showjumping

It's kind of hard to understand why clinging to the back of a huge beast while it jumps over ridiculously high obstacles is so enjoyable to some people, unless you're actually one of the people who happen to enjoy it. While I admit that it causes large amounts of pain, stress, and fear, jumping has to be the best kind of sport in the entire world. The power needed to complete a course is incomprehensible. Even tiny little Pony Club courses are full of fear. When you're approaching the jump, the horse gets excited, and after you land they basically go skitz. It's your job to somehow take control of that excitement and power, and direct it so that you jump everything safely and properly. It's so much easier said than done. Pointing at a grid and saying 'jump it' seems like an easy instruction, but what non-riders don't realise is the amount of shit you have to think about. Approach, where to take off, whether your horse's rhythm is even, whether their strides are too long or too short, your position in the saddle, rein contact, leg contact, balance, straightness, flexion and bend around the corners... and bounces are just all of that terror times two. The exact same pattern repeated in a millisecond. But somehow, when you're actually going over the jump, everything melts away and you don't have to think. You just do it. And no matter how high the jump or how excitable the horse, that's exactly what you do it for. The thrill, the fear, the adrenalin... the wonderful feeling of getting it right.