I go to a certain Saddlebred show at the Red Mile every year for at least one night because I obviously forget how upset it makes me. Saddlebreds are an athletic, kind and magnificent breed that will make you stop midstride to watch them go by. So why do people have to f up their natural beauty with tail sets, overchecks, padded shoes, tongue ties, severe bits and frantic riding and driving styles. No one looks happy...so what is the point of it all.
This being said, I tried to look past the disturbing stuff and focus on the horses that did make me stop and smile; there were a few. And those few were really nice to watch. The rides appeared effortless and smooth. The horses understood their job and did it well. When these horses are not spastically whizing around looking like the devil is after them they are quite stunning. There is a picture of 5 Gaited Champion that is now showing in CDEs at the Intermediate level a bit further down in the site...Metamora CDE. Look at his reach!
A lot of the Spokes and Spurs group was there to see the Coaching class which had 2 beautiful turnouts.
I was going to stop but I can't help myself and so I'm going to continue with my rant.
I snapped a mouth closeup of a horse that won it's class..but I won't post it because it's too ugly. I had noticed the horse prior to his win not for his show presence, but for the disturbing way he looked.
- The overcheck kept his head up.
- The tongue tie did I'm not sure what other than limit his ability to flap it all over the place in frustration because the tight noseband kept him from opening and avoiding the chaos in his mouth.
- The twisted half cheek bit with running martingale and reins with loops for leverage kept his head down as low as the overcheck would allow.
- His head was cranked so hard to the outside through the whole class that the pull on the bit made his mouth gap enough to see the full spectrum of hardware in there.
- Padded shoes with metal bands to hold them on.
- Set Tail
Things I saw in most of the horses that were upsetting.
- Set Tails-requires tail set (medieval looking thing) and sometimes stalls with tail boards around them to keep them from rubbing.
- Padded shoes
- A lot of unhappy eyes
- One guy kept whipping the hell out of his horse through the whole class...and I just realized that this was a USET event!
Anyone that owns a horse can probably be criticized to some degree for the stuff we ask them to do and all disciplines have their bad eggs but it will be a good day when we stop physically altering the natural presentation of the animals in our lives...chopped dog ears and tails, chopped horse tails, padded shoes, etc. I'm sure there are many, many sides to all of this but this is my website so this is where I get to post my thoughts...more than willing to listen to others views though. :-)
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Erin K
said:
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... I heard from someone that was in the barns working at this show and saw this post. I can only hope that this industry will one day reevaluate it's practices. |
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