26 Love Thy horse Magazine
Western riding, like dressage has a lot of different aspects of riding. The dress code is uniquely western, cowboy hats and boots. The saddle is western but can come in a lot of different styles. (Pleasure, cutting, reining and the wade saddle)
Because reining is sometimes called western dressage I wonder if that explains why we see so much roll cur and horses that hide from the bit at a reining show. After watching a well-ridden horse they sure are easy to spot.
I guess we have all seen well ridden horses and poorly ridden horses at all discipline shows but one thing all have in common is that most are doing their best within the guidelines of their discipline with the education available to them.
I tend to use a large amount of classical training techniques as well as the so called natural principles to train my horses to do and do well the dressage, reining, roping and cattle work as well as bridle-less riding that my wife and I like to do. I have noticed that when your horse gets more advanced in your chosen field, if your chosen style of foundation training is good you won’t see much difference between well trained horses. Lets face it all disciplines at a high level are looking for a horse that is flexible, soft in your hands and soft off your legs and emotionally well balanced enough to handle competition pressure. Isn’t it interesting that a well-trained horse is usually quiet, but a (use the word loosely) “quiet” horse is not always well trained. I wonder at the definition of quiet. Maybe lazy is a better word.
From my experience most riding styles use the same basic principles, if they are not used, I think it is the fault of the individual usually trying to cut corners. I like to think that if I changed my hat I could do a fair to good job with my horse in any discipline.
I also think it’s healthy for your horse and the horse industry to be a multi-event rider and it will help us see more points of view and appreciate the good points. The masters of all fields believed that by understanding biomechanics and physics you should be able to ride without any contraction or brace in the horse.
Good luck with your endeavors and let your horse keep his dignity.