>>> I think part of it, quite genuinely, may be due to a severe back injury he >>> had some >>> years ago.
And that makes him sit on the cantle of the saddle...? That makes him zoom around the ring while his horse fights the bit...? I don't think so. I have an old instructional video by Diddi. I'm pretty sure it's not sold any more - either someone gave it to me, or I bought it on ebay years ago. He rode like that in the video. I remember when he broke his back. I already owned his old video. You can't blame that horse fighting the bit on his back injury. I broke my back in 2002, and that doesn't give me a license to sit on the cantle, and to jerk ponies around while my adoring public cheers me on. >>> I have to echo Kaaren here - as a clinician, I have found Diddi to be >>> fantastic, and >>> the horses I've ridden in the past that have been trained by him were, to a >>> horse, >>> soft, relaxed, well-trained happy horses. Yeah, he smiled charismatically a lot in that video I have too, but I don't buy into some "do as I say, not as I do" style of training. But that arrogant, blissfully unaware attitude of "WE have to teach them to ride like us" as he proceeded to do a "Don't" type riding demonstration...that just puts it over the top. It reminds me of Jolli and his blissfully ignorant demonstraton of every possible "don't" on the cover of his riding video - what HE believes to be Spanish walk, but isn't even close. No thanks. There are plenty of good clinicians who ride in ways I'd love to emulate. We talked about TB racing a while back and how it really doesn't matter if you watch it on TV or not - it takes more than that to be proactive in stopping something. I certainly wouldn't give my clinic money to someone who rides like that - I can vote with my money. I'm glad I didn't buy that video I have directly from him, but got it used. Karen Thomas, NC
