Free Preview Volume 47 Enough is Enough by Castlemare Publications

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Horses For LIFE

Rollkur and disease of the world

pg 18

pg 8

Content Highlights Torchlight Dressage derailed

PG 118

not missing the forest for the trees by karen rohlf

PG 30 pg 8 Horses For LIFE

Contents cont’d “Dancing on Horseback”

pg 28 pg 86

Canter - the First Step The horse

Enough is Enough! It has been three years since our double issue on Rollkur. Symposiums used to placate us but not to deal with this issue. After all this time is feels like there is no political will to deal with this issue. We can make a difference and many of you already have. So what can you do? Sign the petition. Write to the sponsors. Send a link of the horrific blue tongue article to those sponsors. Feel free to share many of our free articles on the subject to help educate others. We have set up a NEW facebook page . We currently have 50 links to 50 different articles on rollkur, with many yet to add. Together we can make a difference. On behalf of all of us at Horses For LIFE may the gift of the horses be with you always.

All material copyright protected by Horses For LIFE Publications. Please contact us for information, suggestions, comments and submissions at equestriansquest@horsesforlife.com or 1-306-383-2588

“Ernst Bachinger, Head of the Spanish Riding School, gave me the one piece of advice that changed my riding more than anybody else.” “Nuno said to me “stand still. What did you take the reins for? Don’t take the reins. Don’t let the horse move forward. Don’t take the reins.” And I looked at him and I thought, we’re onto something here.” From the incomparble open seat to the excerpt of Jean Claude Racinets new book, join us in this incredible journey that is our equestrians quest. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Horses-For-LIFE-Publications/51217564556 Over 50 articleson rollkur linked on our new facebook page.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/ban-rollkur

Horses For LIFE

From Lipizzan Rider to reining

• VOLUME 47 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine Tony: I have three or four kids that I work with and then a bunch of horses. Yes, I always get, the parents of some of these kids, they want the quick fix so that they can go win at the show. And I always tell them, at home because it is predominantly a western riding area, I always tell them that I will teach their kids how to ride and then if they have a sport-specific thing that they want to do, then I will find a trainer that is specializing in that particular sport or class to help them. But I strip them down to lunge lessons and I teach them dressage and then teach them how to apply it to whatever it is they’re doing. HFL: In a western environment, how do they react to that? Tony: At first they don’t realize that’s what I’m doing. I don’t tell them. HFL: You trick them into it. That’s a good answer. Tony: Yes, because a lot of people are resistant to anything that seems foreign. HFL: Absolutely. Tony: A lot of dressage people wouldn’t imagine that they could get anything from a western rider, and vice versa. That’s really not true. HFL: Or it shouldn’t be true. Tony: Right, it shouldn’t be. So I kind of get them going and then they realize that they’re actually getting control and a mastery of their aids with their horse. Then they don’t care what I tell them. They want more. It’s a lot easier to get them to do it first and it’s been easier for me because I never advertise for students; so it’s usually somebody who’s recommended somebody coming to talk with me. And my students hate when I go to a show because I sit there in the show, I’ll go to watch. I help out every kid that I see. I don’t care if they’re taking lessons from me or not. Mine never feel like they have an advantage. All their parents at home really like me because if I see something that I think I can help fix, I’ll just go approach somebody. HFL: I think that’s wonderful. You obviously love this with a passion. It’s hard, though, isn’t it, to be on the road that much and not to have a base, that you’re away from your own horses for a long period of time, you’re away from your students and other things? Tony: I did this for 12 years straight before I took any breaks. It’s sort Horses For LIFE

from lipizzan rider to reining of a double-edged sword because you have to have a bit of gypsy spirit to do this kind of thing. So when I’m out here I miss the quiet home life a little. But then when I’m at home I miss the job a lot. I’m just trying to figure out a way how to incorporate both. And everybody seems to put up with it. HFL: So how long did you take a sabbatical? How long did you take that break for? Tony: Actually the last sabbatical I took was three years. I actually took a pretty big break. HFL: That’s quite a big break, yes it is. Tony: That’s how I ended up with eight horses. HFL: So you take a three-year break. I’m sure at some point along that three years you’re questioning even if you’re going to go back because that is a long break, right? So what made you decide to go back? Tony: I’ve always stayed in contact with the company and in a way they’re my second family. I worked with them off and on for 21 years. If they need or if I feel like I need them, I can call them up and we usually work something out. They’ll either squeeze me in somewhere or I’ll squeeze them into my schedule. HFL: It sounds like an amazing company to work for. Tony: They helped me out a lot in the years with my riding and opportunities. And I try to return the favor by being accommodating to their needs as well. HFL: Which I’m sure they appreciate too. You said earlier that one of things that was so wonderful is that you had the opportunity to actually train with many of the riders from the Spanish Riding School in Austria. So who was your favorite? I have to ask. Tony: I would have to say Ernst Bachinger. [Editor’s Note: Ernst Bachinger, Head of the Spanish Riding School, is the first Head in at least 30 years who is also a Rider trained at the School. He was a Rider at the School for over 20 years. He has led the Quadrille, performed in the Work in Hand, the Long Rein solo, Courbette in the Airs above the Ground section, and, of course, the Quadrille, participating at all levels.] HFL: And then of course the question is “Why? So why is he your favorite? Tony: Probably because he gave me the one piece of advice that changed my riding more than anybody else. I was there in December and I was riding between eight and ten horses a day and it wasn’t heated. I was riding around in tee-shirt because I was sweating. So I was working so hard and he was riding around wearing a big down coat and hat and scarves and gloves. Finally, I went up to him and said, okay why am I working so hard 10

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Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling Rollkur and Disease of the World

HFL: Earlier, at the very beginning of the conversation, you were talking about how you had seen there was a change, where before most people had the disciplinarian attitude towards their horses “you have to do this”, now you have more owners that are more interested in creating a relationship with their horses. But at the same time there was a change about 20-30 years ago. But then there is an third group. I talk to a lot of trainers and they say that over the past 20-30 years certain training methods, and especially in competition, have gone completely over the edge. We’re now seeing Rollkur abounding everywhere in almost every discipline from dressage to jumping to western; it doesn’t matter. I don’t know if you saw that recent video that was posted about the horse with the blue tongue? 12

KH: No. HFL: It was awful. In essence, the person is riding with his horse strongly in the Rollkur position and the horse’s tongue is hanging out of the side of its mouth, which it frequently is when they’re ridden in this position, and in this case the horse’s tongue is turning blue. Now the rider’s official explanation for this is that the horse momentarily got his tongue between the two bits of the double bridle and that he corrected that immediately. But it truly has shocked the world. This is currently being talked about on a number of discussion lists. There are two petitions out there. There are new websites springing up because people want to see an end to this. But it seems there is this split, like people are polarising, with the competition riders with what they’re doing; and the other group of people that are trying to look for fulfilment or trying to create a different reality for horses. I always wonder, Klaus - for the most part I believe people are good people, so a lot of times when they do things incorrectly with their horses, I tell myself that they’re doing it because of a lack of experience or education, not because of nastiness within their souls. But, then I wonder - why are they doing it? I don’t understand, on a personal level, I don’t understand and it is so widespread. You have young children that are riding like this because they see the winners in their arena, or on television at the big competitions riding their horses like that. KH: I see the point. Again, Nadja, if you allow me to start like this. I think that, when I look at myself, when I look at my job in the world as in the videos, the books and the demonstrations that you also have been writing about, I’m trying to do all this in a humble and neutral way. I’m sure that personally there is something for me to do. I have a job to do in the horse world. I’m known, I’m not famous, but I’m known and I can show things like now with the last video [as yet unpublished] for example. What I’m showing is something which is obviously astonishing like when I’m opening the box and this stallion is being led by me with the smallest signs towards a mare when the stallion has been given to me as one of the most criminal of the military horses in Barcelona, so what I’m doing very obviously is very astonishing - it’s very controlling and

