Western Pleasure:
It’s Time to Move Forward,
AND STRAIGHTEN THINGS OUT
By Tom Chown and Melinda Davidson from Pleasure-horse.com
Rarely has a discipline received more
criticism throughout its history than
Western Pleasure. From the peanut
pusher headsets of the 60’s and 70’s
to the excessive slowness of the 80’s
and 90’s to the recent criticisms of
horses going sideways today, Western
Pleasure has evolved from a class to
showcase working horses’ ability to
ride comfortably and obediently on the
rail to a specialised event that has been
perfected over the recent years, with
extraordinary breeding and recordsetting purse money. However, one has
to ask why a class that seems basic and
straightforward on the surface, has
become a source for controversy over
the years.
Show Horse Today sat down with renowned trainer, breeder, and three
time NSBA Hall of Fame inductee, Tom
Chown, for his take on the current
state of the Western Pleasure industry,
how far it’s come, and what needs to be
addressed.
“We are in an era where we have bred
the best moving horses in the history
of Western Pleasure, but the current
training methods have taken these
horses and completely torn apart their
natural movement and changed the
way our horses are going,” he explains.
“We’ve gone from movement that is
flowing and natural with true collection,
and self-carriage, to something that is
mechanical and laboured.”
But how did we get to this point? After
years of breeding horses with self
carriage, natural lift, flowing strides,
and level top lines, how did the Western
Pleasure horse become something that
receives so much criticism?
Is it simply a misunderstanding by
out-siders who don’t ‘get’ the discipline,
or is there more to it? We have all
heard many show, and non show people
cringing and even turning their heads
when they see some of the horses in
the Western Pleasure class labouring as
they go down the rail in the show arena.
If these reactions are not enough to
suggest a significant problem with the
current training of the Western Pleasure
horse, simply look at the decrease in
the numbers at mo