AQHA: Uniform Medication, Welfare Rules for Western Performance Across Breed and Sport Lines May Be Possible

9 November 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog at Hoofcare.com

The American Quarter Horse Association reported today that western breed and sport industry alliance partners reached a general consensus involving humane treatment and equine welfare during a meeting October 20 and 21 at the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame & Museum in Amarillo, Texas.

Attendees included representatives from the American Quarter Horse Association, United States Equestrian Federation, American Association of Equine Practitioners, National Cutting Horse Association, National Snaffle Bit Association, National Reining Horse Association, National Reined Cow Horse Association, United States Team Penning Association, American Paint Horse Association and Equine Canada.

“Never before have so many leaders in the performance-horse disciplines gotten together to seriously discuss medication and animal welfare in relation to our events,” said Gary Carpenter, AQHA's executive director of breed integrity and animal welfare. “In-depth discussions led to a good, overall agreement on these vital subjects and the direction we need to go in the future.”

Meeting participants discussed the merits of developing a uniform therapeutic medications program and humane treatment policies that could be adopted by all of the groups involved. Executive directors from these associations scheduled a follow-up meeting for January 2010.

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GAIT ANALYSIS: Western Pleasure Show Classes Under Scrutiny for Gait Anomalies

A meeting in Dallas in September, jointly hosted by American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) and National Snaffle Bit Association (NSBA), invited the top 100 riders from NSBA, the top 10 riders from open Western Pleasure at AQHA’s World Championship Show from the past three years and a team of judges who specialize in western pleasure.

They took the classes apart and looked at the equitation, the judging rules and especially the gaits and movement and speed of the horses in the ring. A special sub-committee is now working on a video to educate the entire industry on the specifics of Western Pleasure horse movement.

Some of the points to be covered in the video include:

• Placing more emphasis on judging the walk and using the video to educate exhibitors on improving the walk.
• Finding a balance for the amount of time spent judging the jog and the moderate extension of the jog.
• Addressing the head-bob at the lope, why it occurs and ways to avoid or correct it. This included educating exhibitors on lengthening their horse’s stride versus shorter, manmade strides; addressing the importance of conformation and what movements certain horses are physically capable of; and reassuring exhibitors that it is OK to show off the rail and that passing another horse can give exhibitors an opportunity to demonstrate their horsemanship, and show their horse’s ability to guide while maintaining an even cadence and consistent performance
• Educating rank-in-file members and beginning western pleasure competitors on the positive and negative characteristics of western pleasure horses, and on how the discipline continues to improve.
• Additional education for judges and continuing to push for and establish industry standards.
• Varying the gait calls to make it more interesting for horses, exhibitors and spectators.

As far as I know, this is the first time that the head-bobbing lope has been mentioned by Western Pleasure officials. What they describe as "manmade gaits" will confuse readers who are not familiar with this type of showing. How a horse can win a blue ribbon for a head-bobbing lope is something that takes a bit of getting used to, and video will be the best way to get the message across, surely.

For the uninitiated, this sport also has a unique training phenomenon called the "spur stop" or even rating the horse by leg pressure so that the reins don't have to be shortened.

(Sorry, I know that is not a very accurate description. The video should explain the logic behind the spur stop. The absolute perfect cadence of these horses is a script that must be followed and trainers have figured out how to achieve it. The result is that a moving horse need not cover much ground.)

Western pleasure survived the "peanut roller" controversy a decade or so ago and the classes only grew larger, so surely this latest revamp will also move things forward and improve the well-being of these horses.

Western Pleasure Gait Analysis: Is this what the rule book ordered?

Traditional definitions of the number of beats in a given gait are being challenged by the unique movement of horses shown in the western pleasure classes at US horse shows.

A new study published in the journal Equine and Comparative Exercise Physiology sheds some light on perhaps why I get so confused when I watch the western pleasure classes at the Quarter Horse Congress.

Our friend Molly Nicodemus PhD, formerly of the McPhail Center at Michigan State College of Veterinary Medicine and now at Mississippi State, and J.E. Booker of Auburn University analyzed a group of western pleasure horses at the jog and lope.

While the paper contains a lot of information, it requires a bit of reading between the lines. It tells you what a western pleasure horse (if the horses tested are typical) does but without comparing it to what other "normal" horses do.

For instance, the study determined that both the jog and lope are four-beat stepping gaits. (A stepping gait is one in which the horse has at least one foot on the ground at all times--think: walk, rack, running walk, fox trot, tolt, paso largo, etc.). The opposite of a stepping gait is a leaping gait, which contains an "aerial" phase when no limb is in contact with the ground--think: trot. piaffe, gallop.)

Gait analysis has shown pretty reliably that the trot is a two-beat leaping gait and the canter is a three-beat leaping gait.

In her book The Dynamic Horse, Dr. Hilary Clayton describes the western pleasure jog as a symmetrical two-beat stepping with a high degree of collection (what trainers call "being in the frame" and what makes it look, to the uneducated spectator, like the horses are trotting in place and will never get all the way around the arena.)

Does the new research mean that the jog and lope are variations of the walk?

The American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), which also defines the jog as a "smooth, ground-covering two-beat diagonal gait", recently changed the judging standards for western pleasure classes: "The horse (in the jog) works from one pair of diagonals to the other pair. The jog should be square, balanced and with straight, forward movement of the feet. Horses walking with their back feet and trotting in the front are not considered performing the required gait."

Also from the AQHA: "The lope is an easy, rhythmical three-beat gait....Horses traveling at a four-beat gait are not considered to be performing at a proper lope."

The AQHA obviously believes that corrrectly-performing Western Pleasure horses are exhibiting aerial gaits; Molly Nicodemus' paper documents that the horses she tested are not in compliance with AQHA standards.

Here's a confusing sentence from the AQHA rulebook: "Lope with forward motion will become the only gait recognized as a lope." Can a horse lope without making forward motion? That's one for a gait analysis project...

Not too many years ago, Hilary Clayton's gait analysis showed that medal-winning FEI dressage horses were not performing movements as prescribed in the stone tablets of dressage judging standards. The canter pirouette, in particular, and the piaffe were found to be quite different than believed.

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