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http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/superprix/7431987 Horses For LIFE

• VOLUME 47 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine Chapter 15 Fallacy: That when riding the bent horse, the outside rein can and should be tauter than the inside rein. 16

The horse should be bent as uniformly as possible; in other words the bend should not be limited to the horse’s neck, which is considerably more pliable than the rest of the horse’s body. Yet all bending has to be initiated by the neck, and this can only be accomplished by applying a traction on the inside (or more precisely: the insideto-be) rein. This prevalence of the inside rein is so self-evident that one even hesitates to call upon the great masters of the past to counter the commonplace fallacious notion calling for “more contact with the outside rein”. But this opinion has become a veritable frenzy, it has reached such proportions nowadays that I shall refer to the authoritative statements by La Guérinière and even Steinbrecht in this regard. The Duke of Newcastle used some tortuous reasoning to argue that when one pulls on the inside rein, one creates more contact on the outside part of the mouth and that it is this effect which induces the horse to turn to the outside. In his detailed rebuttal of this line of argument, La Guérinière concludes: “This principle is destroyed by experience, which shows that a horse is determined to obey the movement of the hand on the side where the rein pulls. Pulling, for instance, the rein to the right, the horse is obliged to obey this movement and bring his head to this side” (op. cit. p. 166, my translation). Steinbrecht himself, although an unconditional defender of the idea of a stronger contact in the outside rein, states

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• VOLUME 47 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

Hyper-Flexion of the Upper Neck, A Failure of Olympic Dimension Instead of upgrading their equestrian education to the quality level of their horses, riders and trainers practicing the hyper-flexion of the upper neck are downgrading their horses to ultimate domination by placing their horse in a situation where they have physically no way out. This is a failure of Olympic dimension. Submissive techniques belong to the equestrian education of the medieval age. A major obstacle, however, needs to be eradicated: an erroneous theory, which like a drug, is feeding the dream that one will be winning while simultaneously destroying the partner without which one cannot win. No hope can be expected from the governing body. The F.E.I. has been efficiently lobbied and, in regard of hyper-flexion of the horses’ upper neck has taken a non-committed position. The awkwardness and discomfort of the horses’ body language have disgusted practically every rider and trainer possessing ethics and decency. However one looks at it: from the perspective of the main ligaments involved, the muscular system, the kinematics of the limbs, or the biomechanical properties of the vertebral column, there is no advantage in over-flexing the horse’s upper neck. The nuchal ligament is an elastic structure inserted at one end to the dorsal spinous process of the fourth thoracic vertebra and attached at the other end to the cervical vertebrae and the skull.

The general consensus is that the nuchal ligament supports the head in an alert position, yet stretches enough to allow grazing. In reality, the opposite is true, the nuchal ligament is not under tension when the horse holds the head and neck in an alert posture. At the other extreme, the nuchal ligament is not elastic enough to allow grazing. Instead of the support role theorized by traditional anatomists, the purpose of the nuchal ligament is to assist the work of the upper neck muscles. At the walk, the nuchal ligament provides an amazing 55% of the energy needed to move the head and neck. At the trot and canter, the nuchal ligament assumes 33% and 31% respectively of the total work required to oscillate the head and neck. By taking advantage of the nuchal ligament’s energy storage capacity, the horse reduces the work of the upper neck muscles between 31% and 55% at the different gaits.

The head and neck carriage commonly presented at FEI dressage level is totally assumed by the work of the upper neck muscles. The nuchal ligament is then almost totally unstrained. “At a neck angle of 55º all portions of the nuchal ligament are unstrained.” (K. S. Gellman, J. E. A. Bertram, The Equine Nuchal Ligament: Structural and Materials Properties, 2002). The lowering of the neck that the horse spontaneously executes after work is not a stretching of the upper neck muscles as emphasized by traditional anatomist, but rather an astute way to ease the work of the upper neck muscles, thereby increasing the contribution of the nuchal ligament. So when a horse relaxes and lowers his head, he is giving his neck muscles a rest by changing his head and neck position which in turn means the nuchal ligament is now active.

The principle of storage and restitution of energy that is commonly accepted in respect of the long tendons and ligaments of the horse’s lower legs, applies within the neck to the nuchal ligament. Large animals such as the horse cannot function on the simplistic concepts of muscles moving bones. It would require enormous muscle mass and tremendous muscular energy to move the horse’s limbs and body. Instead, the horse has developed a sophisticated mechanism of short muscles assuming optimum elastic recoil of long tendons, which in turn are moving the legs. It is this elastic recoil effect that reduces and enhances the work of the muscles. The horse’s energy saving mechanism does not apply only to the lower legs. In fact the forelimbs, all the way to the muscles supporting the trunk from the shoulder blades; the hind limbs, all the way to the pelvis; and the whole vertebral column mechanism, as well as the neck, are constructed on the model of energy saving and energy restitution. In order to measure the strain energy storage capacity of the nuchal ligament, the two researchers

Horses For LIFE

Eleanor Russell: On Hands, Lightness and Nuno Oliveira

• VOLUME 47 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

ER: The start is to get his basics right. To understand that this is where I want you to let the head through and the horse comes through; he is more comfortable when the rider gives the rein. That doesn’t mean a six-inch loop in the rein. The horse must be comfortable when he’s through. I say to people they must give, give the rein. That’s not a six-inch loop, it’s lighten the weight in the rein because the horse must work from the back to the front. Not from the front to the back. And yet everyone I talk to, all the emphasis is on the neck, the head, the mouth, the rein; they forget about the back end. HFL: One of the things that I noticed, I was going through some old pictures, where they were showing all the old masters riding their piaffes and the passages and every single one of them, their horses’ heads were actually ahead of the vertical quite clearly. Not just a tiny little bit, you could clearly see this is well ahead of the vertical. I realized that what’s happened is people are equating the two phrases together which is ahead of the vertical and ahead of the bit or above the bit. To them ahead of the vertical and above the bit are the same dang thing. As you said previously, it takes an incredible talent and incredible delicacy, and I think it makes a big difference when you have someone like Philippe Karl or Nuno Oliveira working with the horse because they’re watching the whole horse, the knowledge is there, they catch the little things and I think what happens too often with other people is they’re not watching the whole horse. ER: Right. That’s where the irregularities are coming from. HFL: They’re not looking to see, okay, well, there he raised his foot, but his withers dropped and he rounded his head down and went behind the vertical. Where Nuno without even thinking would say, okay, no that wasn’t the stuff I wanted. That wasn’t the way I wanted it done. ER: Well, with Nuno he wouldn’t have dropped his head to start with because he wouldn’t have had that much contact in the rein to cause the horse to drop his head. Remembering the first time I saw him teach it, the horse had no inclination, his head stayed where it should be. He was quiet and he was calm and he had the reins and he was just touching him on the front leg just below the knee and gradually the aid was brought up so that when he was on the horse he only had to touch him on the shoulder for that one leg. He said some funny things. I’d ridden a lot of piaffe and passage, but I’d never sat on a horse while someone taught a horse piaffe. I was on this horse one day in Assada and he said come here and stand still, and I’m standing still and he started to move the whip without touching the horse and he did this a lot. He moved whips in funny ways and different ways and he waved them and didn’t actually touch the horse with the whip.

