Hunter Jumpers

Hunter/Jumper is a division of English riding. It is divided into three overall categories, hunters, equitation, and jumpers. Hunters as a group are judged on consistency, movement, way of going, and sometimes conformation. Jumpers are judged by how quickly a horse can complete a course of jumps with the least amount of faults. A fault can be one of three things, a refusal, being over the optimum time, or knocking down a rail. Equitation riders are judged not on speed or the horse's look, but the appearence of the rider and the smoothness and overall look of the horse and rider as a team.

Hunters

As mentioned earlier hunters are judged on consistency, movement, way of going, and sometimes conformation, but as the horse is being judged on all of this it has to appear as if a horse is capable of going on a hunt. In this the horses jump a series of normally eight natural obstacles, such as logs, flowers, or brick and culvert walls.

Jumpers

In jumpers it is no longer a beauty contest. If you gallop the fastest and keep the most rails up, you win. In jumpers there are many different heights or levels which start at level 0- 2'9" and go to level 2' 9" - 5'0" and then you move on to grand prix. One of the most thrilling moments in jumpers is when a horse hits a jump and the top rail stays up, but a lower rail falls. In this case the horse and rider receive no penalties. For a top rail falling or a refusal the two will be given 4 faults and time faults depending on how over the time they are.

Equitation

Probably one of the most politically involved divisions in the whole horse world. Here the judges decide which horse has the nicer, prettier and most elegant round. With such an opinion based verdict some find it unfair, but it is so beautiful to watch when executed correctly.

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