UK/Europe compared to North America. The differences?

Enfys

Enfys

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Following on from Faracat's question in another thread, there are plenty of North Americans in the UK (Europe) and British in North America who have made the transition on here, or those that have visited and ridden horses on both Continents.

Faracat said:
I don't want to start a UK v NA, 'who knows best' thing. However I'm really interested to learn which horsey things that are 'every day and common' to us but are 'strange and wierd' to American (or Canadian) riders.
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So, what have you noticed? Wondered about?

Grazing for a start, is viewed very differently, it is all important in the UK, here (I'm talking my specific area) because of our long winters and the need for hay, fields are better served for growing two or three crops of hay rather than grazing horses on.

Many horses are kept on dry feedlots and fed hay year round, or are in small paddocks (again with ad-lib hay) it is normal, forget this 1.5 acres per horse or whatever rule, when I say that I get looks of disbelief, it doesn't apply where I live. For example, my Trainer farms several thousand acres, but her six horses live out on a half acre dry lot and one acre of grass sectioned into three. The horses bring home Championship ribbons every weekend.
 
I'm from Canada and rode hunter there but showing over here is ALOT different to showing in Canada and the US. Fashion, the horses's way of going, styles in tack and riding, EVERYTHING. That's why I can't get my head around the showing classes here and why I ask numpty questions sometimes as there seems to be so many nuances about what to wear, styles of tack etc.

In Canada, when I showed hunters, you wore a white show shirt with a choker, dark jacket, side zip puke green breeches and black field boots. Your horse wore a raised noseband and brow band bridle, standing martingale and a flat close contact saddle.

Over here, you have tweeds, working hunter saddles, brown boots, ribbon browbands- all sorts of weird and wonderful things.

LOL, I still dress Canada style here (I have to buy my side zips when I go back to Canada in the summer) and ride Hattie in that tack when I do ride astride in shows. I hate riding in anything that a flat, little or no knee roll saddle as that is what we always rode in there.

I still accidently call over reach boots "bell boots", numnahs "saddle pads", lunge rein "lunge line" :)

Training wise, I'm no expert but I find horses here go more in a dressage outline where the North American hunters go more long and low. Hattie goes this way with me and I'm not sure if it's my North American based equitation style of riding that influences her to go in this way or if it's just her. I just wish I had here there as she would have been a lovely hunt seat horse!

It's kinda like the English language in North America and here, you know what each other is saying but it's different :D
 
Another thing I've noticed too is that people seem to be a lot more reliant on trainers in North America than here. Maybe it's a insurance liability thing or something. In the UK, it's more DIY, even at shows. I find though that my riding has improved more since moving to the Uk than it did in Canada as I'm more likely to try new things than wait for my trainer to tell me to do it if that makes sense?
 
Depends where exactly you go in North America. If you go to the east, most comptition horses don't see much turn out onto pasture. Occasionally in dry lots.

If you go to the west (but not right to the coast) you get many horses who live out year round on pasture. They rarely rug - my Colorado friend's horse lives out IN SNOW without a rug on. I've also seen them galloping all over the place on hard ground - though the horses don't seem to suffer for this.

From those I've seen (in Colorado), there is less of a tendency to call the vet immediately and for smaller things than here. There are also strains of people who are absurdly pro-barefoot and pro-bitless.

They also break horses much younger than we do here.

I've noticed you don't seem to get the in during the night/out during the day livery you get here. It seems to be one or the other - stabled all the time or turned out all the time.

And the competitions, showing anyway, is completely different. They also don't consider horse types the way we do - I've seen horses winning american hunter classes that would be considered to finely built for a riding class horse here.

At shows it's more common for the owner to pay someone to compete, whilst over here the owner is likely to do it themselves. They also have lots of trainers - much more like normal sport coaches - where we have instructors.

And the very last thing I can think of - horse insurance is a very rare thing in the states.
 
I have noticed that all show horses are long and low, very little or no collection. They also seem to be very quiet. My ex husbund now lives in the states and has a show yard, I occasionally look on his web site, to make myself feel sick, and all the horses no matter what look like plods. Riders when jumping seem to be low and half way up the horses neck.
 
An interesting thread - I grew up in the UK riding, competing, teaching, etc. etc. and then had a fifteen year break from horses when I moved here. I started riding again at a local yard about two months ago and I've been wondering whether the differences I've seen - very small so far - are because I am riding in America or because I've had such a long break and things have changed everywhere.
 