He said to me “stand still. What did you take the reins for? Don’t take the reins. Don’t let the horse move forward. Don’t take the reins.” And I looked at him and I thought, we’re onto something here. I had to keep the horse still without using the reins and now I know what he meant. Interesting isn’t it? I remember very clearly thinking oh, I missed something here, better have another think.

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“Who was the author of this book the Germans consider worthy of ranking with Xenophon, Pluvinel, Newcastle, and Guérinière? The simple answer is that he was someone who devoted his entire life to horses and who, just before his death, arranged for the publication of what he had learned. But more particularly, Gustav Steinbrecht was born in 1808 in Amfurt, Saxony, the son of a village pastor. Not being suited to the church, he studied veterinary medicine in Berlin, but soon found himself drawn to the manege, at Moabit, of the celebrated dressage trainer Louis Seeger, where he stayed for eight years, long enough to become an accomplished ecuyer and win the hand of Seeger’s niece. In 1834 he took over the direction of a private manege in Magdeburg, where he remained for eight more years before returning to Berlin to work again with Seeger, now at the height of his fame.

“In 1849 he became director of the “Seegerhof” and began transcribing the notes which were eventually to become the heart of the Gymnasium. A decade later he acquired his own manege in Dessau, but when his wife found that city too confining he returned once again to Berlin, in 1865, where he continued to train horses almost until his death in February 1885. By then, fortunately for us, he had entrusted the completion of his manuscript to a devoted pupil and disciple, Paul Plinzer, who saw it through to publication in the fall of the same year. Since then, the Gymnasium has proven an enduring monument to its author, having gone through innumerable printings in four separate editions, and provided a constant source of inspiration, an enlightenment for generation after generation of German-speaking horsemen.

“Today it stands as a cornerstone of equestrian literature, a work of truly remarkable coherence, comprehensiveness, and depth of understanding; its careful study cannot help but repay the thoughtful horseman many times over. This being the case, all of us who have had to make do without a translation until now owe yet another debt of gratitude to the intrepid dressage publisher Ivan Bezugloff, who has succeeded where so many have failed in finally getting this marvellous work into print in English.” William Steinkraus December 1994

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Photo Credit H. Michael Stahl

Who is Gustav Steinbrecht?

“Across the turn of the century there is a straight path from Steinbrecht’s Gymnasium of the Horse over the old and new riding rules of the cavalry and Hans von Heydebreck’s Deutsche Dressurprufung (German Dressage Test) to the training guidelines of the Federation for Breeding and Testing of German Horses {HDP} and thus in most recent times, the successful activities of the Training Division of the HDP and especially of the Association of German Judges. “Here in the Gymnasium we are in the middle. Only those who untiringly search for the truth of equestrianism will find confirmation in practice of the discoveries described in Heydebreck’s epilogue as the healthiest and most reliable foundations because they are constructed according to the laws of nature “on which any true art must be based.” “ Hans Heinrich Brinckmann Warendorf June 1966

Some might argue that not to have read and understood Steinbrecht is not to understand the roots of German dressage.

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• VOLUME 47 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine Steinbrecht The Open Seat

As we continue the process of beginning the training of Milagro, a young 4 year old Andalusian stallion recently introduced to the saddle, we continue to work on the rider first, as it is only when we work on the rider that we can provide the environment for the horse to succeed. For this lesson, the organising concept was the open seat. This is one of the most frequent, yet most easily fixed, problems that we as instructors can help to correct in any rider. To start with, we need to recognise that many riders grip the saddles with their knees unknowingly. This is the first element that we need to work on with any rider in developing an open seat; beyond that, we can help riders understand how pinning their knees to the saddle prevents them from ever finding the incomparable open seat. Gustav Steinbrecht, in the classic Gymnasium of the Horse, talks about the importance of the open seat. From his perspective, he looks at the change that can sometimes be seen, but always definitely felt, by the rider as the horse changes his level of balance. In the first level, on the forehand, and sometimes in the second level of balance, in regular gaits the barrel and body of the horse seem to stretch out underneath the rider, and the rider can sometimes have the feeling that there is no - or anyway very little - horse between the rider’s legs, making it difficult for the rider to find contact with the horse through the legs, especially the lower leg. The instructor can encourage the rider to find a different leg position, but biomechanically the rider finds that it is impossible to fulfill the instructor’s request. And if the rider tries hard enough, in the process he will introduce not only tension into the small of his back and his seat, he will end up sitting incorrectly. The instructor has not taken into consideration how the rider’s seat is affected by the horse and the horse’s level of balance. Our seat is not static, it HAS to be different as the horse goes through many different changes. When the rider finds that he has difficulty in putting his leg on the horse, this is the feeling of the horse on the forehand, whether it is a young, unbalanced horse or a horse in rollkur. On the other hand, the horse that is learning to go on his hind end, in the third level of balance, provides us with a very different feel. The feeling is one where the barrel naturally seems to fill up between our legs.

steinbrect: the open seat

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The open seat â&#x20AC;&#x153;The length of the stirrup cannot be set to a fixed standard but must be a function of the natural conformation of the horse and also of the position which the horse is being ridden. A broad-chested horse with a full barrel, which gives the rider a large area of contact for his legs, requires longer stirrups than the narrow base on which there is not as much contact area for a long leg. Moreover, when riding the horse in its natural carriage at free gaits, it will be more appropriate to ride with short stirrups, not only because the rider will require more support from the stirrups in view of his own position and to overcome the excess weight of the horse on the forehand, but also because the extended gaits reduce the volume of the body. Conversely, when the horse carries itself on its haunches, its body will be expanded to the same degree, as it is shortened in length, and thus provides a larger contact area for the riderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legs.â&#x20AC;? Steinbrecht

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Xenophon Press Publisher of Fine Equestrian Literature and Classics Currently accepting Classical Manuscripts for Publication and Re-editions. www.XenophonPress.com

Richard Williams 7518 Bayside Road Franktown VA 23354-2106 757-414-0393 BeingWellatHillcrest@Verizon.net

Some might argue that not to have read and understood Steinbrecht is not to understand the roots of German dressage.

