# What is english pleasure?



## bubblegum (Oct 6, 2009)

I have ridden english all my life and i have never heard of the term english pleasure, i know of dressage and show jumping, thats about all that goes on here and maybe the odd hack although i have never seen anyone around me going for a hack.


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## horseluver2435 (May 27, 2009)

In my area, English Pleasure is a class at shows around here that is based on the horse's movement/gait, headset, and a bit of conformation as well. Like wise, the 'opposite' class is English Equitation, which is mainly based on the rider- heels down, toes up, chin up, straight back, correct diagonal...etc. Usually, in our pleasures classes, it ends up being 75% on the horse and 25% on the rider. In Equitation, it usually is 90% on the rider, 10% on the horse. It's kinda weird.  
Anyway, that's what it means to the people at our barn, I'm not sure if this is what you were thinking of.


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## Sghorselover (Oct 19, 2009)

In the average English pleasure class, the horse perform as a group, exhibiting the walk, trot, and canter, and may also be asked to extend the trothttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trot_(horse_gait) or to perform a in hand gallop . Horses are judged on their manners, performance, quality and conformationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_conformation. The horse is to give the impression of being a pleasure to ride.


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## horseluver2435 (May 27, 2009)

^There you go.  lol. Of course, the class also has different 'levels'- walk/trot, walk/trot/canter, sometimes it's divided by age group, at some shows, Western and English are in the same class. Which I don't really appreciate...but that's another rant.


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## bubblegum (Oct 6, 2009)

wow, we dont have anything like that over here and english riding is all that is taught, so there is pleasure and equitation, thats mad that they dont have it here but they have it a couple thousand miles away.


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## BaliDoll (Sep 21, 2009)

It's also known as Hunter Under Saddle....


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## Haley (Aug 18, 2009)

There's also the giated breed type english pleasure, it's kind of like saddle seat.


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## bubblegum (Oct 6, 2009)

never heard of saddle seat, and are there like competitions in all these things, cause over here it is just dressage and showjumping, showing and different breeds.


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## kchfuller (Feb 1, 2008)

Equitation is judged on the rider

Under Saddle is on the horse

Pleasure is a mix of both... normally a slow low gate, but not as slow and low as western pleasure but it is supposed to be a horse that doesn't look hard to ride and a rider who isn't working hard and enjoying themselves.


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## bubblegum (Oct 6, 2009)

great, ha still getting used to gait and stuff, its all different lingo on here so its taking me a while to understand it have to keep googling what ye mean. ill get there but i truely never realised how many different types of english riding there was in america, and that they dont even do those classes in england or ireland


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## kchfuller (Feb 1, 2008)

no prob- ask away thats the only way you are going to learn


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## Lobelia Overhill (Nov 3, 2009)

bubblegum said:


> I have ridden english all my life and i have never heard of the term english pleasure, i know of dressage and show jumping, thats about all that goes on here and maybe the odd hack although i have never seen anyone around me going for a hack.


Simplest way to explain it is it's a type of showing class, like a ridden hunter, or working hunter class, the judging is slightly different than at showing classes over here, they use slightly different tack - I think I'm right in saying that in America they use standing martingales in equitation classes, whereas you wouldn't here.




bubblegum said:


> great, ha still getting used to gait and stuff, its all different lingo on here so its taking me a while to understand it have to keep googling what ye mean. ill get there but i truely never realised how many different types of english riding there was in america, and that they dont even do those classes in england or ireland


There are showing classes in North America for the breeds that have 'extra' gaits beyond the usual walk, trot and canter - that you wouldn't see over here cos we don't have those breeds or ride like that


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## coffeemama (Jul 10, 2009)

BaliDoll said:


> It's also known as Hunter Under Saddle....


Ah ha, hunter under saddle equals english pleasure. I always wondered that, too. Thank you glad I read this.


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