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How Disgusting.

34K views 212 replies 52 participants last post by  DrumRunner 
#1 ·
Okay so I recently have been tagging along with some friends to pleasure shows and taking my horse in halter. I was also watching the riding. There was about 7-10 trainers there on they're/clients horses. They had a harsh bit some had a snaffle, some split reins, and draw reins. The horses noses were dragging the ground and they were dripping sweat and they're mouth was wide open from being yanked on. EVERY TRAINERS HORSE LOOKED LIKE THIS! They were making them do this wierd ugly look half trot canter thing and it didn't look normal. Why make a horse do Something that's not by instinct or that comes natural? That's how i see it. I even saw a few trainers in the big classes give there horse a hard whack when the judges weren't looking. What kind of horsemanship is this? Is this how pleasure riding is? It just looks so unnatural to me. If this is how the pleasure world is, count me out!
This is how the sweat/lather looked but all over the body!
http://i.istockimg.com/file_thumbview_approve/15155927/2/stock-photo-15155927-horse-sweat.jpg

This is how the nose looked!
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#2 · (Edited)
What you have to understand is while it may not be your cup of tea..It's not your business.. If you don't like it, don't watch or associate with it, but you're not going to stop it and coming onto an open board to bash a discipline just because you don't like it will ruffle quite a few feathers.. Discipline bashing is just not necessary and you can expect to hear a lot of opinions much different than yours.. My aunt and uncle trained western pleasure horses for years, and the different "styles" that come and go are what the client wants..If you want to win, you have to do what's "in" and what the judge is looking for..
 
#60 ·
What you have to understand is while it may not be your cup of tea..It's not your business.. If you don't like it, don't watch or associate with it, but you're not going to stop it and coming onto an open board to bash a discipline just because you don't like it will ruffle quite a few feathers.. Discipline bashing is just not necessary and you can expect to hear a lot of opinions much different than yours.. My aunt and uncle trained western pleasure horses for years, and the different "styles" that come and go are what the client wants..If you want to win, you have to do what's "in" and what the judge is looking for..[/QUOTE]


Just a thought... I wonder if this is what everyone said when the Big Lick Tenn Walkers first came on the scene. Again just an observation.
 
#5 ·
Any disapline that allows the happyness and well being of the animal to become secondary to winning a competition governed by "fads" is discusting in my books, but you will find people willing to go to any length in every sport.

Various disaplines start horses at 1.5 years, some with heavy riders so they can win at two
You see soring with gaited horses, various training methods that can only be described as systematic beatings, horses with their heads tied to their chest to improve head possition, and of course the injections and medicines used to keep a horse in pain competing, regardless of what it does for comfort or life expectancy. There is no point picking on a specific disapline.
 
#97 ·
every discipline has some ugly practices, and ugly people who practice them. Doesn't make the discipline or the people who actually care about their animals bad. :?
agreed!
 
#8 ·
I just think those trainers need to go back to basics and stop rushing the horse and maybe They won't have to beat them! I talked to one of them and they said the horse has only been doing it 3 weeks. & he was already at a show! & I only saw one good trainer there using good methods and he was placing the best!
 
#9 ·
In today's horse world, it's not so much about doing it correctly, it's about what the client wants and when they want it..They pay good money for a trainer to have the horse ready by a certain time.. Most trainers just don't care, it's all about the money.
 
#15 ·
is this the photo you are referenceing?



There is no rule on the forum that says a person cannot say a negative thing about a riding discipline. Not all posts must be positive. They just have to be without personal attack or rude language.
The OP's comments are rather vague, since we dont' really know what was going on, not being able to see it. It's ok to find the actions of the trainers to be unacceptable. And it's ok for others to explain why said actions are not as bad as they appear and why they may only be the "bad apples".
 
#20 · (Edited)
Oh good lord, I give up with you two.. You're clearly not even getting my point..I don't care if it's the majority or the minority.. It's not about that, my whole point is that there ARE "trainers" out there who are like that, and I know more WP trainers who are the "bad" trainers than I know "good" trainers.. I know GoAppendix has some underlying issue with me because of the showmanship thread, but it's really unnecessary to try to pick a fight over something this simple.

I guess if you want to say "in my area" there are more forceful and "bad" WP trainers than there are good..
 
