CZ, Prague: How Are Preparations to the Showjumping Season – VIDEO

Horses in particular love this season because they can eat grass. More experienced also feel the racing season is coming. We recorded a training of experienced riders at the Sport Stables Golem in Prague in Dolní Chabry.

Horses were kept only in state breeds and state farms in communist Czechoslovakia. Today, keeping a horse is nothing unusual. Colored fast moving spots are all over greenery in the Czech Republic. Years after they were almost extinct they came back. People love them and for many horses became a passion they are growing up with. This bond is real and almost indestructible.  

No one was born erudite

To amateurs it may seem easy to ride a horse – one just sits on a horse and rides. In reality it is an art, perfect connection of animal and man, spiritual and physical. A ride on a horse is also an ideal physical exercise, when you not overdoing it. When riding on a horse you usually need to use many muscles so a ride on a horse is a perfect PE exercise.

Show jumping belongs to one of the many disciplines you can try on horse. I dare to claim that show jumping is the most popular discipline in the present. At the Olympics show jumping appeared first in 1900 in Paris and it was strictly a discipline for soldiers. Since 1974 men compete together with women.

Basically you have to run with your horse through show jumping circuit in the shortest possible time and with no errors. By errors I mean to throw down an obstacle or exceed a time limit. Both things will gain you penal points.

In show jumping a horse must respects its rider so not only a jumping part of a training is important but dressage as well. We must be consistent and strict in things we want from a horse because they are intelligent animals and they easily learn how to avoid something. If we keep the rule of consistency and we demand precision great results will come soon.  

Nechte to koni, ten má větší hlavu

Opinions how to train show jumping horses vary, of course. Some stick to a “guided jump” method when a horse jumps when his rider makes him to do so, others stick to natural method. The con of the first method is that failure of a rider means failure of a horse. In the second method, rider’s errors can be saved by horse’s intelligence and nature. When a horse in equilibrium, in right pace and rightly guided he would manage a jump on its own. A rule that a rider must have a control over his horse applies for every meter of show jumping track

The winter season is particularly important for training. In spring when season begins there is no time to enhance riding style since horses are going from one competition to another, if a rider, of course, has ambition to compete. We can see those riders in higher difficulty competitions – S, ST, T and TT. Those riders who enjoy horses don’t care about times and penal points and also young horses with experienced riders can ride at competitions marked as ZZ, Z, ZM, ZL or L. Show jumping is a part of versatility for competing.

Text/video: Klára Svobodová

Photo: Štěpánka Svobodová