--- In [email protected], Sue McKenney <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > All horses can jump, but it depends on how good you want them to be, or how > > much it affects them as to whether they want to or can do it. > > > > I got it in my mind from something I read that if the horse has a good strong trot their jumping ability will be better. So i thought Brenna would be a better jumper than Kolur since she will easily trot when asked. >
I would think a horse with a clean trot would be a better candidate for jumping, but I don't know if this is all that goes into it. Dari has a good trot, but he cannot jump well. We had some natural jumps in our mountain pasture and the mules would jump for fun, I never saw Dari do it, he would go around or slow down and step over it. I really think Dari would probably fall over a jump, it's just not an ability he has. Snorri has more lateral gait than Dari (Dari really has no natural lateral gait) but I know Snorri can jump better, probably not the greatest jumper in the world though. He can probably jump over a few feet at liberty. He jumped out of an arena when he was young, but didn't make it high enough and crashed through the plastic fence. so he's done a little bit of jumping:) He has pulled this stunt a couple of times. I don't really expect any of my gaited horses to be great at jumping. I'd probably try the mules first, at least they seem to enjoy jumping and seem to do it for fun, it looks easy for them. Zoe has jumped the farm gate from a standstill several times, until we put the electric wire over the top of it. It just looks like minimal effort when they jump, natural, not stumbling over things or crashing through them:) I am sure there are some good jumpers out there, Icelandic and otherwise, but it's not something I would necessarily expect from an Icelandic generally. Kim
