What is your opinion on this lope.?

Question

http://openrangeonline.com/OpenRangeSite/OpenRange/OpenRange.wmv

Ignore the horse's name, but his credentials are, he has won classes with this lope?

This is rarely seen in the mule shows. I can think of one mule that mayyybe comes close to this, but it wasn't even to this extreme.

I am just interested in others opinions that show and do you do this with yours?

Thanks!

Michaela -- wrong, thanks for playing.....

Answer 1

This is what I see. First the video are from several years ago when this was still the fad. The horse is way to slow and he head is not level, but nearly dragging on the ground. Overtrained and over collected. In his walk, you can see him hesitate with every stride. How is that a pleasure to ride? His jog is good, but again he should have been disqualified, since his ears are below the saddle horn level. Same in the lope. He is traveling at a "pony" speed, not a full grown horse. There is also no contact with the bit, but big draped reins. For some reason the pleasure people think this shows how broke their horses are. One spook and you are going to have a runaway while you are still trying to gather up a mile of rein. I ride my 16.1 hand gelding at a level head set, nose slightly out so he can see where he is going, and with more forward impulsion., and a light contact on the bit. And win plenty over these "hobby horse" (bobs up and down on the same place) types. It used to be that the slowest head dragger won, but I have seen a lot of changes in recent years away from this trend. The judges seem to be moving away from these types and back to what western pleasure started out to be in the first place. A horse that looked like he was a pleasure to ride. Nice, calm, collected, in control, and happy doing it. Not the whipped dog that looks like they are scared to move at all for fear of being yanked back down. JMO

Answer 2

These are what we specialized in back in Texas. We stood the best WP horses in the country, Zippo Pine Bar, Zips Chocolate Chip, Radical Rodder, Hotroddin Zippo and Zippo Award.
He's decently bred, a Good Bar out of a Leaguer mare. As for his action, he loses cadence with the jog, head is below the vertical and the lope is ok but there is too much hock action which can be a result of confirmation, they are bred to have straight upright hocks.. They need poker hocks to get that nice flow going, this horse didn't have it. I'm surprised actually that it won because the AQHA say that the head cannot be below the vertical for more than 4 consecutive strides which this obviously was. I found the jog more appalling than the lope because they should shuffle and this horse just wasn't there, either too slow or too fast.

You can see on this video of Zippo that correct flat kneed action and a lope with forward impulsion. Obviously he's old in this but you can see how that is refined down for the ring.

http://www.zippopinebar.net/video.cfm

Answer 3

I agree that this is disgusting! I do know of a whole group of mules (one "ranch") that comes to shows in CO that travel like this. It is sick IMO that his fastest gate is in reverse! I don't know how the horse can travel so slowly when the rider is constantly bouncing his legs/feet off of his sides. The horse looks VERY uncomfortable in his environment. And didn't we see the horse three years in a row in a snaffle/bosal class. Can't you only show for 2 yrs in a "junior horse" class?
I admit my mule probably has the slowest jog in the state right now, but we can still pass this horse while he's in a Lope! lol

Answer 4

Oh mule, why do you do this to me?? haha

This video shows why I don't like WP. When the anouncer has to tell you to lope with forward motion something is wrong! That is not a lope, that is WP's version of a lope. This just goes to show you how versitle a horse is. To be able to move that uncomfortable, un-naturaly. EEwww. I could not watch all of it. What happened to the natural horse? I can make my horse lope slowly and look 100% better then that funky thing that horse was doing. I will say, I did like the jog. The walking was not walking, it was creeping. Ugghhhh, I just don't get WP.

Answer 5

I personally don't like it. But I am an english rider. I see people at our barn that show western that do this (although I have not seen any of them go that slow). At this point it isn't even a 3 beat gait anymore, it a 4 beat. So how they can classify it as a lope I don't know.. but that is the big thing these days in the show ring.

Answer 6

I watched that vid 3 times. I wouldnt place that horse and heres why. First he is a borderline peanut roller and i thought we got away from that in the 80s. Although its western pleasure hes not following through with his legs and they are just stopping. When he lopes he lopes on the diagnal. He cups himself to one side i am not sure what causes this but its very odd. Hes moving on a straight line but his body is crooked. I would love to know how hes doing that.If anyone has any hints. I have issues with WP classes any way I just dont see these horses being a pleasure to ride partly cause you would have to "lope" all day to keep up with real working horses that are walking.

Answer 7

Well, I think the bay horse that passed him in the Dixie 2004 section had a nicer lope - to get this horse to slow down to that extent they have stuck his head in the fence so he travels horrible when he doesn't have a fence to straighten him out a bit. If you notice in the video if he is on the right lead his head is planted at the fence causing him to travel wierd - to me. The black horse on the last video that was behind him was much straighter. I do not like the way this horse lopes at all but that is just my opinion - they have taught him to do this to slow his lope down and now they have a bigger problem because he can't lope straight on without a fence guide at all.

Answer 8

I'm not a western person at all but that is just insane, even for what WP I've seen. He looks lame, especially on the right lead. Even the horse I know who four beats his canter would leave him in the dust with no trouble, that is definitely no longer a three beat gait either. His trot/jog/whatever was like a shuffle and his walk was so incredibly slow.

I dunno, maybe I'm totally misjudging because I'm used to pushing horses for speed not holding them for slow gaits but that just looks incredibly unnatural and horrible and messy to me. Even at a trot most of the horses I know would pass him so incredibly quickly it's not even funny. Going 'slowly' in a way that gets people yelling that you're not going to make it over even a 2'6 jump around where I ride is five times that speed. I can't believe that would place in anything, that does NOT look like a pleasure to ride.

Answer 9

Unfortunately we have judges that continue to place this movement as winning movements. This lope is what western riders all over the country are striving for....heads buried on the ground and 4 beat gates...the movement is destroyed. I showed western pleasure for a client of mine for two years, and two years was enough that I can not do it again....thankfully I had Dressage and trail horses to ride in order to be sane again!

Answer 10

I couldn't even watch that ALL the way through. I'm not a western pleasure shower and certainly don't claim to know a lot if anythign really about showing WP I used to wehn I was younger some but I turned mainly to barrel racing when i was about 16, but that horses lope to me looked awful. Honestly he looked lame or soemthing. He (to me) does not appear to be tracking well at all. As he starts to lope his hind end swings away from the fence giving him the appearance of traveling forward on a diagonal that is not intentional. I personally don't like what people have trained WP horses to do now days, carry their head so low that they look like they shoudl be pusing up a pile of dirt in front of their nose. I definately don't think i would have placed this horse high on a scorecard based on his lope, even his jog was kind of crappy to me. But like I said I'm not an expert but tyo me he's just wel it's not a nice video. After watching it, had I EVER considered him as a prospect to breed my mare to i think that video wold have cut that thought short in one hell of a heartbeat.


Ugh I just tried to watch some of it again and I can't even stomach it. The horse looks deformed or something. He looks like when he starts off at a lope he has hip problems Good God what have those people done to him??? He looks like he could have been a SUPER nice horse with his build and all but those gaits, can you even call them gaits?????? Arrrrrgggggghhhhh No more video no more video!!!!!! lol
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Paint Pony you couldnt have called him better "hobby horse" looks like he would be better off with wooden "runners" nailed to his feet instead of shoes and stuck in a corner of a kids play room! Rocky Rocky Horsey horsey (as my son used to say on his rocking horse)