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Post by rideanotherday on Mar 15, 2016 16:41:41 GMT
www.eurodressage.com/equestrian/2015/05/21/classical-training-putting-your-horse-bitThis is another article discussing what "on the bit" means. I will call out a particular quote from early in the article, since I feel that it sums things up quite well. ...Nuno Oliveria summed it up pretty nicely when he said that, “putting the horse on the bit means feeling that the poll flexes, the back rises, the haunches become active."... Notice that there is no mention of breed being necessary for any of this. It may *look* different on any particular breed and for some breeds it may be more appealing to the eye, but eye appeal is does not necessarily equate to correctness. If that were the case, people would not be so drawn to the emphasis of "head set". Let me edit that last sentence...grammar helps. Sorry folks. If eye appeal equated to correctness, then focusing on headset would make sense. We all agree that headset does not necessarily equal on the bit. It "looks" similar, but looking isn't everything. There's so much more to self-carriage.
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Post by horseguy on Mar 15, 2016 18:17:08 GMT
Nothing remotely like this would happen in a European Warmblood breed. America is very different. Our Federation has something like 40 disciplines and breed members, all of which have different standards for judging horses and riders. It's "suit yourself" taken to the level of absurdity. Likewise, the American equine breed organizations have wildly different standards not only between each other but also within their organizations. Chaos really. So, any hope of an American breed achieving the domination as the Warmbloods have at this point is hopeless. Also, I mentioned before that the Warmblood breeders have managed to achieve a monopoly on the "acceptable look in dressage" through rule ca=hanges and somehow controlling fashion. The diagram below demonstrates one rule change that has aided the Warmblood breeders. Riding with the rider's body behind the vertical was once scored as a flaw (note red X). Now 5 degrees behind vertical as shown at the left is acceptable. It is my belief that this rule change benifited Warmblood sales and domination of dressage by facilitating smaller women in riding wide backed Warmbloods. The 5 degree backward lean permits smaller hipped riders to balance and get some level of seat bone application, whereas a true vertical position places these riders more on their forward pelvic bone and that makes riding a wide backed horse more challenging. Wonderful marketing decision, awful horsemanship choice, but "you gotta have a Warmblood" to win, so live with it.
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Post by rideanotherday on Mar 15, 2016 18:28:54 GMT
Riding with the rider's body behind the vertical was once scored as a flaw (note red X). Now 5 degrees behind vertical as shown at the left is acceptable. It is my belief that this rule change benifited Warmblood sales and domination of dressage by facilitating smaller women in riding wide backed Warmbloods. The 5 degree backward lean permits smaller hipped riders to balance and get some level of seat bone application, whereas a true vertical position places these riders more on their forward pelvic bone and that makes riding a wide backed horse more challenging. Wonderful marketing decision, awful horsemanship choice, but "you gotta have a Warmblood" to win, so live with it. This is one advantage of being relatively tall. Leaning isn't necessary. I guess I can thank my genetic make up for that as well. I guess I missed the part of the discussion where winning was the discussion. I thought we were talking about what on the bit is from a correct standpoint. I agree that as things are right now, to win in the dressage pen riding a warmblood is certainly helpful.
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Post by horseguy on Mar 15, 2016 18:54:37 GMT
"you gotta have a Warmblood" to win, so live with it. I guess I missed the part of the discussion where winning was the discussion. I thought we were talking about what on the bit is from a correct standpoint. My "you gotta have a Warmblood to win" comment was an expression of my cynical sense of humor. One of the big problems with the internet is that a sense of humor as refined and incisive as mine is often lost here.
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Post by rideanotherday on Mar 16, 2016 12:27:53 GMT
I guess I missed the part of the discussion where winning was the discussion. I thought we were talking about what on the bit is from a correct standpoint. My "you gotta have a Warmblood to win" comment was an expression of my cynical sense of humor. One of the big problems with the internet is that a sense of humor as refined and incisive as mine is often lost here. When communicating solely via the written word such as on this site...emoticons / smileys are your friend if you want anyone to be in on the joke. =) I tend to be really literal, so without cues to let me know that a joke is in play I will miss it.
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