Rider Jumps Without Stirrups

I think that western and english are both equally dangerous... I disagree with both of you. English is not all fast and jumping, and western is not all slow and pleasure-like... It all depends on what capapabilities you and your horse have together. It also depends on what discipline your doing... Think of english and western as categories and the discipline is the rules and the way you ride that category. For example, barrel racing is in the same category as western pleasure, yet is twice as dangerous for its speed and sharp turns, yet jumping and dressage are in the same category, but jumping is twice as dangerous as dressage. Either way any discipline of horse back riding(even just doing horsemanship) is extremly dangerous, cuz you are working with a 1,000 pound animal that you need to cooperate with or else the horse could take it's anger out on you!! Oh and I really don't think that jumping without your stirrups is all that impressive... I am very young yet I have been told that for my age I am an awesome rider and ever since I was 7 years old my trainer never let me go up to a harder and more difficult level of jumping or even just in genral, riding, without first mastering it bareback and without stirrups. I play hockey so this was an easy way for me to learn!

Western and english both have their pro's/con's, dificulty levels,etc. The horse doesn't care! Your just prejudiced about your own disipline. "someone"- watch Craig Cameron and Julie Goodnight, stuff like that, and how much it matches up with english if applied properly. "grace"- watch Lynn Palm and people like that just like I told "someone" to do. Try out other disiplines for yourself! You will be suprised at what you find.