As In2paints questioned on a previous post, yes we are still seeing the crappy, crabby lope up here too. Despite being in the middle of nowhere we have some of the top AQHA horses in our area. Last year at the congress out of the top 15 in the Maturity WP finals, 3 were from our area.
Ty and Karen Hornick were up about 2 months ago and Karen said something that I thought was spot on, basically that we are doing the same thing the saddle bred and TWH people do to there horses, it isn't natural, its a gated horse, we just do it to the lope.
I've seen naturally slow lopers, but to get that reach everyone wants, with the slow foot falls, its just about impossible for a horse to do that on its own.
Anyways Lucy is in stage 4 of a most likely 15 step program of which I will only take her to about step 7. When I warp my legs around her and sit up, I want her to rock back and slow her legs. We.re getting this... about 50% of the time :) She can lope relaxed on the rail with a round back and her head and neck level and relaxed. Sure I want her to drive more from behind and take slower steps but that will only come with fitness and strength, which will take much longer.
We did some showmanship tonight which I was really happy about, Lucy not so much! I really think she just does it to make me happy! However she's really gotten the hang of it so I'm very happy with her for putting up with me and my silly ideas.
I'm riding tomorrow night and Wednesday than showmanship and a bath on Thursday. Were off to the show on Friday Am. I've asked several parents to take photos and some of the kids are coming up without horses so I'll see if they can take my iphone and take some pics of us all dressed up.
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