Western pleasure

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Western Pleasure is a western riding competition at horse shows that judges the manners and suitability of the horse for appropriate gait cadence and speed, along with suitable disposition. Most light horse breeds in the United States and Canada may compete in western pleasure classes, either in open competition or at shows limited to a single breed. However, horse conformation and temperament play a role in this event, and hence animals that are calm, quiet, have short, soft gaits and the strong muscling required to sustain slow, controlled movement will be the most competitive. In open or all-breed competition, stock horse breeds such as the American Quarter Horse, American Paint Horse and Apaloosa tend to be favored by the judges, though quality individuals from other breeds such as the Morgan horse and Arabian horse can be competitive. "Gaited" breeds such as the Missouri Fox Trotter and the Tennessee Walker often have their own special classes, and even traditional English riding breeds such as the American Saddlebred offer western pleasure classes for their breed.

Each contestant, at the command of the event's judge, is asked to have their horse to walk, jog (a slow trot), and lope both directions in an arena, as well as to stand quietly and back up readily. The riders compete at the same time, traveling around the outer edge of the arena.

Riders and horses use western attire, including a western saddle, open-faced bridle without a noseband, The rider wears a long-sleeved shirt, sometimes with a vest or jacket, chaps, a cowboy hat, and boots. Shirts and vests or Jackets are often brightly colored and sometime elaborately decorated. Riders usually wear denim jeans under their chaps, though sometimes polyester dress pants that match the rider's shirt or chaps are worn instead. Gloves and spurs are optional. Men usually wear a neckscarf, often of silk, women may wear a silk neckscarf, but in recent years as rules have been relaxed, brooches and necklaces are now also seen on female riders.

Winning horses are decided on their quality of movement, proper behavior, form in motion, and calm manner. As stated in the show rules of the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), "maximum credit should be given to the flowing, balanced and willing horse which gives the appearance of being fit and a pleasure to ride." The Western Division of the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) have similar requirements. Faults are assessed on infractions such as excessive speed or slowness, breaking of the gait, or incorrect head position.

1 Controversies

[edit] Controversies

Western pleasure competition, like any event, has controversies and situations where fads become so extreme as to possibly constitute abuse. Therefore, most organizations that sanction horse shows have strict rules to prevent the worst problems. Nonetheless, it is hard to regulate fads, and education of judges is the best method available to prevent fads from escalating into more serious problems.

Because western pleasure emphasis calmness and manners, some individuals attempt to circumvent good training by using tranquilizers to steady their horses. However, drug rules of both the AQHA and USEF are strict, and both owners and trainers of horses that test positive for drugs are sanctioned heavily.

Another abusive practice that is penalized if discovered is the process of "nerving" the horse's tail. If a horse is bored and irritable, it will express its displeasure by swishing its tail vigorously. Horses who are shown too long and schooled too repetitively can become "ring sour," a term used to describe a horse with a bored, unhappy and irritable manner, and often a ring sour horse will flatten its ears and swish its tail every time it is given a command. Because tail swishing is penalized, some competitors resorted to cutting the nerves in a ring sour horse's tail to prevent the tail from moving. Because this also kept the horse from brushing away flies, and thus was helpless against biting insects, the practice was quicky banned, and horses with nerved tails are no longer allowed the show ring. However, some competitors still resort to temporarily numbing the tail with drugs or by mechanical means, also illegal if discovered, but at times difficult to spot.

[edit] Head set trends

The sport of western pleasure was criticized in the past on account of an extremely low head position many judges were favoring, known as the "peanut roller." In this head set, horses would carry their heads with the poll far below the level of their withers. This was a problem because it also forced the horse to travel at an extremely slow pace on the "forehand" (carrying too much weight on their front legs instead of rocking it correctly back onto their hind legs). Over long periods of time, moving in this highly artificial frame could cause soundness problems in some horses, and even a sound horse could not properly bring its hindquarters under its body when traveling forward.

This fad and its problems created a poor view of the discipline as a whole, especially by competitors in other equestrian sports.

The industry has since been praised on its actions to change the head set. This included implementing specific rules against such behavior, including that the correct horse will have his head level to the height of its withers, and making an extreme headset impossible by asking the horses to extend their trot. In the case of one organization, videos were sent out to their judges to demonstrate what was and was not correct.

[edit] The Spur stop

Just as the sport was cleaning up the "peanut roller" contoversy, a new controversy began regarding the "spur stop." The current fad requires a horse to perform with a loose draped rein at all times, but it requires time, good riding ability, and careful training to stop a horse with weight and voice alone without tightening the reins. Western pleasure horses have always traveled on a loose rein, but in recent years a visible "drape" in the rein has become rather extreme. Hence, some trainers, pressed to train horses quickly, train some western pleasure horses to slow down and stop when spur pressure is applied so that they do not have to use the reins.

The precise cues given a horse are not necessarily a problem in itself, but the spur stop has two problems. The first is that riders will often "capture" the horse, or in other words, use too much pressure, which most often results in the horse sucking back in the midsection to escape the pressure, and this body tension causes a horse's gait to become very jerky and unnatural. If used in this incorrect manner for a long period of time, the spur stop can cause some horses to become lame.

The second problem is mental: spur or leg pressure is a universal cue to the horse to go forward in nearly all other disciplines. Therefore, if the horse is later used for some other purpose, it has to be completely retrained. Because horses have long memories and have a difficult time forgetting lessons once learned, retraining can be a time-consuming procedure.