Western pleasure

Western Pleasure is a western style competition at horse shows that exhibits the manners and suitability of the horse for appropriate gait cadence and speed, along with suitable disposition. Most light horse breeds in the United States and Canada may compete in western pleasure classes, either in open competition or at shows limited to a single breed. However, horse conformation and temperament play a role in this event, and hence animals that are calm, quiet, have collected, soft gaits and the strong muscling required to sustain slow, controlled movement will be the most competitive.

Breeds

Nearly any breed can be exhibited in western pleasure classes. However, in open or all-breed competition, stock horse breeds such as the American Quarter Horse, American Paint Horse and Appaloosa tend to be favored by the judges, though quality individuals from other breeds such as the Morgan horse and Arabian horse can be competitive if not penalized for their natural conformation that gives them a somewhat higher-set neck. "Gaited" breeds such as the Missouri Fox Trotter and the Tennessee Walker often have their own Western Pleasure classes with standards adapted to evaluate their use of intermediate gaits other than the jog trot. Even breeds that are traditionally shown mostly in English riding disciplines, such as the American Saddlebred or the Friesian, may offer western pleasure classes with judging specifications that are adapted to the conformation and way of going of those breeds. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn6Ub8Q5wz4 Friesian Grand National Amateur Western Pleasure Class 2005. "Some breeds allow or encourage a higher head carriage than is seen in traditional stock horse breed competition"] ]

Equipment

Horses and riders show in western tack and attire. The horse carries a western saddle, and wears an open-faced bridle without a noseband. The rider wears a long-sleeved shirt, sometimes with a vest or jacket, chaps, a cowboy hat, and cowboy boots. Gloves and spurs are optional. Shirts and vests or jackets are often brightly colored and sometimes elaborately decorated to mimic popular styles in western wear. Riders at smaller shows usually wear denim jeans under their chaps, while at regional and national competitions, western-styled polyester dress pants that match the rider's shirt or chaps are worn by women, while men tend to stick to jeans. Men usually wear a neckscarf, often of silk, and women may too wear a neckscarf, but in recent years as rules have been relaxed, brooches and necklaces are now also seen on female riders.

how grooming

While all western pleasure horses are to be clean (generally bathed prior to a show) and well groomed, with legs, bridle path, ears, muzzle, and other areas neatly clipped, grooming details vary by breed. Length of bridle path is usually determined by breed, with longer-necked breeds usually sporting a longer bridle path than the stock horse breeds.

Casual observers will mostly notice breed differences in the style of the horse's mane. Though fads vary a bit from year to year, in the stock horse breeds, the mane is usually shortened and thinned, often "banded," in that the mane is divided into many small segments and small rubber bands are placed around each segment in order to make the overall mane lay flat and neat. However, in some years, long manes have been "in," and in other years a thinned mane with a braided forelock or a few small braids in the front of the mane has been popular. Arabians and Morgans are less prone to fads as they have long been required to show with "natural" long, unthinned, unbanded, unbraided manes. Gaited breeds and Saddlebreds usually sport the same mane style in both English pleasure and western pleasure classes, long and flowing but with a colorful ribbon braided into the forelock and into the front section of the mane.

Tails are usually kept relatively long and flowing for nearly all breeds. Artificial tails or tail extensions are often allowed, though are banned for Arabians and Morgans, where a full tail is a breed trait.

Class procedure and requirements

The riders compete as a group at the same time, traveling around the outer edge of the arena. All contestants, at the command of the event's judge, are asked to have their horse walk, jog (a slow trot), and lope both directions in an arena, as well as to stand quietly and back up readily. In addition, many judges will ask for extended gaits, particularly an extended jog and, in some breeds, the hand gallop.

Winning horses are decided on their quality of movement, proper behavior, form in motion, and calm manner. As stated in the show rules of the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), "maximum credit should be given to the flowing, balanced and willing horse which gives the appearance of being fit and a pleasure to ride." [ [http://www.aqha.org AQHA] ] The Western Division of the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) has similar requirements. Faults are assessed on infractions such as excessive speed or slowness, breaking gait, or incorrect head position. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2RiHEOoEUY AQHA World Senior Western Pleasure Final Nov 2006.] "Some horses in this clip are carrying their poll below the withers; the ideal is that the poll is no lower than the withers.")]

The Western Pleasure rider's seat is deep, with a long stirrup, to assist the horse in driving deeply from the rear and elevating the shoulders. Reins are kept loose and relaxed, though quiet and subtle rein signals are still used. While equitation of the rider is not judged in a pleasure class, a properly positioned rider will obtain a better performance from the horse.

Controversies

Western pleasure competition, like any event, has controversies and situations where fads become so extreme as to possibly constitute abuse. Therefore, most organizations that sanction horse shows have strict rules to prevent the worst problems. Nonetheless, it is hard to regulate fads, and horse show sanctioning organizations usually tout education of judges as the best method available to prevent fads from escalating into more serious problems.

Because western pleasure emphasis calmness and manners, some individuals attempt to circumvent good training by using tranquilizers to steady their horses. However, drug rules of both the AQHA and USEF are strict, and both owners and trainers of horses that test positive for drugs are sanctioned heavily.

