Downhill Jumps

Description

I will never forget my initial reaction when hearing Jimmy Wofford's advice about how to ride downhill jumps on the cross country course. We were walking the Radnor ** cross country course, and the third fence was a huge pile of logs on a rather steep downhill slope. And he said, "At the top of the hill, right before the hill starts its downward decent, lengthen your reins." And I thought, "Wow, that's the last thing I want to do on my very strong ex racehorse, especially this early on in the course. He will run away with me completely!" I could picture us running down the steep hill at top speed, totally out of control, and out of balance. And maybe even having a fall at the jump. But, having total faith in my coach, I didn't argue with him. And I listened to his explanation of why he wanted me to lengthen my reins. And it made sense. Not only that, but it actually worked!