All Around Horses and Riders

Gone are the days when a horse could hit the show pen and do just about every class and place well. The exceptions might be a good performance horse couldn’t halter but he could sure be used in Showmanship, which was judged on the contestant.

Today’s horses are so freakin’ specialized that they are almost robots. I’m against this big time.
One time I almost ruined a great WP (Western Pleasure) horse because I still had the mindset that he could chase a few bovines at the local cow sale to freshen his mind. Turned out, he enjoyed chasing the moo-cows so much more than WP that it took a bit to get his mind back to low and slow. The owner, my client, almost had a heart attack too! But up till that point, I had always ridden just about every horse in any class and if not won it, at least placed well or in the ribbons.

That was the beginning for me to start with the specialized horses. Dull. Dull. Dull.

I think the Ranch Horse Shows should make a big comeback. I know that some breeds are trying this out. I’m all for it. Seems to me, this would show your breed off to the world as having something a bit extra special!

An offshoot of this is the all around rider. Y’know, the one who could show a horse at halter in the morning, saddle the same horse and go into WP, Horsemanship, WR, Reining, Trail, what-have-you that afternoon or however many days it took.

I have tried and/or shown in just about every western class/event you can think of. Yep, I rope too! (I can head with the best of them but never go the timing of heeling down, much to my horse’s consternation…). I’ve tried english but prefer the flat. I don’t like to get off the ground when it comes to Hunters or Jumpers. Tried saddleseat…oh, hell no. Just don’t get that one. Rode in two work races and that was enough for me! Driven a couple of teams and while it was nice, just not an interest of mine but still good to know. I will stick with western till the end of time, thank you. Western is my cuppa tea but if the fat hit the fan, I could ride a flat horse in fairly decent form!

Seems to me, maybe, just maybe if we went back to the all around type horse, we might be able to attract more riders (and their money) into the horse business. We might be able to get kids first interested in plain ol’ riding, then pique their interest in showing or rodeo or ranch work…all with the same horse. They don’t have to go out and buy a different horse for every little thing. Not so daunting. Maybe that’s what is going on anyway but kids/newbies get slotted into the specialized trainers barn and they don’t know what else is out there. So maybe they get bored or soured or don’t know to look (or don’t have the curiosity…) to find out.

On some of my horse boards, I’ve seen where a jumper girl will ‘discover’ cutting and turn her interest there. She never ‘knew’ it was sooooo fun! Or the western reiner ‘discovers’ Dressage in the traditional form. All because they thought outside the box and found new talents, usually by accident too.

If these riders and horses were given a chance to experiment and look around and take a chance on showing the whole works, then there might be a revitalized interest in horses. From there, the logical conclusion might be they go up the food chain, with their money and interest, and enjoy more.

I don’t have it all worked out and know that diversifying will probably hurt some trainer’s livelihoods but seems like it would be worth looking to the past to reclaim our foundation then build from there. A broad base instead of an inverted house of cards. It would be tough, that’s for sure but I think it’d be worth it in the long run.