I have seen and ridden a western pleasure/trail trained 9 year old Appaloosa, he is super smoochy, very pretty and divine to ride in the arena, but he’s hasn’t been out and about much. NOW I am getting flooded with advice from “friends” not to buy him because “western pleasure horses are shut down” and “he will go off once he’s out of that environment” etc etc. SO, I led him down to the beach, he walked down the road, across the river, onto the sand, along the rocks, and never reacted to a thing, looked and smelled but stayed calm. Now i don’t ride western pleasure I would like to have some fun and have a go but am more of an alll rounder/happy hacker. What is people experience with taking a western pleasure horse out and about and why do people think they are shut down?
Well let’s see, my daughter is home recovering from a concussion because of exactly what you are describing. For real… She had a wonderful western pleasure show horse (and he’s young so that also factors in) and we took him out of that very structured show barn environment where every day is the same, and he began a bucking habit, and became a bit nervous and very unpredictable. You’d have angel pony for a few days and then you’d have a bucking bronco or some other quirk, testing or problem… We had him in full training with a trainer, but he wasn’t in a show barn environment where the day is very structured and he was being asked to try new things and go new places. Although he SEEMED to enjoy it at first, He just WAS NOT ok with it. We tried for five months. He was getting exercised, trained, she tried to discipline him under saddle, with trainer teaching her how thinking he was just testing for a while, he was on the proper feed, no sugar at all, no extra proteins, no junk food…
Every person I know says you can’t take a show horse out of their environment if it’s all they’ve know and they were right. Her horse is back at his old barn and already settling in nicely.
Our trainer said a few months ago, “oh he was shut down and now he’s waking up and it’ll just be a while of disciplining him and he will learn to control his own thoughts etc. etc.”
Whether she was Right or wrong it doesn’t matter. Whether the reason was because he was shut down and waking up or whether it was because he just needed his routine and it was too much change doesn’t matter.
What matters is your safety and you are right. If you want an all arounder get an all arounder, that’s used to the life you will provide for it!
PS our western pleasure horse was always happy for a trail ride, as long as he was going back to the life he knew, so a good trail ride will not tell you the long term ramifications of taking a show horse out of its environment.
Any horse has to be trained-retrained for something it is not familiar with.
You don’t take a working hunter winner, extremely well trained, super gentle, push button horse out hunting in the field cold turkey, if he has never been much else than in a hunter/jumper barn, not outside or around hounds?
Unless you are a trainer or have one being retrained until the horse is ready for amateurs, it is always best to, for leisurely riding around trails, get a horse that is already doing just that.
Also, any horse we buy, we don’t know what we have until the horse has adjusted to our world, his new world, new friends and what we do with him/her, be it the same it has been doing before or a new task.
Thankfully most horses go along and stay the way they were, but there are those that don’t and start giving trouble until they adjust.
It is sad to hear about the times it doesn’t work, even worse when some get hurt as in the post above.
The OP may buy that horse and all be great, but won’t really know until she has the horse for a while.
May want to decide if she wants to take a chance he may not work, since that is not what he has been trained for.
Thanks people, just confirming what I knew deep down really, will move on and look elsewhere.
((hugs)) I almost bought an ancient lame horse because I loved her so much…but it wasn’t wise…and the logic here and in my head helped me make the right decision. I understand.
Not from the western perspective but similar.
I am currently riding 2 horses. My main horse is very confident, loves to go out on the trails and see things, rises to the challenge with unfamiliar gnarly terrain, but really doesn’t love the arena. Wonderful horse to trail ride alone on.
I am also riding my coaches school master older mare who has certainly done a lot of trails in her day. But she doesn’t love them. She gets silly spooky if we ride out alone. But she loves going into the arena and doing all her dressage figures. She is super light, forward, obedient, in the arena.
On trails honestly I feel like she’s thinking, well that’s a waste of time. Whereas my horse loves being able to truck along without much micromanaging from me.
Go figure.
You might find out your pleasure horse adapts OK to trails but his pleasant ride in the arena is no guarantee.
This I get. Some horses are good on trails, some like them, some need work, some hate them. A horse “going off” because it’s not at a “show barn” but still in full training would make me question what that barn is doing to keep the horse from “going off” if training schedule, food and turnout are the same.
Having restarted many OTTB’s, I’ve found that it does take intelligent riding. You must at first always be aware of what may come as a surprise to them, what may set them off, and when If ever, you can relax.
I would think the same principles hold for any change in equine routine.
Just like people, horses have a comfort zone. And, just like people, some resist being asked to move out of that comfort zone. It doesn’t matter if the horse has spent his years as a western pleasure horse or a show hunter or a dressage horse. If he has an established comfort zone, pushing him out of it is likely going to cause him some degree of discomfort.
We all also know that different horses have different personalities and different default reactions to the discomfort of being pushed out of their comfort zones.
