Starting riding lessons soon: Should I study Dressage Or Show Jumping, and why?

Question

Thanks in advance, most detailed answer gets best answer. Personal experiences with both sports would be great, thanks!

Answer 1

If you start out with dressage, it will make everything else you ever want to learn much easier.  I am not a dressage rider, although I do occasionally ride dressage.  I started out with a dressage teacher and have since used that basis for everything else that I have ever done in the saddle.  Have a hunter that is missing strides in the line?  School dressage for collection and lengthening.  Have a fresh horse that bolts through his shoulder? School dressage to achieve correct bend and to get the horse between your inside leg and outside hand.  Have a reining horse that falls in on circles and is out of balance?  School Dressage for balance, lightness and supple collection.  

Jumping is awesome, and it is what I do when I show, but I wouldn't be able to put together a course.  Oh yeah, one more thing that you can draw from on dressage, you are required to look ahead and plan your movements, that is a must for a successful round in EVERY area!

Answer 2

If you learn dressage you learn how to use your body.  You will be a better jumper and will do your horse the favor of not thumping his back or pulling on his mouth.  You will also be better at riding in other disciplines.  Learn dressage you will be glad you did.

Answer 3

well if you have previous riding experience i would just start out with show jumping, dressage is very difficult even if you have been riding your whole life.

but if you have no previous riding experience you really need to start with the basics and safety.

best of luck!

Answer 4

I would do Hunter/Jumpers. Its soo much more fun than dressage in my opinion, and way easier.... I had a friend that tried out dressage but she said it was way to hard...plus I think the thrill of jumping is way more fun. Although, I would not complain if I had to do dressage... it would be kinda fun I think but jumpers is wayyy better.  

Answer 5

I think it would be in your best interest to study both. I ride my horse hunter/jumper style but you will find that dressage applies to EVERYTHING. I would definitely study the two, maybe take lessons in both.

Answer 6

well i started dressage 2 months ago. If you have previous riding experience then i would say you could do either, if you dont i would do dressage. Dressage is a small advancment riding style. My first dressage lesson i just did tight circles learning posture. My second lesson i got to trot. And i still havent moved up to a canter. One lessons is focused on heel postion, or rein holding. It is very slow, but the truth is at the end of the lesson you feel like you gained so much. Your horse is very responsive, and it is amazing. It is slow, but the payoff of being a PERFECT rider is amazing. Jumping is fun too, i do a little on the side, but i wouldnt recomend it for a new rider.

Answer 7

Why not do both? :)  3-day-eventing consists of both Dressage and Show Jumping - as well as a thrilling sport of Cross Country. There are multiple levels - from the very basics to the Olympics.

Unfortunately, there would be a LOT of typing and explaining to put into this answer - so if your interested, I've put a website in my source box. :)

Good luck!

Answer 8

ive been riding for a while.... you may think jumping is more fun but you do need a lot of experience while dressage is easier to learn but can get boring!

Answer 9

Take a little of both for the first couple of years

Dressage is kind of boring but it really helps with you overall balence and control over the horse

Show Jumping is a whole lot more fun (in my opinion) but is a little more dangerous but it does help with your precision and timing.

After about two years, choose which of the two you would like to expand on but I still suggest taking one or the other at least once a month or every other.

Answer 10

If you wanna go into showjumping (which by the the way I completely recommend!) you need dressage. Any type of jumping you need basic dressage knowledge. I know from experience. Jumping is really breath taking and for me I get an adrenaline rush every time I approach a Jump. I started Jumping 4 yrs ago and will NEVER regret going into it. find an instructor in your area that teaches Jumping and he/she will teach you basic dressage movements so that you can get ready for jumping. If you wanna get into prue dressage, your possibilities are UNLIMITED on what you could do with that knowledge. But if you wanna do jumping/hunting then you need Just basic dressage.

Hope this helps!!

Answer 11

I personally have done both and they really go hand and hand. My personal opinion is that dressage is the bases for everything. Wither you do show jumping or eventing dressage will help. If you are just starting lessons I would suggest taking a couple dressage lessons first. Now show jumping is a lot of fun. If you like fast pace activities you will like show jumping better. A personal experience that I can share with you about the importance of dressage is I used to do just jumping and my position was ok but not great. As soon as I started dressage I started riding better and thus me and my horse started working togather better.

