For me, it all depends on the horse that I am riding. There are horses that are easy to jump, and on these horses I tend to think about myself and my position. I will think to myself things like, "heels down" "roll your legs out" "crest release" and on other horses (normally the green ones) I will work on them, thinking things like, "leg on" "don't let him duck out to the right" and I'll count strides and try to set the horse up. However during the few seconds that I am in mid air with the horse, I have no clue what is going on. Anything and everything that I need to think about, whether it be where my next jump is, what the horse has a hard time doing (such as landing on the correct lead), or my own position, I do in the few strides before the jump and I don't regain my thought process until after I've landed. I used to think that it was an auto pilot type thing, but when you really think about it, the only thing that would be on auto pilot is your body. Since I know I release and I know what I am doing over the jump. So I guess what I'm confused about is why do I seem to have no brain....no thoughts, nothing, while in mid air? As much as I can't recall anything about the jump, I do know what I am doing (thanks to pictures and muscle memory) I guess it has something to do with a mental ecstasy that I get when I am jumping a horse, any horse.
