I find it all very strange. How are they watching these videos of Nuno (they do, people post them on the FB group all the time) and then videos of Will and thinking there is any similarity between them? They must be blind.
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WTF?
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I sometimes see this when the 6 year olds first start learning to ride on the little saint of a pony. If my instructor had an actual adult trying to ride like this she would take away both reinsā¦.
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When I asked one of the Fans admins about this ride video, a very nice girl devoted to the A2R cause, she said that training moments arent always pretty, but the means to the end makes it worth while.
But in the endless self aggrandizing videos on youtube its clear that the horses never come up in to an actual working frameā¦noses in front of the vertical, poll high, hind legs engaged. What they call āLegolas in collectionā is anything but. Lego goes to one horse show, a local schooliing type show (not even braids) and they show one test, he gets a 60ā¦its pretty bad. The other test āthe camera quit workingā so I can imagine it was pretty bad, which is always typical of them >;->
So my question to them is alwaysā¦then what? You get them to tool around, noses on the dirt, on the forehand for two years until they have ālifted their backsā although they are still curled (since they were Broken at the 3rd Vertebrae!) and then? you can start SI ?! Then you can start āreal workā?! Who says that? Who believes that? When did Nuno or Henriquet or anybody ever teach that?! When do his poor followers ever progress beyond that magikal stretch?
Yes, Will cashed in on the anti rollkur movement. But he didnt have an answer.
I remember when he first came in to our barn (after he was kicked out of Del Mar Horsepark) he said he was sick of the horse world and only doing it till his movie career took off. That movie was Clothing Optional, whichā¦erā¦did not exactly raise him to stardom.
Hes is an āactorā with a bit career in usually soft porny movies. Dressage Master Son of Nuno is just the act that worked out for him. He told whopper lies, it was crazy, he thinks no one figures out the truth, if you call him on it (San Diego Country Estates was Built for Me, etc etc etc, I was One Of The Top Ten Eventing Trainers in the USā¦) he either backtracks, excuses, or gets angry. But his people dont know any better, they dont know about USEF and USDF to check his made up show record, they dont know people in the industry that know the realities. I saw it over and overā¦but when their horses went lame or became clearly unhappy in the work, and they questioned him, boom.
Horses WILL improve when allowed to stretch. No one disputes that! But to profess that his uber downward stretch, carried to endless extreme, especially endlessly on the lunge and also in sitting trotā¦no, no, no, no.
Q has clearly struggled. She often looks uneven behind, and she has started wringing her tail and flipping behind in the corners, especially to the left. When she seemed lethargic they did a hair analysisā¦nothing against those, they are interesting and can be useful but wouldnt you do a CBC too? They did the Succeed testā¦but did they scope her? They blame her work issues on her long back (!!!) or their inability to find the right saddle. They blame her curled neck on Diana Murphy, her breeder, her front end issues that she needed shoes.
Same story with Legolas. He was the best thing ever, they were lucky to get him, he was their starā¦oops, till he had serious front end problems, till his 'neck was Brokenā¦" till the farrier messed him upā¦blah blah blah. You can see the deterioration through the years. There is a video of Amber lunging him that just kills meā¦Will is telling her what to do, Lego is clearly having a hard time on the circle (he is a good 17.3 if not 18 hh) and they just push it and push it. His back is still so atrophiedā¦it takes years to atrophy a back to that extent in a young horse.
They dont know how to ride. They think this frame is building what they need for upper level work. You can see Ambers flailing hands bonk bonk bonk and her stiff seat pound pound pound and her spurs whack whack whack. 7 years this horse was in that program. This is the work that Will says results in life long soundness!! Over and over and over his proteges crack and break. There are a lot of very unhappy ex A2Riders in So Cal. Happy days are here again, they are LEAVING! Finally!!!
I have to laughā¦I was strongly considering retiring in Oregon; I have good friends there and I love the area. My daughter and fam ended up moving to NC, so that is where I will retire. Will hates me and calls me a stalkerā¦I can only imagine if I had also ended up in his area (which was exactly the area I was going to lolol)
Good riddance to bad rubbish. My friends in the area of Oregon know him well and will do their part to keep the local people apprised.