#24 ·
LOL I wasn't disagreeing with you DrumRunner. There are plenty of trainers out there who are in it, if not solely for the money, then at least to win no matter what the price. I just thought I should point out that "most" and "minority" aren't exactly synonymous. That, and GoAppendix had a good point too. There are plenty of jobs out there that are far more lucrative and less physically demanding than horse trainer.
 
#25 ·
I don't disagree with you Ink, most WP trainers I know are the forceful, push to fast, and non-caring trainers.. It may or may not be the minority for all of the other trainers in the world but I know in my area and the people I know have been raised in training families so they pick up the job, and while there may be better jobs out there, there is a good bit of demand for pleasure horse trainers here. I live 40 minutes from Perry, Ga..There are a TON of pleasure shows at the National Ag Center there and a ton of people who are willing to put their horse through training faster and harsher to put the horse out there to start winning, that money speaks to the trainers here.
 
#32 ·
There's also a lot of misconceptions about the "peanut rolling" thing too. A lot of the horses that have really been bred for western pleasure automatically do that sort of thing. There have been several instances where I've had to actually work on getting my horse's head up, instead of down. :/ Just because a horse's head is on the ground doesn't mean it's unhappy. It might just be comfortable.

And I don't know what you mean by throwing "split reins" and "snaffles" in with a bad connotation? Those are fairly standard western equipment.
 
#35 ·
The one trainer that caught my eye, every time his horse even raised its head a inch, he popped him. Like everyone says on here, any hit can be harsh in the wrong hands. Well he was yanking so hard the horses mouth was wide open. I could almost swear it was bleeding!
 
#33 ·
TO ALL THE WESTERN PLEASURE RIDERS/TRAINERS! - I didn't post this thread to offend any of you. That type of practice just didn't look right to me and I wanted opinions on it. I have NEVER seen a trainer ride and supposibly "train" like they were doing!
 
#43 ·
Aren;t most shows "local" this time of the year? The "national" level ones tend to be in the fall, are they not? Like...umm...CONGRESS?.....World level for Morgans.....I can name a few others..... Where you would see lots of WP? Really, Go-why not stay on track instead of picking out minutia and harping on it.

OP-the fact is that if you do not like the standards for a particular discipline, try another. I will assure you that there are many out there that may do things you may not like. In reining, we use **GASP** spurs and **GASP** (again) curb bits. In gaited breeds they use weighted shoes at the least, sometimes double bits......and I could go on. In WP the headset is low, and the gait is exageratedly (is that even a word?) slow. WE all use tools to help the horse understand what it is we are asking for, and get used to a certain "feel". I use a noseband on my western horse to keep his mouth quiet when I school. Perhaps you think that is wrong, too.....

Hopefully you will get my drift. THere are good and bad trainers in each discipline and some may use the tools inappropriately, which makes people even more uncomfortable with them and horrified that that discipline (generalized) does that...then the whole discipline is bad.....that is what you are doing.
 
#48 ·
Aren;t most shows "local" this time of the year? The "national" level ones tend to be in the fall, are they not? Like...umm...CONGRESS?.....World level for Morgans.....I can name a few others..... Where you would see lots of WP? Really, Go-why not stay on track instead of picking out minutia and harping on it.

OP-the fact is that if you do not like the standards for a particular discipline, try another. I will assure you that there are many out there that may do things you may not like. In reining, we use **GASP** spurs and **GASP** (again) curb bits. In gaited breeds they use weighted shoes at the least, sometimes double bits......and I could go on. In WP the headset is low, and the gait is exageratedly (is that even a word?) slow. WE all use tools to help the horse understand what it is we are asking for, and get used to a certain "feel". I use a noseband on my western horse to keep his mouth quiet when I school. Perhaps you think that is wrong, too.....




Hopefully you will get my drift. THere are good and bad trainers in each discipline and some may use the tools inappropriately, which makes people even more uncomfortable with them and horrified that that discipline (generalized) does that...then the whole discipline is bad.....that is what you are doing.
Wrong.... I dont think any of the tools or disciplines are bad if you know how to do/use it. So these trainers... Excuse this but SUCKED. They acted like the backyard trainer who saw a big time successful trainer use a tool so they went and bought it and TRIED to use it the same way. Thats how it looked to me!
 
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