Help??? Western Pleasure & Barrels!

[Ellie May]

Howdy,
I'm tryin' to start my QH in western pleasure & I've started on barrels. I want to start showing this summer (hopefully). Can anybody out there help me?
Ellie May
Also can a Tennessee Walker be in western pleasure?

 

[Anonymous]

depends, just how tough is the competition in your area and how bad do you want to win. ride the classes and get the experience but around here the competition is so feirce that most west. pleas horses just don't contest well. and vice versa.. here in N ohio @ 4h show you can show anything but judging in pleasure classes are usualy in front of QH judges. and gaming horses are running other circuts. Don't let the specialists get you down, learn the basics,& have some fun.

 

[TheBullLady]

Those are two completely different disciplines.. I wouldn't confuse the training by trying to do them both. I would figure out which is more suited to your horse, and work on that.

It depends on the shows you go to. Generally it will be hard to show a Tennessee Walker against QH's, Apps, Paints, etc., that have a more "western pleasure" way of moving.

 

[Ellie May]

Yeah alot of people have told I won't be able to do both & it confuses the horse. I can't really figure out which one she does better at because I don't know alot about western pleasure, and she seems to do good with barrels but she needs more speed & not to be so hard headed. Down here in Tennessee some of the shows don't really even care what you wear others are really strict. I just wanna learn how to do it (western pleasure & barrels) as well as I can. I don't really care about winning. And so far what I know about western pleasure is first you walk them around the ring, then you get them into a trot, then slow them down, pull them in the middle, back them up. She does all that. When she trots though is she suppose to have her head down? Any advice will be of help to me.
Thank you,
Ellie May

 

[TheBullLady]

Yes... in western pleasure your horse needs to have a low, relaxed head set.. you ride western pleasure "on the buckle"

 

[Ellie May]

What should I do to keep her head down?
Ellie May