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Karen Rohlf:

Not missing the forest for the trees 32

Photo credit : Dana Rasmussen

• VOLUME 47 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine Not missing the forest for the trees... Keeping the Big Picture in mind when advancing with your horse. By Karen Rohlf It happens all the time... We start an activity or passion or hobby because we are attracted to it, we love it, we are fascinated by it. We are excited by the tiny advances we make and are appreciative of the small steps towards our goal. We find ourselves day dreaming about it, and going through the motions of it in elevators or while sitting at our desks. We often can’t even believe that we are so lucky to be doing this. In times of trouble, we tend to be humble and curious, rather than egotistical and blaming. But then, over time, perhaps there are certain things about it that Horses For LIFE

become like work, or we are now at a level where the steps are smaller, slower and harder in coming. We need to update our equipment, we expect more of ourselves and our tools. We get frustrated when it doesn’t go as well as we believe it ought to... When people compliment us, we may find ourselves saying things like: “Uch, that was terrible today”, when the other person is still new and would pay anything to be able to do what we do... It may happen that we find ourselves at a very advanced level, but we suddenly realize that everything is difficult and it simply isn’t as much fun anymore. We are able to get advanced maneuvers done, but somehow the most simple things are difficult or of decreasing quality. Horses are developed that reflect this: They are high level, but no one can ride them or handle them unless they are an expert of control. Horses, rather than the technique, can be blamed. What has happened? Often it is because we are ‘missing the forest for the trees’. We have lost track of the big picture of what we are doing. We have lost track of the most basic principles and lessons. Training Scales and systems with levels can make horse training appear to be linear and sequential; we complete step one on the checklist and move on to the next. But the reality is that training is an amorphous multi-dimensional endeavor separate from time and space. A Grand Prix horse should still have excellent Training Level inside him and a Training Level horse should be performing in a way that will lead to Grand Prix. But how many times have we seen Grand Prix horses who have a decreased quality of gait through their training process, or a horse’s exuberance and freedom restricted in order to appear steady and polished enough to win a Training Level competition? Whether we are talking about preserving the freshness of passion for our horses, or, (because believe it or not, not everyone who rides started out as a horse crazy young girl!), if we are simply trying to preserve excellent basics as we advance our upper level prospect, we have to bring our foundation forward with us. The trick is to recognize a foundational problem from an advanced problem. Does our horse have a problem with extensions because he needs a bigger half halt or because he is bored out of his mind? Since I do Dressage, Naturally, that is the context I will write the rest

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Horses For LIFE Photo credit : Dana Rasmussen

Enough is Enough

Horses For LIFE

• VOLUME 47 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine Enough is Enough The call went out to watch an unbelievably disturbing video. One where the horse’s tongue was blue as it hung out limply, flopping as the horse no longer had any muscular control, like a piece of dead meat, it flapped. I don’t know why I was so horrified. After all, we have been reporting on Rollkur since June 2006, trying to help riders understand the truth versus the marketing. No, it was not being done just for a moment. No, it is not about stretching the back muscles as we clearly have come to understand the biomechanics of the horse. No, this is not stretching. Yes, there is scientific evidence that rollkur causes harm to the horse. We were blessed with some brave contributors who were willing to stand up and have their voices heard even though each realized that there was a risk. A mantle of silence at the time enforced by lawsuits. That issue was one of the hardest things that I have ever done. I took the pictures that were so freely offered to the magazine and tried to focus all of our eyes on the pain that the horses were feeling, by zooming in close to eyes, nostrils, and foaming mouths. The process was so horribly difficult that I broke down in tears again and again. So after watching four years of video and pictures of horses being abused in rollkur - and yes, it is abuse - why did this video plunge me into despair for the poor horses all over again? The blue tongue hanging limply, lifeless, the rider unaware, then reaching down to stuff it back into the horse’s mouth. My heart broke for that poor horse. And I was angry. Within minutes, fingers flying, I wrote to a number of our contributors, the headline - Enough is Enough!! My heart and soul just couldn’t take it anymore and I asked them to help. And they responded in kind, just as did so many other equestrians online when they saw the video. Not only did these horsemen and women share their thoughts, they then in turn made this their cause. They took it upon themselves to find something that they personally could do to make a difference. Heather Moffett was quick to set up a Facebook page, one more way to reach out to others, helping gathering support and awareness of what was going on. Jean Luc and Helyn Cornille were quick to respond, not only with their hearts, but through their newsletter and starting one of the first online petitions. Contacting in turn all those that they knew in the equestrian world, so the groundswell gained momentum. From the very beginning, the common thought was that it was important to have one place for interested parties to go, one central location with links, information, suggestions of what could be done. One of our letters got a quick response when a gentleman named Mark offered help, time and the expertise to swiftly put together a web presence, which after some discussion was put out under the website name DressageDisgrace - because it is a disgrace. Another of our regular contributors, Susannah Cord, immediately began contacting all those that she knew, as well as spending endless hours putting her heart and soul and grief into the poignant article that we share with you this month. The groundswell increases. This particular video has galvanized an equestrian community who all felt the same way. Enough is Enough! When is it going to end? We are tired of being placated, tired of being dismissed, tired of being told untruthfully that there is no scientific evidence. Tired of feeling as helpless as the poor horses that we are continually seeing. =============================== The one National Organization to speak out on this issue and for the horse has been the BHS We would like to thank Patrick Print for his kindness in allowing us to reprint his letter that was spoke so eloquently on behalf of the horse. BHS Chairman writes to President of FEI demanding investigation intohyperflexion The Chairman of The British Horse Society has written to FEI President, HRH Princess Haya, to demand an in38

vestigation into the circumstances surrounding the apparent distress of Patrick Kittel’s horse at Odense earlier this month, and into the ethics of rollkur more generally. The letter reads as follows HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein President Federation Equestre Internationale Avenue Mon-Repos 24 PO Box 157 1005 Lausanne Switzerland 29th October 2009 Your Royal Highness, You cannot be unaware of the disquiet - not to say anger - which has arisen following the depiction on Epona TV of Patrik Kittel’s horse in apparent distress as it competed in Odense on 18th October. As you are doubtless aware, in terms both of membership and breadth of interest, The British Horse Society (BHS) is the largest single equestrian organisation in the UK. Our examinations system, and the training and education which underpin it, have earned for the Society international recognition. No less important is our work to promote the highest standards of equine welfare, which suffuses every facet of our work. I am pleased to report that our commitment to equine welfare is shared by all our colleagues within the British Equestrian Federation, although on this occasion I am writing solely on behalf of the BHS. Let me acknowledge straight away that no representative of the BHS was present in Denmark to witness the horse’s apparent distress, nor do we have the benefit of a contemporaneous veterinary report. Moreover, we do not for one minute suggest that Patrik Kittel at any time sought to treat his horse other than with proper care and respect. Nevertheless, in matters of equine welfare, the precautionary principle must always apply: if, despite the absence of conclusive proof, the wellbeing of a horse is called into question, there will exist a strong moral obligation on the FEI to respond immediately. In our view, the concerns so widely expressed are reasonable and therefore deserving of an urgent two-part investigation: first, an inquiry into the treatment of this particular horse on this particular occasion; and, second, a broader inquiry into the ethics and consequences of hyperflexion. In this second aspect The British Horse Society stands ready to assist the FEI in any way it can. Please note that we pass no comment on the aesthetics of seeing a competition horse contorted in a way it never appears to choose for itself when in its natural state. Our concern is only to speak out when we believe that the welfare of horses demands it. Yours sincerely, Patrick Print FBHS Chairman, The British Horse Society

