You’ve probably heard the terms hunters and jumpers during your English riding lessons, but if you haven’t competed, you can be left wondering what is hunter horse riding, and what is jumping? You might think they’re the same because both require riding to fences and making sure your horse takes the jump. However, both styles of riding are similar, yet very different from one another. Read more to learn about hunter horse riding and why it’s different from jumper riding. Then you will be ready to find the best English riding clothes and accessories from a company like Equoware to prepare yourself for the show ring.
Hunter horse riding gets its origins from the sport of fox hunting that had participants riding across the English countryside to follow the hounds. Riders encountered various obstacles that included stone walls, wooden fences, hedges, gates, ditches, and streams as they followed the hounds. Riding with the hunt meant adhering to a dress code, following a code of conduct, respecting the masters of the hunt, and riding a horse that was quiet and capable of meeting challenges without question.
Over time, the rules of the hunt were distilled into a riding competition that adhered to the rules of the hunt but adapted for the show ring. Hunt seat riding is considered a genteel sport, and participants are expected to show proper decorum in the ring and use the correct form over fences.
The form of the horse and rider on the flat and over fences is the most important part of hunt seat riding. The horse is expected to be calm, responsive to the rider’s aids, and look like it’s a pleasure to ride. A hunter horse is expected to have its mane braided, forelock groomed or braided, and laid neatly under the browband. The tail can be left loose, trimmed neatly from the top down, or French braided from the top of the tail down to the base of the tailbone. Tack should be conservative, but a little flash is OK as long as it doesn’t distract from the horse and rider.
A hunter rider needs to be dressed appropriately for the ring, although exceptions are usually made when the weather is too hot or cold. A hunter rider is required to wear a tailored shirt with a high collar that can accommodate a stock tie, a single-breasted jacket, breeches, and high boots. The helmet should look as traditional as possible, but a cover suffices when wearing a technical helmet that doesn’t look like a traditional hunter helmet.
The hunter ring itself is designed to provide some technical challenges, but its major focus is on showing how well a rider and their horse perform together. The maximum jump height for a hunter ring is 3’6″, although it can go higher if necessary. The lower fence height allows the horse and rider to approach each fence at a measured pace, take off from the correct spot in front of the fence, then exhibit proper horse and rider form during the jump. The hunter rider has to be able to perform either a crest or following release during the jump while lifting themselves out of the saddle to let the horse jump. The horse should have reasonably tight front legs and its hind legs need to lift and bend properly so as not to hit the pole.
A proper hunt seat jump is elegant, flowing visual that demonstrates the horse and rider’s ability to perform in accordance with the rules of the hunter ring. This is in direct contrast to the style of the jumper ring.
How Is This Different From Jumper Riding?
Jumper riding is considered by many to be a sport for adrenaline junkies who aren’t interested in maintaining good form over fences and on the flat. Jump riding involves piloting a horse around the course at speed while keeping track of distances and strides to and between fences, tight turns, and short-cutting legally through course elements that can shave seconds off the overall time. The rider has to make sure their horse doesn’t knock down a pole just as in hunt riding, but there’s less concern with the rider’s form over fences as long as they and their horse can clear the jump.
A jumper course tends to be more technical than a hunter course due to the nature of the competition. All of the elements found in a hunter course are present, but there are more oxers, double and triple jump combinations, walls, cross rails, liver pools, verticals, and water obstacles for the rider to negotiate. Jump heights start at 2’6″ to 3’9″ in the lower levels, and reach heights of 4’9″ to 5’6″ at Level 9. A jump course is designed to allow the rider to hand gallop their horse between sections in order to finish the round as fast as possible, shorten and lengthen strides as needed, and let the horse get over the rails in its own style.
Horses that are considered jumpers have a different form over fences than a hunter horse. A jumping horse needs to tuck their knees to their chest and bring their hindlegs up high to clear the rails as they descend. They’re more supple and flexible than a hunter because a jumper course has tight turns and short strides, or no strides at all, between fences. The personality of a jumping horse is also more forward than the hunter due to the need for speed and alertness to react in time to an upcoming obstacle.
Jumping puts less focus on rider form, but good form is still important as it prevents a rider from coming out of the saddle at the worst moment. However, many top-level jump riders have what would be considered lousy form in the hunter ring. That doesn’t mean they’re bad riders so much as they’ve developed a personal riding style that enables them to ride a strong horse through a highly technical course and return to the gate under the time limit. Unlike a hunt seat rider, the form of a jumping rider isn’t under scrutiny by the judge, and riders are free to ride as they feel is necessary to meet the need of the moment.
The jumper ring is also more forgiving on the appearance of the horse and rider. A horse’s mane is braided to prevent the hair from tangling in the reins, and the tail can be braided as well. Tack is usually conservative in appearance, but the jumper horse may wear more tack to help with control and performance. Jump riders are dressed similarly to hunt riders and tend to wear the same type of clothing in the ring. In fact, a hunt rider can switch to the jump ring without changing their clothes.
