Читать книгу Geoff Teall on Riding Hunters, Jumpers and Equitation - Geoff Teall - Страница 33

The warm-up is just a limbering-up time. It is not a punishment for being fresh. It is not time for training. It is not time for re-training. Most people warm up for the ring more than they need to.

By the time you get to the horse show, your skills are set for that event. You will not magically master some new part of riding in the warm-up ring. Use the warm-up to practice a little of one thing or another. Then go into the ring and do what you went there to do.

Some people think they need to jump a lot of warm-up jumps. They will start with a lot of low ones. Then, they will do some medium ones—and then they will jump some high ones. In my experience, this is a waste of the rider’s time and the horse’s attitude.

If your horse knows what is expected of him, he doesn’t need a lot of warming up. He can do a few fences to get a feel for the venue, and then he is ready to do his job. So few people understand this. Unfortunately, their horses are the ones who suffer because of it.

The classes at most larger horse shows start on Wednesday. The warm-up classes are generally on Tuesday. It is not uncommon to see people in the schooling area warming up over the schooling jumps for hours before they go into the ring—where they will warm up some more before jumping a course.

I don’t do that. I jump one warm-up jump in the ring. And, then I do the course. If the horse is in shape and knows what he is doing, he doesn’t need more than that.

I save about thirty jumps just by not warming up for the warm-up. That’s thirty fewer takeoffs and landings on my horse’s legs. My horse isn’t “warmed” into a coma, and I have still accomplished my goal, which is to show the horse the arena and school over the show’s jumps.