>>>> http://tinyurl.com/3cfonu
That's sad and all, but you know, I think MOST 12-year-old horse-lovers envision themselves as "Olympic hopefuls." She wasn't even old enough to have competed in three-day-eventing, so predicting an Olympic future is, to put it mildly, premature. IMO, twelve-year-olds have no business jumping fences that don't easily - and lightly collapse with the slightest bump. I'm not a fan of kids learning to ride jumpers. Hunters are different in that form, style, safety and sportsmanship are judged, and it's not just a matter of getting over the jumps any old way you can. A hunter judge can (and based on what we saw, often will) refuse to pin a child who hauls on a horse's mouth going over fences, but "equitation" has to deteriorate to almost abusive levels for a competitor to be penalized in show jumping. The jumps in hunter classes are usually lower too - the point isn't just to jump high and finish fast, but to jump well - and jumping "well" is usually the safer way. I'm not saying that ALL jumpers ride rough, just there's not the same motivation to ride politely and humanely. Karen Thomas, NC
