The video below was highlighted on the Chronicle of the Horse bulletin board. The owner would be a fool to sell him, but this would be the best sale video ever. The horse is Smooth Rider...
What makes SR so amazing?
- Look how he deftly rebalances to avoid a rotational fall
- Despite an unbalanced/incapacitated rider, SR jumps the remaining fences tidily -- Check out how he snaps his hind legs over the last fence in the sequence.
- SR sensibly tries to abort the third jumping effort (run out to right). The struggling rider redirects him to the obstacle by pulling the left rein, and he obliges. How agreeable!
I appreciate that this video has been posted -- it's educational and inspirational.
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Thats incredible, I don't know that I would have the cahunas to do that....
ReplyDeleteTo me, it looks like that rider needs to go back to crosspoles and cavaletti for a while, just for his/her own safety!
ReplyDeleteThe absolutely amazing thing is that the horse actually jumped the second fence without thinking twice after nearly falling on his face over the first one. Now that's one athletic, awesome horse! If I was ever to do cross country at that kind of level, that's what I'd want.
ReplyDeleteNotice the rider jumped that entire series WITHOUT his stirrups. Those weren't little jumps! I believe if it was a requirement to be able to jump a course at this level sans stirrups there would be far FEWER devastating accidents in the eventing world. Too many riders simply get that far because they have fabulous packers, not because they are fabulous riders.
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting the vid!
One very amazing horse. Even if the rider did make the course without stirrups, I'm not too impressed. This horse is worth his weight in gold.
ReplyDeleteHa! You beat me to it. I thought this was an incredible video, too. Way too close to turning into a rotational fall. I bet the rider was shocked when they watched it. Kudos to them for staying out of the horse's way as he recovered and for jumping Intermediate fences without stirrups!
ReplyDeletewow. Text book perfect example of why there are so many injuries in cross-country; how the hell did a rider this bad ever qualify for that level? The horse. I could almost cry- what a love of an animal.
ReplyDeleteThat is an incredible video. I can't believe the horse managed to rebalance himself - what an athlete! I'm not sure how the rider actually managed to hang on over several bad jumps...!
ReplyDeleteI emailed the rider who called me a few days ago. He's not a beginner and has ridden with some of the current top level riders. The rider posted a response on YouTube regarding this particular ride. It was a heck of a ride. Not many people could keep their wits about them and their legs around their horse in this situation.
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