I am a Brit and a jobbing cameraman. Whenever I am working abroad I take my camera to rodeos (filmed in Canada, New Zealand and the US) and have loved every minute.
I have been a horse owner since I was seven and I really enjoy watching great horses.
I love watching and filming the poles and barrels because you get some great horses and some astonishing riders.
I was filming at a high school rodeo in Kansas - some lovely riders and beautiful horses.
The best little pole I have ever seen was this one
I did put the film on youtube and some people said that the rider was putting too much pressure on the horse....
the dialogue degraded into a general slanging match between western and European riders.
I personally don't think the horse was taking any harm - every day I see traditional riders in the UK applying far more pressure to their horses - hanging on their mouths and wacking away with their riding crops
but would the horse perform as well without the pressure
I've never watched rodeos or other other Western events so I haven't a clue about what's considered "normal" and acceptable, but the one thing which struck me in those videos was the amount of flailing and flapping done by those riders. It just made me think, "Really? Is your horse so unresponsive to your leg that you have to flap around like a chicken trying to take off to get it to gallop?"
It does seem a bit much to me, really, and this is coming from a former pole bender who loves the sport. It's the excessive use of whip and leg on the intial race down that first caught my attention. Kicking like that only pisses the horse off and slows it down, and whipping that frantically is just ridiculous.
Then look at the video still. I can't tell if that's a mechanical hackamore or a really long-shanked combination bit, but either way, she's ripping his face off with it, and has a harsh, thin tie-down pressing on his nose, besides.
It's nothing but jerk-jerk-jerk and whip-whip-whip the whole way through. No wonder he's humping around the end poles and looking so rough. And if I'm not mistaken, she's actually driving the rowels of her spurs, and not just her calves, into him with that much force.
It does seem a bit much to me, really, and this end poles and looking so rough. And if I'm not mistaken, she's actually driving the rowels of her spurs, and not just her calves, into him with that much force.
I also think the observation "There are worse riders in the UK!" is completely irrelevant to asking whether or not those riders in those events are excessively smacking and yanking their horses around.
I'm not upset. I was merely pointing that if you are trying to defend this particular style of riding, a claim that there are some riders who suck in a country 8000 miles away, while true, has absolutely no bearing on that video.
I'm not upset. I was merely pointing that if you are trying to defend this particular style of riding, a claim that there are some riders who suck in a country 8000 miles away, while true, has absolutely no bearing on that video.
I will agree that some horses need to be kicked up. The ratiest little son of a b**ch I evr rode I had to SPUR the entire way to the run because he wanted to turn every single pole, and if I let him do it he would turn all day long with the happiest expression on his face - The horse was out of his mind, I swear. If I turned him loose in an or a pasture he would run around like an idiot for hours, and if I put poles out there he would spend a majority of his time playing with them. Running through them, turning them, or of course picking them up and flinging them, LOL.
Moral of the story, some horses need to be kicked up. But I don't think the obsessive smacking and kicking were necessary.
I have actually seen this video on YouTube before, and that gray horse and rider always stood out to me because of the awful way the ride presented, even though yes they posted a fast time. I bet that horse would have run just as well without the constant whipping and mouth jerking. Makes me wonder if that was ever tried.
The the nice runs that Bubba posted (thank you) show how smooth and quiet a fast pole run can be.
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