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enough is Enough ================================================= Contributors from across the globe came forward to speak up for the horses as well. To all the riders who love horses. The European Championships, where we witnessed a combination receive the highest marks ever in a dressage freestyle, have just come to a close. His horse came into the ring already sweating heavily, and continued to do so for the remainder of the test. One could clearly see that the rider had turned his beautiful horse into a helpless creature. The natural gaits were missing. For one thing, there was no clear difference between the trot and passage. The horse was escaping the collection/throughness by offering a passage-like trot. PUT THE PK OBSERVATION HERE? e.g. Indeed the horse did not actually produce a trot at all. His forelegs were parallel to the ground and his hind feet were not tracking up. He should have been eliminated for not having performed a trot. By rewarding such riding at the top level, the judges seem to be encouraging what Col. v.Ziegner has aptly termed “straight jacket riding”. These riders at this level are role models for future riders, so don’t they have a responsibility to promote the principles of correct clinical riding? Which includes ethics! To the limit, but not over! And what is the gymnastic value of holding the horse’s head so strongly that its tongue actually turns blue and hangs out of its mouth, no longer with any feeling? As was observed in Denmark in the warm-up for the qualification for the World Championship to be held in Kentucky. I have asked myself many times how those riders can sleep at night after torturing their horses. It is horrible what they are doing to these wonderful animals and to the art of dressage. The sad thing about this kind of riding is that the FEI did not do anything to stop this. Thank goodness there were also riders who rode according to the principles of classical dressage. They were a pleasure and an inspiration to watch, to observe, and were true examples of a real partnership, of real team work, real harmony. So, to all the riders who love their horses, I beg you; please support training methods that promote skill building and creating a relationship with your horse that is based on trust and respect instead of on torture and fear. Where art stops brutality begins. WAZ Jean Luc Cornille’s response on Rollkur. Blue Tongue The “Blue tongue” video is painful to watch. The horse’s tongue is dead, so is the horse’s mind. From the middle of the neck and up to the skull, horses’ upper-neck muscles and the nuchal ligaments are very weak. Once they are trapped into over-flexion of the upper neck, horses have no way out. Their sole defense is then to shut off their brain and endure the torture as long as it lasts. At one moment in the video recording there is a back view of both hind legs at the canter. There is a wobbling motion of both hocks during the support phase. The kinematic abnormality is repeated every stride, suggesting that not only is the horse’s brain dead but the horse’s hocks will 42

soon be too . Lameness is around the corner, or perhaps already an issue being treated with sophisticated drugs. Considering the inefficacy of over-flexing the horse’s upper neck and the complacency of judging standards in regard to this pathetic training approach, the over-flexion of the upper-neck is a failure of Olympic proportion. Jean Luc

Helyn Of Science Of Motion www.scienceofmotion.com Newsletter “Drowning The Fish”

From: Karen Rohlf I think it is so unfortunate that this hyper-flexion technique is being used. Unfortunately, some riders who use this have been well rewarded in the competition arena, and so now the end has somehow justified the means, and others are emulating these role models. I know that we must be careful not to judge any technique by the way it is done by less than expert people. The trouble is I personally do not have any experience seeing this technique done ‘correctly’ (according to those who do it). With horses (as well as with all animals and children) we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard than we would even with other human adults, who are able to speak and able to protest. My thought when watching this video of the blue tongue hanging out is how amazing these horses are who tolerate this, who try so hard just to understand the system. But what choice do they have, what if they were to protest? On the one hand, I think we need to be careful in our criticism because it would be easy to say that we should just leave all horses alone in the fields to truly be free.... After all, there are many horses ‘abused’ inadvertently by even the most passionate loving people as they learn to ride with ‘correct’ techniques. I certainly am fully aware of all the mistakes I have made. BUT, on the other hand, I think it is a different thing altogether to consciously create a system that knowingly puts the horse in such an extreme position, where they are unable to see or swallow even when the technique is done ‘correctly’. To me it is in the category of the unlucky western pleasure horses who have their heads tied up in their stalls so they will drop to the ground with relief in the competition arena. Or the gaited horses who have chains and weights on their feet so they snap up when they are taken off. Even if it ‘works’ it should not be done. Done poorly, this technique looks like torture. In expert hands this technique seems to create freakishly ‘brilliant’ movement. Perhaps in expert hands it would merely be considered an ‘enhanced interrogation technique’. We have to ask ourselves if the end justifies the means, and we also have to ask ourselves if we really need to see freakish movement on horses who are already so amazing. I think the answer about this technique would be obvious if it wasn’t for the fact that people are winning competitions by training with this method. That is where we need to get the official bodies to stop and really think about what is going on and do something at least at official

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how the indent above their eyes are often filled with fluid and swollen; in many of these horses, the swelling begins in the ears and comes down in two triangles toward and sometimes including the eyes. This is not normal. Pressure builds

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The Changing Perception of Stretching in Athletics When I was a youngster and starting out in organized sports, we stretched. The object was to be as flexible as possible, to be able to twist and contort our bodies so we wouldn’t hurt them when we participated in what was sometimes a rough and tumble sport. It didn’t matter if I was playing tennis or field hockey, the coach had us all stretch before we played and I was darn good at it. I could put my legs behind my head and other similar feats of great stretching. New studies are showing that wasn’t a great idea, that too much flexibility is as bad as too little flexibility. Overstretching was stretching my tendons and ligaments making them too loose to properly support my joints. It explains why I sprained my ankle at least a dozen times, my knees aren’t any great shakes and my right hip sometimes feels like it’s not quite in the socket. My spine does funky things all the time and pops when I roll over in bed. I have two vertebrae between my shoulder blades that slide about a bit and I can tell when they are going out because I get dizzy when I lie on my back. Arthritis is already established in a lot of my joints at fifty - I feel the effects of damage to my joints through the years. It also explains why my muscles are so tight: they are attempting to pick up the slack in the tendons and ligaments. My massage therapist is amazed at the tightness of my muscles. I had to give up tennis and racquetball in my 20s because I couldn’t do a backhand stroke - I would fall when my left knee suddenly gave out. So when should we stretch or should we even do it at all? The good thing about stretching surely is that it improves flexibility. This can help you to move your joints through their full range of motion. So then why are there so many studies coming out against stretching? In actual fact it isn’t that they are against stretching; what they are against is bad stretching. There are two types of bad stretching, according to my research 1. Stretching a cold muscle will sometimes lead to rips and tears that you can feel and will also result in ones that you can’t 2. Overstretching – stretching the muscle beyond the limit of its range forces tendons and ligaments to overstretch According to the American College of Sports Medicine we actually should not stretch before warm up. As a guideline - if you haven’t worked up a light sweat, you shouldn’t stretch. After a workout is the time for heavier stretching but we still need to remember that overstretching won’t help and can hurt. In one study, entitled “Physical Training and Exercise-Related Injuries,” a U.S. Army research team found that trainees with the highest and lowest flexibility had the highest injury rates. They were, respectively, 2.2- and 2.5 times more likely to incur an injury than trainees with average flexibility. Apparently, when it comes to flexibility and injuries, don’t try to be all that you can be. Settle for average.

