# Western Pleasure classes.



## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

Can anyone explain to me the reasoning behind WP classes? 

Why are the horses made to go so unnaturally slow? 

What is pleasurable about riding a horse slower than a human walks?


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## BugZapper89 (Jun 30, 2014)

Meh , to each his own! I find nothing desirable about climbing on a leaping , twirling, ill mannered 16 plus hand thing and then leaping over things, but yet there are people who swear jumpers are the best thing since sliced bread. What pleasure was years ago isnt what it is today, just like the halter horses. Things change, if its not your cup of tea then dont attend.


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## Roman (Jun 13, 2014)

I believe she was only asking about it.

In WP you're supposed to make the horse look like he'll be a joy for everyone to ride. If you put a scared kid on him he'll be nice instead of spooky and unwilling to move. 

I don't think I've gone to one, maybe once, but they probably only go slow because that's how it looks. It might not be slow in the saddle.

Asking someone who does WP could help you really see into the sport! 
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

I do not attend - there is nothing like it in the UK, thank heavens. 

If a rider doesn't think that the paces are slow then they need to take lessons. 

As for fads, it is up to the society to tell the judges that these 'fads' are not a good thing. That it is unnatural for a horse to move so slowly it has to throw its head up making it look lame.

Not one of those horses had a spark of interest in what they were doing. They looked characterless and bored. 

A show horse should have presence, the 'look at me, I'm the best' factor, not look like something zoned out.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

BugZapper89 said:


> Meh , to each his own! I find nothing desirable about climbing on a leaping , twirling, ill mannered 16 plus hand thing and then leaping over things, but yet there are people who swear jumpers are the best thing since sliced bread. What pleasure was years ago isnt what it is today, just like the halter horses. Things change, if its not your cup of tea then dont attend.



I think there's a broad country in between the two images.


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## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

I started off in dressage and then moved on to hunter jumpers, did some western drill team and small amounts of speed events such as key hole, pole bending, and barrels... I did some combined training events and tons of trails and then moved on to western pleasure and hunter under saddle...recently I've started reining and am thinking about getting into cow stuff

I think my favorite is WP and dressage. I like the feel of a really trained horse under me. Hunter/jumper is the easiest I think (caveat - at the local level). The horses aren't truly collected and as long as they move with some consistency they can do well. Obviously the higher level shows have a lot of training but at the local level, anyone on any horse can show and do well. I like that. I really do. But, I love a well trained, well rounded horse. I like the feel of the controlled power.

If you ride a truly, correctly trained western pleasure horse, you'll get that feel, but... sadly, there are many out there that aren't trained correctly.

I think it's all preference. I think the great thing about the many, many disciplines out there, is that there is something for everyone...


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## NBEventer (Sep 15, 2012)

People always look at me funny when I say this...

I am an event rider. I live for the thrill of eventing and I do some jumpers on the side. I love the rush of galloping a cross country course after just pulling off a precise dressage test then wrapping it all up with a clean jumper round. I love the feel of a fit and finely tuned jumper. All that power under me is awesome.

However nothing is more satisfying to me then hopping on a well trained western pleasure horse. Hopping on and going for a relaxed ride. I love riding a well trained pleasure horse.


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

Having followed hounds all my life, ridden steeplechasers and point to pointers, evented and show jumped I can certainly say I love the 'thrill'.

I too enjoy a sociable ride on a well trained horse. Just riding quietly in the early morning as dawn is breaking, dew on the grass and wildlife going about its business. 
I can do this on a trained hunter or racehorse, a slow canter, no fighting to go faster, just lobbing along on a loose rein.

Perhaps, because there are other horses to work and things to do, I prefer them to be going forward, a good free swinging walk, a ground covering trot that is not a ground pounder. 

Riding at the speed the WP horses move at would mean an hours ride on a normal moving horse would take three or more! 
I also don't think these poor animals could possibly cope with the hills.

I still haven't seen a reason for such slow paces.


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## greentree (Feb 27, 2013)

I have a Paint stallion who is a WP horse. a natural one. He has NO startle reflex. He jogs naturally. He is the horse I ride just to relax and look at the scenery. I can ground tie him and pick berries. When I say whoa, he STOPS, and does not move until asked. Great for taking trail photos. 

I do not understand the WP class, nor the warm up. We won a local show class one time, and DH told me I was obviously doing it ALL wrong, not riding about with my hands 4 feet apart, sawing on his mouth, spurring him, yanking him. LOL.


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## Chasin Ponies (Dec 25, 2013)

I too grew up riding hunters and for many years have been made almost sick to my stomach watching the movement (and horrific abuse in training) of WP horses. Raftering, high port bits, constant non-stop spurring and punishment backing are the norm for making these poor horses do these completely unnatural gaits and I've watched it going on for years. 

I know that the AQHA is attempting to change some of this with new rules and what the AQHA does, all the others follow such as Paints and Appaloosas. There has been a tiny bit of improvement but I still watched a poor little QH being forced to lope at less than 1/2 MPH in the arena the other day, spurring and jerking still going on. There was a 4-beat in there still, the double butt bounce of the rider gives it away. All the while trying desperately to get the peanut rollers to bring their heads up according to the new rules. 

Blame the AQHA and the judges-they caused this by placing it and it will take decades for it to go away. I know many, many young people who were taught that all of this and the abuse too is absolutely normal-they simply don't recognize what it is doing to the horse despite virtually all of them becoming permanently lame down the line. It will take years for the new, slightly more normal rules to trickle down-you still see the peanut rollers win at the lower levels. Now they need to look at a real hunter vs HUS and either fix it or abolish it.


