Last night my daughter and I went to the
fairgrounds to watch the local Lion's Club horse show. This was basically a
gaited horse show(western NC seems to be bigtime walking horse
country) although we did see a couple of QH's and there western riders
waiting to show. My daughter was aghast(and frankly so was I) at watching the
walkers. Those huge pads, the chains and the unnatural gait. Reaching so high
with their front legs and looking like they were trying to crawl with their hind
legs. Whips, spurs, expressions on horses faces which did not look like they
were having fun. We couldn't stay much longer than 20 minutes. Couldn't take it.
I just started using a bitless bridle recently and
am amazed at how responsive my horse is to it. He is generally a calm guy anyway
but it takes very little pressure to get him to respond with this thing. It will
be interesting when we go to a ride and see how he does at the
starts.
