Photo from Sept. 2- who is this?

[Weatherford]

I’d say she DOES ride in the American style now - actually more the “classic” American style of the generation before her - that is, the Joe Fargis, Conrad Homfeld, Mary & Frank Chapot, and most of all, Bill Steinkraus. I don’t think there are very many around today that show that same classic form - soft, flexible, adjustible, ready for anything. And, especially fine on TB’s and other hot blooded horses.

I don’t think our current crop of riders show off the classic American style at all - especially with their <censored> crest releases and leaning on their horses’ necks. Not just the lower level riders, but, many, many upper level ones, too.

But, then again, I am an old fart…

[Equibrit]

So - there is more than one “American” style? You are saying there is the “classic” and the GM (generally mutated)?
Any more?

[vineyridge]

In the beginning there were these old dead cavalry guys (ODCG), both international and US (not dead when they reigned, of course :D. They taught and trained something that Gordon Wright, one of the promoters, called the military seat. If you think about what a cavalryman had to do in the field, it shouldn’t surprise you that the emphasis was on the seat and legs, since the hands had to be free for shooting or sticking with a sword or lance. Wright distinguished between the military (or balance) seat and the forward seat. What the points of distinction were, he does not make clear, but he definitely thought there were some. (I always thought the ODCG style WAS forward seat, and the German style was the balance seat, but obviously I was wrong.)

Fast forward a lot of years, and all the ODCGs were, well, D. There simply weren’t teachers and trainers who had first hand experience with cavalry training, and their students and disciples were faced with students coming from different lives–many were urban and suburban and didn’t have the luxury of a pony to bat around the fields on. Didn’t hunt. Didn’t have the time or inclination, because time is money, to spend years on the end of a longe line developing a seat and legs that could ride a horse without reins or stirrups.

I would postulate that in order to survive financially, the ODCG’s program was modified for quick results in a show ring. While perching is dangerous, the new releases are safer for rider and horse and much easier to learn. Riders then become strong in the style that they are first taught and take it with them as they progress up the ranks.

Since the ODCGs aren’t around to keep their style pure, each teacher makes his/her own variation. Unfortunately, there ARE many American styles, most bastardizations of what the ODCGs taught when the cavalry was disbanded.

[vineyridge]

In the beginning there were these old dead cavalry guys (ODCG), both international and US (not dead when they reigned, of course :D. They taught and trained something that Gordon Wright, one of the promoters, called the military seat. If you think about what a cavalryman had to do in the field, it shouldn’t surprise you that the emphasis was on the seat and legs, since the hands had to be free for shooting or sticking with a sword or lance. Wright distinguished between the military (or balance) seat and the forward seat. What the points of distinction were, he does not make clear, but he definitely thought there were some. (I always thought the ODCG style WAS forward seat, and the German style was the balance seat, but obviously I was wrong.)

Fast forward a lot of years, and all the ODCGs were, well, D. There simply weren’t teachers and trainers who had first hand experience with cavalry training, and their students and disciples were faced with students coming from different lives–many were urban and suburban and didn’t have the luxury of a pony to bat around the fields on. Didn’t hunt. Didn’t have the time, because time is money, to spend years on the end of a longe line developing a seat and legs that could ride a horse without reins.

I would postulate that in order to survive financially, the ODCG’s program was modified for quick results in a show ring. While perching is dangerous, the new releases are safer for rider and horse and much easier to learn. Riders then become strong in the style that they are first taught and take it with them as they progress up the ranks.

Since the ODCGs aren’t around to keep their style pure, each teacher makes his/her own variation. Unfortunately, there ARE many American styles, most bastardizations of what the ODCGs taught when the cavalry was disbanded.