Western Pleasure vs The Naturals

The internet horse world has been in a frenzy over the release of this video showing one round of the Western Pleasure Class at Quarter Horse Congress.

Comments ranged from, "Those horses look lame" to "You people don't understand anything about western" all the way over to "Abuse! Those poor horses are terribly abused."

The most common theme was 'unnatural'.

Out riding Czech in the pasture this morning I got to thinking on just what natural means. How far back do we go before we agree that time and place in horse living is normal for all horses? Are we basing everything on the Mustang model, because even they are adapted from the horses earlier than them. Where does it start?

If natural is eating grass all day, over thousands of changing acres, barefoot, and killed by predators and each other over sex disputes, how exactly do we accomplish replicating that with our sport horses?

A Wild Horse on Cumberland I Photographed Last Year

I was riding Czech on a totally loose rein, some would say "naturally" but I promise you toting me and my tack around a field probably wasn't what Czech would do as a wild horse. At least not with the shoes his feet need to stay sound, or with a belly full of high quality feed that gives him a better chance at a longer lifespan, and definitely not as a gelding.

I'm a person who cares about eating somewhat well, should I go back to a natural life and eat raw meat? Scavenging? Is that the measure of natural?

Natural isn't possible. We have changed over years to no longer need an appendix for raw meat and some of our horses have changed to be better suited as a ranch horse.

So, the ongoing argument that the movement is unnatural is dead. Racing isn't natural, jumping either, and dressage people no matter how many times you want to tell me that your horse does dressage movements at liberty- under saddle in that arena, it isn't purely natural. If it was it wouldn't take so long to teach a horse to lift its back.

The other assumption is that it takes abuse to get a horse to perform this way, my answer would be did I abuse Firefly to get this from her or are you seeing a somewhat trained dog? Is her movement natural as she displays her obedience? 

There is abuse in any animal industry, some more than others, but I wouldn't assume that it took abuse to get compliance. (For the record my dog has never so much as seen a choke chain let alone be abused into submission). 

To my eye the western pleasure horses look strange and dull because I prefer to see a horse using itself so I would never choose to ride this type horse or this type event. I also STRONGLY prefer timed performance events over any "judges opinion" event in dogs or horses. History has shown us over and over again that flat classes, conformation/halter classes, etc. produce exaggerated types in time that lose their ability to perform as the foundation stock set out as.

Hopefully now we can get to the real issues like those fake tails, pretty sure those aren't displaying genetic superiority...or training from sound minds... soooo   *grin*