Regarding the post on the Hold AHA Accountable page about the issue of Balding, heres where we stand: Balding has more to do with personal taste rather than harm to the horse. Impeccable grooming SHOWS RESPECT for the event and the judge(s) adjudicating. A girl wouldnt go to prom in jeans & a pony tail. MR SHOW horses are the runway models of our breed. At our farm, our horses do stay clipped to look like professionally turned out show horses rather than a backyard hobby. We dont have eyes poked out or scratched, muzzles cut or impaled because their feelers are gone. The pasture horses do have their whiskers, mane and feathers. They NEED them for protection from tall grass and insects. As for new people being offended, I have seen more people come into this business, but leave because of the divisive attitude one group has...and voices... about another and their attitude of superiority in their preferences without respect to others preferences. Or they leave because theyve been lead to believe that unfair cheating on the part of unethical judges and cruel trainers keeps them from having a fair chance. Never mind that they werent willing or were unable to pay for premium feed, training, health treatments, grooming products to give the horse they bought from a rescue the best chance possible. Main ring is the best of the best, the super models of the Arabian horse. Please dont try to insinuate we are abusive or care for our horses any less than you do. Our horses love their work, their jobs and their people. When people are in the barn, our show horses press their sweet faces up through the bars introducing themselves and wanting attention. Thats not what abused horses do. I would venture to say that 95% of our judges are honest and try hard to be fair and judge to the best of their ability. (I do believe that the criteria for selecting judges as well as the education, both initial and continuing, needs to have much more depth and that some of the rules need a bit more definition.) But to make a blanket statement that theyre political or unethical is irresponsible. As for trainers that cheat? That, too, is an irresponsible and uninformed statement. Our trainers have vastly improved their skills over the years with study and hard work. And as for making accusations of drugging, that is also uneducated and irresponsible unless you have first hand knowledge and tangible proof. Please, PLEASE read the attached article. AHA in CO isnt the problem. Unethical judges are not the problem. Cheating trainers are not the problem. The bantering, condescending, self-righteous, divisive membership is the problem bigger than anything else. The sour grapes voiced because your do-it-yourself horse thats being ridden 5 times a week by an amateur rider without the skill to help the horse be better is the problem. The owner who buys a $1000 or even $5000 horse expecting it to BEAT a horse that cost $30,000+ and is given daily spa treatments, personalized nutritional programs and highly skilled handling and training that owners are willingly paying $700-$1200 a month to have is absurd. Never mind that these more expensive horses many times have better conformation and quality to work with. And they should win and place higher than the horse that is prepared with inferior conformation and quality, inferior training skills and inferior resources. I extend a personal invitation to ANYONE who wants to spend some time at our barn wanting to truly educate themselves about the horsemanship expressed at Rhapsody in Blue Stables. You will not be inferior or treated with malice. We love other horseman with whom we have a shared love for our babies, the horses. There is nothing wrong with MR that isnt wrong in Sporthorse or any other arena...even endurance (which many people I know believe to be pushing the envelop of abuse). Please stop this divisiveness and self-righteous judgmental attitude. And MR people, were speaking to you as well. We enjoy our horses differently. As for intimidation, THAT is a topic trying to be better defined so that judges have certain checkpoints to use that can unequivocally be labeled intimidation. The hard stand up is not hard to achieve....without whip abuse, without vile, abusive shanking. Its simple dressage principles applied by good horseman communicating from the ground. Do you really think we all take our horses out behind the barn and beat the tar out of them frying their brains? Maybe some do, but most trainers always keep the horses future performance training in mind because theyre horseman and wouldnt betray that animals trust for anything. Please read the article and plan to visit us spending a few days with fellow horsemen...horse lovers! uptownsheep/uptown-girl---a-working-farm-wifes-blog/stock-shows-how-whining-about-cheaters-is-worse-than-the-cheaters-themselves
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 13:20:18 +0000