So in my opinion start with dressage lessons and see how you like it. If it is not for you try show jumping or you can do both. Hope this helps.  

Answer 12

It all just depends on what your most interested in.  I find most people want to do jumping at first because its "cooler" than dressage, but you just have to understand each of them.  I love dressage and would love just to do dressage, but I'll jump every so often too.  

Show jumping: I've had my experinces, jumping in general is risky, you never know what is going to happen.  You could be riding the best horse or pony and you could get thrown into the fence.  I have been on my pony and we were going over a 2' 3" jump and he got his boot caught on the pole and fell on his face, causing me to fall over his neck.  He rolled over my leg which still hurts today.  Show jumping is faster than hunters and it doesn't matter how you clear the fence, as long as you don't fall off, knock a pole, or have a refusal.  You need to be strong enough to lift yourself out of the saddle and be confident enough to face situations that may seem scary sometimes.  

Dressage: It is so much more than it seems, it takes patients, streanth, and partnership (not that show jumping doesn't, because it certainly does).  Dressage is the French word for training, it was used for military purposes, it only certian people could have the honor to ride the horse trained to do airs above the ground (the type of dressage where the horse levads, capriols, and does all that "fancy stuff").  Dressage takes collection, precision, and the ability to prefect what is not prefected.  It takes years and years to train a horse or rider to do dressage, but the rewards are great, even though you may never make it to the olimpics.  You learn your horses limits and advantages.

Wouldn't it be great if everyone just forgot jumping and did dressage?  No, it wouldn't.  You should have experince with both and see which you like better. Maybe you'll like eventing, which is a test of both horse and rider.  The first day you do dressage, the second day you do cross country (which is a test of speed and jumping, your horse needs to clear obsticals that will not move when you hit them. which makes it so dangerous), the third day is show jumping.  So you could have a comination of both of them.

Answer 13

Personally I would start with Hunter/Jumper first. With a good hunter trainer you will learn the basics for pretty much and disipline. You will learn how to quietly and effictivly use yourself on the flat and over fences.

All the people I know that started with show jumping have no style and ride ineffictivly. They always have their heels up and jamed into the horses sides and drive the horse forward to every jump. Its easy to get caught up in going fast and forget to keep your heels down and move with your horse. If you start with hunters over fences you HAVE to remember to ride correctly and form follows function. You will be place on how correctly you ride and your horse goes. Once riding correctly is ingrained in your mind, adding speed is easy.

I trained hunters for several years (not high level stuff) and was able to switch to show jumping after a couple show jumping clinics and a good horse. We have been doing fairly well on our own and I have a good/solid position which will allow me to move up through the levels without having to go back and relearn to jump.

Make sure you get a good hunter trainer though. Some of them now will just teach you to look pretty and not ride effictivly.

Dressage feels AMAZING when you get it right. If you are just starting riding though, it is probably not the best choice because it gets frustrating when you see no or very little improvement. Hunters was an OK start for going into dressage but I brought some hunter issues to my dressage stuff. They will require a little work to solve but its worth it. I switched to eventing when I got bored with hunters. Because I know what I am capable of in the hunter/jumper ring, I am willing to slow down and appreciate the little improvements in my dressage.

I would definanly start with hunters if you can but of the two disiplines in the question, go with dressage. You will learn the most and create the better seat.

Congrats on starting lessons!

Answer 14

learning how to ride will be your first consideration.  when you can ride a simple test and do a round of show-jumps only then will you feel able to decide on what you want to do.  all can be fun.  myself i prefer show-jumping.  but in actual fact all are linked by horse and rider becoming partners.

welcome to horse world.

Answer 15

It should be all combined ,  A well trained jumper/ Hunter should be already schooled, in dressage  

Answer 16

if u have never ridden before, i would suggest hunt seat, because what you learn in that applies to both dressage and show jumping. you need to be comfortable in basic seat before moving on to a specialty. dressage is a great option, because that's where you really learn to ride, because you need to be able to subtly control your horse and work together to do everything. show jumping is more exhilarating, but doesn't take as much technical skill. I personally ride saddle seat/hunt seat, but if i could choose i would prefer dressage, because it's very beautiful and challenging. well, it is all a matter of preference, and i hope you enjoy whatever you choose!

