25/06/2025
Awareness is step #1
The collage of many pictures might be a bit much, but each one makes an important point. I grew up in the frozen northeastern US where people put sandbags or cement blocks in the back of their pickup trucks for better traction in the snow. That same principle applies to horses when they jump. Jumping horses can use all the help they can get when they jump, including having the rider's weight over and close to their center of balance as they take off.
The last thing a horse needs as they prepare to jump is to have their rider leap suddenly up onto their neck, way ahead of their center of balance. It's like throwing those sandbags through the truck's back window onto the front seat just as the truck starts to drive up a slippery frozen hill.
The red dots indicate the centers of balance of a typical horse and human. The skeletal drawing shows how when riding we want to merge our center of balance with the horse's. As we sit deeper our center drops, and as the horse engages, their center rises. This is how we join in establishing unity of shared balance and movement with our horse.
The US Cavalry rider is helping his horse by keeping his center of balance close to his horse's. The rider at middle left with their butt over the pommel is disrupting their horse's balance in the jump.
The evolution of the crest release in Hunter Seat Equitation to the point now that riders are placing their weight so far up on their horse's, with their butts over the pommel, is an example of how humans impose their desire for style on horses while they ignore what horses need. The up-on-the-neck jumping position is also dangerous.
Understanding how the biomechanics of how horses and riders merge their centers of balance in unity, or fail to accomplish this, is necessary to increase a riders skill level. This knowledge allows a rider to see past trendy styles so they can help their horse work more effectively. This understanding also keeps a rider safe.
