I did this for 7 years.. there was a place in colton called parnells girls riding school and at the age of 5 she signed me up I have wonderfull memories of this place..sadley they have closed the school


Skeeter

My wife is a trainer and she loves it, most of her clients are young ladies..

We are re-doing her web site and will post a link pretty soon. It is pretty cool to see those horse move over those Jumps.

I have ridden mostly western and have always been interested in this. I've been to local shows and had a friend who competed. She loved it.

I love jumping. I went to West Texas A&M University and majored in Equine Business. Part of your degree is to take western and English riding classes. I took English Riding and Jumping and had a blast!! The highest we took was a really low vertical, most of them were just crossbars, but it was still fun. I also worked on a hunter/jumper farm in Oklahoma. I never got to ride there though, I was just a slave.

My girlfriend teaches at a hunter/jumper barn, and I love watching the little kids learning on ponies. It always amazes me when I see these little 8 year olds jumping their ponies who just seem to take care of them no matter what. Gotta love a packer pony.

What is great about little kids is that they can fall off of their pony and they just think it's fun. They don't fall all that far and they are so resilient that they can just jump up and jump back on. I have to lay on the ground awhile after falling off a horse, which hasn't happened in awhile - knock on wood. I have a 3 yr old that I just broke and so far we haven't had any problems - knock on wood again...

As Long as the wood isn't your head on the fence post...!

I haven't been thrown in a while I tend to wonder if those that say "I have never been thrown" are like those that say they never have stolen anything!?

I so long for the days of the classic hunter/jumper, when horses moved like hunters and were built for the job of a hunter and could be expected to hold up to the wear and tear of the hunt. I rode some of the ugliest horses that were the safest and most amazing horses out on the hunt when I was young. They would have never pinned in this day's hunter/jumper classes against pretty thoroughbreds, ango-arabs or warmbloods. I rode this one horse back then...Twister...on mock fox hunts...he was the master of foxhounds mount and still being ridden at 40!!! He was really ugly with a heavy roman nose, and long coat, but he stayed sound and could jump the moon.

One thing I'll always remember for those competing in hunter/jumper over fences classes...always use your corners...use the entire arena. If you learn to ride deep into your corners regardless of where the line is, your chances of pinning are far greater. When I was a kid, my hunter/jumper course was in a HUGE hunt field, and after my first line, I just kept riding out into the field. Then I took my sweet time coming back to the next line. The judge was smiling and said as I passed that she was wondering if I was going to come back. I got a third in the class. Don't know if enjoying my romp in the field made or broke it, but I didn't care.

You sound like my riding instructor! He is allways telling me..."Use your corners!" It is true though. I showed an OTTB this summer and he could get a little crazy, but if I kept him into the corners, we would have beautiful rounds!

I did the whole hunter/jumper thing for 10 years. I never really liked the doing the Hunters, it was too slow for me and too make sure everthing is perfect perfect perfect. I much perfered to do jumpers, just loved the speed and the tight turns. I guess that is how I ended up with the racehorses, the speed!!! Here are a couple of photos from a couple years ago, when I used to do it.