first of all, people who actually organize shows should walk thru the crowd sometimes and listen to comments from people watching. For one thing, these days, people won't stomach anything that looks like it hurts an animal. hello. when are they gonna GET that... I have been standing at the rail at walking horse shows and heard people say they were going to go vomit and stagger off clutching their mouth. but more than that, actually countless times, I have heard people say "I went to that show once, i wont ever go back, never."
but they seem to love it when horses are shown in a natural manner just for instance speed racking etc. Western pleasure, flatshod classes. Trail classes. i think at this point if we had an icelandic olympic team we would have to call it "Hurting Horses for Jesus" or something. or maybe "The bat outa hell bolt for gold" or "strangled by leather and steel" event or "weighted feet cause we cant gait without it". class. then later on the first gold medal winner could write his epic best seller entitled "The Wind in My Tights" Janice -- yipie tie yie yo
