The Anky thread that has nothing to do with anything but has a whole lot to say about alot

[Brookes]

Ahhh Suzy, you have the best sense of humor! What a great sport you are! See I’m nice Louise, my maid just brought me my cocktail and my medicine! Ha!

Suzy, I know what you mean, a lady I used to board with a million years ago had a western pleasure horse, she let me ride him a couple of times. I swear you could sit there and put on your makeup while the thing was moving. I wanted to kick it and yell “FORWARD”!!!

One of my guys has the trot from hell! I have spent sooo many long hours on the end of the longe line learning to sit that sucker. And I wonder why my back hurts all the time?

Every once in a while I will loose it on him and just start bouncing out of the saddle if I’m not really paying total attention to transitions through the trot, oh well back to the longe line again for me. My riding pal has a gorgeous W line mare that trots like shes floating on air, so so comfy! I always ask her, gee wanna trade today? She just laughs and says no thanks! Some friend! Although I always get to ride her when she goes on vacation! Maybe I should buy her an airline ticket to anywhere!

Soo Soorry Velvet, you’re right I moved all your words around to suit my own post, I am the most selfish self centered DQ around. I guess I should get an award for that right? You are of course correct as always, I bow to your superior insight and knowledge. Gee, I wish I was you.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!!

[Kathy_Johnson]

Oh boy, you asked for it:

10. New Victoria’s Secrets Equestrian Lineup with Mary Kate and Ashley (or How to Spend A Winter in Jail).
11. Romancing the Half Halt–10 Easy Steps to a Total Whoa.
12. Velvet’s Mudwrestling Debut (rated X)
13. Christmas Carols by Kathy’s Singing Pferde (subtitled)
14. “Let’s Talk About Me, Naturally” by John Lyons
15. “A Chrismas Carol with the Boogers” featuring Kram as Scrooge and KBG as Tiny Tim.
16. Fencing With Hans
17. Lost at C by the ODGs.
18. The Dressage Competitor’s Handbook by Suzy Fraser, now available on video!
19. Kalming Kuers: a special holiday performance by N2Deep with SLC as lead vocalist. Also available on Kasette.

Kathy Johnson Dressage

[slc2]

she is just inexperienced, canyon. everyone rides like that for a time. i’ve watched many juniors over the years come up thru the ranks and you can put them on the best trained horse in the country and they just look like this for a while. it’s part of learning.

i’m not knocking juniors, this is true for everyone, but isn’t as obvious if the person doesn’t have the exposure or try to do the things the juniors have to do.

a person who tries to do more and tries to move up, like the juniors trying to go to the young rider championship, are just more obvious and more in the public eye. but this is same for everyone.

we just don’t want to get fossilized at that point, the point is to keep trying to get better, not to start out perfect.

[rileyt]

[slc2]

i heard that sjeff never gets his nose hair clipped AT ALL.

i think we should elect egon to go over there and get a look see.

i will supply a magnifying glass.

[coppelia]

Thank you Velvet.

[Kathy_Johnson]

This is a pain, but if you can get there, you can see a video of Anky schooling deep.

Go to www.saddletude.com

Then, at the bottom of the page go to “dressage” then “Anky warmup.”

I don’t care what medals she’s won, I NEVER want to ride like that. Every other step she’s way behind the vertical, her hands are high, her feet are in her horse’s shoulder. Her horse is disunited in passage, his tail is rampant, and his nose is on his chest. It looks like saddleseat.

To each her own. Anky is a master of what she does. She is capable of of bringing the horse back up to an appropriate frame and winnng gold medals. I think she is a phenomenal rider. But she is not a role model for me.

“Deep became popular because the horses are always being asked for more athleticism, but the riders are female and lighter…The playing field has to be levelled somehow, so deep–which has been around forever–came more to the forefront.”

I read a comment like this somewhere else and find it extremely sexist and offensive. In riding, women have always been able to compete with men–it was the first Olympic discipline in which men and women competed together. This type of statement implies that riding takes strength, weight and force. That’s just WRONG!

Too bad there aren’t some North American riders with the same name value or “credentials” to present in such venues.

All that’s gold doesn’t glitter.

Kathy Johnson Dressage

[This message was edited by Kathy Johnson on Oct. 08, 2001 at 08:34 AM.]

[marianne]

Supposedly, according to Jen West, they do not flop and have quiet hands. However, they use tiedowns that do just that and can be made of wire and have long reins to whip horse from shoulder to shoulder. And have stirrup lengths that make old time jockeys have short legs. And while their legs may not be flopping the upper body is going back and forth and every which way to stay with the horse. But you must admit they do have better colors that our black and white. And hair like Farrah Fawcett must be streaming out behind, not up under a hair bow. As for the bits, if you really want to get into the ODG bits in Western riding, then look at the Spade bits, these had Ports of 2-3 inches long and long shanks to. very ornate but very deadly. No, I will take my floppy legs and snaffles. Any day.

[Louise]

That this thread was started on Sept. 8? A little more than a week more and we will have three months under our belt.

Hmmm, I gotta ask Erin. I know that there are threads that are longer in length, but, I wonder if there has been a thread that has stayed active as long. Come to think of it, I have to check out the “Fred” thread on the Breeding Forum. That one might have this beaten.

[suzy]

with the definition of an expert being

expert, n. (pron. x-spurt)

X = an unknown quantity
spurt = a drip under pressure

Yup, we’re experts all right!!!

[Monica_S]

I hated it before I realized it was Anky. Then I wound up just confused! I do not understand why Anne would choose to put that on the cover of her catalog. I realize it is also the promotion photo for the Petrie boots she is wearing. I suspect it is some sort of false bow, but it really isn’t pretty. I sure wouldn’t teach My horse to bow like that. I MUCH prefer a true one knee down bow - which is harder to teach, everyone knows what it is, and requires a great deal of strength and suppleness from the horse.

