump? i would think if your horse gets hurt while jumping you would care enough about her to stop jumping her"
It really made me made because 1) Nikita LOVES jumping, she enjoys it so much...and 2)personally i dont think jumping is cruel to horses...i dont know how anyone else feels about this, but it really made me mad!!!

[casey]

Horses aren't 'mean't' to do a lot of things..... But have been adapted by us to do various jobs. Ensuring the longevity of the horse.
You could get picky, and "what are they mean't to do" Because, the answer cartainly wouldn't have anything to do with humans.

My horses love to jump, if they dont, then they find a job they do like.

Its very difficult trying to reason with someone so set in their viewpoint. :)

[galadriel]

Pfft. And she thinks horses were designed for barrel racing, team penning, cutting, reining? Uh-huh. NO riding discipline is "natural" for the horse, not even the people who only go on trail rides.

[Elvengirl]

heehee, ya and horses are meant to go along with their noses in the dirt and take itty bitty steps? good grief!

[jUmPingIsLifE]

actually---jumping is VERY natural for horses, just not with a rider on their back :) horses do it all the time in the wild, autumn jumps the pasture fence every day!

i wouldn't pay much attention to it, everyone is entitaled to their opinion. horses get hurt all the time doing barrle racing, and other western disaplines even trail riding!

[Nikita88]

Yea, its a good point about the barrel racing, i really didnt say much. but it did make me really mad!!! still does looking back how she said if i cared about her i wouldnt jump her anymore...thats not true! i care about her and she is young, healthy and enjoys jumping so why make her quit? jeez people these days!

[Avid_Rider]

I ride both western and english, but I would have had a heck of a time holding my tongue if someone said that to me!
I don't particularily think that barrel racing is a very "nice" sport to horses but if a horse seems to enjoy it, good for them.
With jumping, the only way that I can see it being cruel is if someone FORCED their horse to jump. Or if someone was constantly left behind and hit their horses back.
But horses werent even "meant" to be ridden, much less saddled and shown.

Now that I think about it I probably would have just laughed and walked off.

[TBEventer2002]

Oh, those wonderful western people... ;)

I have never agreed with the most recent trends in the WP rings. There is a girl at my college this year whose parents operate a huge western barn and she wins at fair and stuff all the time on those professionally abused horses. We hate watching her work with her horse that she brought to school this year because she yanks him down with his nose between his knees (I am DEAD serious, he sometimes hits himself!) and his lope looks horrendous (four-beats it, and looks lame). Our coach, Jenny, who showed western pleasure for years at Congress even checked him out one day as she was working him because even she thought he was lame!

And the single barrel race I ever saw in person in my life was one where the girl beat her horse on the head to make it go faster. Thank God she was dumped and her horse bowled right into and over her. :mad:

Of course, I'm sure the WP people can't imagine ever whacking our horses on the rear to make them gallop towards a jump and stuff, so it's really a double-edged sword.

[Tabitha2]

I have never jumped but I love to watch it but since I ride western I dont think i'll get to even if I want to:( Some of us western riders mean but i'm not I hope;) just ignore it:)

[BackintheSaddle]

As a kid, I switched from Western to English because it was clear that my pony loved to jump! If I turned her out in the jumping arena for a bit of play, she went flying over HUGE spreads with no prompting at all. We were always getting dinged in Western pleasure classes because she worked like a dressage horse no matter what, and couldn't jog to save her life. So we converted, and she was a lovely hunter/jumper for me and for my borther after me. Being ridden is not natural for these horses, but if they enjoy a discipline, we just do our best to take extra special care of them and let them have at it :)