slow is smooth and smooth is fast

a hunter in a jumper's world

The arena was buzzing in anticipation. I had goosebumps myself. We were all vibing on the same frequency it seemed. It was the second day of the horse show. The ‘jumpers’ were about to begin their work.

If you’re not a horse person, I’m sure you’re asking what are ‘jumpers’? What is so exciting about them? And, What does this have to do with me or this newsletter about whatever this is about?

Equestrian sports are a lot like skating sports. In figure skating, athletes are judged on how effortlessly they make extremely difficult things look. In speed skating, it’s all about how damn fast you can make it around the track.

Horse sports are no different. Within the sphere of English style riding there are subsets. First there are the hunters. Hunters are judged on how precise and integrated both riders and steed are. There are flat, on the ground components. There are jumping portions as well.

Ideally, in hunters, everything is smooth and fluid. Riders, ride to the end of their lines and make long broad swooping strokes. Despite codified approaches to scoring hunter competitions, there’s a lot of subjectivity when it comes to the judging.

In a hunter competition there are some challenges designed to judge just the quality and skill of the horse. There are others designed to judge the quality and skill of the riders. The most important elements judge the horse and rider as a team.

Hunters look pretty.

Next? There are “eventers”. Eventing involves riding dressage, cross country and jumping. Around these parts, there’s not a lot of ‘eventing’. There are few facilities available to host cross country style riding. But show jumping? That can happen at the same place where hunters ride.

Show jumping is straight forward: The fastest around the course without knocking down a rail win the competition. How you do it matters. Some riders set out on massive, powerful fire breathing dragons of beasts. Their horses are beautiful, but don’t necessarily need to behave ‘beautifully’. They can be messy and all over the place as long as they’re fast.

Other teams of horse and rider, take a ‘hunter like’ approach. They ride fluid lines, with a few short cuts. They bring with them a hunter like fluidity. Compared to a fire breathing erratic dragon of a jumper, these smooth riding steeds look like they’re moving downright slowly.

There’s a funny thing about looking slow.

At the last competition, the person who won the first division of ‘jumpers’ looked slow. They looked like they were just prancing along at a steady hunter pace.

There’s a funny thing about going slowly though. Slow is smooth and smooth is efficient and efficient is fast.

When we’re composed and can move with grace, we frequently can cover ground more quickly than people pushing the pace.

When do you move slowly and smoothly and are faster because of it?

When do you push the pace and end up going more slowly?

When is it important to gather yourself and add grace?

When do you need to be wild and energetic and inefficient as you ride through life?