You will also know that any flaws are your fault alone. I do count that as a bonus, as it will let you know which areas you need to develop in yourself as a horseman.
As Cappy moved into the fall of his four year old year, it was time to start teaching him to jump. I had trained a horse to jump before, had a good reference library of materials to work from that I had used successfully before, and knew Cappy had the brains and brawn to keep us out of trouble. I didn't have proper jumps at JS's place, but I could get us started.
The first thing when you are teaching a horse anything is to know what you want so you can be clear to the horse about what you want (not wanting to die is not a clear enough view, however). My wanting to event (even though I had never done this, or really even jumped over solid obstacles) meant that I needed to have a horse brave enough and powerful enough to keep us out of trouble to avoid that whole death by jumping thing.
Eventing sometimes means you will get into a spot you don't want to be in. Whether through direct riding judgement rider-error, inability to control the horse on the day rider-error, unforeseen conditions or optical effects ~ there are a lot of ways to get yourself and your horse hurt when jumping solid fences at pace.
I wanted to avoid that. I needed a packer. I am a bit of a wimp. My plan was to have a brave horse, educate him how to think for himself over fences while still accepting rider input, and just never attempt a level above what we were capable.
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When I say a horse that will think for himself, these are a couple of examples that come to mind. These horses are doing THEIR JOB. Their job is to get from Point A to Point B, as dictated by the rider, successfully negotiate any obstacles in the way, and remain focused on the task. They have that "fifth leg" in time of trouble. They don't get hung up on what's wrong, or need conditions to be "perfect", they focus on the job and keep you safe. This was the kind of horse I wanted to develop.
*Warning, loud music*
A miscalculation by the horse of what the question was didn't phase him one bit. He didn't realize on approach that was a bounce bank to a log drop, just thought it was a wiiiide oxer. Realizing his mistake, he pushes with front and hind, and makes it look pretty smooth. Notice after his "correcting the situation", his ears are up and focused on the next element.
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As this video's rider comments, "This was his first Intermediate horse trial. He was more than ready. And I was quite confident he could do it. What I think happened was the horses cantered up the hill then when it was time to take off they then saw what was on the other side which caused a green horse to hesitate and loose their focus. Smooth Rider aka Odin saved us both. The rider in front of us fell and others before had problems. The fence was then removed. He got lots of cookies and kisses when we got home."
Odin caps the first element badly, catching both knees ~ thank goodness the landing was downhill or they would definitely have been toast. He is on the line for the second element and the fact that his rider isn't perfectly positioned or even looking where they're going until about the launch stride doesn't phase him. He knows his job.
My favorite part in some regards is that as the rider realizes they didn't die and regains his visual focus and uses that (and thus his legs, weight, and body language cues) while he attempts to regather his reins, there is a moment around :38. I sense from watching Odin's face that the strokes made down the neck to locate the reins are accepted by him as praise for a job well done. Although they are not the cleanest efforts over the last elements due to the rider being out of position, the horse is honest. Any number of times in this video, a horse that didn't like his job, didn't know what his true job was, and/or didn't know his own abilities would have caused a very ugly accident.
I wanted to make sure Cappy would be honest, and know his job... taking care of me as we went from Point A to Point B.
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