Jr. Horse Western Pleasure

Here is a video from July '07 of my 3 yr old gelding at our first APHA show. Talk about pressure....it was the biggest class of the day and full of professional trainers riding their best horses! We managed to place in the middle of the class, but I know this was not our best ride. I had only started loping him about a month or so prior to this show. We've gotten a little bit better since July.

Tell me what you think about his potential as a WP horse, and be bruttally honest!

http://www.youtube.com/v/ch7xOR7Dx8o&rel=1

He is a beautiful horse and I think he has all the potential to be a top WP horse I guess the only thing I noticed is he needs to reach farther under with his back legs at the lope. Use his butt as a the momentum a little more. But even that he looks pretty good at already. He has an awesome head carriage and a terrific trot. Good luck at the shows :)

Wow I really like this horse! Lovely jog! I agree his canter is very reachy.

Now your turn lol
It looks like your reaching for your stirups, making your legs come off completly and it dosen't look very pretty.

I will actually probably compete against you if you go to the big shows!!

Beautiful horse! Wonderful potential, and that being his being his first big show, he did amazing! Congrats, you should be very proud of him!

Wow! Thanks, guys! (You were watching the palomino, right??!! )

I usually like my stirrups long, plus I have long legs. That might be giving the impression of keeping my legs off of him. But actually, I use a lot of leg all the time. He is one of those lazy WP horses that doesn't like to go any where unless you push him! And in the shows I try extra hard to keep my leg off of him so the judge doesn't see me cueing him. Maybe I should just forget about what it looks like to the judge and ride him like I normally do??

Tessa, what shows do you go to? 2008 will be our first year showing exclusively at APHA shows so I plan to stay within the state. My goal is to win the Amatuer Rookie of the Year for our state club. Maybe someday I'll save up enough pennies to go to the Paint Congress (I think that's closer to your area).

He looked great! He is doing awesome for 3 :) He was really level headed too...he didn't seem nervous about the show setting at all. By the time you have him finished, he will probably be AWESOME. I love the look of him also. Palomino and white is very pretty (but a pain to keep clean I am sure :)

I was just getting into showing and learning about it myself when my boy turned 4, so we are a bit behind the curve show wise. I am jealous of you guys being able to do paint shows. They don't even have them up here (Alaska). I have to ride in QH shows in the all breed classes (which are a joke) or the open all breed shows. It sure would be nice to do a season on paint shows. One day :) (I just have to get enough paint people up here :)

Gotta Ride - he is lovely

I would only like to make a small comment on ways you could help him along in his Lope -- he needs to sit back on his hock a lot more and slow down in his knee. You can start doing some exercises pushing his hip over into the center - hold him with your outside leg and a little pressure up and bak on the indide rein to block him from bringing his shoulder over too. You will end up with his front legs on the rail and his back end on a different track.

Once he has mastered this do the same exercise with his head flexed to the outside (away fom his hip). This will build his strength through his back and you will find that he will slow down remarkably in a reletivly short time (under a month).

Keep up the good work though because he looks very kind and trainable. Keep me posted as to how this works for you :P

I ride Huntseat, so I'm pretty clueless, but you two look gorgeous!! Looks like slow motion to me...so pretty!

One thing I noticed was your Lope depart was a little delayed. The horse in front of you got in a few solid Lope strides while you were still trotting. I know, you're workin' on it!

I really liked how you stayed on the inside track at the Lope. Staying in the Judge's line-of-sight!

I can't believe that video was taken six months ago already! We will work on those things that everyone mentioned. I know that I need to get him using his butt a little bit more. I've given him a nice long break from WP (just doing some trail riding & general putzing), but after Christmas the break is over.

Equina ~ Yes, the departure into the left lead lope was not our best. He had been having problems picking up that lead so I needed to make sure I set him up correctly. I took the time he needed and he got the lead! I had to stay to the inside because he was going a little faster than the other horses. Ideally for WP, you want to keep your horse on the rail.

AK ~ Good luck at whatever shows you go to! It's great fun. Are you signed up for the PAC program through APHA? You can get points that way, and they go on your horse's permanent show record with APHA so they do add value to your horse.

Gotta ride. I am unfamiliar with the PAC program. Can that be done with non APHA shows? That would be awesome!

I was actually just looking into the PAC program too! There's a lot of info on the apha website about it. Basically, you get points at shows that are NOT apha shows (and not other breed sanctioned shows). They have to be regulated by some sort of committee that keeps show records though. Like, say you do Reining in a NRHA show...you can get something signed and your points will go towards PAC. It seems kinda cool!

Oh, and back to the subject at hand...GottaRide, good job setting up your horse properly for that Lope depart then. Better to be a little delayed but still "get off on the right foot!"