"Now I say that with cruelty and oppression it is everybody's business to interfere when they see it."

~Anna Sewell

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Someone clue me in.

Hunter Under Saddle is like the Western Pleasure of the English world, yes? Although I will say HUS horses are a little livelier. A little. There's still a lot of similarity.

It's a big time, fancy-shmancy discipline. Then explain to me why so many HUS riders have horrendous equitation.
Look how forward she is. She's way ahead of the vertical. Her shoulders aren't even open. The horse looks pretty forward, too.

And that dreaded uber-low head carriage. I hate that. And again with those fake tails! I can't stand them. Gross.

More HUS hideousness.

That rider's heels aren't down. She's forward. And the overall appearance is just sloppy. Every single one of them. If you watch them post, their legs are all over the place. Some of them have their heels up. Some have a way shallow seat. My trainer would eat me alive if I rode like that. She already nearly bites my head off when I go into 2-point too early. (It's kinda funny and scary at the same time. I can envision little devil horns appearing every time I do something wrong. lawlz. ) I'm not implying that I think I'm perfect. I know I'm not an amazing rider. But at least my weight is down in my heels.

This rider is all toe. No weight in the heels. She was actually sitting up straight, but the horse looked pretty front heavy. Why is this acceptable? You don't see respectable jumpers riding like that. Their legs are always tight and they're sitting on the vertical. And the horses are looking forward instead of at the ground! Imagine that. I don't understand the attraction.

4 comments:

  1. For your own sanity, do not watch the over fences classes at the Quarter Horse Worlds.

    You've been warned.

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  2. Now that you told me not to, I wanna do it even more.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah, I should've known better. It is painful to watch though. I genuinely don't understand how they make it over the fences.

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  4. I watched it.
    And now I want to puke. Those horses are amazing. It's a miracle they still go over the fences.

    ReplyDelete