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Riding By Torchlight: Dressage Derailed By Susannah Cord

Riding By Torchlight By Susannah Cord for Horses For Life It’s like watching a trainwreck in slow motion. A magnificent horse, struggling in a straightjacket punishingly enforced between his rider’s seat and a double bridle leveraged by the rider’s back and braced legs, a curb bit engaged to the max, the deep chestnut stallion struggles through a dance macabre, his legs jerking unnaturally through paces that look less like those of a horse and more like a hopping puppet on a string. And then the stunner, the slack tongue dangling from his mouth. And it’s blue, a clear sign of hypoxia. Oblivious, the rider pushes the horse on. The horse, his eyes withdrawn and prematurely old with pain, soldiers on. Finally, realization dawns, the rider halts, adjusts the tongue so it is out of sight, stuffed back in the mouth like an old sock in a leaky faucet…. and rides on like all is well, nothing out of the ordinary has just occurred. Carry on, folks, nothing to see here, just a little blue tongue. Just another day in paradise. It’s like watching a trainwreck in slow motion. The FEI makes another reassuring statement, an investigation is underway, the horse’s welfare always comes first. The FEI machine rumbles slowly on, secure in its own entrenched views, and one hand washes the other. But past experience has not inspired confidence in the FEI standing up for the horse. Statement after statement, so-called investigations, and subsequent politically correct and bland declarations that are never acted upon or enforced. Our governing body, fully expecting us to continue to place in them our indiscriminating trust, shows blatant disregard for public concern. Oh, they throw us a few crumbs with supposed investigations that lead nowhere, all the while ignoring studies that at the very least should cause grave concern for the welfare of the Rollkur horse, and more appropriately, long ago should have led to action to outlaw Rollkur at all competitions. Still they lumber on in their arrogance, believing we will continue to trust in their sincerity after they have let us all, and most especially the horses, down, time after time. What awaits us now? Another halfhearted investigation followed by the recurring theme of FEI? Nothing conclusive, but only in the hands of the trained professional? And then – nothing to see here, folks, carry on, just a little extreme manhandling of a horse. Just another day in paradise. But the times are changing, the outrage is growing, and Patrik Kittel and Watermill Scandic may have finally delivered the pointbreak, the straw that broke the camel’s back, the last drop. The FEI should know by now, it’s not just another day in the life. Enough is enough.

credit

www.epona.tv/

Patrik Kittel is not the only rider to fall under Rollkur’s dark spell, and far from the only rider to employ the technique for extreme lengths of time. Just about everyone knows the stories – at the Olympics in Australia, one world renowned dressage rider continues on and off in Rollkur for 3 hours in the punishing heat, simply moving from warm up arena to warm up arena to avoid harassment from the stewards. At an international competition in the US, a steward tries to speak up, instructing a rider her Rollkur time is up. She smartly replies she has not traveled this far to be told she can’t ride. The steward is left high and dry by those that should be enforcing their own laws and statements, and is bullied into silence by the very people he or she is meant to inform and police. The trend has been set -- match point to the bullies. Rollkur escalates in public use, culminating in this latest public travesty. Once again, a steward is called to investigate. This steward doesn’t even try. Shrugs it off. Patrik Kittel is not the only rider in the warm up ring exhibiting this behavior. And one is left to wonder. If a rider discovers the tongue of his horse hanging slackly from his mouth, the color of slate, and all he does is nonchalantly stuff the tongue back in his mount’s mouth and then carry on as before – is this a common occurrence for him and others? No shock, no concern - from anybody, except this one complainer? Does this happen in training so often that it causes no feeling or empathy in the rider at all? Is this rider and many like him so deadened to the suffering of their mount that a BLUE and limp tongue causes him no second thoughts? At the very least any Regular Joe would dismount and lead the horse off to a safe place for removal of the bridle and a full investigation as to the state of the animal’s mouth, wouldn’t he? Ah, but there’s the rub. Hello! What was I thinking? This was no Regular Joe who wouldn’t know better! This was a ‘Trained Professional’, a ‘Top Sporter’ as the Dutch like to call it, and Rollkur in all its depravity is justifiable in the hands of a ‘Trained Professional’ and ‘Top Sporter’, because this makes them smarter and better and implies they have such high goals the rest of us just can’t understand how right they are to do what they do, it’s just so beyond us, and they so above us, they have left us behind in the dust of our own ignorance. So he would know whether or not a limp and blue tongue is cause for concern, unlike us mere mortals who just see the signs of a horse well beyond pain and deep into torture. I’m sorry, I’m being sarcastic. I get sarcastic when I’m angry, and I admit, I am angry. I am incredulous at the naivete and arrogance exhibited by the heads of our ruling body who think we will continue to accept their indolence Horses For LIFE

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dressage derailed and complacency in the face of such obvious abuse. So, here comes the defense to the rescue. “Why attack poor Patrik Kittel when he is clearly only one of many perpetrating this form of riding, and when he has to do it if he wants to win, he said so himself, he HAS to?” To which I say - Why not Patrik Kittel? He clearly places winning ahead of the welfare of his horse and was the worst on the day caught on camera. Too bad. If he doesn’t want to come under attack for riding like a monster, don’t ride like one. He claims to only ride this way for short periods of time. Not only does there seem to be ample evidence to the opposite, not only in his case, but in the case of any Rollkur rider, but he is missing the point entirely – we don’t want to see a horse ridden in Rollkur, at all, for any length of time, period. Here’s my other favorite. “But the horse just got his tongue stuck between the bits, didn’t he?” As someone who once rode a horse through an entire test in a double bridle with the horse’s tongue caught between the bits (while I put on my show coat he played with the bits, then the bell rang and I rushed to the ring, not realizing something was utterly wrong till I headed down centerline. Being young and stupid I rode the entire test so I ‘d better not take even the slightest contact.) Which leads me to this point – a tongue does not go blue just from being over or between the bits. It goes blue when blood supply is cut off. This means extreme pressure. And whether the blue tongue was caused by the extreme pressure of a severely and constantly fully leveraged curb bit or from being caught between the two bits, is neither here nor there in the final analysis. Either tells us the horse is abused. If he could carry on as he did with a tongue in a vice between two bits, this horse is accustomed to severe pain and subjugated beyond a personal willpower, stripped of any ability to defend himself, so far gone he does not even try. If the tongue went blue from bit pressure alone, clearly the forces applied to this horse’s mouth are so far beyond what could be considered normal, humane or necessary, it can only be called – abusive. Let’s see. What else? Oh, right. Patrik Kittel now tells us the tongue clearly was not blue. So we are all colorblind as well as ignorant. This view is supported by people signing a petition to support Patrik Kittel, Rollkur and Intelligent Horsemanship -- I’ll get to that in a minute -- who outright state that they saw no evidence of abuse. Did they watch the same video I did? Perhaps someone could kindly define ‘abuse’ for me, so that I may understand how continuing to ride, never mind apply extreme pressure to a tongue already blue from lack of circulation, does not in any way constitute abuse. Oh right, but the tongue wasn’t blue. It just wasn’t a healthy pink? I am at a loss. So, the petition for Rollkur and Intelligent Horsemanship…let me count the ways. No, I’d better not, I’m overwhelmed with sarcasm. The saving grace is that at the time of writing, this petition has less than 80 signatures, at least half of which are anti Rollkur supporters leaving a statement. But let me say this. ‘Intelligent’ implies giving something thought, applying lessons learnt with empathy and making a wise decision based on experience and facts. Uh-oh. Facts. According to the FEI and our Pro-Rollkur friends, we just don’t have enough FACTS to support our claim that it’s abusive. Never mind the 2008 statement by the FEI Veterinary Commission which, according to Epona TV stated that: “The FEI condemns hyperflexion in any equestrian sport as an example of mental abuse”.

