My take comes from spending years in the ring as a kid, taking a break to actually enjoy my equines and now with Muff hitting the show ring hard this year, revisiting it as a spectator. We went and watched part of a show a few weekends ago. What I saw astonished me. Such unnatural rhythm in their movement, horrible head bobbing because they were forced to go too slow, over-canted, out of cadence, what we in the dog word call side winding and well, simply horses moving such that it's unnatural. Heads past vertical, behind the bit, rein drape so exaggerated that there is no contact with the horse. Now granted I now those horses are trained to follow the rail, ride in a circle and stop via that horrible spur stop crap, but that's all most can do.
It won't be an overnight change in how we see horses moving in the ring, but I think that it's important to continue to push for the change. Judges will be judges--hell we have them in the dog show ring. We know most of our older judges won't change how they place specific traits. Goodness, remember how long it took to get rid of peanut rollers?
Just sayin'
C
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