Hunter Princess wrote:
erika wrote:
HP my understanding from the OP is that the person would be looking to perhaps pop over a very small jump now and then for shits and giggles. 
Would enjoy w-t-c, pottering around, maybe a jump here and there but certainly nothing over, say, 2".
You don't need a horse who excels at jumping to be able to do this, just a horse who is reasonably co-ordinated enough to get himself over a jump safely if he's asked. You can find individuals in pretty much any breed who is capable of handling the kind of "jumping" the OP's friend is interested in doing.
I am not recommending a horse that excels at jumping. However, a gaited horse is completely unsuitable. I'd hazard to say just about any horse, except full drafts and gaited horses, could handle popping over 2ft occastionally. And even some full drafts would be fine, I'm just hesitant to suggest them as a whole because they tend to have coordination problems with jumping. Half drafts are usually just fine. Reasons gaited horses are unsuitable for beginner jumping:

1. They are NOT built to jump well, they do not take to it naturally and can have trouble knowing where their feet are over the jump.
2.  Depending on the breed/training you might have to teach them to canter or trot! Fun for a beginner, right?
3. They are not typically used for jumping so finding one that already know how to jump safely for a beginner would be extremely rare
4. Hello learning to see a distance from a random gait? Yea, that's going to be easy!
5. Have fun finding a GOOD trainer that will help a beginner with a gaited horse jump.

That video CLEARLY shows why a TWH would be entirely unsuitable for a beginner who wants to jump.
I've removed the combative elements of you post, because it then actually turn into a very nice, helpful, and educational one.

Do me a favor and read my reply to you again:  at no point was I combative, looking for a fight, or even saying that a TWH would be the perfect horse for this person.  In fact, I recommended a Canadian Horse, and still do. But I still stand by my sentiment that most horses will be able to handle the type of "jumping" the OP's friend wants to do, which is pretty much nothing.  I would assume that it goes without saying that any breed the OP's friend would hypothetically buy would already be dead-broke for what the OP's friend wants to do since they are beginners, and so I don't see training here as an issue.  I don't think beginners should be teaching any horse to go over a jump.

Not so proud member of the WACHNRMG club