Hi there!
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I can't imagine that this is right. If you teach a horse stopping like a western horse, you will teach him to stop when you ask for that. So the horse will learn to stop. But it will not autpmatically learn to stop in front of an obstacle. That's what I think, but I don't know exactly. So more comments would also be interesting for me!
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Sleep well,
Jasmin from Hamburg, Germany

I would say "No". You are teaching your horse to stop and stand still and you are in control so unless you request it to stop in front of a jump it shouldn't. However perhaps you shouldn't be teaching a your horse to stop like a western horse if you are training it as a jumper. Just teach it to stop on command at a slower pace than is used in western riding. Different training requirements for different riding pursuits - for western riding the training is very differently to that required for a dressage and show jumping horse - check out the uni. videos and compare the ones with western riding to those with dressage and show jumping. My horse Nicky was trained in Western riding and in her older age - she turns 20 this year - I have been teaching her dressage and show jumping. Very hard teaching her dressage as she has obviously been trained not only in western but roughly trained and raced. She is still hard at dressage as she still associates lower leg contact with her body as go faster and she panics if you try to half halt her. Cantering in a controlled manner has been quite a challenge especially when your instructors tell you to keep contact with your lower leg and to half halt her as she speeds up! However she loves show jumping - goes a bit too fast but no stopping before a jump although she does occasionally skid into them. However this is because she is a western trained horse not trained as a jumper. I believe, like Monty, it is essential for any horse to stop on command and to stand still when asked but perhaps a jumper should not to be required to stop like a western horse.

Regardless of whether doing Western stops is good for a jumping horse or not, I would still love to know how those who think it means it would "teach" them to refuse to jump, really thinks. Where's the logic in that?
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Do they think you teach the horse a brand new style of stopping? Because that's not the case. We can only teach horses to do ON CUE what they already *can* perform physically, not teach them things they can't; like doing a hand stand or somersault.

I guess it depends on who is telling you this and what experience they have had. As indicated above the only way that I would see that this could occur would be if you gave the horse the stop signal prior to a jump. I guess this could happen if your horse was rushing a bit and you needed to half halt prior to the jump - in this case the horse could get confused but this would have to depend on your body language to the horse. Beats me so can you find out how experienced these people are?

i think you are right as long as im in control nothing would happen.
well, this is the first time im teaching a jumping horse western.
moreover it seems western is so useful in jumping final rounds when time matters!
tempting ...:)