Thursday, October 14, 2010

Live Like You Were Dying

Recently my co writer Elizabeth posted a video showing Laura Schoeller preforming her 2010 freestyle reining routine. That video greatly reminded me of one of my favorite congress preformances, and I thought I would share this video. This video shows Stacy Westfall preforming her 2006 congress routine. Not only is it breath taking to see what a bond Stacy and her horse share, but it also its touching that she dedicates her ride to her father who died 24 days before this preformance. I would like to point out some of the outstanding moves Stacy preforms in this video.

First she starts off by executing perfect spins, at a very fast speed. Anyone who has done reining spins, even with a saddle on, knows that it feels like you may be flung off the side at any moment. I can only imagine how hard it is to do that without a saddle. Also, doing spins without the aid of a bridle is extremely difficult. After the spins she does multiple flying lead changes, which takes a lot of practice with using your legs. Along with flying lead changes she controls her horses speed, without a bridle. This would be extremely difficult, considering she is using her legs a lot to move her horse around. The sliding stop she executes is near perfect, and I can only imagine how much work it took to get her horse to do that with just her moving her body weight around.

I know multiple people, myself included, that can ride their horse without a bridle in an areana. Doing this at home is a completly different story compared to what Stacy did. Doing this preformance in a strange areana with 1000's of people watching is not an easy task, but Stacy did it without flaw. Competing in the Quarter Horse Congress is an honor for many, and has become more of a career for Stacy.

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