My version of Western Pleasure

I've been debating with myself about posting this here because I know there are stong feelings both ways about western pleasure. I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment because here goes!

I fully admit that we are not perfect yet. There are still issues that I am working on. There is a progression of earlier videos so you can take a look back to see where we started from. This is just another video to document our training progress.


All comments are welcome (but I'm pretty good at ignoring the unnecessary bashing of WP).

I think the head is too low. The horse seems a little stiff on your circles. I didn't realize WP was with such a loose rein.

You can tell he's listening to you. Very pretty horse :)

The head is too low.

Here are the AQHA rules regarding head carriage;

453. WESTERN RIDING
(a)

(b)

(c)

The judge is responsible for the pattern being correctly set.

I agree with the others about his head carriage, but I love how he is moving. He's a cute dude! How old? I think that his lope is nice, his head gets a little bobby at times, but I think that's when you're spurring him from what I can tell. His jog is a *little* slow for me, but that's all just personal preference! :)

Oh and it looks like you need to work a little more on neck reining before you go for such a loose rein, at one point you reach WAY over to get his attention, which we've all done, but just mentioning for critiquing purposes :)

His reins look so loose that he could get caught in them... Maybe I am just not used to WP horses though

Pretty guy. His lope looks really nice.

I think you've done a great job!!! IMHO, he does seem a bit "stiff" in his trot...but his lope was very nice. I think he's a lovely little thing! Congrats in your training. I hope you'll post more videos as you progress.

Believe me..even if his head carriage is low now, at a show, where there is so much going on, his head carriage will automatically be higher, which is why some folks try to go lower during practice.

Ps. For those talking about how low his head is, or the head bobbing, or even the loose rein: Here is a video of a 2008 wp class. You will see heads as low as this this guy and you will see their heads bob, and plenty of loose reins as well.

I thought they had changed the rules about heads being so low (like posted above), do they just not really enforce that?

Why is there so much bobbing of the head at the canter? The horse looks uncomfortable at that gait.

Looks like he is coming along very well. His right lead looks very natural but he fights his left lead. It looks like he doesn't quite get the shoulder lift he needs so he throws his head to get the lift.
Nice looking horse !!

At the beginning as has been said, his head is pretty low, but not too bad. After the ground poles at about 1:20, it gets much better and his frame rounds much better with a more level topline. I actually like your lope, it looks much more energized than I am used to seeing on a Wp horse, Kudos. He is pretty heavy on the forehand at the lope, but a little work will fix that. Overall not bad at all.

So in summary
-get his topline a little more close to level
-get him off the forehand(which is why most wp horses :"bob", they are very heavy on the fore and have to force their front ends up to get the slow lope by jerking their heads up and down, kinda like what a BL horse does ***and no I am not comparing a WP to a BL that is just trying to illustrate what I mean...)
-get him under him self, and you guys will be great!(All 3 of these will help each other, his topline will improve and he will become lighter and less choppy once you get him more underhimself... so I would say that is what you need to work on the most)

Can't wait to see how you guys progress!