Tuesday, June 1, 2010

For Vincent--US Nationals Open Western Pleasure Championship



This should give you an idea about how a western pleasure horse must move and behave in order to become a champion. These are not junior horses, whom are shown in either a snaffle bit or a bosal, but rather finished horses whom are shown in a curb bit. Note the horse ridden by Bob Copple. Luckily they are entering for the receiving of awards. If the horse had acted like this in the actual class, it would have cost him points, and he may not have gotten a placing in the awards.

2 comments:

Vincent said...

Wade,

Thanks for the footage. forgive my ignorance but when the horses walk/trot, some horses have both legs on the right go foward/back same time, then both legs on the left go forward/back same time, in sync. Other horss the legs are not in sync like this.

What is this called when they are in sync? Is this a scoring point or completely irrelevant.

I get your point with mr cropper's horse hesitating, when entering the ring. I've seen this be costly first hand. I was able the attend the Dressage finals at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta Ga. They built a beatiful horse park in Conyers Ga. about 30 mins from Atlanta.

The crowd favorite that day was a gal from Atlanta Michelle Gibson,it was expected she would win a medal and the whole place was crazy rooting for this girl, during her ride the horse hesitated for just about 2 seconds going into one of the movements and the entire place( at least all the Americans)GASPED LOUDLY!! I dont know enough about horses or dressage to say if this cost her a medal. But it was obvious that day it was a major mistake and she did not medal individualy. I think she got a bronze medal in team dressage earlier competion.

Vincent/San Diego

Vincent said...

Wade,

Background on how I wound up at the 1996 Olympic Dressage Finals. When you order Olympic tickets they send you a schdule of all the events and times for the entire two weeks.

You choose the events you want to attend but you also submit 2nd choices and 3rd choices as backups because the more popular events like Mens Basketball Finals, Track and Field Finals sellout very quickly.

I had seen a Dressage event on televison exactly 1 year before and loved it and selected the Dressage Finals as one of my 2nd choice ticket selections.

Prior to 1995 and seeing it on TV I had no idea a sport even existed and 1 year later i was sitting at its premier event. Just as beautiful as the animals at the event was the venue they built. The horse park in Conyers was stunning.

Vincent/San Diego