Which is harder, staying on a horse that’s bucking, or staying on a horse that’s clearing a high (let’s say 8 ft.) fence?
In IMHO because this could be opinionated and is certainly going to rely on anecdotes.
I have been on bucking horses, but not horses that were seriously trying to throw me. They were just working the kinks out. I stayed on, no problem. (Okay, maybe once I was thrown, but in general, I stayed on.) Now a horse that seriously wanted me off its back could run me up against a barbed-wire fence or under a low-hanging branch. In which case I would still be able to stay on if I stayed alert. Mostly.
But I was watching these horses doing really high jumps, and, while I’ve also been on horses that were jumping, they weren’t jumping anything higher than about four feet tall, or else broad jumps. Again, no problem staying on, as I am pretty good at staying on a horse. But those really high ones look HARD.
On the youtube videos I was watching, though, the only people who lost their seats did so when the horse refused the jump and turned sharply.
If you’ve never been on a horse that’s jumping it’s all tricky. Jumping takes a ton of learning on both the horse and riders parts and there is a lot of falling off in that process. Jumping the same jumps on someone elses horse is hard too because each horse prepares, lands, flexes slightly differently.
It’s definitely a partnership and one that takes a lot of time and trust to form. I did barrel racing, pickup races, jumping and some roping when I was a kid and once you learned to anticipate the moves it all got a lot easier. Tiniest things can still toss you off the side though because there just isn’t time to react to things as they’re happening, you have to be reacting to what’s going to happen before it starts, so when something different happens - wheeeeeee, splat.
I can’t speak from personal experience, but from my daughter who did hunter/jumper, I’d say staying on a bucking horse is harder because of the unexpectedness of his actions. Most of the people who fall during jumps fall because the horse refuses, not when going over the fence.
While it is true that it is better to have ones own horse for these things, in college equestrian events you get a horse from the hosting college, and everyone gets a random horse. Saves tons of money on trailering, but makes it more interesting.
‘Bout what I was going to say. I’ve been on bucking horses, trust me, when I say, if he wants you off, he’s going to do everything possible to get you off, and they even means fighting dirty if necessary.
Never jumped horses, but the horse is not working against you here, it’s pretty much up to the rider whether you stay on or not. I imagine starting out with small jumps and working to higher jumps makes the transition even that much easier.
I’ve fallen off horses in basically every direction that you can do it–over the head, the tail, on either side at various angles, etc. Basically every way except being plucked off by a beam from a UFO. It never happened while the horse was jumping, although we sure never went over anything anywhere close to eight feet, or even four. So I suspect staying on a bucking horse is more difficult.
When I fell off, it was always because I wasn’t expecting the horse to move the way it moved, even if the actual motion wasn’t very extreme.
So I’d say connection/expectations is more of an issue than the height of a jump or the motion involved.
Personally, I’ve never jumped anything higher than about 4 feet, so for me, jumping an 8-footer would be nerve-wracking, but if I was on a familiar horse, had worked up to it, and knew it was coming, I *think *I’d have better chances than if she suddenly decided to unseat me.
My opinion would be that the bucking horse is harder to stay on. With jumping you can predict which direction to move in and prepare. If you are jumping 8’ you have probably got years of experiance behind you and have the knowledge, physical condition and muscle memory to stick with what the horse is doing. I have been over some 6 ft jumps on a gifted short little quarter horse and i didnt find it very difficult. Of course i was young, and stupid then i dont think i would try it now.
A bucking horse tends to move in a much less predictable way. I usually stick pretty well until they throw the slam on the brakes and duck to one side. That move gets me most of the time.
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I’ll just point out that the world record for highest obstacle cleared in show jumping is 2.47 metres, or 8’1.5". And this record has stood for over 60 years. So no-one is jumping eight foot jumps regularly.
The maximum height in FEI and Olympic show jumping is 5’7" height. Which itself is higher than any but the most elite riders will ever jump.
ETA: Sorry, forgot to answer! Savvy buckers know how to put a twist in it. However, the averagely athletic lesson horse has easy bucks. So I guess I’d say… “it depends.”
