XC Musings

So I've been thinking recently about the benefits of XC.

Over the last month I've taken three riders from H/J world out on their first ever XC run, and every single one of them came back with a stronger position and significantly more confidence. The change I've seen in them has, across the board, been amazing. And while I'd love to take credit for that (yeah a 2h private lesson can work wonders but still :) some of it has to be the activity itself. Position gets stronger because I won't let them go out w/o a solid base so some effort gets applied in the warmup *g* And then once that's done they tend to keep it. But *also* because your position has to be strong to ride up and down hills and over changing terrain. And self preservation kicks in. You ride downhill in a reasonably controlled manner and find you're losing your balance, you're going to sit up. Etc etc. And then the confidence improves because "oh my god I jumped *that*!!!!" and suddenly you trust your horse more because well, if they jumped scary fence X, this little hunter fence is suddenly not nearly so intimidating.

Will prob write that up a little more eloquently when I have some time. Anybody else have other "XC advantages" to share?