Why is this desired in western pleasure?

I have a pony I've always considered wp type. Naturally the slow and collected type with silky smooth gaits and a low and relaxed head set. Very easy going. I love riding her! But she's not quite this extreme

I don't understand why they look for horses this extreme. You're barely moving at the walk. Does anyone like this pace in horses they truly ride just for pleasure and not for wp show ring?

Or is there a purpose in it I'm missing? I don't know very much about wp. That just seems SO slow.

Is this close to your ideal?

I ride english, but every one in a while I pull out my first lesson horse, hop on bareback and go like this for hours.
I love how slow and low he can get. So smooth compared to me mare.

We do go a lot slower than that, btw
We ALWAYS won 1st in every show we went into (;

The thing that bothers me is that the horse is 2.

I hate a slow walk out on the trail. I want them to walk out and get somewhere. Now I really do like a slow (not necessarily as slow as that video) comfy jog, so I could see some benefit with that. But the super slow walk has be baffled on where one would want that outside the show ring unless its a babysitter horse with little kids.

And the canter/lope - if my horse looked like that I would be concerned he was lame.

Yeah, that's the lope. I don't like it, cantering is more fun

It does not appeal to me, but I understand it is a lot harder to get the hrose trained to do this than you would think, so some folks admire the training involved to achieve this much moderated gait.

Those horses are moving out really well. Those are obvious three-beat lopes and the horses are really nice off the hock.

There's not a lot to complain about with that horse. When they go down to the slower jog, I wish he was a little more synchronous, but it's a young horse and he'll get stronger. He was a finalist at World last fall and won the green at the Redbud this year. I think we can probably expect to see some good things from this colt.

I've never understood it either and I remember back in the day they had their heads even lower (peanut rolling). Luckily they don't let them do THAT anymore. I do admire the patience and training to get a horse to move like that...especially the one in the video with his back rounded up nicely and using himself.

I don't think Cinny could do that. In fact, he walks way to fast for dressage, equitation, hunters, etc. I've put him in some "suitibility" and "equitation" classes (rail classes) at local dressage shows and I remember my husband panicking the first time when he saw the juniors go. He came running up and said "look how slow they are going, can you get him to go that slow?" And well, I got his walk timed out okay and got him to really hold back, and we were still too fast. He can go very slow in the arena with a lot of work and patience, (about 30 secs between steps) but it really drains all of his patience by the time we go halfway around the arena. Good for topline though :)

I agree with SpurStop. I think for a 2 year old he moves out better than most of the peanut rollers I have seen. I like his impulsion and liveliness, as well as how calm and east going he is without looking brain dead.

I will add that I really cannot stand WP, so I am fairly impressed with him.