Is this the first time you've seen fox hunters? lol
But in all seriousness... yeah, that's kind of scary. I would never personally do that. However, plenty of horses and riders do, and they do it repeatedly and still manage to survive. I guess it's just a matter of what risks you decide to take with yourself and your horse. If these people want to risk breaking their horses legs and being tossed into a deep ditch, so be it. Many of us choose to risk it in the show ring or on the trails.
Not looking for an argument but would you really condone this? I understand that it's very common in hunting to jump ridiculous obstacles but just because it's common that doesn't make it okay. Not one of those horses jumped that ditch comfortably. And none of the riders rode it well. So I think it's a pretty appropriate post for this community haha.
Not condoning it by any means. It's certainly not good riding, from an overall or technical, equitation standpoint. However, looking at it from their side, they probably would say they had no choice. If the hounds went through there then so are they. IMO, people that foxhunt like that are more concerned about completing the hunt than safety if faced with the choice. Do I think that's ethical? No. But I doubt the entire hunt would just quit for the day.
Maybe someone who hunts with hounds can weigh it. At what point does the hunt stop or find a detour if faced with a challenging, potentially unsafe obstacle?
That was painful to watch. The sight of those horses rebounding off the sides of the ditch was making me cringe. I get that hunting is about going across country, but personally I would've found a different route. Not at all surprised that riders started coming off, surprised more didn't. Plus none of those riders helped out their horses at all.
I wanted to smack upside the head the rider that kicked his horse just as he was attempting to take off - he was the first guy that landed in the ditch. What a jerk. The first horse was given plenty of time to prep for the jump, the others were all stupidly rushed.
I do some dumb stuff with my horse but I would never put my horse in this situation. I would get off, walk him back to the trailer, and tell everyone to forget it. One of my clients was recently put down for a injury sustained to his knee a decade prior when he was a Endurance horse. When they put him down his leg was so severely bowed from the collateral ligament strain that he could hardly walk. No one really recovers 100% from and injury and the best thing you can do is to prevent it. I'm not saying that no one should leave a perfectly groomed arena but jumping a ridiculous ditch with crappy deep slippery footing that every other horse has landed on their knees attempting is a quick and easy way to ruin your horse. This isn't just bad riding it's bad horse-keeping.
One or two horses crossing that would probably be ok, but it's very noticeable how the footing deteriorates through the video, with the result being pretty much inevitable. At some point someone really needs to make the 'dangerous' call and find an alternative route.
This. I can see why the last rider attempted to bust the brush to get across in a different spot, but they really needed to find another clear area to cross. Or clear some of the brush. The first rider and horse did okay, the rest didn't ride it well.
I don't do this kind of riding, but I probably would have just grabbed the breast collar and left it up to my horse. So much mouth grabbing.
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But in all seriousness... yeah, that's kind of scary. I would never personally do that. However, plenty of horses and riders do, and they do it repeatedly and still manage to survive. I guess it's just a matter of what risks you decide to take with yourself and your horse. If these people want to risk breaking their horses legs and being tossed into a deep ditch, so be it. Many of us choose to risk it in the show ring or on the trails.
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Maybe someone who hunts with hounds can weigh it. At what point does the hunt stop or find a detour if faced with a challenging, potentially unsafe obstacle?
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I don't do this kind of riding, but I probably would have just grabbed the breast collar and left it up to my horse. So much mouth grabbing.
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Or does the "should of/would of" in the comments bother me?
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Yes.
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