Wellington Photo

07/09/2025

Yes!!! I could Never understand why trainers were teaching imbalance over jumps!! Thank you!

Morris fans who comment on my posts about his Hunter Seat Equitation say have a grudge against him. I don't. My objection is to his method that has damaged authentic horsemanship. Morris published his Hunter Seat Equitation book in 1977. It seems that he intended it to create a streamlined learning process for student riders. However, with human nature being kind of lazy, people mostly picked up on the shortcuts like the crest release that he first intended to be used as "training wheels" to get riders jumping sooner.

Eventually his "training wheels" because the universal standard for jumping and the balanced independent seat, as shown at the top, went out the window. When this shortcut driven decline began to happen, his fame was growing and, on its way, to being godlike. I had an exchange with him then regarding how horsemanship was degrading, and his innovations were largely to blame.

Since Morris and I were trained by US Cavalrymen and learned the same standards, I thought he might listen to the cavalry perspective. He didn't. Instead, he bragged to me about how he had brought more people into riding than anyone else ever had before. It became clear to me then that his only goal at that point was making money, and the horses did matter.

I took the time to type up (the tech of attaching images online had not happened yet) a section of the US Army Horsemanship manual and I sent it to Morris. It was a few paragraphs that explained how shortcuts don’t work because in the end they cause more problems than they solve. He didn't care.

To be clear, he didn't personally advocate for jumping positions like those in the bottom row. But his followers "evolved" his innovations to the level of those awful, unbalanced positions we see today in the bottom row.

Morris remained silent as his "training wheels" became the dominant jumping position in America. His sin was not one of commission but rather one of omission. His silence, as the riders became increasingly off balance in that static too forward position, allowed what the Fort Riley Cavalry manual predicted to happen.

Today, even in equitation classes, we see riders falling off, some being injured or dying. This is because when a horse stumbles on landing a jump with their rider in a fixed position so far up the neck, riders are extremely vulnerable to falling off their horse and being crushed by their horse.

I chose the jumping hip angle for the post's images because George was a stickler for hip angels, often yelling "More hip angle!". But as hip angle began to disappear, he said nothing.

I don't hate Morris. I do hate the effect he has had on American riding. That is separate from his "personal problems" that are despicable. What a sad legacy he has left. It will take years to correct the impact of his method, if it ever can be corrected.

05/22/2024

What a perfect horse!!!

SEABISCUIT
The train sighed into Tanforan on a cool ‪Wednesday morning‬ in November 1936. Seabiscuit clopped onto the unloading ramp and paused halfway down, looking over his new home state. There wasn’t much to see. The California sunlight had the pewter cast of a declining season. One or two stable hands crisscrossed the tamped-down earth before the siding. Horses murmured over the grounds.
A couple of reporters stood around, looking indifferently at Howard’s new horse. They knew that the c**t was aiming for the ‪February 27‬ Santa Anita Handicap, but he hadn’t done enough to merit serious consideration. Their thoughts were occupied by weightier names: world-record holder Indian Broom; speed demon Special Agent; and above them all, the magnificent Rosemont, king of the East and conqueror of 1935 Triple Crown winner Omaha. Eastern horses rarely came to the West in those days, but the size of the purse had brought Rosemont over the Rockies. With Rosemont in the race, no one had any reason to believe that the horse Tom Smith was leading down the platform would be anything more than an also-ran.
The reporters jotted down a word or two on Seabiscuit’s arrival and moved off. Smith settled the horse in a comfortable stall and retired to his own little room right above it.
Smith liked the anonymity. The New York trip had told him that he had a very good horse in his barn, and until the weights were assigned for the hundred-grander, he intended to keep him hidden. So the trainer tucked Seabiscuit away on the Tanforan backstretch. He didn’t even let his stable hands know how good he thought the horse was. Quietly, slowly, he schooled the horse, fed him well, built his trust. Seabiscuit’s ribs filled out—he had put on two hundred pounds in the three months since he had joined Smith—and his manners had improved. When he came out on the track, he bounced up and down in eagerness to get going. Smith knew ‪Seabiscuit‬ was improving rapidly, but when he sent him out for workouts before the track clockers, he gave him only easy gallops that veiled his speed. No one took much notice of him.
One afternoon when the track was deserted, Smith snuck him out. Smith and Pollard had stripped away the temperamental barriers. It was time to see how fast the c**t could go. Smith loaded weight onto his back, boosted an exercise rider aboard, and turned him loose.
He watched as ‪Seabiscuit‬’s body flattened down, his speed building, humming over the rail. Smith ticked off the seconds in his head. Something is happening. Lacking competition, racehorses in workouts rarely approach the speeds they achieve in races. But Smith had never seen a horse—any horse—flash this kind of speed, not in a workout, not in a race. Perhaps Smith thought his eyes were failing him, the clock in his head winding out of time. Coming up, a mile to go. He pulled his stopwatch out and pumped the trigger as the horse ripped past the marker. Seabiscuit kept rolling, faster and faster, covering more than fifty feet per second. His trainer watched intently, the surprise of it pushing up through him. ‪Seabiscuit‬’s speed was not flagging. A thought drummed in Smith’s mind: He’s burning the top right off the racetrack. Seabiscuit banked into the turn. There was a supple geometry to his arc, a fish bending through a current. Where virtually all horses decelerate and often drift out as they try to negotiate corners, ‪Seabiscuit‬ was capable of holding a tight line while accelerating dramatically. No horse has ever run a turn like this one.
When the c**t flashed under the wire, Smith looked down at his hand. Seabiscuit had worked a mile in ‪1:36‬. The track record was ‪1:38‬. At that speed, Seabiscuit would have trounced the track record holder by more than a dozen lengths.
Tom Smith was wide awake. In sixty years lived alongside thousands of horses, he had never seen anything like this. It was no fluke: in another clandestine workout not long after, the c**t would tie a thirty-year-old world record for seven eighths of a mile, running it in ‪1:22‬.
Smith took Seabiscuit back to the barn, his secret seething in his head. For the first time, he grasped the awesome responsibility that lay in his hands.
The old cowpuncher was scared to death.

by~
LAURA HILLENBRAND

04/19/2024

Exciting weekend ahead!!! 3rd Annual Delray Concours but this time I'll be a Plein Air Painter instead of a photographer 😁

04/14/2024

A Gorgeous day to be outside. A handful of everglade tomatoes later I decided one would make a good pastel subject - Always looking for ways and time to improve and Sierra decided to do her own thing joining me. That's the best part, doing something together that she chooses to do because she wants to 💝

04/14/2024

🏎️🎪🏆🎗️🎷🎨🌴📍Join us Sunday in Downtown Delray for our Free Family Festival - 3rd Annual Delray Beach Concours d'Elegance April 21, 2024 - Spectators are FREE Sunday 10AM-4PM at Old School Square!

Thank you to all of our Partners - Registered Vehicle Entrants, Sponsors, Vendors, Volunteers, Charities & Community Spectators -- We are excited to welcome you to the 3rd Annual!

www.DelrayConcours.com
[email protected]
Delray Beach Concours

04/13/2024

Found the most awesome Navajo sculptured horned toad wedding vase by Barbara Manygoats. Average price $375, I paid $4!
Yay for thrift stores!