...
But still pretty good. The half passes and leg yields don't have enough forward motion. Too much slo-mo on the trots. Can't decide between a pirouette and a spin. Can't sustain the patterns of flying changes. Rider's way too loose in the saddle and usually leaning too hard on the bit. Getting just a little too into the fancy transitions and doesn't give the horse a chance to balance and collect his wits. But it's very cowboy and sort of dressage.
If you watch bullfighting on horses, you can see all the moves you see in the dressage arena, and the classic stock horse moves thrown in. I've seen stock horses plant a back foot and spin so fast you get seasick watching. The horses here show they can do nice tight pirouettes, but he either switches into a spin or flies off on an almost completely sideways half pass so fast you never really get to know.
My point is: Racing aside, whatever style of riding, whatever you do, the better basis in dressage, the better the horse will do. I saw Tyler beat the living snot out of world class competition in Open Jumping a thousand years ago. It was down to a timed jump-off and the course was made so weird it was a total bitch. At one point, two seven-foot jumps right next to each other needed to be taken in succession, but this pretty much demanded you circle another jump on the course to get lined up to go back and catch the jump next to the first.
Not Tyler. He clears the one, plants his back foot, spins and clears the other, barely two strides. Not only did this shave off many seconds but he cleared all the fences clean... all the way through a weeklong event. Multiple jump-offs every night. The number one most fabulous jumping horse ever, ever, ever, and carrying a great big lunk over all those jumps.
Most people don't realize how carefully one needs to plot their way around a jumping course. Looks almost to be point and click, but if your horse's stride cannot be modulated appropriately you will be running through the obstacles or refusing them, depending on personality. Dressage. That's dressage. If the horse doesn't have that basis, you can't win against one who does.
I'm thinking here that this fellow is more pride than horsemanship, but it's obvious he loves his horses too.
always and any time....
