Sue B wrote:I'm sorry but the mouth opening and closing every stride is not "emotion." That is laughable. The mouth should be relatively quiet or have soft chewing. That is not what is shown. This could be any pair and I would have the same comment. So in your opinion, never having the poll as the highest point, always being btv, and mouth opening and closing every stride, is "normal" for 5 minutes of hard work and just shows emotion?
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
The old dressage masters just rolled over in their graves.
So, in keeping with your hyperbole, HD, I take it you prefer the mouth to be clamped shut with a good, tight, crank noseband and a joyless automaton of a horse being carted about the arena?
Laura Graves does a superb job with this horse, who, as many have said, is perhaps not the best mover and is super "emotional." Does he drop behind the vertical at times?
Lol why would the opposite of not opening the mouth every stride be clamping their mouth shut? Clearly a quiet mouth like you see with CD, CH, or IW would be the goal. But all of these horses are scoring the same? So, that is my issue.
I agree that she does a superb job with a difficult horse. As I said, I'm not bashing her, but I do have mixed emotions on the ride/score. It's not a occasional drop btv, he is nearly always behind the vertical with the poll not the highest point. And that in combination with the mouth opening and closing every stride, does make it hard for me to really find this a match between score and ride.
KHall - I agree with nearly all of your points in general.
Dresseur wrote:The only place where he really dips behind the vertical is in the one passage section. By and large though, he's really not that bad in the shape, and it gets better throughout the ride. The p/p transitions are a lot smoother than most pairs, and that says a lot IMO about the direction the training and riding has taken. He is a hot horse, and I think that the mouth while busy, is not crossing or gnashing or gaped open. I think that it is showing his worry, but she's managing him remarkably well.
You could pause the video at any point and you will see he is nearly never up in the poll and almost never comes to the vertical. The mouth is more than busy. Now maybe that is just showing worry, but then is the goal not relaxation? Soooo...again a mismatch to me between score and standard.
You guys are taking this a little too personal. While I agree that the old UDBB went nuts on this stuff and it was too much, it's also okay to continue having discussions about what is classical and what is not. So, have a debate about classical dressage without getting your panties in a twist.