11/14/2021
“Park” Horses
Here’s what I have read about the origins of high steppers, and I am sure that there will be historians here who can add to, subtract from, or otherwise correct these thoughts---
Back in the day, the gilded age, owners of horses and carriages, like some sports car owners today, got their kicks from showing off just how stylish and fancy THEIR horses were compared to someone else’s horses, and one place to demonstrate this was by showing up at city parks with a snappy rig.
So a “park horse” was a fancy, high stepping horse in a city park, London, Paris, NYC, wherever the “rich and famous” hung out.
Somehow (any historians here?) the riding part of this evolved into what we in the USA now call saddle seat riding, and trainers of both ridden and driven horses in breeds like the American Saddlebred, the Hackney, the Morgan, the Arabian have specialized in showing horses with flashy high knee action, just as some other trainers specialize in reining, show hunters, event horses, whatever.
Just to put it right out there, this is NOT THE SAME as what they call the big lick Tennessee Walking horses, where those horses are deliberately made sore to change the way they move. Yes, there are trainers who abuse the limits in order to obtain more dramatic knee and hock action, but there are trainers who abuse the limits to get their horses to jump higher, run faster, slide more dramatically, jump massive solid and dangerous jumps in eventing, so the saying that “those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones” can apply here.
The main point is that just about ALL riding is “unnatural” since no horse was born saddled and bridled, and the task that the good horsemen and good horsewomen have is to not abuse the limits of whatever sport they prefer in such ways as to to harm or terrify the horses.
I do know that the advocates of some riding sports and disciplines consider themselves more pure than others, and if you are one of those who simply cannot wait to knock down one way of riding to prove that your way is better, please don’t do it here. There are plenty of park horses who go one way with one set of shoes who go normally turned out and barefoot at other times, and are not in any way compromised, so this needs to be a civil discussion please---.
https://www.allbreedpedigree.com/wing+commander4
