Horse Riding

[Toes]

Not usually American riding, but wow, this girl CAN ride

[Toes]

Not usually **into**

[woofgang]

Hmm...I wish she hadn't done it in spurs or kicked the horse's legs into the bow and there was some unhappy body language from the horse there.

[icemaiden]

My daughter and I do western riding. We have a great trainer that teaches us to ride the horse first without a saddle and bridle. It teaches us to control the horse using weight distribution and leg aids rather than pulling on the reins like you see so many english riders do.
Western riding is so much kinder to the horse than english riding.Would never go back to English riding again.

We also do Parrelli work with the horses. Looks like this girl here does a lot of that too.

[icemaiden]

Oh and we never use spurs.

[Charity]

Cruel

[Bambiagain]

Toes is right - the girl can ride. And the horse is obviously very well trained. I ride Western nowadays, having ridden "English" as they say around her for nearly 50 years. Being the age I am, and not as supple as I might once have been, I prefer a saddle and bridle, although I ride without a bit most of the time. As far as spurs are concerned, used properly they are not cruel - in fact a small touch with a spur is better than kick, kick, kick all the time and a lot of horses respond better to a gently used spur thatn to kicking. However, I have only ever used blunt spurs, not the American style spiky wheel things seen in this clip. To be fair there is no sign that she is mis-using them - given the length of her leg in relation to the size of the horse, all she needs to do is lift her heel slightly and touch the horse's side, which wouldn't hurt.

[woofgang]

yes but there was a lot of tail swishing and ears back flat and not relaxed, I was taught that these were both signs of an unhappy horse. I didn't like to see her shoving (wont say kicking again but it verged) the horse"s legs into position for the bow.

[Toes]

I do not ride Western at all, but I still maintain the "girl can ride". I have 4 horses and ride daily, wonder how many of the answerees do!!!!

[Bambiagain]

I've just watched the clip again to check! Apart from wearing spurs, she wasn't able to hurt the horse in any way since there were no reins to pull on, so although I agree that there was some tail swishing and the ears were back some of the time it looked more to me like a reaction to the noise the crowd were making. The horse didn't have its ears laid flat back most of the time, which would show discomfort, but half back displaying attention. (Owner of one horse, rides most days).

[Toes]

Yep, I'm with you Bambi x

[Bambiagain]

Just wish my horse was as well schooled and as amenable as this one! But her tail swishing today was due to horse flies - nasty things.

[Toes]

My geldings don't "swish" much, but every mare I've ever had (including the one I have now), is permanantly a bit cross with life, lol and will swish her tail sometimes. Well we all know where the term "nightmare" comes from, and I've owned most of them!!!!!

The horse in the vid is called Wizards Baby Doll, so its a good guess that she's a mare, nuff said.

[Bambiagain]

Agreed. My mare is also in season, which doeasn'T help!

[woofgang]

I used to ride a lot till I did my knee and had to give up. She can't hurt the horse in the ring but who knows what the training has been like?