I am married to an american and we lived in USA 8 years and I dont think much to the grazing out there and didnt see many horses either!!! I couldnt ride out there now back in the UK I have my own ned
 
Thanks for starting this thread Enfys, I'm learning alot. :)

One thing that I don't understand is American Hunter classes. I know that they are completely different from Working Hunter and Show Hunter classes that you find here, but that doesn't really explain what they are.

An observation I have made from looking at google images (so I am fully prepared to be corrected ;) ) is that in the US horses are often jumped in standing martingales and I've never seen that here.
 
Well, I cruised on over here from another board for this very reason. I am interested in the same... how everyone else in the world is living with their horses!

I can't speak much to showing hunters, but I can tell you the big reason for dry lotting horses and feeding them hay 24/7, 365/year. NO RAIN! It's not lack of space, its lack of grazing. I have 2.5 acres and its dry. My horses do live outside all year and do fine in even the worst weather. It was -37 degrees last year at one point. I did put blankets on them then, but they are fat and happy in all weather.

Its a good discussion to have with our fellow horse folks around the world. I was berated by someone from the UK once, saying that I was an idiot because she KNEW that one acre could feed a horse year round. We get 8-10 inches of rain a year, and most of that is in the form of snow in the winter.

OTOH, the hay we do get is very high quality, and for some horses, nutritionally adequate by itself. I have three very fat QH's that exist on just a few flakes of alfalfa/lucerne each day. The only horses that seem to need more supplements or grain are older horses, poor keepers and performance horses.
 
sidesaddlegirl said:
Another thing I've noticed too is that people seem to be a lot more reliant on trainers in North America than here. Maybe it's a insurance liability thing or something. In the UK, it's more DIY, even at shows. I find though that my riding has improved more since moving to the Uk than it did in Canada as I'm more likely to try new things than wait for my trainer to tell me to do it if that makes sense?
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I've noticed that on US-based forums, and comments on blogs/youtube/etc from North American riders! There seems to be a massive cultural difference regarding trainters.
 
CaveCanem said:
Some of us over here need to get the poles out of our backsides about certain things, that's what I have learned, having visited North America!!!
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PMSL.

I had the shock of my life when we came here.
Talk about a learning curve!
I still reduce friends to either hysterical laughter or head shaking confusion with the things I say, and years on I still find myself saying "What the **** do you call it then?!"

Bits are another thing that I think we will have to agree to disagree on.
Snaffles often seem to be thought of as the be-all and end-all (dozens of debates on HHO alone) speaking in Western terms, a horse is only half trained if it is still in a snaffle, a western curb is not viewed as an instrument of torture but one of refinement and acceptance.

Sallywhoa, Hi, whereabouts are you?
 
My sister lives in the USA and all she fed her horses was hay, unsoaked (she'd never seen anyone soak hay to feed it) and some sand colic supplement. I think it had some alphalfa in it, so it was a complete feed really.

I noticed tha most horses were kept in very small grazing areas, or dry lots, even on a stud farm. Sometimes they were let out into a field for grazing but only for an hour or two. The rest of the time they were just fed hay.

There are no bridlepaths in the USA (although I think in some areas there are some public trails). You could ride in some forests which are privately owned if you buy a permit. My sister said that she wouldn't ever ride on a road as you risked being run down.
 
My sister lives in Virginia and has done for 30+ years and I have been out there a number of times. Horses in that part of the country are pretty much kept like they are here from my experience. Although in summer they are more likely to be out at night and in during the day as its so hot. Fans in stables and automatic fly sprays the squirt periodically into stables during the summer. They have things like hot and cold running water, hot wash boxes, heated water troughs as it gets so cold in winter. Stables are called barns. Affiliated dressage shows are called "Recognized" and anything else are called schooling shows. Dressage levels are Training Level, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th level (not sure after this but think Prix St George and there are 4 tests in each level which change every couple of years or so.

There are no bridleways (Trails) except in Parks and usually landowners just alllow each other to ride around their properties. Hacking is "trail riding". Virginia is known as Horse Country and its very much based on English style and they are well into hunting. There does seem to be a lot more very wealthy people there compared to here if the luscious stuff in the tack shop (Horse Country) in Warrenton is anything to go by (drools). Oh an Cortaflex is about a third of the price - I came back with three tubs last time and various horse items that haven't made there way here.
 
