http://www.equine.com/horses-for-sale/horse-ad-900646.html?sr=1&span=24<id=0
Price $7,900
Breed(s) Quarter Horse
Sex Mare
Height 15.1 hands
Color Grulla
Foal Date May 2003
6YO GRULLA DUN, Granddaughter of Shining Spark $18,000 invested 3 yrs w / trainer. Brains, Beauty & Breeding. Beautiful horse always makes a presence and stands out in a crowd, good around children and small animals. She rides both western and english as well as with a bit and natural. Excellent feet, good mover, very willing to please. Has both reining and dressage training and has been shown hunt seat price reduced over $6,000, asking $7,900 OBO to Good home only selling due to travel demands with company as she deserves to be with someone who can spend more time with her she is a wonderful horse.
I first have to wonder if this trainer gave her client permission to use this photo for an ad that will be posted on the internet for the whole world to see. All the photos of this horse are dressage related, so I am assuming (as most other people looking at this ad) that this horse is being marketed mainly as a dressage horse.
An elevator bit is never appropriate for dressage. Not even at home when no-one is looking! Completely illegal in the show ring. This bit is being used in it's most harsh application. Only one rein is being used attached to the last ring creating the most leverage, and there's also a curb chain if the former is not enough. There are very few reasons to use an elevator bit rigged up like this and none of them are to train the dressage horse!
The standing martingale. This is Ok to use at home. When properly adjusted, this piece of equipment may stop a high-headed bolter from taking off or could save your nose from getting busted by a head flinger. If a horse is going correctly on the bit or a neutral position, it won't come into play. It's like it's not even there. However, it is not properly adjusted in this picture. I think the trainer wants to get the horse's head down by keeping the martingale unacceptably short, but the neck piece is so high, it would be impossible!
This 6 y/o QH who isn't even a training level dressage horse is being sold with $18,000 worth of training. For that kind of money, in the course of 3 years I expect my horse to not only be on the bit, but starting 3rd level work and competing 2nd. I won't even bother talking about this "trainer's" position and what I think of said "trainer" but I will say is somebody is seriously getting ripped off!
/boggle
The tragedy is that this "trainer" seems to know how to make a horse "look" like it's on the bit, but doesn't understand what it means.
ReplyDeleteThis horse has a fix in by this trainer, probably capitalizing on the oozing of dressage into the QH world, just as HJ did a while back.
Under their own occult judging system, clearly governed by the three blind witches of Macbeth, this probably actually LOOKS like a dressage horse.
Dear trainer! Let me disabuse you of any indication that you've successfully put $18k worth of training on this poor, pitiful horse.
You have, however, totally ripped off the said owner of this horse.
The bigger fool? The person who buys this mare.