Iron Gate Farm

Together these three images define a serious problem in the horse world for riders who jump. On the left is John French. He is a US Hunter Jumper Hall of Fame inductee with a huge fan base. His jumping style is perhaps the most extreme crest release ever.

His groupies defend it as his "unique style" as if uniqueness of style is important when it is not. I doubt his horses enjoy carrying so much of his body weight on their necks over jumps.

On the right is the one and only George Morris, also a rider with a huge fan base, in spite of some ugly personal history. He is responsible for popularizing the crest release starting in the 1970s. This jumping position replaced the safer, more balanced automatic or direct release, thus putting riders in unsafe circumstance over jumps. As the crest release became more dangerous, Morris remained silent as he raked in the cash.

Lastly, in the center picture is a young rider using an extreme crest release with legs far behind the girth and laying on the horse's neck. They are dangerously unbalanced à la John French. This image defines today's problem. It began with Morris. Then big name competitors like French stylized it to the extreme, and the young imitator reaps the "benefits of the two famous riders who have made it OK to be in danger of a bad fall should the horse stumble or fall in the landing,

This is a serious and dangerous problem today, and not many riding instructors are trying to fix it.

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