Do you remember how you jumped?

It's kind of an odd question I suppose, but I realized something after my first show this past weekend. I have no clue what my body is doing when I jump. I can tell you exactly where my horse took off at each fence, if he jumped round or flat, and which ones he was on auto pilot and which he was nervous about. What I can't tell to save my life is, where my hands were, my legs were, my hips, etc. I have not a freakin' clue what I look like in the air. I guess it can't be all bad or else I'd be on a horse that is stopping all the time, but does anyone else experience this "jumping blackout"?

From the infrequent periods where I did learn to jump, I don't remember focusing on my position too much. I've always been focusing on getting the horse situated, counting strides, and generally just looking past the jump or to the next one. Granted, I'm not a great jumper or anything, I want to get into more in the coming years, but my mom used to jump stadium and she taught me a good deal. She told me to stay natural and don't over-think it, just to look forward and let the horse come up to you. I've always had a strong leg, and never thought to anticipate the two point. I just sit, let my waist bend according to the horse, release my hands, and keep going. I hadn't jumped in several years and auditioned for my school's jumping equestrian team, under the guise that I was a western pleasure rider. I popped over some jumps for them thinking all these jumper girls would laugh at me, but they were really surprised at my seat. When I start jumping again I'm definitely going to try and focus more on the position, I suppose. Sometimes you just have to let your body go with the flow.

Now that you say it... there does seem to be a bit of a black out period. I'm going to assume these are the fences that went they way they were supposed to.

I can remember thinking "that fence felt awesome, we were really together" or apologizing cause I know I snatched him in the mouth.... but unless I can actually feel myself being loose or something I don't put much thought into it. There are too many other things to think about.

I do like to watch videos of my rides to see if I can remember the places where things weren't right. I always offer to tape the riders I school to help the visualize what they are doing. That really seems to help them correct things they just need to learn to feel.

Most of the time I don't. I'll remember big things - if I felt myself leaning to one side over the jump, if I was balanced on the landing, if I was looking up - but if you ask me where my seat was or what my hands were doing, I have absolutely no idea.

The idea of a "jumping blackout" has been nagging me for the past few weeks- I'm so glad I'm not the only one who experiences this!!

I'm a re-beginner, and since I've only been riding about 4 months now I don't do much more than crossrails and low verticals, but I really don't know what's going on when I'm jumping! I remember the feeling of being lifted up and seeing the horse's head move up.. but other than that it's a blur. And regarding my position, all I know is that I'm trying to move up, lower my torso and move forward.

I get that and it's not unless it goes badly do I remember what I did. I think it happens because once you have the jumping with your horse down you start to wonder and work on the little things like hands, hip angle exc. Get lots of videos of yourself so you can see what your doing. I know what your saying but I can't seem to find the words to explain what I'm trying to say.... But if nothing stands out to you when going o/f then there's a high chance you have very little to worry about

I used to have a problem remember what my body was doing, but I took a lot of time last year to school myself mentally. It helped that I was on a horse that was a 'been there, done that' kind of horse. If I rode incorrectly he would refuse, therefore I learned how to focus on myself riding correctly and efficiently. It takes practice, and it's not something everyone can do right off the bat.

It's good to be able to think about where your body is at in all stages of the jump because that's how you start to break the bad habits; you can correct yourself BEFORE or DURING your bad habit. One of my worst habits (still trying to overcome) is losing my core. I forget to, basically, hold my core and lower back together and that prevents me from landing in my feet so instead I land on my butt. Bad, bad habit; a great way to drop rails and sour a sensitive horse to jumping. Another thing I've been working on is my auto-release. It's hard to adjust your release if you only remember to think about it after you land!

What's weird is, when I'm practising, I run through the whole thing out loud to myself. On approach I say, heels down, leg on, chest open, release & land. I try to account for every piece of me. I get to shows and wouldn't be able to tell you if I jumped standing on my head. I'm glad others do it. I was starting to think I was losing it!

Haha, this happens to me all the time unless something isn't good :p Like, I'll either think to myself, "That must have been good..." or "WTH was that?" xP

Film it! Nothing helps more - it makes it so easy to pick up on things, and critique yourself. Sometimes my memory of a round is completely different to how it actually looked and rode.
You've also got a nice memento if you do an awesome round!