examining the "jumping canter"

We seem to talk an awful lot about the canter as a gait, especially for jumping. On one hand, we talk about a horse's natural ability in the gait. For instance: Charlie's canter is by far his best gait. On the other hand, we always hear a lot about developing that "perfect jumping canter" - the holy grail of any jump rider - regardless of the horse's natural way of going.

One of my trainers, Dan, is pretty convinced that nothing matters more for jumping than the canter. And that this canter is itself a product of good flat work. That, if you've done your homework and developed your canter - there are no "long spots" or "chip strides" in jumping.

Rather, the distances take care of themselves bc you've got a canter from which you can easily move up to a going distance, or balance to the base for a closer spot. That you don't need to "see your distance" if you've got your canter (while simultaneously, seeing your distance is 1000x easier from that canter anyway).

not in the bridle; not round
overall: not a great picture

As a way of delving further into this topic, I've pulled out a couple reasonably representative photos of Charlie from the archives. None of these maybe constitute the epitome of what I'm trying to say - but they're all obviously quite realistic and hopefully can more or less demonstrate how I try to understand the canter for jumping.

Basically, the terminology that makes the most sense to me is having the horse "in the bridle." This is distinct from being "on the bit" - tho I address that in part somewhat separately as looking at the horse's general shape and way of carrying himself vis-à-vis "roundness."

not in the bridle; "round"
only kinda joking here... bc round but behind the bridle is a great recipe for bucking lol

To me, the phrase "in the bridle" means a few things. Perhaps most importantly: The horse must be in front of the leg. There must be impulsion. And there should be a certain degree of shifting the horse's weight to it's hind quarters in preparation for jumping. An "uphill" quality.

It should feel, in some ways, like the horse is pulling you to the fence - but that they're not stiff, strung out, flat or rushing on the forehand in the process.

in the bridle; and round(ish)
this to me is a very pleasant jumping canter

I bring up "roundness" as a somewhat separate element mostly bc I personally don't see it as a requirement for the "perfect jump canter." But I DO see it as a requirement for developing more lateral and longitudinal suppleness in the horse - something that IS absolutely necessary.

Especially in getting started with Charlie, it took me a while to figure out why the jumping could feel so terrible when he'd get all racey and over-enthusiastic. Finally - it occurred to me that it felt so crappy bc all our flat work (limited tho it was/is) would fly out the window and Charlie would get stiff as a 2x4, inverted and hollow.

And when you're strung out like that, it's basically impossible to see any good spot to the fence. Like, "is he gonna leap, is he gonna chip? who knows!" -- thus the many months of defensive, back seat riding by yours truly.

in the bridle; not classically round
this picture, to me, is a good representation of what currently constitutes a good jumping canter for charlie

Once Charlie started really figuring out the whole "going on the bit" thing in our flatwork (something we're still very much working on), he was able to discover a new level of suppleness throughout his body. A way to stay soft in his body, soft to the bridle, even when moving forward and lengthening his stride, and even when I really push him up in front of my leg.

I don't necessarily think that a horse needs to be fully round and on the bit to have the perfect jumping canter - they've got to be able to see the jumps after all lol. But that established ability to be soft and supple, at least for me, is a critical component of being able to push the horse up in front of my leg and into the bridle while maintaining engagement and thrust from the hind end.

Does that all make sense? Do you think about the "ideal" jumping canter similarly? Or differently? Is there different terminology that makes more sense to you, or some other component not mentioned here that is of vital importance to you? Maybe you disagree with some of my examples or evaluations above?

Or perhaps you think this is way too overthought and that you just canter the horse and jump the fence? Or that the "ideal canter" varies widely by each individual horse or discipline?