Rant!

Hey guys this is just a little rant and if ya don't care ya don't, but after actually paying attention at cowgirl queen contests I have started to hate them more and more, no not because of oh they are better than me, but because of the style of riding that is promoted and even awarded.... after viewing some of the footage of this years state fair contest I have decided that I'm not sure if I would ever even want to do a queen contest... the most flashy and famous part of the cowgirl queen contest is the salute... where you run as fast as you can around the arena and then at a marked spot salute the crowd and the judges.... I hate to say but half of the girls riding need to take some more lessons on nice hands or train their horses better in the salute portion of the contest... If I saw any of the pictures like I am about to show you that person wouldn't even come close to placing in my book, yet almost every time the winners hurt their poor horses during the salute... and not to mention that almost every single one of these girls rides in a nice huge leverage/curb bit, so these girls slamming their whole body weight into their horses mouths with the leverage bits make me cringe... most of these bits are 3-4 inches at least and the pressure almost doubles with every extra inch so 10 lbs of pressure becomes 30-40 lbs... and you can immagine how quickly that can go supper high!!! So here are the pictures to judge for yourselves... do the horses look like they are having fun? I don't think they do.....