Critique Cowboy jumping

These will be videos of Jordyn, Lexi and me jumping him...diregard the riders because we all have our faults. I just want your guy's crituque on him, and what he'd be good for.

I originally wanted to do eventing, which is showjumping, cross country, then dressage...then figured he wouldn't be very good with cross country because if his jumping. Jordyn suggested doing hunters, and I'm alright with that. :)

So give me your input on him and what not. I'l label the riders when I post the videos. Thanks

Jordyn:


Lexi:
Lexi and Cowboy 2 - YouTube

Meee:
Jumping this jump for the first time :) - YouTube

Ohh there's like 2 videos that didn't turn into thumbnails, please watch them!! Thanks everybody :)

I think he would make a great hunter! Why not cross country too?

Fairly even stride, in one of the videos you didn't regulate his stride so he tried to add one in but couldn't. Has VERY nice, neat front legs.

I see a sweet, willing, reasonably athletic horse making a good effort and jumping in reasonable, safe form.

I can't really evalaute jumping form from any of these videos, since the distances are a mixed bag. I don't see, in any of the videos, see the sort of exemplary form/tight front end over fences that screams "hunter ring."

I'm curious about your comment that he Not sure what that means, I don't see anything that woudl prevent him from doing cross country, or what makes him more suitable for hunters than eventing? He looks like a great lower level eventing prospect to me.

Two other comments: regardless of the video labels, I didn't see any 3'6" fences. Perhaps you all need to measure your fences? I also wish the fences were constucted a little more safely; set and jumped in the correct direction, with substantial rails and ground lines.

I would LOVE LOVE LOVEE to do cross country with him, but he has a habit of refusing jumps..and I'm just way too lazy to work him through the tough jumps *that's a bad thing in the horse world lololol...* he does fine with these jumps, but when it comes to like cross country type jumps, excluding logs, he doesn't wanna jump them lol.

And he's such a cute jumper and saves my butt a lot..he'd rather take a long spot than chip in, and I love him for that lol.

And trust me, his knees weren't like that in the beginning..lots of hard work with gymnastics and bounces..he hated me for a while there :p

The jump was 3'6" we even measured it, and we have other videos of us jumping 3'9" lol. And I don't understand with what you mean jumps more safely..I think the standards and jumps are fine, and most of them were in the correct direction.......and the ground rails are fine.. :o please elaborate !

EDIT** I just noticed Lexi jumped the little makeshift oxer, with the buckets..because if we jump him the other direction he turns around right after and you fall off, and Lexi is sorta a beginner, first time riding Cowboy, and I didn't wanna risk her falling off of him. I was however jumping Butterfly correctly over it.

It may also be because of the fairly severe roach that he has to his back. I agree with lubylol that he'd probably be better off jumping low level hunters, rather than cross country, but for his health- rather than because he refuses all of the time with those types of jump.


Lubylol- I see potiential, but I'd advise working at getting him to take off from the correct point. It seems like he tends to take off early, which in the end can make him look a bit sloppy as he tries to clear the jump. If you can rate him and get him going at an even trot before takeof- and count the strides to the jump, I think you'll both be better off.

And while I know you said not to critique the riders, you might want to ask Jordyn to give him more release. Looks like she popped him in the mouth a few times and that can lead to a sour horse.

Now I don't know much about jumping, but on some of those films he looks disengaged in the hind and bunny-hoppy after landing....is that due to his back?

His roach does not affect his riding...the vet cleared him for jumping...

And yes for some reason when Jordyn releases she always looks like that, but not on any other horse...I think it's the way Cowboy puts his head up after jumping.

Several of the videos show fences with no ground lines whatsoever, ones with ground lines have them rolled to *under* the fence, inside the first element of the fence. The purpose of a ground line is to help the horse see the base of the fence and judge the take off point; a rail under the fence, or behind the first element, creates a false ground line and is likely to trick the horse into jumping too close.

In the video "Lexie and Cowboy 1" the rider is jumping the makeshift oxer backwards, with the higher element in the front.

I greatly dislike the skinny, hollow PVC rails. They're hard for the horse to see, tend to fly up and/or shatter when hit, rather than dropping straight to the ground like a solid wood rail.