Moving Forward
The Push to Return Western Pleasure to its Roots
By Lisa Broadwater

Remember when the Western Pleasure horse was a true pleasure to ride (not to mention, to watch) — back when the goal was to present a relaxed, quietly responsive horse with a willing, confident demeanor and the most pleasing, comfortable gaits possible?
Linda Norton-Neely does. An AQHA-certified judge for the past two decades, Norton-Neely competed extensively in the '70s (as did both of her daughters).
"Back then, the ideal Pleasure horse was a very natural, very comfortable riding horse — one that was very responsive, one that was well-broke, and one that you could go out and ride 'most anywhere and it would be a pleasure to ride. "
In those days, Western Pleasure was primarily a foundation class — a stepping stone to other show classes and a way to get a young ranch-type horse accustomed to the ring. The idea was to present a horse who was alert and interested, who carried his neck and head relaxed (which meant a fairly level topline) and who had a consistent, even rhythm to his strides — which included a flat, natural, ground-covering walk; a flat, natural, ground-covering, two-beat jog; and a smooth, low-key, three-beat lope.
That was before the so-called "peanut roller" — a horse who carries his head so low he could push a peanut along the ground with his muzzle — rolled into town. What should have been a passing fad instead became an industry-altering phenomenon.
"It came on pretty fast, about eight to 10 years ago, if not a little before," Norton-Neely recalls. "A couple of the big-name riders happened to win with a horse's head that was low, low, low."
The next thing you knew, everyone was focused on the ground. And within time, "low" wasn't good enough. "Low and slow" became the order of the day. In arenas all across the country, peanut rollers began to ride the rail at an unnaturally slow gait — one in which the horse barely made any forward progress at all, even at a lope.
"They got to thinking that slow was winning everything, so slower must be better," Norton-Neely says. "It's been coming on for the past four or five years. And it's reached the point where they've gotten them so slow they look robotic. And it's totally unnatural."
Norton-Neely's main pet peeve: the lethargic, intimidated-looking horse with a very low head set, whose ears are back and nose is behind the vertical.
"They've just gotten to the point where it's ridiculous," she says.
The profile of the peanut roller isn't the only thing that's evolved over the years, however.
"Yes, the head sets have gotten lower and the horses have gotten slower and we’ve gotten a little further away from the more natural-type horses. But we’ve also started breeding the horses considerably different," says trainer Carol Jones, who has competed in Western Pleasure since the '70s. "These horses are now bred to go slow and to put their head down. So the idea of the peanut roller as something that’s an entirely trained thing isn’t altogether true.
"And the body style is considerably different than it has ever been. It seems to go in cycles, from the taller, lankier horses to the short, stocky horses that are more capable of staying collected and going considerably slower. Obviously, they have a shorter stride because they tend to be not nearly as tall. That’s one of the biggest things."

Changing Times
As the breeding has been refined, the competition has gotten stiffer and the pressure to win more intense.
"Absolutely," Jones says. "The idea that you can take any horse and make them walk, trot and lope around on the rail is a thing of the past. You take a horse that was winning 10 years ago, and the likelihood of being able to get anything done with him now is slim to none because the style has changed in terms of how these horses are bred and what we’re asking them to do.
"There’s also a considerably different method of training now than there ever has been. We’re working the horses more off the spur. We teach them that when we close our leg or our spur on them, they lower their head and drop down and go slow. So it's much more off the leg than it ever has been; it doesn’t have nearly as much to do with just pulling on their head. That does make a lot of difference."
The increasingly competitive nature of the event has taken a toll on the horses, too.
"There are trainers who feel enough pressure to win that when they have a horse that is maybe not as talented as some of the others they’re riding, they begin to feel forced to go to some more extreme measures," Jones says. “Of course, that’s not something the industry talks much about. Nobody wants to discuss the fact that it’s happening, but there are people being suspended it for it.”
"When a horse looks intimidated, it usually is," says Norton-Neely, who says she can easily spot a mistreated horse and won't place it.
For example, "They started getting these horses emaciated, with less feed, so they didn't have the energy to go very fast," she says. "And some would draw blood out of the horse the night before to bring the energy level down. And a lot have used drugs."
Then there's the use of fishing line to lower the head set.
"They tie the neck down between the legs on the girth and force the neck down until the horse quits resisting it," Norton-Neely explains. "It's just like a person: If you get sore, you move away from that.
"But, finally, the head has started coming back up — thank goodness," she adds. "Then they started getting so slow that they're out of cadence. They just look lame.
"I don't know why they can't look at all the videos that they take of their horses and see that it would be better to up the speed a hair. Sometimes that's all it would take — just a little bit faster and their horse could get in the cadence and balance that shows the horse to the best of their ability. I don't know whether they can't see it or they don't realize it or they don't want to admit it."
Actually, with the shift to slower-moving horses has come a number of problems (in addition to horses that appear unhappy, lethargic or intimidated)— horses that trot in front and walk behind, horses that four-beat at the lope (which Norton-Neely calls "troping," for loping in front and trotting behind); horses that travel with the hip turned so far to the inside that they practically move sideways.
In short, horses that don't move remotely as they were built to move. Horses that, in principle, are the antithesis of the ideal Pleasure horse.
Consider, for example, the horse who travels to the inside.
"It’s an attempt to get away from a horse that four-beats," Jones explains. "If you let a horse go completely straight down the rail and go as slow as these horses are going, they’re going to four-beat. This is a way to get these horses really, really pushed around and their belly up where their back will stay up for you.
"But it’s very, very, very unnatural for these horses. When you watch a horse loping across a pasture, he doesn’t lope with his hip well to the lead-side leg. So these horses that are going sideways down the rail as they lope with their head eight inches below level need to be penalized."
And, in fact, horses that move too slowly or unnaturally are being penalized, according to Norton-Neely.
"We're all trying to get this straightened out," she says of her judging peers. "I've stopped a class a couple of times and have said I wanted to see a bit more forward motion. And some of them look so much better, it's unreal.
"I think we all started cracking down enough last year and this year that maybe they're going to get the idea that we're not going to use those type of horses. I hope so, anyway."
So does Jones.
"The trainers are at the mercy of the judges," she says. "Because if that’s what the judges are placing, then that’s what my customers demand. I don’t have a choice. It’s not as if I can say, ‘Well, I like it this way; that’s what I’m gonna ride for.' Obviously, my clients don’t come to my training facility to take second place or fifth place — or not place.
"So when I take a horse in the ring that goes in and goes around faster with his head up and the judges don’t use him, then I have to come home and work on him and make sure that’s not what happens next time."
Granted, the shift back to a more natural, free-flowing Pleasure horse won't happen overnight.
"I do think the industry as a whole is making a reasonable attempt to change things around," Jones says. "But I never see the Quarter horse with the head back up. I see them being at least level, but that’s as far as it’s gonna go. I think the profile of these horses is going to continue to be a straight topline all the way across.
"But if the judges will continue to penalize horses that are well below level and that are crawling along at a snail’s pace with the hip way too far to the inside, then we'll begin to see a change in the industry."
"It all goes back to, 'What would you like to ride?' " Norton-Neely says. "I think a lot of people have forgotten that."