Hes a good musician and has written some good music. He needs to quit being a phony dangerous harmful Master Horseman and go off in to the sunset and play his guitar, and sell those poor horses to someone normal. It might be too late for Q but Lip is probably fixable.
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Another one of the things that gets me in this āprogramā is that they use exercises as a rewardā¦ like you have to earn the ability to do shoulder-in before you try shoulder-in. By their logic, the horse already has to be carrying with the hind legs before he can do an exercise that helps the horse understand how to carry with the hind legs. Or the horse already has to know how to come into the outside rein in the lateral movements before you can attempt a leg yield, an exercise that helps the horse understand how to hold the outside rein in the lateral movements. No wonder they arenāt accomplishing anything!!
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I searched and searched on YouTube. Thereās a gazillion videos on there, but I canāt seem to find one āfinishedā horse? I did find two with horses in double bridles. One looked like more of a First Level frame and fell out of the canter and the other horse was explained to be in a double because he can get strong and erratic and it was being used to better control him. :-/
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Iām a low-level AA w/out a trainer the past few years.
I was having issues with my trained-with-draw-reins new pony curling. A friend raved about A2R.
Raved!
Constantly.
I was so frustrated trying to teach the poor mare to follow contact that I was willing to try anything at that point.
I watched every video he had posted, read every word he wroteā¦
And promptly dismissed him as a charlatan.
Not only were the horses forehand bound and his riding bad, but he was so vitriolic toward competition riders that I got disgusted and wrote him off. Every 3rd sentence was bashing competition riders for competing. Like he only existed as a vehicle to bash competition riders.
Anyway, I did figure out how to get my pony to follow contact (not using A2R), finally. That was a tough road. I hate draw reinsā¦
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I also looked for finished horses who were done bringing their topline up with the low work and were brought back up and I didnāt see any.
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He trashes any and all, to keep his peeps from ever questioning or asking about another person or method. Word has it he was suspended from AHSA (now USEF) in 94 or 95. Maybe that is part of his spleen.
His creepy, loud, vindictive personality is a problem, but people are entiltled to be asshats. But they are NOT entitled to lie about their bonafides, and destroy horses with a useless made up āmethodā. They leave a trail of disappointed.injured riders and lame horses in their wake. Thank GOD they are finally leaving San Diego! Beware southern Oregon!
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I live in Southern Oregon! Where is he? Is he here yet? Yuck.
Why the move to Oregon?
They are in Ashland area.
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Karen is from thereā¦so maybe thats part of it.
They are universally disliked here, so may have just given up. Who knows. Im just glad they are going. They will still come down here apparantly periodically, but the less they are here the happier we will all be.
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At what point are the horses ready to not be nose on the ground?
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We will mever know apparantlyā¦ they break before they get there 
Will says two years, then you can start leg yield.
Its insane. Its made up, its ridiculous and harmful.
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What did he get suspended from AHSA for?
Abuse, so Im told.
It coincides with his last recognized horse showā¦same year. I have no proof, but several people remember it. AHSA used to list suspensions in their monthly magazine.
His temper resulted in the death of a young horse that many witnessed at the Rancho Santa Fe Saddle Club in a āloading accidentā. A clients horse came back from a trail ride drenched in sweat and covered with whip welts. Del Mar Horsepark kicked him out for whip abuse during piaffe training (along with many other reasons).
Hes a damn scourge wherever he goes.
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Oh. Crap. Thatās where my place is.
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So all you alters on the Fans and Followers pageā¦ so here is The Master, lunging the horses over a poleā¦ one pole, a single poleā¦
And after three years of their program, and lots of videos of Q trotting over a pole or a tiny jumpā¦ Wilbur says she is āstill learning how to handle her hind endā¦ā (or whatever, Im paraphrasing)
Three years of his amazing fitness training program with the (endless!) Deep Stretch and that poor mare cant sweetly trot a fecking pole.
She has been deteriorating over time; she was such a gorgeous young horse when they bought her. They have so many excuses. They are wrecking her, just like they wrecked Legolas and so many others.
Its just a damn shame.
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How long have they had the other horse?