That was conveniently struck from the minutes and apparently never made it past the initial press release. 52

Never mind all those studies showing the effect of Rollkur on the horses’ breathing, saliva production, overstraining of anchoring ligaments of the skull leading to tissue and bone growths in the very area being flexed deeply, causing pain and subsequent headtossing and lameness (leading to drawreins and so on); not to mention damage to the fragile hyoid bone and surrounding apparatus, essential to swallowing and breathing, causing amongst other things, excessive drooling. Never mind anyone who knows even a little about horses and their eyesight know they can’t possibly see where they are going – in itself a stressful situation for a claustrophobic flight animal. Then there’s the stress and strain and ultimate injury through bastardization of biomechanical functions as they are shortcircuited and redrawn in man’s desired and unholy image. Dr. Heuschmann provides us with a whole book, a whole DVD, devoted to the study of just what Rollkur does to the musculoskeletal regions of the horse, but none of this holds the interest of the FEI and our Rollkur friends. So much for facts. Who needs them? Not the FEI, not the people in charge. They just need spectators, and revenue.

No, we are all just hysterical anti Rollkur and anti Intelligent Horsemanship crazies. Witness the words of David Hunt, president of the International Dressage Trainers Club who recently was quoted in Dressage Today dismissing the Rollkur debate as ‘annoying’, and blithely claiming that the dressage horses of today are happier than those of yesterday. How on earth does he compare the horsemanship of our past great riders to our top and most controversial riders today and make such a claim, and why bother? There have always been good and bad riders, happy and unhappy dressage horses. But compare the joyful victory lap of Reiner Klimke in 1984 as he and Ahlerich skipped the light fantastic in perfect harmony with an endless, effortless, one handed single tempi change series all the while waving at the crowd, to today, where horses that have just won the World Cup can’t handle a medal ceremony, and bolt with rider screaming and sawing on her double bridle? Who needs the runner up to give her horse a lead-in into the arena? The horses of the past stood well enough for ribbons and trophies, and finished with proud and sometimes playful victory laps, but today – today our so-called top riders want to WALK the victory lap, or worse, attend the medal ceremony ON FOOT. Are you serious? This, according to the FEI, because they must consider the safety of the horses. Isn’t that sweet? Supposedly the best trained horses with riders espousing their wonderful relationship with these said horses, and they can’t handle an awards ceremony or a victory lap. It’s unsafe… But mention the dangers of Rollkur and the FEI has nothing to say but glib and politically correct sweet nothings. Are the inmates in fact running the asylum? As for these Top Sporters and their partnership with their horse – apparently it only goes as far as the curb can hold them, and when there is no trust, only coercion, even that control can run out. So how does someone like David Hunt define and identify happy horses… unless he believes subjugation and daily pain tops a horse’s wish list, I am not sure where he is looking? Perhaps he is confusing the equine version of the North Korean military march with a joyfully expressive horse. (Totilas must make Kim Jong-il very proud.) Well, he doesn’t have to look far for that. Never has the trend to enforce extreme and unnatural flexion like Rollkur flourished so far and wide as it does today. Yet the condemning testimony against Rollkur of vets and trainers of international stature, David Hunt’s own peers, show that the Rollkur debate is far from a mere trifle, far more than an annoyance, and surely any debate within our community that addresses the well-being of our horses should be welcomed. Especially when there is not only mounting evidence against the practice, but when two eyes (heck, even one squinty eye would do), a little biomechanical knowledge and sheer common sense can tell you there is something seriously wrong Horses For LIFE

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with the practice of Rollkur.

But perhaps I err on the side of my soft and mushy woman’s heart, after all. Because, silly me, it isn’t really about the horse any more, never mind dressage, is it? It’s about money and prestige, about success and ratings and numbers. At the recent Global Dressage Forum in the Netherlands, the FEI’s statement that they were to look into the Watermill Scandic case, and that the welfare of the horse remains front and center in their concerns, was reiterated by FEI’s Executive Sports Director David Holmes, in the first five minutes of the forum. However, the last five minutes of the forum were perhaps more to the point, and certainly more telling. As the story goes, as reported by Eurodressage.com and other news outlets, Moderator Richard Davison asked Arthur Kottas what he thought of Totilas. Totilas being the latest wonderhorse to hit the scene in best Rollkur fashion. A magazine at the forum shows Totilas and rider Edward Gal in what can most kindly be described as a bizarre distortion of, allegedly, an extended trot. Mr. Kottas was brutal in his honesty and is reported to have said everything from ‘I can’t tell what gait it is” to “He reminds me of a Tennessee Walking Horse”. At which point Ton de Ridder, a highly regarded and international dressage trainer and coach who was on the panel, instructed them all that Totilas should not be discussed at the Forum saying : “…he’s a crowd pleaser. He fills the stands and we should be grateful for that.” This was not challenged by anyone but a lonely German journalist who pointed out that this was just a touch hypocritical. They had been so proud of their forum, how every subject was open to discussion. Every subject but the latest, most crowd pleasing, most abject example of Rollkur at work. So there it is. It’s about filling stands and coffers. And

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dressage derailed as for the FEI acting on this? What are the chances? They have not had a good track record so far. As Epona TV questions:

“Why has the FEI chosen to ignore the recommendation from its own veterinary commission that the FEI should not support the practice? And why has the FEI chosen to shut down the welfare sub-committee, without replacing it with another body to safeguard the welfare of horses?”

Why indeed, and what will it take? Will 3 petitions that between them total almost 18.000 signatures count? Will they pay attention to the sudden appearance of several anti Rollkur Facebook groups already totalling some 3.000 members? How about the website DressageDisgrace.com devoted to fighting Rollkur swiftly gaining attention and members? Or the letter to Princess Haya, President of the FEI, from the Chairman of the British Horse Society, in classic understated English form emphasizing the need for a proper investigation into “...a competition horse contorted in a way it never appears to choose for itself when in its natural state”. All of these and more signal a time fast approaching where Rollkur becomes a mainstream issue, to the degradation of not just the dressage community, but ultimately, the entire equestrian community in the public eye. Does the FEI realize that apart from anything else, their inertia and lack of commitment to the horses’ wellbeing puts us all at risk? If we do not address and take seriously accusations of cruelty within our community ourselves, these issues will become the new cause of animal rights organizations who may well be indiscriminating and cut us all across one board and then where will we be? Ask the outlawed foxhunters of Great Britain just how powerful such a movement can be over time, however absurd the notion may seem to begin with.

