Jumper critique

This is a 2003 17 hand Holsteiner gelding that caught my eye. What are your opinions on him? I was wondering if he lacked scope over the jumps?
Thanks guys!

I think he looks fun! He looks like he's well school on the flat and rideable and pleasant over the jumps. He goes more like a Jumper or Eq horse than a Hunter. He's tidy up front and seems careful over these jumps, but he does look like he wants to jump pretty flat, even a little hollow at times. A horse that jumps a little flat is a good thing for an Eq horse, you don't want a back-cracking jumper jumping you loose in the Eq. :) And he's pretty quick through the air, which is a good thing for a Jumper.

He's not really jumping up at these jumps, but over smaller fences like this it may be that he's just not impressed and doesn't feel like he needs to put in any more effort that just kind of cantering over and snapping his legs out of the way. As for limited in scope, I guess it depends what you'd want him to do. :) He seems very capable and fun at the height in the video (I'd guess between 3' and 3'3") and I wouldn't shocked if he was just as happy at 3'6". I'm not sure he'd be competitive at 1.20+, but I'd want to see him over some bigger stuff before I made an definitive statements. Does he have a show record? That would probably tell you even more about his ability than a video.

Were it my money, i'd skip this one. He looks short strided, isn't a very active jumper, or keen to the fences. He might make a decent lower level equitation horse... but that's about it.

I'm not quite sure what you look for in a jumper so I'll just tell you what I see. As an eventer I'd say LOVE LOVE LOVE that trot. Canter is ok too, but it looks like he might be a little tough to turn (stiffness and bracing in the corners). I like that the canter is rhythmic and unhurried. The jumps really aren't too big, and to me he just looks a little bored about all of it. Ask to see higher jumps to see if he wakes up a bit. If he doesn't, see if he jumps up over smaller jumps (these might be as high as he can go). He also doesn't quite rock back on his hind as much as he should, but gymnastics usually can fix that. You can tell that there is some unbalance (either in the rider or the horse) because of all the lead changes before the jump and uneven knees over the jump. He IS carefull over the jumps so that's good. I'd say put a different rider on him, maybe even a different saddle and see if he uses his back more. I guess it really depends on what you want to do with him, your price range, and what your goals are.

I would pass on this one. He jumps flat, which is good for the EQ if that is what you are looking for, but I don't see him being competitive in upper level stuff. He is short strided and looks uncomfortable. He is unbalanced and weak.

It really depends on what you want to do with him?

Is my idea of an ideal sport horse prospect? Ehh, not so much.

Does he seem to be a good guy? Yes, absolutely. He seems like a perfect second horse, or move up horse. He seems to be very "ammy friendly", tolerant of riding mistakes, terrific auto changes, steady and reliable to the jumps. He looks like an ideal horse to take an ammy or junior through the lower level jumpers or eventing; and a confidence builder.

Does he lack scope? Eh, from the height of the fences in the video it's hard to say. He looks to be scopey enough for the 3' or 3'3"; and frankly, too much scope is a negative for most ammies and juniors. The penalty for missing a distance should not be being jumped out of the tack, many riders find that discouraging.

If you're looking at him to do 4' or go advanced, I suspect he's not the horse, though without seeing more of him, it's hard to tell.

A nice horse that will take care of his rider, give them good mileage and not scare them, teach them something and not be a total dead head or push button?

He might be just the ticket?