This is why I have some discomfort with blanket statements like, “you can’t take a show horse out of their environment if it’s all they’ve known.” Because yes, you can take a show horse out of their environment. But, like merrygoround said, it takes intelligent riding. You have to understand how you’re pushing them out of their comfort zone, how that particular horse is likely to react, and how, as a rider, you tactfully and calmly push them out of (and expand) that comfort zone without provoking extreme reactions.
And, it’s entirely possible that the horse’s comfort zone will never expand to include what it is you want to do with him. Horses generally become successful western pleasure/show hunter/dressage horses because their natural talents and natural comfort zone lie in that direction.
But, in the end, I think, my advice is the same as that given by people who truly believe that “you can’t take a show horse out of their environment.” If you’re looking for a horse to do X, your greatest probability of success lies in purchasing a horse that already does X.
Trail riding safely requires less precision than arena schooling but it still requires training and exposure, of a different kind. If you had a green horse you would ride on short trails, do bomb proofing, practise not bolting at high speeds, slowly move up to more length more terrain more stimuli.
If I was retraining a show horse for trails I would do the same thing, obviously though with more foundation to build on.
Also consider that a horse worked solely on groomed flat arena footing has not built up the muscles to do hills, hard ground, deep ground, rough ground. They might be quite tired after a moderate trail ride and not want to do that again.
Also there is a mental component of being able to handle lots of new stimuli on the trails. Stimuli are cumulative over the course of a ride. Horse might seem fine for the first hour, just oggle some things, but then finally have enough and have a meltdown over something that didn’t seem to bother them that much earlier.
Physical and mental resilience are both needed and have to be encouraged.
Plus many show horses in all.disciplines have been pushed a bit and may be a little physically NQR or mentality fried. Less likely with a dedicated trail horse.
It’s simply a matter of training. The horse has been trained to be a show horse, but has not been exposed to trails. He simply needs to be exposed to things he may encounter on the trail. You took a little test run and he seemed fine. Now think about all the things you may encounter on the trail and desensitize him to them at home - bikes, traffic, strollers, dogs, plastic bags, etc. Doesn’t someone have a story about an ostrich or something crazy running through the ring? OK, so maybe you don’t have access to an ostrich, but the number one quality a trail horse needs to have is a good brain, and this horse seems like he may have it. If you prepare your horse to handle both common and uncommon situations on the trail, you will most likely be fine. It’s the people who just start trail riding in an attempt to teach the horse to trail ride who get in trouble - a lot of training goes into getting a horse to be sane and sound in unexpected situations.
All of my confirmed, experienced show horses (western pleasure, trail, horsemanship, hunter under saddle) were trail horses, too. With every one it was a process of exposing them to the real world, always in the company of steady eddy type horses for confidence. Some took to it immediately, others took more time, but every one obviously came to enjoy the trails. I even took some to cattle sorting/team penning, on camping trips, etc.
I think, because of so much exposure at horse shows, they already were used to seeing unusual things, like baby strollers, golf carts, wild trail class decorations. Teaching them that the trails, the “real world”, was a place they could go on a loose rein with friends, stopping for grass along the way, showed them that trail rides could be a happy experience for them without every stride being micro-managed.
I know that not every horse is suited for an adventurous life outside of the show ring, but it’s worth a try if you like the horse and and are prepared to take your time.
agree, our Morgans were shown nationally being top rated consistent class winners … we put them into competitive trail (NATRC) as a change of pace, both after a short time were winning their divisions both were national champion competitive trail horses
a normal month might have the horse at an endurance ride one weekend followed by a Class A show then to a NARTC ride
they were also used to play with cattle
I have a 6 year old appaloosa. He was a champion western pleasure horse at 2 and 3. He is now a trail safe horse, we show in western pleasure, western dressage, cowboy dressage, hunter under saddle, etc as well as down the roads and in the fields.
Can it be done, yes. But, it does take time and patience. My horse has brains and I had the patience to expose him to things slowly and safely and not push him beyond his comfort zone.
My old half-Arab mare was a show horse until her late teens… then I got sick of showing and decided we were going to trail ride. There was a lot of hand walking, some grinding of teeth and a lot of spooking at first, but after about a year she’d settled in and you could trail ride her hands free, she’d lead and have her ears forward the whole time. The only thing she never learned to do was to drink out of natural bodies of water, so I carried a collapsible water bucket for her (which she would drink out of, the weirdo). We even went camping and completed a LD endurance ride and she was one of the best behaved horses there.
Now I’m turning my young ex-halter trained Arab mare into an (eventual) trail horse. She’s a spooker but she also enjoys getting out and seeing new places as long as she has a buddy (leads, marches down the trail, has her ears foward, etc). The first time I took her out she was afraid of trees. Now she happily rides down wooded trails, and she even knows how to drink out of natural bodies of water (mud puddles are her favorite).
