Ginger the horse's dressage test at her first big recognized competition last weekend

[riderinthestorm]

31. Oh love that video! And yeah, add in a snakey Mexican steer and all bets are off!

There are a ton of reining v dressage videos now on YouTube. I selected the first one I found but there are others where the reining rider FAR outperforms the dressage rider.

Submission, gait quality, rhythm, moving off the haunches with a proper respect for the rider aids, softness in the bridle, even the common movements for the tests - so many commonalities it didn't go unnoticed.

But to your larger point - the old style of riding certainly produced a superior product in many areas. There's a world class event rider, Denny Emerson, who shares your perspective exactly. He's from the original school when event horses had to strictly pass the three day military tests and he HATES the drift into "glamour". He considers it dangerous actually. And he's right.

Too many "fancy" sport horses western and English have strayed far from their roots.