Jump in Balance at Any Speed

Horses can jump well at any speed when they are in balance.

© Stacey Nedrow-Wigmore

I had an interesting conversation the other day while I was walking a Novice cross-country course. It went like this:

JW: "Hi."
Other Guy: "Hey, how are you?"
JW: "I heard you mention a 'rebalancing zone' back before that last cross-country fence. What's a rebalancing zone?"
OG: "Oh, that's a zone about 10 to 15 strides before the cross-country fence where the rider should sit down and rebalance her horse."
JW: "Uh, OK. What goes on in the zone?"
OG: "The rider should sit down, bring her shoulders back, close her legs, half-halt, look for her stride, then, when she sees her stride, ride forward to the base of the fence while she holds her horse to a deep spot. When she lands after the fence, she should immediately stand up into her galloping position, re-establish the bridge in her reins, put her weight forward onto her bridge and cruise on to the next fence."
JW: "Whoa, seems like a lot going on. Do you have your riders do this all the time, even at Novice level?"
OG: "Oh, yes, they have to rebalance their horses before the jumps, in order to be safe. There is a lot of emphasis on safety these days, you know."
JW: "I'd heard that."
OG: "So they have to slow down to be safe."
JW: "I got it. Let me ask you something."
OG: "Sure."
JW: "Do you have your riders do this in front of every jump?"
OG: "Of course."
JW: "Why?"
OG: "So they are rebalanced after galloping."
JW: "I take it that you think that speed and loss of balance are the same thing."
OG: "Oh, gosh, yes. Don't you teach your students to rebalance when they get to the balancing zone?"
JW: "Not exactly. I want them to learn to gallop in balance. That way, they don't have to rebalance their horses every time. They just have to select the correct speed of approach. When you are in balance, you will be in rhythm, and when you are rhythmical, your horse will jump well.

"I don't think horses should be allowed to gallop out of balance between fences, so I teach them self-carriage between fences. Then I don't wear out their mouths by tugging on them every time I point the horses at the jumps.

"If I have a Novice rider, it doesn't do me any good to talk to her about timing, because she doesn't have enough experience to see her stride yet. Later on, if I have an experienced rider, I still do not want her to see her stride during the training and development of her horse, because horses have to be allowed to make mistakes, so that they can learn from their mistakes.

"Basically, I disapprove of a 'rebalancing zone' because that implies that it is OK to be unbalanced. For me, the rebalancing zone is wherever my horse even thinks about getting out of balance. My horses jump well when they stay in balance, and I want them to jump well all the time, so I put my training emphasis on their balance, not on their stride."

OG: "Uh, great to talk to you, Jim."
JW: "You, too."

Obviously, this conversation combines several discussions I have had over the last month or so. But I can tell you I did not have to go far to find this much misinformation.

Speed and Balance
The first thing we have to notice about this conversation is that many people equate increased speed with loss of balance. John Lyons says, "Horsemen have opinions, horses have answers." And the answer from horses to this often-repeated opinion is that speed and loss of balance are not synonymous... or if they are related, they are second cousins once removed.

How do horses give us the answer? They do it. By this I mean that if we watch horses jump at high rates of speed, we will see that most of them are well-balanced and jump impressively, even though the pace is quite rapid. You don't have to take my word for this. Go to a website that carries video and look up "English Grand National" or "Maryland Hunt Cup." You will see for yourself that horses can go twice as fast as we go, over bigger jumps, and still jump really, really well. I do not mean to say that we can go at a racing pace over an eventing course. Modern eventing courses require us to slow down and speed up, and we have to become good judges of the correct speed of approach for each type of obstacle.