Tuesday, June 2, 2009
First before I start this post Iwould like say that it is not a “negative” post on AQHA. This ridingfault is common through out the world of stock horses, so APHA, and ApHC judges, exhibitors, and trainers are just as guilty. Also I want to mention that this is my opinion based on showing in the breed circuit for 11 years, showing horses for 24 years and owning and riding horses for a lifetime. I am not a trainer, nor a judge – I have been schooled in English/Dressage style and Western Riding, but I am not an expert so I am going to show you what’s going on from an amateur exhibitors point of view. On that note - I was once spunky and a "know-it-all" when I was younger, but as I have grown-up I have realized how little I really know. And now these kids come online and preach EQUINE like they are God’s gift to the Horse Show Industry really get on my darn nerves. I have no problem listening to everyone’s opinion on this subject – but it’s just that, an opinion, unless you have proof that you practice what you preach and it works. This usually equates to wins in major show pens using your training and riding techniques - and NO “….but the judges don’t know how to see true collection therefore they are judging it wrong!” is not an excuse for lack your of show ring accomplishments. Also I know there are exceptions to this post – not all Western Pleasure horses are over-canted I see several nice movers that are slow, collected and balanced movers that track correctly at each show –sometimes they win and sometimes they don’t. The reason why I am posting this is that there are far more horses doing this now than ever before– and I want people to know what being over-canted is and is not.
(deep breath and big sigh) – Moving On….I am often asked what being “over-canted” is. Being over-canted most frequently happens at the lope it is when a horse is moving down alongthe rail of the arena with it’s hip pushed to the inside, this is often accompanied with the front end bunched up or also pushed toward the inside so that the horse often looks like a crab slowly but laboriously hop-loping down the rail.
This "way of going" started out as people used their outside leg to slight push their horse’s hips in. This seemed to encourage the horse to take a bigger step behind
(with it’s “second lope step” or what I call the “balance leg”). It’s the hind leg you see reach deep up underneath all well collected movers. And even if the horse wasn’t actually stepping any deeper (
which was often the case when this first started) because they’ve changed the track of the hind end of the horse it "appeared" to be loping deeper behind.The problem is that you can’t achieve true collection simply by pushing a horses “hip over”...........so like in most cases, people copied what they saw winning in the show pen without truly understanding it and ran with it.
Being “over-canted” is not: an attempt to slow the horses forward motion by angling the horse towards the rail. That’s what I hear people say alot and it is so not true. It was an attempt at collection gone astray….
Over-canting
(that may not be a real word but I am going to use it anyway) is most easily seen when looking at a horse from behind or as the horseis traveling straight at you. When viewed from the side it’s moredifficult to spot
(not impossible just more difficult).
Alot of trainers today are saying that horses no longer over-canted at the lope and that they’ve corrected the movement – watch the video and judge for yourself.
Youtube Video - Click HereThey have corrected most of the crab lopers – but what they don’t understandis that a horse that is massively “hipped over” is also over-canted. If you think these horses look like crabs you obvisously did not see what they looked like 5-7 years ago - this is much improved (not all the way improved - but some improved).
If your horse’s hip is pushed slightly inside exhibiting true collection and balance that’s fine – but when your horse is pushed over to this extreme – not so fine. This footage was taken Spring 2009 before April at an AQHA sanctioned show. This is a Green Horse Western Pleasure Class and a Jr. Western Pleasure Class – these are all trainers except for two people.
This is not a case of horses being forced to do something they are not bred or built for - these horses are bred to the hilt to be WP horses and have the correct build and talent for it - these horses are being ridden and trained to do this on purpose because that is what's winning. Also these horses did not start out loping this way and then straighten(sp?) up they continued loping with their hips push way too far in until the next gait was called for as you can see in this video.
I feel a Jeff Foxworthy moment coming on….- If your horse's front and back feet on traveling on two separate tracks….. yooooouuuu may be over-canted.
- If your horse's butt is more than a foot to the inside of it’s withers….. yooooouuuu maybe over-canted.
- If your horse has to hop with it’s front end to achieve forward motion despite it’s hips being pushed 70 degrees to the inside…….. yooooouuuumay be over-canted.
- If your horse has to almost toss it’s head out in front of itself to maintain it’s gait…..yooooouuuu may be over-canted.
- If you can clearly see your horse’s entire tail…….yyyoooooouuuu may be over-canted.
Now, if you have a horse that is truly collected it can do this for a time and not hop or bob it’s head. But what is even prettier is when a horse is collected, balanced and it is tracking straight.
AQHA once modified they way they officially called shows to stop the “ultra slow lope thing” the call for a lope now includes
“Lope please. Lope your horses with increased forward motion” I would like to see them call for a "
Straight Tracked Lope". Do the class like usually and then make that call….HA! I know quite afew high dollar horses that would fall apart if their rider wasn’t constantly driving their hip into the inside of the arena. The ones that could hold it together, not speed up, not lose the amount of collection they had and start bobbing their heads and getting strung out in the process, should win or at least place higer.
Alright – here is the other side.When you train a horse like that – to be hipped over they will start to do it on their own without any help from the rider whenever they lope. Stretch will even do it in the round pen with no one on him I have to consciously straighten him out sometimes. Horses are not being “forced”to do this – they have been trained humanely to do it. We’ve said to them, “lope like this” and so they do. No abuse is required to achieve this movement – it is still winning in the show pens and until it stops winning all together
trainers will continue to train for it.
As a rider (especially a novice rider) it can be difficult to tell how far in you have your horse hipped over. Lots of riders sit up there and do exactly what their trainers tell them to do and put very little thought into it
(I am not an exception). It takes years to learn what a nice collected slow lope feels like andto how ask your horse to do it – it takes another level of familiarity to be able to know when your horse is hipped over to far. A lot of amateur breed-show riders never own a horse long enough or ride their own horses enough to get that familiar with them.
Judges have to declare a winner – if everyone in the class is doing to it they have to award the class to someone – being over-canted is not a disqualification in the AQHA handbook. Just because you win a class does NOT mean you are good or that your horse is a good mover. It can just mean you were doing the least amount of things wrong at that time.
Still correcting this problem will require judges to place the “correctly moving horse” over the “prettiest moving horse” this is something not all judges are currently willing to do. If you have a horse loping around in the show pen that is really slow legged, pretty in the front and super deep behind, but is hipped over too far – it’s hard to not use that horse, especially when the horse is moving so pretty despite the fact that it is hipped over too far. Also people get angry when the horse they think should win a western pleasure class (
the prettiest mover) doesn’t – it’s like whacking the beehive with a stick – unless all the judges do it, there is little point in taking that stand. It has to bean industry wide movement.
And that would be my
suggestion for a solution. I am in the process of writing my local AQHA leaders and offering my suggestion because it would be nice improvement to the pleasure horseworld. However in reality,
this is not a real big deal. It is not abusive, and it is not causing immediatedamage to horse or rider – it is just an incorrect way of trying to achieve collection. There are far more pressing issues for AQHAand APHA and ApHC to deal with, so I don’t expect this to be a high priority – and who knows, as we all grow and learn as an industry the problem may even self-correct.
I also don't believe this "way of going" is the cause of all the lameness issues we've been having with WP horses. It probably doesn't help - but there are far too many conformation faults creeping into the WP horse (because the WP breeders - like all other sport horse breeders - breed what wins, because it wins, not because it has outstanding conformation) and too many issues from horses being ridden too young to blame it all on horses being loped "over-canted".
I am, however, happy to say, at least that the horse in the video above that is the least “hipped over” won the class under one judge and placed second under the other - and repeated the placings in the second class...
