i always leak a little when i see that video.

That's so beautiful. A very emotional thing to watch.

My first - and best - horse was half Highland Pony and half Arab. Really smart, good natured, tons of heart, calm like a Quarter Horse and eager like a Border Collie. If there was a daunting fence coming up that he didn't know (yet) that he was going to have to jump, I'd just whisper "ready..." to him and he'd perk up - "okay, got it..."

It seriously broke my heart when I sold him, but he was only 14.2 hands tall and by the time I grew to over 6' I looked like a pituitary case riding a burro. Not that he couldn't carry the weight - he was a stocky little guy.

I've always wanted to see another HP/Arab cross to find out whether it's just a great combination or if I just lucked out.

Just fantastic, what else is there to say? Never saw that kind of dressage before.

Got something in my eye, too...
Thanks, Kate. Great video

how beautiful that was to watch..

i shall tell my horsewoman fellow workperson about this video tomorrow...she's a dressage girl turned all round author dog trainer thoroughbred horse watcher after i turned her on to Zenyatta..

SHE has a cob that follows her into her little house and wants the dogs to sleep in her stall...

what a great big world of desire skill and love and application and good will exists out there in North America,

we are an exceptional culture.

Been to the King Ranch a couple times, last time about 8 years ago - took a tour, led by one of the few remaining descendants, of the Mexican villagers brought there in the 1800s, to have stayed on.

He said it was kinda sad that the place had turned into a corporate outlet and the atmosphere of 'family' had evaporated.

Times change.

(Love the video.)

Wow! A dancing horse!

I always love seeing the close communion of horse and human. That was an amazing display of subtle communication and skill.

How did Tracy Westfall stay on her mount? Yikes. I'd have been off that horse in two seconds.

Kudos to the horse too, like a big chestnut tank, nice confirmation. If the horse isn't willing too, no amount of stroking and sweet-talking will make it happen.

I'm not a horse person especially, but my ex was, and we survived life with a sixteen and a half hand half-arab mare that didn't like fences, especially wire ones. My ex learned to jump very high very early on. Chasing her in the middle of night in my neighbour's commercial gladiolas field in an old farming area with a lot of down fences was one of the highlights... When we moved from the farm, we had to let her go - was just costing too much to keep her.

I couldn't ride her - she basically wouldn't let me. Been over the front of one, and scraped off under a cedar tree by another. Turned to motorcycles, they were safer...

It's Western Reining. Here's a video of others doing it under tack. (with a short clip of a cutting horse).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFX17a-ffQI

Wow she sure has a bond with her horse, I grew up riding a quarter horse but I could never get the hang of riding bare back.

Performing less than a month after her dad died defines the term "Cowboy up" to a tee. The human/animal interaction that turns into a "team" is always amazing to see. Cutting/penning horses are amazing to watch working.

But can one still call it Western REINING, given that the horse was bare-headed. Awesome display!

WOW!!

I Know absolutley nothing about horses at all ,i just think they are majestic but that is amazing there is no way that is something just anybody can do!!

Simply wonderful

That is quite a combo. A smart rider and a smart horse. Quarter horses usually are the smartest out there. We had one when I was a kid who could open any gate you threw at her. Sometimes the next morning - the toughest ones took her a week. She was too stubborn to be as good as this video horse. Still - she was smart.

Reminds me a little of the only dog allowed on the Calgary Stampede ag grounds. She is by far the smartest dog I've ever known. Obedient - to a fault some might say.

No experience with horses but loved this (and your comment EBD, and yours too john begley).

What's a "quarter horse"?

The closest I ever got to having a horse is when I told my mom that 'Adrian told me he's getting a horse' and she instructed me, 'well you tell Adrian you're getting 3 horses'. Me 'n Adrian were short 4 horses in all!

A very good friend (ex RCMP, ex CSIS) told me of a situation during his basic training in which one of the mountees in a musical ride fell off his horse, and the horse continued the remainder of the routine without him. A lesson in humility, eh?

Why do I -- and a lot of men, I gather -- find a girl/woman and a horse combo so impossibly sexy?

Great video Kate

I am going down to the barn to show it to Brandy (our Paint) so she see gets to see what the competition is up to!

First I have to find some kleenex.

stephen p

That was really amazing. I used to ride and I've ridden some quarter horses. They are incredible animals. I only rode bareback enough to know how quickly I would end up on my head if I tried to do what Stacy did in that performance.

The hell wit ya! I looked it up at wiki.

The American Quarter Horse is an American breed of horse that excels at sprinting short distances. Its name came from its ability to outdistance other breeds of horses in races of a quarter mile or less; some individuals have been clocked at speeds up to 55 mph (88.5 km/h). The American Quarter Horse is the most popular breed in the United States today, and the American Quarter Horse Association is the largest breed registry in the world, with more than 4 million American Quarter Horses registered.

SO ... it's not quarter the size of other horses, then, what?

I love them all but...
Shetland = mean sob
Paint = thick
Thoroughbred = high maintenance
Arabian = selfish
Mustang = forever sound
QH = simpatico