And SLC - even if it IS a case of a horse biting at bugs, swipeing at foam or some other “unfortunate” moment, why promote it. I have had my horses shake their heads violently when they were caught in the middle of an LAEC swarm of gnats, but even if there was a photo of it happening, I don’t think I would want it to receive international distribution! It is just a question of judgement, and a matter of taste. But I cannot imagine putting something on the cover of a catalog that at least 25% of the recipients were going to cringe at seeing. Glad to hear it isn’t just the folks at our barn! We all looked at that photo and said “Whatsup???” m

Things Take Time

[muley]

I like her riding, I think she presents a pretty picture on a horse.

I have a question that on one has answered yet however…

How can one be correct if a horse is broken at the 4th vertebra? Is it ok now not to be through and connected in Grand Prix tests?

If you look at Anky’s photos, you will see this over and over.

Is it not considered important to have a “thru” horse anymore? Or one that is engaged? I see in many photos her horse not working off the hind end.

I’m not trying to say what she does is wrong or trying to stir up more trouble, I’m just trying to understand what is correct and what isn’t.

In the 15 years that I have been riding dressage, these things that I mentioned above, have been incorrect. When did this change?

Can anyone explain this to me?

[Jen_West]

I have eked a passage, piaffer and levade out of various and sundry ponies. I would roll over and die before I would allow a video of myself riding as poorly as the WC finalists do on OLN. I would shoot myself before I would pass off a six-beat gait as a piaffer or passage, and I have trained SEVERAL horses to do the smooth, effortless, non-jerky flying change so ubiquitous in the reining horse world.
My argument is not so much that I use dressage when training wp horses- that is a bit of a stretch- as it is that the TRAINING USED IN DRESSAGE TODAY is the same as what I use when I train a WP horse, which is the ANTI-THESIS of a dressage horse. Follow? I do NOT “use classical dressage principles” specifically in WP training; it is that WHAT IS BEING PASSED OFF AS CLASSICAL DRESSAGE is actually what WP trainers are using to get their horses to suck back. Got it?

Riding “deep”, whatever, is what western pleasure trainers do to “punish” horses who exhibit too much impulsion for wp horses. HAH- and the “top” dressage riders use it to “control” their horses’ spooking? Shake my head. In WP circles it is considered a “quick fix” for a charger, a “sure cure” for a speedster. Just drive the sob UP to the bit, curl his face around, and DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE. Know what ALWAYS happens when you let up? The horse shifts down more gears than a NASCAR going into the pits and just jjjjjoooooooggggggggssssssssssss along. Why do I think that riding this way is bad for dressage? Because, in every other discipline to which “deep” is applied, it is used to KILL impulsion.

[This message was edited by Jen West on Oct. 08, 2001 at 07:46 PM.]

[Velvet]

Doesn’t this look like a good DQ to you?

[Kathy_Johnson]

Behind the bit vs. behind the vertical

Alexa’s is an interesting picture because usually a horse is deemed behind the bit when he has come behind the vertical AND dropped contact.

I think this horse is behind the bit, because it appears that the rider is leaning slightly back and hanging on her curb rein, thus pulling the horse behind the bit. The horse is no longer reaching for contact, but is forced into it. This happens sometimes because of the horse’s extravagant movement and the rider’s efforts to literally “curb” it or keep it in in check.

Go to the website below and compare the trot extension to Reiner’s and Ahlerich’s. Notice the forward giving arms, the soft shoulders and elbows which allow the horse to be slightly in front of the vertical. If you drop a plumb line from Ahlerich’s nose, it will almost touch his front toe. This give allows the horse to come over his back and makes him a back-mover rather than a leg-mover.

http://www.theequinejournal.com/issue33/lmckee.html

Kathy Johnson Dressage

[Maria]

Because in general we are all a bunch of trash mouths.

[Liz_Steacie]

say TWO tracks in haunches in. I can quite clearly see it in the mirror. Of course, the young horse who is all legs and ears can do “travers” on two tracks, three tracks, four tracks and occasionally refuses to do it all, preferring renvers instead. But we keep shooting for that “classical” TWO. He can actually bend well enough to do it.

slc, I think you should grant sparky his wish and let him kill all the tiny, annoying and vicious little black and white dogs he can find. I know exactly how he feels, allow I can’t actually bellow like a dragon.

re: the nose wipe thing … if you leave off the polos and coat the front LEGS (instead of the chin) in vaseline or, preferably, BEAR GREASE, suddenly wiping your nose on your foreleg becomes a less attractive option. The truly talented will then attempt to wipe the nose on the HIND leg - I believe suzy’s horse has actually achieved this movement, so she know whereof she speaks.

L

Liz Steacie
Porcupine Hill Dressage
Maitland, Ontario

http://www.porcupinehill.com

[DMK]

I won’t profess to being (giggle) anywhere close to being a dressage expert, but all the same, I have just one question to pose…

What if the ODG’s aren’t right?

I mean, speaking from the hunter world, we have a bunch of current ODGs that have usurped the last group of ODGs. But if we hadn’t taken the time to listen to the current ODGs, back when they were NOT actually OLD or DEAD, but were alive and kicking, we would still be sitting somewhere around the horse’s tail over the top of a jump…

[Maria]

Sorry Louise. It’s just, just, just…oh, never mind.

Do I need to call 911 for you and Suzy?

[suzy]

That would be “Mrs. Evil Velvet” to you!

Hey, where’s Louise and her frying pan to knock us back into a more equine conversation…