As for David Hunt’s assertion that dressage horses today are looking ‘so much happier and more comfortable’, we are back to another debate - ‘defining the happy horse/athlete’. Growing up with traditional dressage values, it was clear that wringing tails and impure gaits due to tension and constriction and a horse so overpowered and simultaneously unbalanced – physically and mentally -- as to require a constant full engagement of the curb, neither indicated a well-trained athlete or a happy horse, and in-depth retraining was indicated. A statement such as David Hunt’s ought be held up as a great big question mark as to where we are going in the future, and will our sport survive such leadership?

Because if he, President of the International Dressage Trainers Club, can look in the face of a Rollkur horse, with its jerky gaits, oversalivating mouth and glaringly blank and hollow eyes, and call it happy, we are in serious trouble indeed.

What almost frightens me the most is the assumptions made now about dressage. That dressage IS Rollkur. It is now about ‘shapeshifting’ and ‘modern dressage’, and classical or traditional dressage, based on real horses and honest values grounded in the horses’ wellbeing and natural bio-mechanics is just a frumpy old lady poking around in her backyard on her fat pony. Real training, real dressage is not what the masses want to see, and the paying masses are who the FEI want to hear. After all, they clap far louder than a horse can express his pain and their money weighs far heavier in FEI’s pockets than the fate of these horses on their conscience. 58

It worries me that people no longer recognize that Rollkur is a torturous technique that is happening TO dressage and to horse sports across the board, but that they simply identify it WITH dressage. It is heartbreaking, it is all the more tragic when glorified by a sport and discipline which holds at its core the uplifting of the horse by improving and strengthening his natural abilities and spirit. Because the practice of Rollkur does nothing of the sort, and in effect, dismantles the horse’s natural bio-mechanics and defenses, leaving him vulnerable and open to a reinterpretation of his abilities that renders him a grotesque, if flashy puppet.

Who are these people who feel justified, indeed elevated and superior by engaging in this practice? Are they monsters? I wanted to know, and so I began surfing the web and looking at faces, to see what hid under the tall hats and over the shiny boots. What I found left me feeling oddly sad and hollow, drained of anger. They all look like such nice and friendly people. I wanted to see horns and warts, pointy teeth and scaly tails. What I found was tall and handsome, blond and pretty, blue eyed and charming. White teeth glinting in full smiles that were inviting and warm. Could these all be good people who were just misguided beyond suspension of my disbelief? So what is this? A Dressage version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? I just can’t fit the pieces together. These cruel riders and their tortured horses don’t match these smiling and friendly faces, with their sincere and believable declarations of love for their equine partners. I guess they just love to win - more.

And who are the people in power, who are the people who kowtow to the powermongers of Rollkur, allowing them to ruin a beloved sport, a sport that once represented the pinnacle of equestrian endeavours? It’s people like David Holmes, FEI Executive Director of Sports, who made the following statement last week, contradicting his opening statement at the Global Dressage Forum one week before: “It is ironic that we will presumably conclude that Patrik hasn’t done anything wrong,” Holmes said. “…..The horse put the tongue out which became blue at one point, but that has happened to myself with one horse and Patrik fixed it as soon as he noticed it.” THIS is supposed to make me feel better? THIS is supposed to convince me the FEI is on the job and putting the horses’ welfare at the fore? Who ARE these people? Do they HEAR themselves talking? Well, at least he’s not color blind. But our Sports Director blithely and apparently without remorse confesses to having caused such pain in a horse himself, hardly making him a qualified judge of equine welfare – then he goes on to make a joke of the previous week’s statement by FEI that an OBJECTIVE investigation will take place. He PRESUMES they will find Patrik has done nothing wrong? Then I will PRESUME all ‘objectivity’ will fall in favor of Rollkur, its smoke and mirrors, its grandeur and its empty promise, its bullies and despots, and the horse will once again be left to fend for itself, thrown under the bus by the FEI. Horses For LIFE

Torchlight Dressage Derailed

It just highlights again, that what the FEI and the Rollkur crowd continue to fail to understand, something so simple, so simple that even we non ‘Top Sporters’ can understand it, is that it’s not about classical versus modern. It’s not about Top Sport versus the rest of us. It’s about Rollkur. That Rollkur is not training, never has been, never will be, not in any shape or form, or for any length of time. It is not training, it’s abuse. And we don’t need a bunch of studies to prove it, we just need eyes in our head and a heart in our chest. But for those who need scientific evidence, it’s out there, too, should they be willing to look. But that’s the problem so far – they may or may not look, but either way, they are not willing to SEE. The FEI now faces a huge dilemma. Do the right thing and by doing so imply they have been wrong so far, and face the wrath of the Rollkur crowd, a considerable and powerful bunch. Let it slide once more and surely even they realize the tide has turned, and it will not be in their favor. The World Equestrian Games loom ahead, and they are on US soil, where we are not afraid of the big bad Dutch wolf and his pack, we are not afraid to speak on behalf of the horse, and we are not afraid to wear our hearts on the sleeve and stand up for what’s right. And I mean that literally. We will stand, we will turn our backs, but we won’t leave. And Paul Belasik tells us why in his latest book, A Search For Collection: “The reason why you can’t pull a horse’s head down to his knees and hold it there is not only because the current science approves or disapproves. The reason why you can’t pull a horse’s head down to his knees and hold it there day after day, hour after hour, is the same reason why you can’t pull a man’s head down to his knees and hold it there. The reason is that it is demeaning to the dignity of the horse or man. It is an ethical, philosophical problem, as well as a scientific one. Even in the handling of prisoners of war there are conventions of dignity. When you act this way toward a horse with this unprovoked, irrational and unrelenting constant aggression, you demean everything: the horse, nature, yourself, the art and the observer.

Indeed, the FEI demeans us all by continuing to defend Rollkur, its perpetrators, and ridicules us by expecting us to believe their fallow statements and absurd concoctions, about length of time, professional application, and the happiness of horses. The time has passed for talk, the time is now for action. Rollkur is not training, it’s abuse. And FEI – Enough IS Enough.

Horses For LIFE

Rollkur Research Ask the horses What they want?

Horses For LIFE

Stealing the Dragon’s Breath

The Dragon’s Breath One of the origins of the word dragon, Greek drakeîn meaning is “to see clearly.” Have you ever noticed how smooth and even the horses’s forehead is. Artists when they draw the horse draw a simple sweep of a line down from the ears all the way down to the muzzle. Below that sweep of that simple one broad stroke of the pencil - the lips, the nostrils are drawn in. And immediately no matter how simple the lines everyone knows they are looking at a horse. So what is it that we are looking at here? What animal is this? Nostrils extruding in every direction to the point where they almost see to meet and touch in the center too nostrils flaring and almost trying to become one. When you look at close-ups of this animals muzzle, you are struck with how they no longer look like horses. Not only their nostrils distended, they flare out to incredible proportions. But even more than that they end up with ripples that flare up above their nasal bone behind their nostrils moving upward along on their nasal bone, sometimes one, sometimes two. Bumps and lumps of an animal struggling gasping for breath, because we have stolen its breath. This is a picture of an animal in distress, an animal that is having problems breathing.

Horses For LIFE

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Horses For LIFE

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