Another abusive practice that is penalized if discovered is the process of "nerving" the horse's tail. If a horse is bored and irritable, it will express its displeasure by swishing its tail vigorously. Horses who are shown too long and schooled too repetitively can become "ring sour," a term used to describe a horse with a bored, unhappy and irritable manner, and often a ring sour horse will flatten its ears and swish its tail every time it is given a command. Because tail swishing is penalized, some competitors resorted to cutting the nerves in a ring sour horse's tail to prevent the tail from moving. Because this also kept the horse from brushing away flies, and thus was helpless against biting insects, the practice was quicky banned, and horses with nerved tails are no longer allowed the show ring. However, some competitors still resort to temporarily numbing the tail with drugs, alcohol injections , or by mechanical means, also illegal if discovered, but as no scars remain, can be difficult to spot. The practice of nerving the tail was less of a problem in breeds where a high-carried tail is a breed trait, though temporarily numbing the tail is not completely unknown even in these breeds.

"Headset" trends

The sport of western pleasure was criticized in the past on account of an extremely low head position many judges were favoring in the stock horse breeds, known as the "peanut roller." In this head set, horses would carry their heads with the poll far below the level of their withers. This was a problem because it also forced the horse to travel at an extremely slow pace on the "forehand" (carrying too much weight on their front legs instead of rocking it correctly back onto their hind legs). Over long periods of time, moving in this highly artificial frame could cause soundness problems in some horses, and even a sound horse could not properly bring its hindquarters under its body when traveling forward.

This fad and its problems created a poor view of the discipline as a whole, especially by competitors in other equestrian sports.

The industry has since been praised on its actions to change the "peanut roller" fad. In the USEF, this constituted implementing specific rules, including a strict requirement that a horse must have its poll no lower than the height of its withers, or, in the case of the AQHA, a rule stating that the ideal gait shall be performed with a "level topline." Additional rules make an extreme headset impossible by asking exhibitors to extend their horse's jog during a class. In the case of the AQHA, which took particularly strong action to reverse the trend, videos were sent out to all licensed judges to demonstrate what was and was not correct, and the materials also made available to the general public.

pur stop controversy

A new fad, seen in nearly all breeds, requires a horse to perform with an extremely loose, draped rein at all times. Western pleasure horses have always traveled on a fairly loose rein, but in recent years the visible "drape" in the rein has become exaggerated. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmIoxVzPt_I 2006 US Arabian Western Pleasure Open Final] . "Horses in this clip are shown with the extreme rein drape"] ] However, it requires time, good riding ability, and careful training to correctly teach a horse "self carriage," particularly to slow or stop by responding to only a rider's use of seat position (and sometimes voice) without tightening the reins. [ [http://www.gollehon.com/horse_&_rider_self_carriage_article.htm Gollehon, Robin with Alana Harrison. "Team Horse & Rider Private Lesson with Robin Gollehon."] Web page accessed January 43, 2007] Thus, an alternative method of training to slow a horse down without the use of the reins gave rise to a new, highly controversial, technique known as the "spur stop," an unconventional method used by some trainers to train horses to slow down and stop when spur pressure is applied.

Because spur, heel or leg pressure is generally used to ask a horse to go faster, this technique is sometimes referred to by its critics as "riding the brake" and is frowned upon by several major western pleasure sanctioning organizations since at least 2003, when AQHA put out a series of videos on correct and incorrect style and way of going for western pleasure horses, showing a "hit list" of undesirable traits not to be rewarded in the show ring, with the spur stop leading the list. [ [http://www.clevewells.com/trainers/new_lope.cfm Wells, Cleve. "Riding the New Lope"] ]

This controversy in Western Pleasure circles resembles the debate over Rollkur in the field of dressage, particularly over the question of whether the practice constitutes animal abuse.

Experts differ on the validity of the spur stop. As stated by trainer Bob Avila: "the spur stop is “the worst thing ever invented. If I were to get a horse in for training that had a spur stop on him, I could do one event on him, period: Western pleasure.” Taking the opposing view, Mark Sheridan, an AQHA judge and trainer, has said: "You should not have any problems with the spur stop, and the transition to whatever events you decide to do with [the horse] . Personally, I put a spur stop on just the stop and back, on my western riders."

ee also

*Western riding
*Western saddle
*Horse show

References

*Strickland, Charlene. "Competing in Western Shows & Events." Storey Books, div. Storey Communications, 1998. ISBN 1-58017-031-5

External links

* [http://www.usef.org/ United States Equestrian Federation]
*
* [http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=11029 Horse Associations Meet to Discuss Direction of Western Pleasure, press release, December 22, 2007]

* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=jKCVs8oDAUc The AQHA Western Pleasure Horse video part 1]
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=BfO9EFd7ZaE The AQHA Western Pleasure Horse video part 2]
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=RCd0FcUvcg4 The AQHA Western Pleasure Horse video part 3]
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=bEK9AJ7umwE The AQHA Western Pleasure Horse video part 4]
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=mTCHz1-zDo8 The AQHA Western Pleasure Horse video part 5]
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=eDaKaUxgkNY The AQHA Western Pleasure Horse video part 6]