Easier to train dressage horses to jump or jumpers to perform dressage?

Question

Is it easier to teach a dressage horse to jump or is it easier to teach an intermediate jumper dressage? Seems like if you have a good dressage horse, it would be easy to turn it into a decent jumper--some have even described jumping as "dressage over obstacles". What do you think??

Answer 1

A good dressage horse should learn to jump but some horses simply wont. A jumper you can already ride of course so it's simply refining and adding more training. Like someone said they can be wired. It really does depend on the horse. You also get dressage horses who then learn to jump and figure out "jumping is fun and I do it right after this fancy crap so if I canter my Entire dressage pattern I'll get to jump sooner" Rotten mare. Dressage over obstacles also depends on the style of jumping, cross country= not real fancy

Answer 2

Looking at it another way, I'd say it is easier to turn a jumper into a dressage horse since Jumpers *should* already have basic dressage down pat. A good jumper will already be trained very well on the flat, and therefore moving them to a higher level of dressage is not that hard. It should be a day to day task for a jumper to do dressage.
Taking a dressage horse who has never seen jumps, however, and turning them into a jumper will take more work as you have to start with more obstacles. They will already have a solid foundation for flatwork, but bringing out the jumping skills may be difficult.
As everyone has said, it definitely depends on the individual horse, as well as the rider, the amount of training, and by whom the training was completed.

Answer 3

I think it really depends on the horse. I have been riding jumpers and dressage horses since I was four years old , and once I got out of the show ring and started training the one thing I learned quickly was that in order to have a horse be good at something his heart had to be in it. I have had tons of jumpers and my best ones were the ones that actually love to jump and used their heart. Sure you can train a horse to do anything but if their heart is not there they are only going to be so good at it. I have paid top dollar for some jumpers and dressage horses but the price did not matter it was the horse. One of my best jumpers was a rescue horse from a slaughter house. I paid $250.00 for him and ended up selling him for $ 16,000.
So to answer your question I would have to say it depends on your horse. Some horses will never be jumpers no matter how hard you try. Dressage is more of a discipline training.

Answer 4

Dressage horses to jump. Every jumper needs basic dressage. A good second/third level dressage horse doesn't have to be taught to collect and extend, to stay balanced in the turns or to pay attention to the rider. All it would have to learn would be the mechanics of jumping. OTOH a horse jumped over heights without that basic education would have many blocks in its body developed from fighting with a rider and would need many months of retraining to free the muscles and learn to be supple and obediant. Biomechanics again.

Answer 5

i agree with you, dressage horses are easier to tur into jumpers most of thetime, becuase dressage (or flat work) is the basis of every discipline. you cant compete successfully in any other discipline if your horse is, eg: unbalanced, unable to concentrate, resistant to commands given by the rider.

I even do a bit of basic dressage with some of the racehorses i train, it helps them use themselves more correctly and therefore they can use themselves to their full potential in races.

I've never heard of jumping being described as "dressage over obstacles" but i do think that when the horse and rider are fully intune with each other it can be very beautiful to watch. But then I think that horses doing any kind of sport, be it dressage, jumping, racing, or just wandering around the field, are simply beautiful - "poetry in motion".

Answer 6

I work at a rescue and deal with many horses, alot of them being wild. I have backed my own rescue horse who was badly abused. It is easier to teach a jumping horse how to do dressage. A horse already knows how to do all the moves, it's just getting the horse to do it with you on top. A dressage horse may not have jumped before, and this is one of the hardest things to teach a horse. It has to get its striding right, it has to take off at the right time in the correct position, it has to pick up its feet, it has to land correctly, it has to learn how to jump different jumps, and it has to learn not to be scared of a jump with a filler underneath.

Answer 7

Having ridden both I would say it would be easier to turn a dressage horse into a jumper. You just have to teach them to pick up their feet. Jumpers are quite often to high strung to make good dressage horses.