Western Verse English, English kicks westerns ass!

The English riding industry is better at growth than the Western industry, even though the English events are boring in comparison :)

Why is that?

It make no sense to me. This post is my thoughts on why, I look forward to your comments on this post in the comments, or on the face book forum Performance Horse industry open discussion.

I have a little experience in the English horse world of jumping and dressage. Enough experience to know I much prefer the western horses and the western events.

But as time goes on, I have to wonder why the western horse industry has not followed the much more successful English riding business model for developing new riders and competitors? Not to mention the increased value of all levels of horses.

Now just wait a minute - all my cowboy hat wearing friends, please stop throwing things at me before I can explain.

If a person wishes to start into the English riding world of dressage or jumping or even just hacking, here is the process they most likely follow:

1. Find a local barn that offers lessons
2. Take lessons weekly or bi weekly, cost around $50 -100 per week
3. With in a year or two the student is usually  able to trail ride/ hack, or go to a show with the school horse they have learned on. Costs range from $0 - $300 per show 
4. The student has a blast, they show against other horses and riders of similar caliber, they realize the challenges of competing. Many work work hard to do better next time (ie. more lessons).
5. Some students never get better, they are content to keep taking lessons and having fun at a few shows per year and hacking with other students. 
6. Some will eventually move up to a better level school horse. and compete at larger shows.    
7. Many of these people never buy a horse, but they are still an important part of the industry, offering income and jobs to many people. 
8. If these people do progress into horse ownership, many times their first horse is the horse they learned on. This creates a  very good market for sound, sane and well broke horses of all levels to be school horses.
9. These horses hold their value  well, as there is always a market for well broke sane and sound horses that can do low level dressage or jumping. 
10. This allows the student to save for that upgrade horse in the future, knowing that the money they spent on the first horse wont depreciate that much for quite sometime. 

That same person is interested in western riding lessons, this is the process they most likely go through.

1. They want to be a cowboy or cow girl. or they see an exciting event and decide they want to do that. 
2. They look for a local instructor that offers western lessons
3. They keep looking as most of the places that offer lessons on school horses do not own a western saddle. 
4. They find a trainer who offers lessons, and have saddles with horns on them.
5. They express a desire to compete.
6. They learn that to compete they must own the horse
7. Many cant afford it so they quit.
8. Those that do buy a horse compete for a few years and get better
9. They are required to move up in competitive level and must get a new horse
10. Many quit because they can not afford the next level horse 
11. The few that remain, enjoy the sports because they are great. They try to figure out how to get more people to join them.. 

The question then should be why do more western coaches 

not have western event trained horses for students to learn on?

The answer is quiet simple - In all western events the beginners do the same thing as the top level competitors, they just do it poorly.
The competition is about - who can suck less doing the same things the top level competitors do.

This makes the horses that can STAY, sane and quiet and able to perform all of the maneuvers with a green rider worth a lot of money. It also makes the ones who CAN'T stay, sane and quiet while performing all the maneuvers with a green rider, worth very little, because they have to compete against the horses that can.

This sets up a situation where if a coach was to offer lessons on school horses, the horses would be one of 2 types, 

• Those horses capable of being competitive at a level where the rider has to own the horse, thus making the horse worth more to sell than to keep. 
• Those horses that are not good enough to compete doing all the maneuvers the top level riders and horses do. The students wont want to show very often on those horses, - they just suck and have no hope of getting better on that horse.  

English events have school horses for students, because the events are based on a progressive level of  requirements.

• Dressage has less demanding maneuvers and skills at each level that horses and riders must perform. The levels gradually increase in difficulty and develop both horse and rider towards the top levels of dressage. 
• Jumping is obvious, it has different heights of jumps, riders and horses can compete where ever they are comfortable. 

The answer to fixing the growth problem for western events is simple. 

We need to develop a western event that is based on judging developing the one skill all top western event horses must have. Willingly Guided.

• If we developed and promoted an event that is similar to dressage in its progression of levels. 
• If the patterns and levels were designed using the requirements and maneuvers of western events. 
• If the judging was on how well the horses and rider demonstrated willingly guided. 

We could then develop levels of horses, and offer entry level lessons and competitions to riders wanting to enter the western industry. 

This would create a need for the western school horse, and allow the growth of western riding school type business's.

Both the school horse and the western riding lesson school would help many people find an affordable way into the current western performance horse events. It would also create a school horse market for all levels of horses.

If you like this idea then please check out the International Performance Horse Development Association, it is designed to do all of that for the western horse industry. 

For IPHDA to succeed it only needs the  support from people in the industry who will benefit from it.

This is a marketing dilemma, the top people in the western performance horse industry do not need an association like IPHDA.  The people who are trying to build a business around the lower end of the performance horse industry and gradually build themselves up to the top levels are the ones who need IPHDA.

As an industry I think we are missing out on a great growth tool -  the school horse and riding schools. 

We need to stop thinking about each event as an individual event and think of them as events that are done best when the horse is willingly guided.
Then with IPHDA as an entry level willingly guided event  we can attract many many more people to all of the western events.  

Thanks for spending your time with me. 

Rod