Answer 17

If you are taking Dressage lessons, then yes

If you are taking Show Jumping lessons, then read about that too.  Your trainer will certainly help you with on hands experience

Answer 18

Dressage is definitely what I would recommend but it is really your decision! Jumping is high paced and also dangerous! If you push yourself and your horse to a level that you cannot do, then you will get hurt, like Christopher Reeve! It requires decisions that must be made in less than a millisecond. It also requires you to have a certain personality! You must have this gung-ho mind set that you are not afraid of big scary jumps that if you run into you can be killed! It basically takes a person who would not be afraid to go skydiving or bungee jumping, if you're afraid of skydiving or anything like that, don't do show jumping or eventing! Now this is at the lower levels but it can still get very scary even at that level.

Dressage is more refined and less high-paced, it requires quick decision-making and sharp mind. You must however be able to use your body parts separately so that you do not give mixed signals, which gives either what you want, or nothing even close! You should be patient in that if the horse does not respond, you should be able to keep your cool and ask again, except with a stronger aid so that the horse listens and realizes that you are still up there riding them. Riding dressage is beautiful sport and clearly has it's benefits. When you show, you show against yourself and your score, and not really on whether or not you cleared all the fences, and you can show at a really low level of riding. Introductory Classes only require walk and trot and Training Classes only require walk, trot, and canter, while in show jumping you usually start off with cross-rails, after of which you have learned to walk trot and canter, and then you move up to single verticals and then oxers and onto more advanced stuff. Also at the end of each dressage test you ride in you recieve a score percentage and you recieve a score for each of the movements you did which then add up for the percentage, in showing jumping and in hunter classes, you don't recieve anything like this if you even recieve a score.

Both of these sports have their benefits and can co-exists without the other, but show jumping does actually require a little bit of dressage in order to be tune the horse for the course. It really doesn't matter which you choose and it really is up to what your interests are and what you really want to do! If you want adventure, action, and danger, then show jumping! If you want precision, beauty, and grace, then dressage! But it really is what you are interested in.

However, whatever you choose, you must know that you must learn the basics such as your balance. In dressage this is easier to learn the basics because you are taught how to use your seat and ride the horse in the proper position before learning how to actually steer and give your aids to control the horse, which half of which you've learned through you learning how to use your seat! In show jumping, you learn how to ride the horse by using your hands and your leg all at the walk and then into the trot and canter before you learn anything about jumping or even controling the horse on your way to the jump!

I would personally choose dressage but that's me! If you're really stumped about which to choose, then go to a big show jumping show and a big dressage show and see which one you enjoyed watching the most, in the sense that which show captured your imagination and made you want to do that eventually! If you dream of flying over huge fences, then show jumping! If you dream of dancing with your horse, then dressage!

Good Luck!!!

Answer 19

ok, dressage is not easier than show jumping, i'm not saying show jumping is easy thhough. Dressage focuses more on gaits. You have collected, extended, etc. you will focus more on the movement of your horse. It takes a lot of training. Show jumping is what everyone does. I like dressage b/c its different.  

Answer 20

I am a show jumper and jr. racer, show jumping is very very fun. i recomend it because iv grown up doing it and its a blast. i have done some Dressage but thats more of a thinking and more critcal sport. if you enjoy really thinking through things and alot of pattern you will like Dressage. But jumping is really awesome, and more free.

Answer 21

id spend about 2 years doind dressage if i were you so you can really devlop your skills(at the walk trot and canter)just because you can walk trot and canter is motion with the horse doesnt mean its an OKAY to move up to jumping you need to learn how to improve a horses gait etc etc. then id say going onto jumping is fine =]]

Answer 22

Dressage is a good foundation for any sport.  If you can do dressage, you can improve your performance in show jumping.  It will help you understand balance and aids needed for jumping.  My dressage coach did barrel racing when she was a kid. When she started learning dressage, her barrel racing improved.  Do both... Eventually you can add cross country and you can do 3 phase shows.  Have fun...