How Can Biokinetics Help With Jumping Position?

Over the last few months, I have been working with Amy Blair on her scopey Thoroughbred, Coogs. I am going to use the pair as an example of how biokinetics can really help to improve your jumping position. The accompanying images will help explain.

- Christie Wolhuter

Over a number of weeks, we have worked on a few aspects of the jumping position but, for the purpose of this question, we will explain a little more about torso angle, or ‘closing the hip’, as a critical part of the correct jumping position.

These images provide a basic way to visualise what is happening when Amy travels over the fence. In take-off and landing, Amy would round her spine to get her body weight forward over the jumps, rather than flexing at the hip and keeping her spine relatively neutral, as is considered correct. Although, technically, she is getting her body weight over the horse’s shoulder, she is not achieving this through hip flexion, but rather flexion of the upper back. This rounding of the back can be seen clearly in image 1.

Why do we work on this? While there is generally no problem with having a slightly different jumping position, in this case, Amy’s jumping position was causing her to be too far away from her horse’s wither during the take-off and flight phase. This resulted in her weight getting pitched backward as she went over the fence, and her lower legs shifting forward. As a result, she was being left behind.