Is it just me or is this horrible?

Actually that's not entirely uncommon with some of the upper level jumpers. (The ones who HATE to touch rails). They do it so they won't hit the rail with their back legs. There's a brand of boots you can get that encourage them to do it! I forgot what they're called but we call them "butt" kicking boots.


I'm not sure what's horrible about the clip either... is it that they don't have the best form as they go around and some of them pop over the fence a little? Also, pretty common among jumpers. :) They're there to get the job done, 'pretty' isn't always on the agenda.

It's the way the jumpers go. You want your horse as much on their haunches as you can. When they go over the bigger stuff, they really have to rock back on their hocks and pop over the fences. Plus, it's the only way you can get the fastest tightest turns (it's the turns that really shave seconds off the clock). I'm sure they have to really hold those horses back too. The first phase of a jumper class (for Power and Speed classes I believe) is all getting over the fences without knocking rails within a time period. That phase will generally be slower and more careful, but the horses are trained to go.

Actually they can be trained to do that

I think what your seeing Blue Magic is that the horses are all rushing

^ of course they are all rushing haha its jumpers

Thanks guys, I didn't really need all that explanation! Lol. But that's cool. I didn't know you could train a horse to kick like that. Do they throw their legs out by doing that? I would imagine that doing that for a long time would be strenuous on their legs.