Horse & Hound went behind the scenes at eventer Laura Collett‘s Lambourn yard to find out how her small but efficient set-up works.
During the day Laura jumped Mr Bass, a bright bay novice — “He’s only six, but a bit of a dude, and safe and comfy enough to jump like this” — bareback.
Known to some as the queen of high jump contests, Laura is happy enough to dispense with her saddle over a whopping fence — she once said if she hadn’t been an eventer, she would have liked to have been a jump jockey.
You’ll see that Laura’s position is rock steady as she jumps bareback. But it’s not just a party piece.
“Yogi [Breisner, British Eventing performance manager and Laura’s regular instructor, who teaches her roughly one day a week] has sometimes had me riding bareback in just a headcollar on the four-star horses,” explains Laura.
“They just lob around in canter and it switches them off — they can let go of their whole body. It’s good for their fitness too.”
Watch Laura jumping bareback below
Don’t miss today’s issue of Horse & Hound magazine (31 July 2014), where we go behind the scenes at Laura Collett’s yard in our exclusive feature
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