AQHA Breed Show - Hunter Under Saddle How did it evolve?

[Flash44]

[QUOTE=Plumcreek;8086769]
Thanks for posting this, I had forgotten about that class. Problem is the “they” that are ‘trying’ are individuals using their own time and effort to put on these Hunter Derbies and scrounge sponsors and nice prizes. This takes the heat off AQHA to do it instead.

Gratitude to COTHer Sparky’s daughter Lainie DeBoer and David Warner for starting the Huntfield Derby series and to the present owners of the franchise who are doing well and expanding it.[/QUOTE]

Wow that was great! Most of those horses looked a bit smaller than the normal HUS horses, but still lots of really good movers!!

Even though the regular hunter world usually has 3 OF and only one US, people still always want the beautiful moving hack winner.

[huntseat3]

I deal with HUS horses, own one myself, and they are great horses IMO. My guy is super laid back, happy, fun, loves his job and is good at it. He moves nicely on the flat and is also a super cute jumper and loves that too, can jump 2’9" easily. So to say that horses that do HUS cannot jump is wrong.

Sure, breed show HUS and open HUS are different things, but they both emphasize a nicely moving horse with a good manners. Breed HUS is not exactly WP in hunt seat tack- the body frame is similar but hunt seaters are expected to move out much more, and if you’ve even ridden a jogging horse and a trotting horse you’d definitely feel the difference.

This style of riding seems to receive so much bashing, and yes, while there are trainers out there who use poor training tactics you can find many properly trained horses that enjoy their jobs. And the people love it as well (I know I do, I love this style and these type horses.)

[huntseat3]

Something regarding headsets-

You cannot expect a warmblood or TB type to move like a QH. Why? They are not built the same. QHs generally have much lower headsets naturally (where the neck ties in) therefore carry their heads lower. My horse walks around out in the pasture with his head dipped way below his withers (but he’ll pick it up to wither height for riding) because that’s just him.

[RhythmNCruise]

I think the phrase “move like a QH” is misleading. Move like what KIND of QH? The HUS horses have a lot of TB blood in them, purposely bred into them to make them taller, leggier, and better “hunter type” movers. Yes, they still have the lower head carriage, but in reality, the modern “rail” QH (HUS or WP) has to be able to lift that front end and drive from behind if it is going to win. The hard part is, they are asked to do this while maintaining that level headset. The HUS horses don’t have to be quite as dramatic with the lift and drive as the WP horses, so they really have it easier. They can cruise around a little more naturally.
I like the class too, honestly. It’s always suited my style of riding and training horses, so long as it comes easy for them. One of my now retired geldings was born to do it. He’s all QH but 16.3 hands and was born to do HUS. No problem for him. Jumping? Not so much, but he had a bad injury as a 2yo that kept me from forcing the jumping issue on him.
I think the naturally talented HUS horses are some of the coolest critters going. Soft, flat, sweepy, effortless movers that look like they haven’t got a care in the world. Love it.
It’s the ones that are cranked into false frames and geared down at the canter to an almost western lope that I don’t care for. The difference between one that has the “go nowhere” factor naturally and one that obviously had to be persuaded to go lower and slower is huge.

[Plumcreek]

Below is a short tour of some of the AQHA stallions winning and currently siring HUS horses. Who would not go and look at prospects by any of these? I love the HUS horses, love the class, the judging? - not so much.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S77HHs6u0C8

http://www.skysblueboy.com/

http://www.bmqhorses.com/stallions

http://ironenterpriseqh.com/wp-content/themes/ie/images/NaturallyGraceful-300x240.jpg

http://www.gumzfarms.com/Stallions/theseironsarehot.html

http://www.oklahomastudranch.com/Hot_N_Blazing.jpg

http://allocateyourassets.com/