Western Pleasure
Jul. 18th, 2007 06:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lantairvleaI was reading through Horse & Rider, a Western magazine, the other day and they were using ground poles to encourage "lift" in Pleasure horses. First of all, I REALLY do not agree with how the "Western" show world has horses move. Necks flat out, or dipped, and feet moving in a sluggish, painful manner. You're moving, but you're not really going anywhere.
Now they were tryign to encourage lift and engagement of these horses' hindquarters, which is well and good, but they kept their horses heads so low you'd think that they'd trip over themselves. Their hind ends were consistantly above their whithers and, certainly, the haunch had lift, but the fore remained rooted. I couldn't help but laugh when the author wrote "Look at that lift!" when a horse was loping and his toes were barely out of the dirt.
I don't know, when I think of Lift, I think of the horse's legs actually leaving the ground and him being on his haunch, not hanging on his forehand.
I can't help but think that the western show world is spoiling good horses. Heaven forbid a horse actually use his neck to balance his body and help him to shift his weight to the hindquarters and ... you know ... CARRY himself.
Sunny still reaches downwards and hangs on the forehand, but not as bad as she used to. I need to work that mare ...
Anyway. I do understand working young horses that you need to start with a long and low frame, allow the horse to stretch and work towards greater collection and self-carriage, but what you see in Western Pleasure classes is not a long-and-low frame. It's like watching an albatross land, you're just waiting for the nose-dive.
It scanned a little crooked, but you get the idea. This was referenced from a series of photos in the magazine, so you get the idea of how it looked. If I were riding a horse in that frame, I'd be leaning back and trying to hold my hat on! I should draw a horse in actual long-and-low frame to show the difference between what a balanced horse looks like compared to this ....
Time to go outside and do stalls and work some horses. I should have been outside a long time ago... sod.
Now they were tryign to encourage lift and engagement of these horses' hindquarters, which is well and good, but they kept their horses heads so low you'd think that they'd trip over themselves. Their hind ends were consistantly above their whithers and, certainly, the haunch had lift, but the fore remained rooted. I couldn't help but laugh when the author wrote "Look at that lift!" when a horse was loping and his toes were barely out of the dirt.
I don't know, when I think of Lift, I think of the horse's legs actually leaving the ground and him being on his haunch, not hanging on his forehand.
I can't help but think that the western show world is spoiling good horses. Heaven forbid a horse actually use his neck to balance his body and help him to shift his weight to the hindquarters and ... you know ... CARRY himself.
Sunny still reaches downwards and hangs on the forehand, but not as bad as she used to. I need to work that mare ...
Anyway. I do understand working young horses that you need to start with a long and low frame, allow the horse to stretch and work towards greater collection and self-carriage, but what you see in Western Pleasure classes is not a long-and-low frame. It's like watching an albatross land, you're just waiting for the nose-dive.
It scanned a little crooked, but you get the idea. This was referenced from a series of photos in the magazine, so you get the idea of how it looked. If I were riding a horse in that frame, I'd be leaning back and trying to hold my hat on! I should draw a horse in actual long-and-low frame to show the difference between what a balanced horse looks like compared to this ....
Time to go outside and do stalls and work some horses. I should have been outside a long time ago... sod.
