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Recently the western pleasure world has seen an uproar on facebook because of some show footage and the following warmup footage:
http://thehorseaholic.com/how-western-pleasure-horses-are-warmed-up-and-why-people-are-sickened/#
Now, I don't know about you guys, but I would say that I think this western way is crueler than the rollkur we see in dressage because at least dressage horses are allowed to move forward (or at least more forward than this) even though their heads are more restricted. I think another major difference seems to be that dressage horses should be returned to a more classical posture for the show ring (which of course, ideally would reflect classical training all the time), whereas these western horses are being rewarded for these broken gaits in the show ring.
Now, I'm not sure I have a true point to this thread, but wanted to stir up some discussion because I find the video truly fascinating and I think it has an interesting parallel to our own rollkur debates. What are your thoughts on this?