Slowing the lope... part 2

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.

Slowing the lope

Although I am super happy with where Lucy is right now I would love her to lope a little slower.  Her head and neck are relaxed and level, but we are lacking consistency in our speed controle.  It will come with time, and fitness.  I do not want the super fake 7 beet lope that is popular now in the AQHA/APHA/ApHC show ring.  However I to want to be able to rate her speed better and be able to ask for transitions within the gait.  Right now we have one speed, and somewhat jerky portions of slower lope.  I can ask her to move out and then suck back at the jog so its coming.

I do have to say that in our exercises to rock her back on her haunches, is to counter bend them in a circle and spiral in to a very small circle.  It gets them opening up the inside shoulder, rocking back on the haunch and moving away from the outside leg.  When we started the exercise last month Lucy would often break or end up loping a not so small, small circle.  Last night we were able to do a less than 10m circle and she was so light and slow but with such good rhythm, it make me so excited with how fit she is getting and how much possibility there is this summer.

I was so busy fighting to stay on Lucas' good side we never got to pushing our boundary's like this.

Now what....

I'm not quite sure where I want to go now.  I know that financially I need to wait a year or two before buying another horse (and with the market in the state that it is in, investing in horses is a bad idea right now!).  I read though a lot of my old posts tonight from before I got Lucas.  I'm kind of in the same spot now, and I don't want to rush into anything.

I love riding and teaching horses new things.  I dont like riding when I need to be 'perfect' all the time.  But the riding events that I like to do focus on being 'perfect'.  Western Pleasure, Hunter under saddle, showmanship, and the pattern classes are all about who can be the most 'perfect'.

While I enjoy trying to reach those goals, I'm not so sure that the pressure that it places on the horses, and the riders is a good thing.

I enjoy the challenge of the lungline classes (which only require perfection for a very short period of time) and the halter classes.  However with lungline you only have the yearling year to do it (sometimes shows offer it for 2 year old but not very often.)  And halter is great, but it leads to a very long day of sitting around a show done way before your friends are, and I think it can be very boring for the horses.

So that's where my mind is as now... I'm starting into the Law course next week which will hopefully get me to focus on something.  I'm also having thoughts about changing some of the layout and pictures of the blog... anyone have any idea?

The western pleasure industry (or 'my beef with AQHA')

So recently a video was posted on the Fugly blog of a western pleasure horse (which actually may be APHA not AQHA) I stumbled upon it via a forum that I frequent based in Ont. All of you know who read this blog know that I have done the WP thing but that I also struggle with what people are doing to horses to show them. I wanted to defend the WP/stock breed industry but I agreed with what everyone was saying.

I go onto the pleasure horse forum and people are defending the person. No one should be bullied, but the video was awful.

I was disguised with the video. Poll well below the withers, behind the bridle, cantering almost sideways down the rail. The horse had potential, but will never stay sound enough now to preform the way it could have. How do I know that? Well recently a girl I know found out her horse will never be sound again.

He's 3

And he was sound 3 months ago, before he went to the final trainer...And his trainer rode him the same way that this horse was being ridden.

We see the horses that come out for a season then are never shown again, the ones that 'disappear' only to be buried on the trainers farm. The horses burnt up in a season of showing and can never be ridden again. I hate what we are doing to our horses.

And no one stops it.

I'd like to say that I'm better than that, but I'm not, I still do stuff that some people would think inappropriate. I ride my English horse in western spurs. I often ride him in shank bits. I do make him preform hip in at the canter occasionally. But hes happy, sound, and acting like a horse for the first time in his life.

Its the trainers getting caught, charged, fined, kicked out of the association but still allowed to attend shows and coach clients. Its trainers and riders breaking rules and still getting there picture on the cover of a magazine. Its a Professional Horseman regaining his PH status only a couple of years after getting caught drugging horses at a show. Its a trainer getting charged by one association for crulity only to be welcomed with open arms into others...

AQHA, NSBA, APHA, ApHC please get your act together, before some animal rights group does it for you.

Show

Well I rode in my first WP class in almost 4 years! Had a good ride got 4th out of about 14, and could have been higher if we didnt screw up the back up. The kid got 1st in halter out of 20, and 5th in horsmanship out of about 20.

We were most impressed with her keeping all 4 feet on the gound despite being ran into from behind and being boxed on the rail. She kept her cool :)

WP

CW got banned for one year, 10,000 fine. I hope the fine goes to the owners of the horse to pay for vet bills.

Well...

We had the talk.... And it didnt go so bad... other than the fact that I almost cried.... GRRRR not that I wanted to but I was emotional about riding again and how I have limits but I still want to be pushed, just when I say no I mean it! Anyways he understood about the block but said that I need to push myself, and not just go with the flow all the time. Which is fine thats why Im taking lessons. Anyways I felt bad that I almost cried (but he must be used to some crying I mean all of his students/clients are girls!) But better after we had the talk. I had been dreading my riding time.

Had a good ride. Got to ride an older mare that had some babys and now is getting put back into work. She had a real attitude when horses passed her and Im not very good with planning ahead! So we had a couple of near misses but by the end we had a good connection and I was able to fix her when I needed to (not that she shouldnt be able to just go around perfect all the time but she delt with me lol....)