Question on western pleasure bred horses

That clip was better than Internet Porn!!!! I love the fence work.

Western Bred Pleasure horses are usually bred to have a lower headset, but with training the headset is even lower. It has no purpose other than looks for the show ring. The horses are not collected and could not do any other task with this headset. It couldn't cut cows, rein, or any other of the western disciplines where you see that the horses head is generally above or at wither height. English Pleasure has a similar style, a stretched out horse that is in no way collected and could not jump, do dressage, or even cross country. I personally think that both English and western pleasure are hideous.

Amen!!!

Kevin I will have to pass the message on to my hubby! ;)

I love Reining Cow Horse/Working Cow Horse events. A blast to watch!

Agreed!! LOL. Great post AQHA13. Biased as I am since this is my own horse hehe, this is how I like for a horse to travel. Though I allow his head to drop a bit more if he wants it to. At least from here, he can either drop down to watch a cow or pick up to peel out at a dead run if the need arises.

WP and EP is not the same as it was 20 years ago but show me any sport that is the exact same! every sport has evolved over the years newer training ways, steroids, etc... the horse world is no different! It's starting to slowly get out of the peanut rollers which i don't see much at our local open shows anymore. I show WP just local stuff nothing big but i think a horse who carries themselves with a level head at the poll collected nicely is like poetry in motion! the horses who heads are 6 inchs from the ground and looks like they could do a somer sault any min makes me cringe! i never liked that look and never understood it but then again why does any sport change for better or for worse??

People who don't know a lot about western pleasure horses are the ones to put all the attention on the head carriage. When you start to learn about what truly makes a western pleasure horse, you start looking at the horse's legs, shoulders, hip, and back before you ever look at where the head is.

I absolutely LOVE the headset on your horse - it's completely natural and shows a horse that is alert and aware. This is how I let my horses carry their heads. Guess I'll never win any shows, but I still love my ponies!

Why are reiners almost as bad? I'm not disagreeing - I'm just curious because I haven't heard anything that bad about them.

A modern day pleasure horse that's bred specifically for the pleasure pen will not need any training or gadgets to learn to carry their head level, their conformation makes that the most comfortable headset for them. I've NEVER used any sort of gadget on my mare to force her head down.. in fact I sometimes find myself asking her to pick her head up because she gets lazy and tries to get our of work. I just have to pick up my hand slightly and she gets the message and picks herself back up.

It's really annoying when people group ALL pleasure people into the "head tying, making them go unnatural" category. There's bad seeds in every discipline. It would be like me saying everyone who does dressage does rollkur and forces their horses chin to their chest, but I don't do that. Why? Because I know not everyone who does dressage uses rollkur.

Also is this not a "real" trot, or is my mare just faking it?