Crest Release – Jumping Ahead

Understanding what you teach , or what you do when you ride, can make the difference between helping or hindering the horse.  When I say understanding I mean really knowing the back ground behind what you’re teaching ( or learning), it’s uses, and how it effects what you do when done correctly, or incorrectly.

Take the crest release.  My blog US Horsemanship has an in depth discussion about the development of the crest release.  You can read about it at http://www.ushorsemanship.com/?cat=29 . Check out the “Effects of the Crest Release” for my video that shows how far we’ve come.

The short version of the crest release is that it was originally taught by Capt. V. S. Littauer in the 1930s.   Littauer was a Russian immigrant who taught public riding lessons.  He had many students who had limited amounts of time for riding so he used an elementary crest release to get students jumping sooner. He didn’t call it the crest release.  Crest release got it’s name much later when George Morris published “Hunter Seat Equitation”.  Morris’ teacher, Gordon Wright , also wrote about the unamed crest release in “Learning to Ride, Hunt and Show”. The crest release progression went from Littauer to Wright to Morris.  They were all public instructors who intended that riders should graduate to an automatic release (hands that follow the mouth over the jump without touching the horse) after they got out of beginner stages of jumping. The crest release wasn’t taught by the cavalry nor was it taught by Piero Santini, a student of Caprilli.

As horses became an industry,  more beginning riders hurried into the show ring, consequently  the crest release became a common  riding tool.  This was evident in Medal and Maclay classes, where the trend went from the automatic release in the ‘60s to “you had to have the right crest release to pin” in the ‘80s. Today we not only do we see the crest release in equitation but also in the jumpers. And no where is the crest release more distorted than in the hunter divisions, where riders throw the reins at their horse and nearly lay down (or up) on the horse’s neck in a grotesque motion for an undefined reason.

Trends in the horse world take off like wildfire and quickly take on their own lives, especially if they win blue ribbons.  There are other examples of trends gone wild, such as over flexing the Arabian western pleasure horse or rolkur in the Dressage world.   They also started with an acceptable purpose but spiraled into something unacceptable.  Riders, trainers, and instructors frequently copy things that win in the show ring and often use what they see without understanding the repercussions or even the reasons for their use. Eventually the theory behind a method disappears and the trend imbeds itself in our riders.

Am I against the use of the crest release? Not hardly.  The crest release serves an important roll when it helps steady beginner riders over fences while they develop a strong base of support. If it’s used as a stage in the developing rider’s education, it’s a helpful tool.  I don’t think crest release belongs in the ranks of our top equitation riders, even if they are juniors. And I’m not for it becoming a vehicle for inept riders to jump higher where it verges on cruelty and misery for the horse.  At that point, the crest release is no different than rolkur or the western horse with his head between his knees.

Sometimes it’s hard to see how short cuts effect the rider or the horse, especially during fast movements like jumping.  One of the problems that the crest release creates is called jumping ahead of the motion. My video “Jumping Ahead” shows how the balanced, quiet rider keeps out of his horse’s way during jumping and lets the horse perform to the maximum of  his ability.  The short video also shows how the unbalanced, big move rider, over burdens the horse and interferes, making his job harder and causing him pain. Understanding when and where to teach or use crest release will help prevent jumping problems and will help us to develop better riders.

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