Impressing the uninformed or parlaying "cute and charming" into a lucrative equine career!!!!

This "horseman" is the newest sensation to hit the West Coast. He has managed to convince the "poo poo" horse crowd(enough money to buy a great horse, but not enough sense to hire a great train for said great horse) that he is the second coming of Col. Alios Podhajsky. He would better serve his career by doing his clinics for family and friends, and having Prof. Zeeb video tape it, then to publish it world wide. Below is a comment to the article where he is exposed and soundly spanked.

Letter to the editor

Even though most of the article of “All Roads Lead to Lightness” makes some good sense with very nice quotes from Xenophone and Baucher unfortunately the photos of Mr. Bill Sanders representing the article fall very short of what the artistry of collection is all about. I do not know Mr. Sanders but the article has portrayed him as a knowledgeable trainer of an equestrian art that I have spent a very successful career in.

Lightness and balanced collection is not, I repeat not, a horse carrying himself behind the bridle, that is a misnomer and all the pictures that are in your article portray just that. A nicely bridled horse needs to go forward into the bridle with the rider able softly balancing the horse on the snaffle, the curb hanging nicely with no strain or obvious pressure. A horse is ridden up into collection and cannot be achieved from the ground except perhaps on the long reins if the trainer was so talented. A truly balanced and correctly bridled horse can be bent, balanced, rolled, etc as long as the rider’s legs work in connection with the hands from the rear to the front. Collection is a finely tuned event and the full double bridle is much more difficult to manage than the snaffle alone.

Bridles and correct equipment are very important in training and every style or discipline has its favorites but I daresay that “with no nose band” would not be one of them. Actually the capriole picture has the horse’s bridle put together completely incorrect with the nose band crown piece over the Pelham bit hanger instead of under, a good sign that someone doesn’t know what they are doing. I will also add that the nose band is too low on the horse’s face resulting in a pinch between the bit and nose band when the Pelham comes into play and I have never in all my years seen a capriole done with a Pelham bit, Pelhams not being known for sensitivity.

Even though Mr. Sanders states his “exercise at the clinic were without nose band or throatlatch to avoid any constrain on the horse”, I would love to have someone explain to me the actual restraining properties of a throatlatch other than to keep the bridle from slipping over a horse’s head. The nose band is there for a reason and anyone seeing a horse being trained without one knows immediately its use. There are lovely finished western reining horses that are shown without nose bands in grand style but I guarantee they were not trained without one.

The style of Mr. Sanders seems to be the Portuguese style but having been there and seen much, the horses trained there are slightly behind the bridle and even though some of them look very well balanced, I have yet to see the Piaffe transition into Passage as clean as a well balanced bridled horse going up into a soft snaffle in a full bridle. That being said the picture of the horse doing the Spanish Walk will end up doing this as a “trick” with no control over the height or speed and with the rider having to move his hands as a cue, this all due to the horse being behind the bridle. With a truly bridled High- School horse the rider owns every leg, every step and the height because the horse has something to be balanced with. In this manner a true "dancing horse" really looks to be performing to the perfect timing of the music because the rider can dictate every movement and when to execute them.

I am quite surprised that Mr. Sanders would allow a capriole picture of such poor quality to be printed. Not only is the horse not in any collection, (i.e. the point of the article) but also the timing is completely off, very low to the ground and the horse’s front feet hanging straight down. He is far from being quote “in balance and in correct position” as stated on the photo.

Only someone who doesn’t have the knowledge of the importance of correct lounging could make a statement that “lounging was chasing a horse in a circle.” It is articles such as this that are so disturbing to a professional and injurious to those trying to learn. Lastly the picture of the Piaffe is so loaded with incorrectness that I hesitate to comment. I will only say that the hind feet are so low that a balanced Piaffe is impossible.

I would imagine that this “letter to the editor” would never see print but the article was so blazingly incorrect I had to respond.