This article first appeared in April 1989 – it is just as interesting 30+ years later!

Who better than the world’s leading trainer of showjumping horses to look critically at the style and effectiveness of some of the world’s most successful showjumping riders and their horses. Join the great teacher for an insider’s view of what makes a champion jumping style!

Here are George’s comments:

Ian Millar

This first picture is Ian Millar riding Big Ben. I’d say it’s a very good picture of the horse and quite a good picture of Ian Millar. Ian Millar, who for several years was a student of mine and quite an advocate of my ideology and system of teaching, and training, and riding, is not in this picture showing his normal leg position. This is something that happens to many riders in competition – riders that have trained their legs and riders that have not trained their legs. Over big fences they tend to lose their legs a little easier, which with a very experienced person is not the end of the world. This photo is not a good picture of Ian’s legs, he’s let his heels come up and his legs have slipped back a couple of feet – which I rarely ever see with him. Nonetheless he’s maintained the beautiful independence of his seat. His seat is independent of his horse’s back, his upper body is with this rather big oxer – there is no danger of him dropping back and interfering with his horse’s bascule or his hind end. He’s showing his wonderful hands; his elastic, light, following hands without opening his hands, he’s showing a very elastic hand. As for the horse, this is a very good picture of the horse. His expression is alert, his eyes and ears are wonderful very expressive, he’s very contented, he’s using his head and neck well. The horse is particularly good in this photo with his front end. This horse doesn’t always take terrific pictures with his front end. Sometimes he swings his legs, sometimes he dangles his legs a little bit, but this is a text book perfect picture of this horse’s knees. They are way up and his legs below his knees are very very tight and square.

Pierre Durand

This photo is of Pierre Durand and Jappeloup, and again we have a problem with legs. Pierre Durand has a very good leg on the flat, but as with so many of the Europeans he has the habit – it’s just an old old habit in Europe and in many countries of the world, hopefully, save in the United States – the riders get into a nervous habit of swinging their legs in the air, thinking that is going to help their horse jump better. That doesn’t help a horse better, it just distracts a horse. You are better to support and hold with your legs in the air. Where with Ian it’s an unusual picture of his legs, I’ve seen many pictures of Pierre in the air with his legs swinging back which he doesn’t need to do because his leg on the flat is very good. His leg has slipped back towards the horse’s stifle, past his flanks. Nonetheless, like Ian, he is showing a very good base of support, his thighs and seat are out of the saddle, he is not dropping back into his horse – this is another big oxer. He’s supporting well with his knees and thighs. His upper body is with the movement of the horse, there is no interference with his weight. His eyes are up and ahead, he’s looking to the left, presumably in the direction he is going to turn, and again, you can see with his rather long release with his hands, a very loose rein, a floating rein – giving this wonderful jumping Jappeloup plenty of head, to use his head and neck and jumping mechanism. This is something he and the horse are accustomed to doing, with the pelham bridle he’s used to being very generous with his hand, and allowing quite a loose rein in the air. I think he knows how to handle that, and on landing, he’ll resume contact without grabbing him. Again, it’s an absolutely wonderful picture of the horse. His ears are alert, his eyes are alert, he’s using his head and neck beautifully. He’s very round, of course he’s rounder than Big Ben because he’s probably the roundest jumper in the world today, as far as bascule. His head and neck stretch out and down, his shoulders and withers come way up into the rider, and then he kicks up behind – so he uses all parts of his body. His knees, like Big Ben’s, are text book perfect. His knees are perfectly square, they are way up, he’s very tight below his knees. It’s a beautiful picture of the horse – both these first two pictures are better of the horse than the rider in my opinion.

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Paul Schockemöhle

Here we have one of, if not the most brilliant horsemen of our time – Paul Schockemohle. Paul as you can see in the picture is no stylist. Funnily enough I saw him ride this year at Calgary, and he is becoming a better stylist. He’s realising that style, that form does influence function on a horse. And he and his boys are working on their style and improving their style – whether consciously or unconsciously, I don’t know, but it’s happening. This is a photo of Deister taken several years ago, and the style is not good. It was taken at the time they still allowed them to tie their stirrup iron to the girth, and even the foot to the stirrup iron. Tommy Gayford, Frank Chapot and myself went to Fritz Widmerat the FE!, and they brought in a rule preventing the tying of stirrups to the girth and feet to the stirrups. They got around the rule and we had to write it another time, but finally we wrote it so they can’t do it any more. But this is a picture from several years ago where they were obviously still allowed to tie their feet to the girth. Even with tying the stirrups to the girth, this leg has such a habit that it flies back. There is no leg control here. Nonetheless with a rider of great talent and experience – like Kevin Bacon, a very athletic, experienced person – they can jump big fences standing on their left ear spitting red apples! They are very successful, but that does not mean that we want to advocate that, or teach that, or try to have average or young riders, do that because no good comes of it. Paul’s seat is off the horse’s back, he’s bending over, he’s not interfering with his weight, nonetheless his eyes are down – this could, and it has with Paul, caused runouts. In very important classes on occasions, he’s had problems with runouts. Perhaps just that little correction of eyes would prevent runouts, maybe, maybe not… His hands are very free and generous. I don’t like open fingers – you lose too much control through your hands, and rein and mouth, and therefore the whole horse in terms of stride, control and turning. So from the point of view of the rider this is not a stylish picture. The horse is very good. Deister is not a stylist either but for him this is a good picture. His expression is always wonderful. These three great horses have wonderful expression with their eyes and ears. He is using his head and neck beautifully, his back beautifully. He always twists, swings his legs to the side. That’s his style of jumping, but he doesn’t like to hit fences so it’s alright. He has great scope and he is very careful, so his style is really insignificant. A horse like Jappeloup who is small without that much scope, then it is important that he have good style.

