“An automatic release is characterized by a straight line from bit to hand to elbow, with the hand resting four or five inches lower than a crest release,” explains Jenn Serek. “You are essentially following the horse’s mouth and maintaining a crucial connection. To me, it’s not a set release; it’s in motion and following. It will look different depending on the horse and the jumping effort.”

Despite requiring advanced hand, seat, and leg aids, Serek believes the biggest difficulty in teaching the automatic release is perhaps the drawback of young riders having few examples in the show ring to learn from. “I think one of the biggest problems with teaching the automatic release is that it’s hard for kids to learn it, because they don’t see very many people doing it. A lot of people are visual learners and years ago it was the most common release; these days, not so much.”

The automatic release is not a skill for beginners. Serek stresses that riders must have a a secure leg position, upper body control and independent hands, which are the foundations necessary for an automatic release. “To really execute the release correctly, they must have the ability to walk-trot-canter without stirrups, go into two-point without stirrups, and jump a course without stirrups. You want the rider to be educated in their aids and be a consistent when it comes to riding a track and finding distances. You also really must be able to stabilize yourself; there cannot be any ducking issues and the rider must have excellent upper body control.”

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