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Post by sera on May 3, 2006 17:54:48 GMT -5
right, i'm working on an essay and i need to know why a horse with a rider can jump higher than a horse without. . . . i've spent at least 2 hrs trying to find an answer online and i can't. does anyone know or can anyone help? thanks. . . edit:: i found a way around explaining it, but i still want to know. xD;; here's the original article thing: www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,883987,00.html |
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Post by Nicholos on May 3, 2006 20:35:09 GMT -5
I'd imagine because the Rider is forcing/encouraging/insisting they jump higher, whereas a horse on its own without any incentive doesn't care and wouldn't jump as high. This is not based in fact, naturally, mere speculation. I'll check around and see if I can find anything. Edit: This page provides in-depth information regarding horse jumps: bowlingsite.mcf.com/Movement/HJump.htmlIt also goes into how the rider's style affects the horse's ability to jump, which seems relevent to your topic. Final Note: Reading most pages regarding jumping strategy, mostly the advantage to having a rider seems to be that the rider understands how fast the horse needs to be going, what foot they need to leave off of on, things of that nature; they understand the mathematical portion of the activity. The horse moves on only intuition. Hope this helped. ^^; |
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Post by ~Kryos~ on May 3, 2006 21:59:32 GMT -5
I'd say because people are actually there measuring it. XD Seriously, what benefit is there to a horse to waste energy jumping over a random piece of fence when it can just walk around it? It would seem rather absurd to me that a horse shouldn't know its own body well enough to perform to the best of its potential. May I draw attention to Hans Winkler and his horse Halla? Pulling his groin in a show-jumping, he qualified for the jump-off, and was forced to ride again, despite his injury. He actually had to be lifted into the saddle, only able to vaguely hope that the horse could do it for itself. And yet they still won the gold!
Sorry, Kryos just read the post and remembered something she had once read, then grabbed the book and summarized, just to be contradictory...sorry guys...
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Post by alphabloodscythe on May 3, 2006 22:53:49 GMT -5
Being a horse rider, I would have to say the cues from the rider. A horse knows how to control its own body, but you have to remember that horse vision is different than ours. They see through two TVs, if you will-one on each side, rather than forward like us, hence the fact that the rider probably knows more about the speed, etc, about the jump, though that doesn't mean the horse doesn't, either. Also, a horse jumping has more weight, meaning more energy and muscle must be put into it if you don't have someone on your back.
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Post by Cel Theory on May 4, 2006 19:53:54 GMT -5
Yeah, probably the rider is making the horse do it, where as the horse itself would wonder whether the grass was really that much better on the other side of the fence. It might also not be willing to run fast enough to jump and shy away...
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Post by Rhayeqasr on May 4, 2006 20:23:56 GMT -5
I agree with Alpha Bloodscythe, the horse doesn't see straight ahead, which may make it a tad more difficult. Plus the rider is there measuring the correct spot to take off, the rider can balance their weight and the horses, assist the landing, set the correct speed to clear the fence, etc.
And they say all the riders do is sit there and let the horse do the work. Pfft.
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Post by alphabloodscythe on May 5, 2006 13:00:40 GMT -5
Ahhh! It's not sitting there. You get off balance and you shoot off that horse, lemme tell ya.  |
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Post by Rhayeqasr on May 5, 2006 17:29:16 GMT -5
Haha, when I was little I always tried to argue that riding horses was just as difficult as many other sports. But, of coarse, no one in Illinois is going to believe that...thank god we moved.
But now I just try and argue that Equestrian is indeed a sport...for it is in the Olympics and all...
Since when does a ball have to be involved to make something a sport?
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Post by Saturnalia on May 5, 2006 17:57:20 GMT -5
It's a heck of a lot more of a sport then, say, golf, in my opinion  My leg muscles are definitely a heck of a lot stronger than most of the other people that I know, who play ball-kicking-sports. *pokes calves proudly!* Once people actually get on a horse, and then get off in pain, they tend to better understand the effort needed As for being on-topic, I agree with what others have said, both about a horse's depth perception, and the fact that they're probably not going to jump a big fence without motivation, hehe. |
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Post by SunBlind on May 7, 2006 14:08:43 GMT -5
Hmm, are they saying that a horse _can't_ jump as high without a rider, or they just choose not too? After all, who would put more effort into what they are doing than they have to  Given a choice, a horse probably wouldn't jump on its own if it didn't have good reason to. It is also true that the horse cannot actually see the jump when it is jumping it, perhaps with the rider guiding it, it has more confidence. I know in racing, a horse can do better when it has the bit to lean into, so that can help them run faster. Maybe the same can apply to jumping? And having ridden some myself, it is most definitely a sport. Even if you don't know what you're doing and you're just there for the ride, you use your legs to stay put. You may not notice you're doing it at first, but the moment you get off, or the next day, ouch. I think its a fascinating sport, the only one that really comes to mind where men and women (or mare and stallion) compete equally. A woman on a mare has as good a chance of winning as a man on a stallion. ^_^ |
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Given a choice, a horse probably wouldn't jump on its own if it didn't have good reason to. It is also true that the horse cannot actually see the jump when it is jumping it, perhaps with the rider guiding it, it has more confidence.