I like the instructions for stopping a runaway. “Shake the head and hold”.
I keep repeating it in the same voice as that ridiculous commercial “head on, apply directly to the forehead”…
I like the instructions for stopping a runaway. “Shake the head and hold”.
I keep repeating it in the same voice as that ridiculous commercial “head on, apply directly to the forehead”…
I read this as “shake your head in despair and hold on for dear life.”
These people are always scoring tens in the Walk Equestrian Games.
Maybe add in the long and low trot circle Olympics and then you are really revolutionizing training level.
Side note, I believe the moment they picked to blow up in slow mo got the worst score of the entire test. So they can shut up about ‘this is what the judges are rewarding these days.’
The whole Science of Motion thing is non-sense. Trainers who practice the walking technique to cure “inverted rotation” don’t even understand the theory, it is so convoluted.
Any time there is some multi paragraph screed about the science of motion or correct balance with diagrams and pictures of the horse’s footfalls and lines through the horses legs and forehead I scroll right on by.
These folks couldn’t stand up off the floor without using their hands, much less independently sit an actual trot.
Ah the Reverend! Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, c’mon, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, lather, rinse repeat…
Gack! My eyes are bleeding. Thank you all (not) for the horrific links and videos. That’ll teach me to watch them after reading all of the warnings in advance. I am compelled to ask, Why o why does dressage attract so many utter lunatics???
Hey, Now!
As a member of the Generation That Thinks 3X Before Getting Down on the Floor…
But yeah, I can still sit the trot
Well, it’s safer than jumping and you don’t need real technical skills in order not to die. That means that dressage does tend to pick up middle aged and older riders who have lost some bounce and zip.
Much foundational dressage work is done at walk and trot. Whereas “now that’s a canter you can do something with” (quoting a former coach) in jumping lessons can feel alarmingly big and fast
Dressage is the most technical and detail oriented discipline, but is also the one that lends itself to obfuscation the most (vaquero tends this way too). On the other hand, dressage has also generated an “alternative” discourse in reaction to things like rolkur. The best versions of this discourse are interesting and well worth paying some attention to. But unfortunately the cause has been taken up by some frauds and incompetents.
They have access to the same general demographic that fueled the worst levels of the natural horsemanship craze a decade or two ago.
Find a population that “loves horses” but is too timid or physically unable to really ride, and give them something complicated that will allow them to feel a sense of virtue in not riding. And then be a guru.
I agree that I would not have predicted that dressage would pick up a fringe of incompetents and non riders, because you have to actually ride really really well to do it to any degree.
I remember that. He was in an exercise saddle and the horse had chains on it front pasterns.
“Jumping” a cavaletti height jump if I remember correctly.
That’s a bit different. First time I’ve seen a racetrack training fork used with a bit less bridle.
What in the world was he trying to accomplish? Winning a Darwin Award?
Can you imagine a fisherman acting like a klassikal dressage master? Describing the rhythm, relaxation and suppleness of the fish. The cadence of the fishing line. The straightness of the fisherman, their shoulder position, leg position, the tension in their hands…
Dressage is a weird world.
If I remember correctly he couldn’t afford to have the papers served to the AQHA.
He also complained to the court that he didn’t have the funds to travel out of Utah when he tried to sue people that lived on the East Coast (who had never been to Utah) in a Utah court and ran into jurisdictional issues.
His lawsuit (Pro se) https://horseauthority.co/userfiles/files/Buck%20v%20Parra%20ComplaintRMHP.pdf
https://casetext.com/case/buck-v-salt-lake-tribute
https://casetext.com/case/buck-v-myers-2
Somewhere in the COTH forums is his mug shot.
He went by Spirithorse and then Dragonhart8. Definitely a piece of work.
He also sued, or tried to sue, Ms. Clinton and Mr. Obama. And also represented his wife in some weird lawsuit about child custody, involving a third party.
Also weird that he calls himself a reverand, not a reverend.
What?!? This I find… amazing. In so many ways.
Re: Australia
I found this. It sounds like a trip/clinic was scheduled, not a permanent move. Sounds like one of NP’s solicitations. Unedited, his name is not even spelled correctly.
THE INVENTOR OF THE SPIRIT BITLESS BRIDLE
The first cross under bitless bridle, E. ALLAN BUCK, from Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Will visit Australia in JUNE / JULY2015 and would be willing to conduct workshops. Would you, your club or organisation be interested in organising his workshop in your area?
40 years experience as a rider and educator. Promotor of your understanding of horses and champion of better horse/man relationships.
See more about Alan online at – SYMPATHETIC HORSEMANSHIP www.hartetoharte.org and Facebook Email: spiritbridle@yahoo.com
Local contact Libby & George Kasparek DARWIN NT
He’s lived in Darwin, NT, for a good number of years, bothering the Australian Dressage community with various threats and demands that they change their ways by sending them HUGE letters with pages and pages of copy/paste verbiage - which are promptly ignored, as it’s clear he has no actual clue. He moved to somewhere in the Brisbane, QLD, area earlier this year and has been seeking out riders that he can train to his perfect standard. He’s owned various Australian OTTBs, all with varying degrees of hoof degradation (according to him), that have all been PTS with minimal detail after time - it wouldn’t surprise me if he touts himself as a barefoot trimmer, and he can’t “fix” them. He claimed at one point that he was training an Aussie para rider, but then there was nothing further on that when he was asked. He’s an odd fish.
OMG, thank you for that clarification. I just cannot imagine. No wonder he and his lawsuits seem to have disappeared from poor old Utah. I wonder how on earth he managed to pull off immigration.