Horse&Rider Magazine - October 2013

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Below: Mountain Horse Crochet gloves in black £19.99

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A mission in

Morocco Life as a working animal in Morocco is tough.

H&R’s Lucy Cursons visits charity SPANA’s centres to see how they’re turning animals’ lives around

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n the car, the temperature on the dash reads a sweltering 45 degrees Celsius. Outside, the dusty road is heaving with cars and motorbikes, drivers ducking and diving around each other at speed, hands on horns to warn others they are coming through. A large crowd of people stand fearless in the road in the way of oncoming traffic, to see if they can help a motorcyclist who’s been involved in a nasty accident – a stark reminder to all just how dangerous the roads in Morocco can be.

Then I look to the left and see a little donkey among the traffic, completely oblivious to the chaos around him, dutifully pulling a laden cart for his owner in the midday heat. Who knows how many hours he’s been working for, or how many more he’ll endure before he can rest at the end of the day.

The world of working horses

Working horses aren’t something we’re used to seeing here in the UK, as we’re lucky enough to be able to enjoy our animals for leisure. But for many Moroccans, their horses, mules and donkeys are their only means of survival in a very poor country, enabling them to earn money, buy food and carry water from the well. It’s easy to judge when you see local working animals while on your holidays, but the reality is that the owners aren’t working them to be cruel or because they don’t care – they have to.

Many of the working animals in Morocco are underweight, dehydrated and injured, which stirs up all kinds of emotions for visitors but, as shocking as it may seem, some of the owners don’t understand that the animals are able to feel pain, hunger or thirst. They don’t even realise that they are causing suffering.

Care in the community

In an effort to help the horses, donkeys and mules of Morocco, and educate their owners, international animal charity SPANA (Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad) has set up 10 veterinary centres around the country offering free treatment, primarily for equines, with several mobile clinics, too. But no animal is turned away – the centres also treat camels, cats, dogs and birds, like Fred (pictured right) as we named him while we were there. He was brought in with a broken wing by some children.

Being a bit of a veterinary geek, I couldn’t wait to get to the centres to see how the vets treated the horses and how differently things were done. I knew I was going to see some upsetting things, but I’d decided before I left home that I’d keep reminding myself that the animals I would be seeing were getting the help they needed.

Nevertheless, when I walked into the busy Marrakech centre on the first morning of my trip, it was still a shock, I’m not going to lie.

Success story ➤ Little Fred was sporting a drain in his wing while his injury healed. Once he’s better, he’ll be set free again.

People park up and unhitch their animals outside SPANA’s Marrakech centre.

Left: A donkey waits patiently at the side of the road while he is loaded up

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Mules, the toughest of the working equines, transport goods up the mountains.

Left: A mule is treated for colic.

Far left: The Marrakech centre, SPANA’s busiest clinic

Some owners don’t understand that their animals feel pain, hunger or thirst. They don’t even realise they’re causing suffering

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In this feature. . .

Our trainer Daniel Moseley is one of Britain’s promising, up-and-coming showjumpers, the youngest British male rider to win the Queen Elizabeth II Cup last year, aged 21. He represented Great Britain in his first Senior Nations Cup in Poland, at the age of 20. His first big triumph was the International 3* Grand Prix in Spain and he was National Gent’s Champion in 2012.

He was also on the Senior Nations Cup team in Portugal.

Previously based with William and Pippa Funnell and riding for The Billy Stud, he now has his own competition yard in West Sussex.

Our horse

Photos: David Miller

In this feature, Dan is riding Stal Kubberod’s Cappuccino, an eightyear-old gelding by Casall, a former Olympic show jumper.

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➤ Training the horse to land on the correct leg

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Jumping problems solved

In the saddle

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Keeping him straight into and over fences ➤ Developing your feel for a stride

We all come across a few sticky issues when we’re training for showjumping, says Daniel Moseley. Here are a few of the commonest problems, with solutions I use in my everyday schooling

ProbLem

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Landing on the same leg With careful training and patience, most common training problems can be overcome. Landing on the same leg continually means your horse can lose balance and rhythm into the next fence as you attempt to change leg, or he’ll try to turn on the wrong leg. Also, over time, always landing on the same leg can have a physical impact on the health of your horse’s joints and ligaments. So it’s important to train your horse to land on the correct lead over fences – in other words, on the right leg if you’re turning right, and the left leg if you’re turning left. This exercise is very simple but very effective.

SoLuTion 1 Poles in a fan Put two poles in a fan with a small jump in the middle. The fan starts at 1m, widens out to 2m in the centre then 3m at the end.

After warming up your horse, jump this fence in canter on a 20m circle and then spiral down into a 10m circle.

Don’t worry about seeing a stride, let your horse think for himself and you concentrate on maintaining the rhythm.

With time, your horse will learn to land on the correct lead. Remember to fuss, pat and reward him as soon as he gets it right, and ride this exercise on both reins.

Daniel and Cappuccino tackle the fan

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Photo: Adrian Dennis – AFP

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Suspended animation This amazing, bird’s eye view of an eventer galloping past the Olympic crowds won photographer Adrian Dennis the coveted ‘Photograph of the Year’ award – part of The Press Photographer’s Year 2013 competition. His photograph captures eventer Nina Lamsam Ligon riding Butts Leon at the London 2012 Olympics. The photograph shows the Thai eventer on 30 July, passing spectators during the cross-country phase of the competition.

Adrian’s photograph won against a record number of entries from press photographers – 12,500 photographs were received and considered by experienced ‘jurors’ who had significantly contributed to press photography.

Aiming to demonstrate that “the traditional still image burns the keenest, fastest impression on the public conscience”, The Press Photographer’s Year celebrates outstanding press photography taken for and used by the UK media. The competition is a not-for-profit venture, run by professional photographers for professional photographers.

To see a gallery of the winners and find out more, visit theppy.com

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