Discover Top Posts Tagged with #free jumping

At the risk of this being one of those subjects that never gets laid to rest, here are some (hopefully) ending thoughts on free jumping young stock (3 & under): The misconceptions that people hold about this are much like the misconceptions held about the “starting” of two year old per the ethical industry standard--- It’s a lot less than you think it is.

For one, there’s no way to bubble wrap horses until 3+ and keep them from jumping. A yearling popping over 12″ in a jump chute is far less likely to do anything to them as compare to them willfully launching over a 4′ pasture fence. If you sincerely think controlled jumps at or under 12" are inherently more damaging than uncontrolled, unmonitored jumps ranging upwards of 4'--- then I'm not sure what to tell you other than I think you might be bad at logical reasoning.

It’s not done to excess. A horse is spending the most time going over just poles and if it goes well, it’s increased to half-raised, and if it goes the best it become verticals. In an ideal world, the horse goes through each variation once. Not every yearling gets to verticals, not every yearling gets to half-raised. It’s based on the individual horse’s ease to which they take to it and where they’re at in development.

It’s not done often. Maybe 4 times in the year, including competition or testing. My yearling as gone once and maybe will go through again in 3-4 months depending if we’re going to take her to the same in-hand competition as the rest.

It isn’t done for a lark. If a yearling or 2 y.o. (or 3 y.o.) is going through a jump chute it’s in preparation for stallion licensing, mare performance testing, or for in-hand competitions. Licensing happens at 2, in-hand for 2&3 y.o. has free jumping, mare performance at 3 y.o. has free jumping. It would be asinine not to introduce it lightly beforehand. Unless you are having a formerly not intended for breeding mare tested into a book you don't have "a lot of time".

Making false equivalencies about a yearling going down a jump chute does nothing except prove how uneducated you are on the topic.

A few times down a jump chute is not the the same as being started as "long yearling" for Western futurities.

Nor is it equivalent to horses beginning race training for the 2 y.o. races.

It's not the same as jumping that horse over fences mounted.

It has nothing to do with over-facing and over-stressing an older horse over fences.

It's even not the same thing as over jumping a mature horse through a jump chute.

When you say X is Y when they have different values, you're showcasing how little you actually care about the issue. You're just showing off that you want to be right, know your point isn't as valid as you thought it was, and are now having to bring in unrelated and indisputable "bad things".

You can be critical of professionals who:

Over-face young horses

Employ abusive tactics to achieve results

Start horses too young and hard

Or who belong to arguably very abusive and flawed industries

You can do all that and still have non-critical opinion of professionals operating within the ethical industry standard--- even if there are some people who are against that standard on principle.

The longer you're in the horse industry --- not just as an owner but operating in professional spaces --- the more you learn that there's an immense learning curve between the average horse person and elite professionals. Things I used to think were uncouth or "bad" are now things I've personally received an education in/witnessed first-hand that are not just accepted within the practice but absolutely fine and operate within the boundaries of producing healthy, happy horses.

Your basic Pony Club, 4H, kid’s riding program, etc. does not prepare you for the “real” horse world at all. It does not remotely give you an education that enables you to call yourself a professional with any credibility. Unless, as a “professional”, you have achieved advancement out of the national levels of your given discipline or are working as an assistant to someone who has then the authority with which you call yourself a “professional” is extremely minimal.

Just because you are technically capable of calling yourself a professional does not mean you are a limitless fount of knowledge who knows the ins & outs of every little aspect of ever little thing. You’re certainly always able to be critical of practices you deem unacceptable, be amateur or professional. That’s not the problem. Trying to use a technicality to bolster your point when it just makes you look exceptionally, woefully unequipped to be in the conversation is. Listen to whoever you want on the internet, but when people are disagreeing with a self-proclaimed professional who has trained one horse and only has a working knowledge within the low levels whilst agreeing with a professional who has been running a successful young horse program for ten years it probably has nothing to do with cliques and everything to do with one side clearly having a greater access to knowledge than the other.

#young horse training #young horse standards #free jumping #free jumping young horses #literally make up some tags at this point i never tag shit I am just hoping that maybe if this has related tags someone will benefit

Polka Dot CF (Palladio/Rabino/Laredo)

3 year old Oldenburg (GOV) mare

---demoing that jumping to high is a fault life

#warmblood #mare #gov #oldenburg #free jumping #dottie