[QUOTE=Night Flight;8943664]
With all his comments about not criticizing anyone except to their face, I wonder if he’s ever told Charlotte Dujardin what a terrible rider he thinks she is, as he insists on repeating in every post.
In his own words: “People criticize those who can, when they themselves look terrible and can’t.” ;)[/QUOTE]
Classic example of cognitive dissonance , aka, sour grapes.
[QUOTE=csaper58;8943246]
In this video? www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyHWiXFKXHU
Horse looks lame behind to me…?[/QUOTE]
Why do people, especially big name trainers, ride lame horses? 
That poor thing is so obviously lame, geezus.
[QUOTE=Scribbler;8938422]
And as far as pelhams in dressage training, well, dressage training isn’t all about dressage (just like jumper training isn’t all about jumps). By which I mean, basic issues of control, safety, problem solving, etc. take precedence over riding correct competition dressage. You might for instance want to ride bitless for a period of time to solve teeth grinding or head tossing. You might want to go out of the arena and hack for weeks or months if the horse is getting sour in the arena. You might even want to ride the horse in a western curb.
Now, all of these scenarios mean that you are probably going to be backing off riding on contact in the same way you do in a snaffle, and probably putting some of the dressage-specific schooling on the back burner. But sometimes you need to do that.
I get that the pelham isn’t going to function like a double bridle, with two distinct bit actions. But maybe it could function as a problem-solving bit, if you had some basic behavior training issues to work through. Lots of jumpers will use a pelham, even a pelham with connecting straps and one set of reins. They will use s snaffle, say, in the arena, but a pelham cross country for when the horse gets hot. Maybe not ideal, but pragmatic.
Remember also that in some older forms of dressage, the finished horse rides with just a curb bit, as does an advanced Western horse.
So I’d say, if the trainer knows what he’s doing, using a pelham to solve a specific problem isn’t necessarily the end of the world. If the trainer doesn’t know what he’s doing, that’s another story, but the simple fact of using a pelham isn’t necessarily the best proof of that.[/QUOTE]
Such a good post I had to see it again. 
Looks like there should be a 4th level freestyle video coming shortly, and it was judged so he will be posting the scores.
Interesting…
[QUOTE=Gestalt;8944225]
Why do people, especially big name trainers, ride lame horses? That poor thing is so obviously lame, geezus.[/QUOTE]
IMO, the horse is going short behind (I only watched the first two or three minutes, until the horse got more warmed up) but isn’t head bobbing lame. The way this horse is going, is IME typical of shorter-strided horses (like quarter horses) who are being ridden crooked and under tempo. Notice that at the canter, the horse can’t go around a corner bent; it is cornering with the haunches in, head out, almost going sideways: not a true haunches in, just very crooked and unbalanced. The horse has adequate hock articulation after the first minute or so, so the hocks aren’t ruined (yet). I would call this horse “rein lame,” in that the riding is hampering the horse from moving correctly.
The rider isn’t doing anything super-horrible in the parts of the video I watched, it’s more that he clearly either has no tools in his toolkit to fix these problems, or else doesn’t even see them as a problem.
Going short behind is unfortunately true of a lot of Western riding, but you can also see it in bad dressage riding, and in bad hunter/jumper lessons on lesson horses. It absolutely does lead to true lameness in the hocks, stifles, and SI, and can lead to tendon injuries. But at the stage we are seeing here, I don’t think the horse is yet injured, just moving badly.
The Paint I am riding started out with a trot so short and disunited that she looked like an old school racking horse. Her front legs were flying much faster than her hind legs. In soft arena footing, photos didn’t tell much, but photos on hard ground show that she tends towards positive diagonal advanced placement at the trot (hind leg landing a fraction of a second before front leg), and that technically she would be verging on a foxtrot, not a rack. Anyhow, it took a lot of basic dressage schooling to get a correct diagonal trot, and to get balanced on circles and corners. If she had gone to a Western riding home, most likely no one would ever have done this work on her, because they would have only wanted a jog trot. They wouldn’t have bothered to push her and open up the trot.
[QUOTE=enjoytheride;8944311]
Looks like there should be a 4th level freestyle video coming shortly, and it was judged so he will be posting the scores.[/QUOTE]
No video just photos. 75%
It was a school show with no proper judges and a halt photo, trot photo. Gosh I’d think a video would be a great training tool. Maybe he isn’t going to share. I can understand that.
I have done a few freestyles but the most memorable one was when my score ended up being in the 80’s. lol! This was years ago when those scores were unheard of. lol! She laughed when I was presented my ribbon. I asked her if she had made a mistake. We both laughed. She was a GP trainer and judge.
I’d love to see his 4th level work.
[QUOTE=caper;8944327]
Interesting…[/QUOTE]
What I find interesting is how someone who scorns competitive dressage then brags about his competitive intentions.?!
[QUOTE=caper;8944610]
It was a school show with no proper judges and a halt photo, trot photo. Gosh I’d think a video would be a great training tool. Maybe he isn’t going to share.[/QUOTE]
From his facebook page: " I don’t post videos because too many people cut them up instead of looking at the ride as a whole." Right, because a dressage test isn’t judged movement by movement as well as the transitions in between.
NP says he doesn’t even know who judged him (maybe look at your test??), and wants to compete at Devon.
Riding an in house schooling show is no prep for Devon. I am pretty sure in Canada you can’t just ride the Kur. You must have qualifying scores at 4th level to be able to show the Kur.
[QUOTE=caper;8945209]
Riding an in house schooling show is no prep for Devon. I am pretty sure in Canada you can’t just ride the Kur. You must have a qualifying scores at 4th level to be able to show the Kur.[/QUOTE]
You can’t in the US, either. I just double checked, and you need a score of 60% or higher from the highest test of the level freestyle you’re riding. (I thought it had been 65%?) So for a 4th level freestyle at a USDF show, you’d need a (licensed show) score of 60% or better on 4-3. At schooling shows, I would guess anything goes–if it’s not from a USDF show you have no way to verify it anyway.
Well this was all make believe at a small therapeutic riding center’s walk-trot lead-line show for young children so my real question is… why the heck stop at 4th level? Why not just go ahead a do Grand Prix? Ah well, I bet she’ll be performing Grand Prix in another month anyhow!:lol:
The children might have been asked to allow him to win, to avoid any temper tantrums.
[QUOTE=Reynard;8945686]
The children might have been asked to allow him to win, to avoid any temper tantrums.[/QUOTE]
That makes no sense…
[QUOTE=caper;8945695]
That makes no sense…[/QUOTE]
He would have had an enormous temper tantrum if he had been beaten by the children he had competed against.
It is possible that they were asked by a person in charge to allow him to win.
I’d like to think what he did was more a demo ride rather than a judged Kur. 
Especially when his music was the Star Spangled Banner. A true freestyle would have music changes to enhance the horses gaits and movement.
Show isn’t run by children but it is obvious there were no proper judges. Heck I even judged a show at a therapy barn. I was very positive as the kid/young adults where disabled. His kids are not but it is obvious they youngest was lead line. Heck they have only had a handful of lessons so far and are not truly show ready.
[QUOTE=csaper58;8943342]
I don’t see a pelham bit, so not sure what that fuss is about. Is the video current?[/QUOTE]
The video in the post you quoted is from the beginning of October (that is the date on the post in the link).
The pelham is in more recent photos.
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