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Katherine Burdsall

We come now to another student of mine, Katherine Burdsall. Here we see by far the most control of the leg position. While her heel is not down, it’s not up. Her legs are down, her stirrup leather is perpendicular to the ground. The leg is good, I wouldn’t say very very good, but it’s good enough. Her seat is out of the saddle just enough, allowing freedom of movement. Her body is forward allowing freedom of movement. She is using quite a long crest release with her hands, allowing freedom of movement of his head and neck. Her eyes are also down, not as much as Paul’s, but they are down to the side. Pierre and Ian, their eye control in these photos is better. Of the four horses so far, this horse, The Natural, is showing maybe why he’s not what the other three are. He’s a brilliant horse, but he can be a loafy horse. Sometimes he loafs, he can do anything and jump anything, he’s kind, he’s a wonderful horse… but sometimes he’s a bit lazy about things. You can see in his ears that are at half mast, and his eyes are a little bored, he’s not quite as sharp as the other three. Nonetheless his knees are up, his legs are tight, he’s round. He’s a very good horse.

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Philippe Rozier

Now Philippe Rozier and Jiva. Again this is a very very European, Australian, it’s a world habit – legs that swing. Like many of the French he has a good leg, but he hasn’t worked on it enough in the air, and it flies back. He’s riding very short on this little horse, which is alright. It’s a very thin skinned little horse and he wants to stay off his back. With the short stirrup he is way off the horse’s back which over big fences is important. It’s better to be short than long over big fences. His back and posture are always good – he doesn’t ride round backed. His eyes are alright, he’s looking a little to the right. His hands are very good, he is showing almost a straight line from the elbow to the horse’s mouth – which is what we call an automatic release, where the rider follows the mouth. While this horse’s expression is not so good, he shows character. He is a careful jumper and you can see he is a bit irritated that maybe he rubbed the rail and he is looking back a little at that rail. Sometimes this shows that it is a good horse, when they pin their ears and swish their tails and look back when they have hit a jump. He’s a very good jumper, he’s not as stylish as the others… he’s hanging one leg a little bit, twisting his legs a little to the left, he’s a little flatter – but he’s been a very good competitive horse and he is a very clean jumping horse. My only real criticism of him is that his front end is a little late.

Conrad Homfeld

This as you can see is the stylist of the group. Three of these riders have been extensive students of mine – Ian Millar, Katharine Burdsall and now, Conrad Homfeld. I taught many many hours with Conrad. I’ve probably had two freak stylists, Katie Monohan-Prudent and Conrad Homfeld. They can jump the biggest Olympic courses in very good style. See with this boy, his legs are down and tight. His heels could be down a little more but gripping and driving across this wide fence his legs have come up a little bit which is permissible. It’s taken on the landing, the horse is on the descent, so his seat is a little deeper than the other two, but it doesn’t bother me because the horse is pretty neat over the back rail. His back is exemplary, it’s very correct posture. There’s no roundness to his back, his eyes are up and ahead. He is opening his mouth, which he always did. It’s his way of timing a jump – some people flop their elbows, some people twitch, he opens his mouth. You’ll see in my book in his equitation championship, he opens his mouth. He is one of the few today who has what I call educated hands. Many have good hands, he has better hands than good hands. Here he is maintaining a straight line from elbow to mouth – an automatic release. You could use this in a text book. He has maintained soft contact from his elbow to the horse’s mouth, even over an Olympic fence. He’s not relying on the neck of the horse for support, he is independent in his seat and legs. While it’s not a perfect style picture, it’s better than the others. It’s very hard over this sort of fence, and under this much pressure to get what I call equitation style – but if you give people equitation style all the while, while you are teaching them, while you are moulding them, it will hold enough for later on. It’s very important, they should have equitation classes all over the world when they are young riders – not for older riders but for people up to eighteen or twenty years old. And put up money for the trainers, or put up money for the riders, it doesn’t matter – a little money just helps them pay their bills. Abdullah is showing a wonderful expression. His eyes are bugging out, his ears are pricked. Being a little bit of a half breed like The Natural, you want to see that alert expression, or else they are going to be dull. He’s very sharp, ready to go clean in this picture. It’s taken too late to show a good front end – his landing gear has already opened up – but this horse has a pretty good front end. He is kicking up behind wonderfully, there is no risk of him coming down behind. It’s quite an interesting photo because it is taken a bit late.