Iron Gate Farm

The horse on the right is quite heavy on the forehand. Look at the hind reach at the canter in the left image and compare it to the hind reach in the screen shot on the right from a video. I know that the camera angles are different. Therefore, to better understand this, watch the entire brief video. *link below

The horse in the right screenshot pulls himself around with his front legs and shoulders while his hind end is pulled around behind like it's a little red wagon.

The horse's head is down like a "peanut roller", which is a western thing. Western judges reward that look just as judges reward other unbalanced movements and forms in other disciplines, English and western, today in our current era of artificial style preference over effectiveness.

This is one more example of how isolated today's horse show disciplines have created artificial movements that are totally disconnected from natural equine movements. This is based on what judges and the public think looks good. For me these things are expressions of human narcissism. They have nothing to do with the physical nature of equine movement. Instead, they are all about what people want.

Riders and horse owners who care about horses should work to develop an eye for what the horse does and how they move without excessive human influence. In this very clear example, a horse that is this heavy on the forehand can develop physical problems and be somewhat dangerous to ride outside an arena. Horses like this can easily trip and fall to their knees.

Thank you Jenny Ashwell Pendleton for the video.

*link to the video of the horse pictured at right -

www.facebook.com/reel/1349284197052242

Together these three images define a serious problem in the horse world for riders who jump. On the left is John French. He is a US Hunter Jumper Hall of Fame inductee with a huge fan base. His jumping style is perhaps the most extreme crest release ever.

His groupies defend it as his "unique style" as if uniqueness of style is important when it is not. I doubt his horses enjoy carrying so much of his body weight on their necks over jumps.

On the right is the one and only George Morris, also a rider with a huge fan base, in spite of some ugly personal history. He is responsible for popularizing the crest release starting in the 1970s. This jumping position replaced the safer, more balanced automatic or direct release, thus putting riders in unsafe circumstance over jumps. As the crest release became more dangerous, Morris remained silent as he raked in the cash.

Lastly, in the center picture is a young rider using an extreme crest release with legs far behind the girth and laying on the horse's neck. They are dangerously unbalanced à la John French. This image defines today's problem. It began with Morris. Then big name competitors like French stylized it to the extreme, and the young imitator reaps the "benefits of the two famous riders who have made it OK to be in danger of a bad fall should the horse stumble or fall in the landing,

This is a serious and dangerous problem today, and not many riding instructors are trying to fix it.

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Meanwhile, back on the farm, as the sun was setting on this summery day, check out those awesome clouds.

Wynter on Mickey.

Nancy teaching.

Photo Credit: Tony