AQHA is promoting "extension of the gaits" aimed at judges!

[OneGrayPony]

Maybe you’ve already thought about this but my qh is doing wonderfully with a horse physical therapist. She has me doing stretching and long line work with him and I’m amazed at how much it’s helping with all his issues

Thanks! Right now I am doing some therapy with him, but I suspect that he’s actually also partially having an issue with some stiffness in my body somewhere. At my age with my injuries, I struggle with quite a few imbalances!

Plumcreek, are you a convert from English land? I’ve been afraid that I would do that too, instinctually, after so many years of riding bareback, hunters and eventers.

Willesdon, I’m not sure that dressage has evolved for the better, although I think WP is evolving for the better, just slowly.

[longride1]

OneGrayPony - I understand what you’re saying. I was lucky with my TB. Once the student had the seat and knowledge, he would do EXACTLY what he was told. He refined my riding in ways no other horse ever did. But you had to have a good seat first. Without the seat aids, he stuck to going where he was pointed at the gait he had gotten the aid for and that was pretty much it. Perhaps the real key is that all my horses had multiple jobs. None did only dressage and all had to learn early to figure out beginners from advanced. It’s sorta like the lesson a gold medalist taught me. He would stop the lesson, talk for what seemed an hour, then say to the rail, shoulder-in from H to K. And he expected a top performance - now. So my horse learned a valuable lesson that every cow horse knows. Sleep when you can, but wake up the instant the rider does. It’s a lesson I’ve tried to make sure all my horses know.

[OneGrayPony]

They sound delightful longride, and it is important. I had a TB who did well for beginners as long as they were on the longe, and he was truly great for people who knew what they were doing. It was the “in between” folks who had…uh…difficulties with him

[ccoronios]

[QUOTE=SuckerForHorses;7019736]
Actually, a judge does not have to pin anyone. They could pin nobody if they really wanted & if all the riders/horses are all going incorrectly.

Will they do it? Probably not. But, the option is there.[/QUOTE]

Several years ago, we videoed a QH show the weekend after a Paso Fino show. With the Pasos, it is not uncommon for even a 1 horse class to go unpinned. They judge against the standard, not in comparison to what’s in the ring.

The QH judge was bemoaning the difficulty pinning the OF classes which ranged from ‘shut your eyes scary’ to ‘that horse is a miracle-worker keeping that human on its back’. I mentioned the Paso option of not pinning. His response was, “Welllll, you COULD do that in this breed. But I sure don’t have the juice!”

I heard rumors back when I was showing (or shortly thereafter) that one of the best judges in the country gave up his QH card because a few of the high & mighty took exception to not getting used in every class, as they were accustomed to.

[OneGrayPony]

At the show this weekend I heard the judge actually ask for extension of the jog. I was warming up in the warmup area so I wasn’t watching what was going on, but he did call for it.

[LadyGalahad]

[QUOTE=aktill;7019873]
The whole sport seems to have evolved in a way where they use the same terms as the rest of us, but in a twisted way.

I’ve heard pleasure riders talk about collection, lengthening, impulsion, engagement and even the gaits themselves while using them to represent performances that contain none of these things according to the rest of the world. I suspect that it’s a case of telephone…one rider tells another rider while never looking outside their chosen sport.

Let’s play a game of “one of these things is not like the other”:
http://www.easphotography.com/Tindur/OneOfTheseThingsIsNotLikeTheOther.png

Top left: Reiner Klimke and Alerich in one of their medal-winning performances: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKbqokuTzh8
Top right: Richard Caldwell teaching a young hackamore horse to rate off a cow, clipped from a personal video a family member took (with permission) at a clinic I was riding in
Bottom left: Ranch pleasure champion, taken from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uexLqB80TFc
Bottom right: Western Pleasure Champion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?client=mv-google&gl=CA&hl=en&feature=related&v=C0XjkvV971c&nomobile=1

Sorry, but WP is kidding itself in thinking that the current state of the union is anything other than bizarre.[/QUOTE]

Just watched the western pleasure champion video… This looks horrible!! I woudl think my horse was lame if he started moving like that! Is it just me or do the saddles these ladies are riding in look WAY too big for them? Their non-rein hand position looks silly to me as well. I would be laughed out of the barn if I rode like that! I was always under the belief that “pleasure” meant fun! This crap looks stiff and awkward! The horses don’t look like they’re having much fun either. These horses do not look like a pleasure to ride at all! Maybe I just see it this way because I was taught how to ride by a barrel racer for a couple months then went out on my own for almost 20 years now. I had a Standardbred that I showed in Western Pleasure at the national breed show and won many ribbons including blues over standardbreds that moved like these western pleasure AQHA horses. I even got some ribbons in 4-H in my day over some kids whose parents bought them $10,000+ western pleasure horses. Wow! Just makes me sick to see these horses made to move like this…

[Cindyg]

It took her 2 minutes and 30 seconds to make it around the arena one time, and that was at her highest two gaits. (I’m not going to call them a trot and a lope. Just whatever they were.)

Why do they hold their non-rein hands out like that?! Is that the right thing? That’s not how I was taught back in the old days when I took western lessons.

ETA: The only person getting any pleasure out of that class, is the guy who sells the sequins.

[saddleup]

Pretty sure the western class shown was the rail work portion of the Horsemanship class. They hold their free arm in the Horsemanship position. In a Western Pleasure class they leave it down at their side.

[longride1]

The arm position is because of a rather poor rule. It declares the hand cannot touch the leg or saddle. The thought behind it is that the rider might be using the hand to balance or grip instead of having an independent seat. So the riders have to find a position that clearly shows that hand isn’t anywhere near their leg or the saddle. It’s evolved. At one time everyone looked like they had a bellyache. At least this position balances the rein arm.

[twoxover]

at the first AQHA show in NJ this year (back in april)…they read the very lengthy explanation of gaits, ect…and DQ’d SEVERAL big name wp trainers on horses for the crippled gaits. YAY!

but…at the next show…no mention made, and it was “back to business as usual”.

I don’t show aqha, but have friends who do…my little aqha gelding is way too nice a guy to ruin!