Western pleasure

Most stock horse breeds are shown with a style referred to as a "level top line." Their movement is described as "daisy cutting," as they have very little knee action, but their hindquarters are actively engaged and their hocks reach well under the body. They carry their neck nearly level with their withers, and head just slightly in front of vertical, but are to be penalized if their poll is carried lower than their withers. The head and neck move very little at any gait. They are exhibited with little to no bit contact and a loop in the rein. The style used to show these horses is derived from the "Texas" cowboy tradition.

"Saddle type" horses encompass a large group of horse breeds of many sizes and body types that have an arched and high-set neck and naturally greater knee action. They are shown in a style derived from the "California" vaquero cowboy tradition, particularly that of the finished spade bit horse. They are to show with a lightly arched neck, their heads relatively low and tucked to be almost exactly perpendicular to the ground, with horses overflexed or going "behind the bit" to be penalized. Though a self-carried horse is desired, with minimal bit contact and a draped rein visible, this effect is often achieved by use of weighted reins, as by nature they are ridden with somewhat more contact and have more forward motion than the stock type.

Arabian and Morgan horse breeders produce horses specially bred for the western disciplines and offer western pleasure classes that draw large numbers of competitors. Breeds such as the American Saddlebred or Friesian have smaller numbers competing in western competition than other events, but classes are available. Most gaited horses fall into the saddle type category in terms of desired frame and style, though judging criteria for their gaits differs significantly from that of non-gaited breeds.

Another abusive practice that is penalized if discovered is the process of "nerving" the horse's tail. If a horse is bored and irritable, it will express its displeasure by swishing its tail vigorously. Horses who are shown too long and schooled too repetitively can become "ring sour," a term used to describe a horse with a bored, unhappy and irritable manner, and often a ring sour horse will flatten its ears and swish its tail every time it is given a command. Because tail swishing is penalized, some competitors resorted to cutting the nerves in a ring sour horse's tail to prevent the tail from moving. Because this also keeps the horse from brushing away flies, leaving it helpless against biting insects, the practice was quickly banned, and horses with nerved tails are no longer allowed in the show ring. However, some competitors still resort to temporarily numbing the tail with drugs, alcohol injections , or by mechanical means. All methods are illegal if discovered but, as no scars remain, can be difficult to spot. The practice of nerving the tail was less of a problem in breeds where a high-carried tail is a breed trait, though temporarily numbing the tail is not completely unknown even in these breeds.

The sport of western pleasure has been criticized on account of an extremely low head position many judges were favoring in the stock horse breeds, known as the "peanut roller." In this head set, horses carry their heads with the poll far below the level of their withers. This is a problem because it also forced the horse to travel at an extremely slow pace on the "forehand" (carrying too much weight on their front legs instead of rocking it correctly back onto their hind legs). Over long periods of time, moving in this highly artificial frame can cause soundness problems in some horses, and even a sound horse cannot properly bring its hindquarters under its body when traveling forward. This fad and its problems created a poor view of the discipline as a whole, especially by competitors in other equestrian sports.

The industry has adjusted its rules to penalize the "peanut roller" fad, though excessively low head positions are still seen at times. In the USEF, included a requirement that a horse must have its poll no lower than the height of its withers, or, in the case of the AQHA, a rule stating that the ideal gait shall be performed with a "level topline." Additional rules make an extreme headset more difficult by asking exhibitors to extend gaits during a class. In the case of the AQHA, videos were sent out to all licensed judges to demonstrate what was and was not correct, and the materials also made available to the general public.

A current trend seen in nearly all breeds requires a horse to perform with an extremely loose, draped rein at all times. Western pleasure horses have always traveled on a fairly loose rein, but in recent years the visible "drape" in the rein has become exaggerated.[6] However, it requires time, good riding ability, and careful training to correctly teach a horse "self carriage," particularly to slow or stop by responding to only a rider's use of seat position (and sometimes voice) without tightening the reins.[7] Thus, an alternative method of training to slow a horse down without the use of the reins gave rise to a new, highly controversial, technique known as the "spur stop," an unconventional method used by some trainers to train horses to slow down and stop when spur pressure is applied.

Because spur, heel or leg pressure is generally used to ask a horse to go faster, this technique is sometimes referred to by its critics as "riding the brake" and is frowned upon by several major western pleasure sanctioning organizations since at least 2003, when AQHA put out a series of videos on correct and incorrect style and way of going for western pleasure horses, showing a "hit list" of undesirable traits not to be rewarded in the show ring, with the spur stop leading the list.[8]

This controversy in Western Pleasure circles resembles the debate over Rollkur in the field of dressage, particularly over the question of whether the practice constitutes animal abuse.

Experts differ on the validity of the spur stop. As stated by trainer Bob Avila: "the spur stop is “the worst thing ever invented. If I were to get a horse in for training that had a spur stop on him, I could do one event on him, period: Western pleasure.” Taking the opposing view, Mark Sheridan, an AQHA judge and trainer, has said: "You should not have any problems with the spur stop, and the transition to whatever events you decide to do with [the horse]. Personally, I put a spur stop on just the stop and back, on my western riders."

A less extreme method is referred to as putting "buttons" on the horse. A "button" is simply a leg or spur position that is trained by operant conditioning that tells the horse to travel at a particular gait or speed. These are often highly customized to an individual horse and rider team. While less extreme than the spur stop, such techniques still take the horse away from traditional responses to the riding aids of seat, hands, weight and voice, which can also lead to an excessively artificial way of going by the animal.