Archive for August 13th, 2010

When a baby horse is born it naturally carries its weight like this – 60% on the front end and 40% on the hind end.  When the horse is mature enough to begin to be ridden the goal should be to shift the way the horse carries its body weight to accommodate the weight of a saddle and a rider thus keeping the horse physically sound.  This means that a horse carrying a rider and a saddle should carry 60% of its weight on the hind end and 40% on the front end.  Reversing the horse’s carriage of its own body weight is the goal.  That is where the term “collection” comes into play.  A collected horse carries most of its weight on its hind end, period.

Western pleasure competitions are based on this hind end weight carriage and your horse having a soft mouth.  A horse that is using its hind end correctly will work from its hind end and naturally relax its hind end and neck thus creating a correct “head set”.  If the rider works on the horse using its hind end with their own legs the result is a horse that can be ridden with just a halter and a lead rope, or even without a bridle.  Stacy Westfall did an amazing display of correct hind end work by doing a complete reining pattern at full speed with all the stops and spins without a bridle on the horse.

A horse that is collected does better in every aspect of riding, from trail to barrel racing.  A collected horse will always do better, and will stay sound longer, than an uncollected horse.

The history of the Western Pleasure competitions has put a fog over the term “collection”.  AQHA has come a long way, and has learned a lot, since the 1970’s.  People who did not show would go to watch a Western Pleasure Show and would see horses going so slow that they appeared to be crippled with their heads looking at their own knees.  This was wrong.  Or the horses in the show would be loping sideways along the rail again looking at their own knees.  This began to give Western Pleasure, as well as the term “collection”, a bad name.

Well, all of you non-showers and trail riders and barrel racers, now is the time to give Western Pleasure another chance and to learn from it.  AQHA has learned a lot in the past 40 years and has changed their own rules to make up for the mistakes of the past.  The Western Pleasure Champion of today is not allowed to lope sideways, stare at its own knees or move so slowly. (Except at the small schooling shows.  They haven’t quite caught on yet.)

In our next few Blogs we will quote current AQHA rules regarding Western Pleasure.  This is going to be fun and please feel free to comment or add to this learning journey.