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## Clava (Nov 9, 2010)

I can't bear to watch the videos of the classes, for me seeing horses so sad looking, so suppressed of natural movement and so disunited they look lame that I also struggle to understand why this appeals. 

Happy to be enlightened though.


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## gigem88 (May 10, 2011)

WP classes arose from checking fences, cowboys needed a horse that could move at a smooth gait for long periods of time and were a pleasure to ride. That's what I heard, at least. Low and slow! What the QH folks has done is take it to the extreme, which I don't like. To me most look lame at the lope, but that's just me. Years ago they had it right with a level neck and an actual lope.


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

I find the cowboy factor hard to believe and think it is something made up to excuse the slowness.

If a cowboy was out checking fences then it would take him all day to rode around a 20 acre paddock at the paces these horses are made to move at! 

I cannot believe that they kept a horse that moved so unnaturally slow for checking fences and had others for working the cattle, surely horses had to be a jack of all trades, roping, cutting and fence checking?


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## Clava (Nov 9, 2010)

Foxhunter said:


> I find the cowboy factor hard to believe and think it is something made up to excuse the slowness.
> 
> If a cowboy was out checking fences then it would take him all day to rode around a 20 acre paddock at the paces these horses are made to move at!
> 
> I cannot believe that they kept a horse that moved so unnaturally slow for checking fences and had others for working the cattle, surely horses had to be a jack of all trades, roping, cutting and fence checking?


Also , isn't such a laboured canter a bigger waste of energy than a simple trot or forward walk?


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## boots (Jan 16, 2012)

Blaming working cowboys on the unnatural and non-functional movements that are coveted in WP classes is quite insulting. 

We do, and always have, used and valued free-moving horses that cover ground well. We are careful to not put undue strain on our horses. They are our partners.

I have gotten WP horses at my place because they either became arena sour or were coming back from an injury (non WP related).

Without exception, given the chance they moved well and were useful. I stopped taking in any outside WP horses due to an ethical conflict, knowing that if they were going back to the WP world, they would again be ruined, their natural horse gaits stifled.


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

Boots,
I am so glad to hear that you have been able to "rehabilitate" them. I have wondered sometimes if after a certain amount of time being forced into those unnatural gaits, if there is not physical damage that occurs, that cannot be undone. so many of the WP horses I see really look like they are in pain, stiff and crabby and unable to bend. they look old before their time.


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## Incitatus32 (Jan 5, 2013)

I rode WP locally for years. In those years I never placed once (except for one judge who did give me a second place). It soured me on WP and I really had to look hard to see what was wrong. Me and my mare had great impulsion, slow but not too slow, nice collection, rode on a relaxed rein and made everything look easy. What we did NOT look like was lame, tight mouthed, and like I was making everything painful for the horse. And there was the problem. 

So I began to honestly hate that version of WP. I cannot stand watching it, I cannot support it and whenever I ride a horse that's been 'professionally trained' in WP that moves like it I cringe. 

Then I moved to a new city and took lessons from a woman who shows WP correctly. Her horses are nicely collected, have great impulsion and are just as much fun to ride as dressage or reining horses. Hers can go from a nice slow lope to an extended canter and then slide to a stop when you whoa. To me they are the perfect example of what western pleasure should be: "A pleasure to ride". 

These horses are nice to sit on and you look from the outside as if you're just going down the trail with this horse. I won't ever understand the slow, lamed up version of WP but I do understand and condone this correct form. I just hope that eventually AQHA and others will agree with me!


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

I had a winning WP horse here - she'd move normally if you rode her normally and I was riding 'english' cues and contact.
Horses ridden in extreme saddleseat are harder to re-train and have more leg and foot problems


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## Cynical25 (Mar 7, 2013)

Clava said:


> I can't bear to watch the videos of the classes, for me seeing horses so sad looking, so suppressed of natural movement and so disunited they look lame that I also struggle to understand why this appeals.
> 
> Happy to be enlightened though.


But you and some others here are NOT happy to be enlightened - you've already made up your mind that it's "wrong." There are extremes in every discipline; that doesn't make the entire discipline wrong. 

I'm a huge WP fan, but I don't agree with the horses who are shut down until their gaits have disintegrated, either. That is not the goal, but the judges can only place what's in front of them. Many people are out to make money, so quantity often beats quality - quickly forcing a horse into a frame to sell is easier than spending the time to correctly bring a horse along, so there is a lot of crap out there. But, there ARE winning horses out there with more quality to their gaits, so we seem to be moving back in a better direction.

Asking my 3 year old Western Pleasure bred horse to move out like a Dressage or Hunter will give him a sour expression. He'll do it because he's physically capable of extension/collection and he responds to my cues, but a super slow walk, jog & lope IS his natural, default movement. It IS what he has done out in the pasture since birth. It IS what he has always done under saddle, without me asking him to slow down or drop his head. Slow, flat kneed movement with a low head IS where he is comfortable, because it's how he is built, how he was bred. He is green and still needs to learn to collect (just like a Dressage or Hunter prospect continues to progress in their training,) but that will come along naturally through proper riding, not yanking on his mouth and gouging him with spurs to force him into a false frame.


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## mytedimensional (Nov 5, 2014)

since i show western pleasure, i deal with people that hate it all the time. There are ton of trainers that do train their horses in a way that isn't very nice, and they created a bad reputation for all of us. whenever i ride, i ride my horse in a snaffle and let him extend to stretch out, so he can have the muscle and flexibility to be able to hold the frame. he is perfectly sound and healthy and loves his job. he loves to show off his stuff and win. i know it sounds odd. he is fit and happy and has no problem with western pleasure


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