The biggest difference I noticed was the way horses were travelled (this was in Wyoming and I'm not talking comp horses so not sure if this is standard).

In the UK, so much is made of booting / bandaging a horse before it is put in any form of transport. We must tie them up correctly, have partitions between horses etc.

In the US, just load them up! Big goose neck trailers taking up to 10 tacked up quarter horses. No boots, no tying up and no partitions. And at the place I was staying, I didn't see one horse refuse to load. This of course could be a coincidence.

In California I noticed what you all say about the dry paddocks. They seem to be small bare areas with one or two horses and maybe a open sided shed (4 stakes and a roof) for them to get some shade. This was in the mountains south of San Francisco. As I crossed the State east, horses seemed to be kept in more herd like conditions, similar to the ones in Wyoming.

Oh, and finally - what beautiful colours you get in the States! I mean really beautiful, colours and shades you don't see here. I have no idea why this is.
 
Faracat said:
Thanks for starting this thread Enfys, I'm learning alot. :)

One thing that I don't understand is American Hunter classes. I know that they are completely different from Working Hunter and Show Hunter classes that you find here, but that doesn't really explain what they are.
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From my experience with hunters in Canada (in the U/S and O/F classes not equitation) compared to what I've seen of the working/show hunters here, the North American hunter classes showcase the hunter "ideal" whereas here, it's how suitable for actual hunting a horse is. I think some of the hunters I rode in Canada wouldn't have been able to handle an actual hunt.

This thread is making me nostalgic! I dug out an old photo from 1996 of me when I was 21 and Junior, an appaloosa hunter that I kind of had on "loan" (not really a loan but he was a private livery at the stable I used to take lessons at and his owner only let me ride him in lessons and let me take him to shows). Sigh, those jumps were 2'6" and I looked so calm but now I have a paddy at jumping 1"!!!! I still have the 5th place ribbon we won in this class (hunter O/F) and there were 35 riders in the class. I was the only one who rode once a week on a borrowed horse! Ah, to be young and fearless again...

junior.jpg
 
FrodoBeutlin said:
Uhm.


In Canada they have HEATED INDOOR ARENAS!!!!!!!!!


:D :D :D
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Not at the barn I rode at!! LOL, we had to suffer through lessons in -20C winters. Sure, the walls of the indoor arena stopped the windchill but it was still bl**dy cold. We used to have little pads that heated up once you opened the pack that you could put in the toes of your riding boots :D
 
I had my first riding lessons in the USA when we lived there (I was five/six) and all I recall from that time was that at that barn I was encouraged to have my toes turned out, but in the UK it was toes in. So much for my very old, very selective impressions...

Now? I'd say that one thing I'd notice is that children are more likely to learn to ride on horses in the USA. There isn't the same phenomenon of children on ponies and ponies being a childhood thing that we have in the UK. That's my impression, and what I've picked up from horsey American friends.
 
enfys said:
Bits are another thing that I think we will have to agree to disagree on.
Snaffles often seem to be thought of as the be-all and end-all (dozens of debates on HHO alone) speaking in Western terms, a horse is only half trained if it is still in a snaffle, a western curb is not viewed as an instrument of torture but one of refinement and acceptance.

Sallywhoa, Hi, whereabouts are you?
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That is true... although the curb is as much a instrument of the inquisition as you probably think. I ride my horses in a snaffle... then go straight to the 'curb'. If done properly, training the western horse to go 'into the bridle' see 90% of the training he will need done in the snaffle or bosal, then finished in the curb. Ideally, the curb give the horse more responsibility for collection and to work off a loose rein. Of course thats the IDEAL, but in real life... .ugh. :)

I am in the middle of the great american west, a rural cow-town in Nevada. I am a student of the horse, have been for years and like to see how the rest of the world is using their horses. It makes our relationships with the horses in the back yard a little more interesting, IMO.

ETA: Yes, I haul my horses in a gooseneck stock trailer. No partitions, sometimes tied... sometimes not. No shipping boots or leg protection. My neighbor insists on using them on hers... then wonders why they get hot and annoyed in the trailer. Mine haul au natural and never have problems.

As far as ponies here, some people like them for their kids, but they are mostly viewed as the spawn of Satan.
 
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