Preview Issue
Freedom of the Press http://horsesforlife.com
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Content Highlights PG 18
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Contents cont’d pg 78 pg 66
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This month we celebrate the mystery of the horse in a behaviour few have had the priviledge of seeing until now. A living carousel. Today up and front and center the subject on everyone’s mind are the rights of the press as photos are passed around of one clinician and as eurodressage prepares for court. Sign and share the petition at: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ justsayyesto401/ 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
Just Say YES! Contest Free subscriptions to anyone of your choice. Send us your inspiration. Pictures, videos, stories and/or quotes of what inspires you with your work with your horses. It is time for us to figure out what we stand for, which is a much more difficult exercise than standing against something. Send your entries to us or goto http://just-say-yes.info and upload your pictures and video on our facebook account. Just Say YES!! Celebrating the Horse. Thank you for joining us in this incredible equestrian journey.
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Editorial Rights of the Photographer
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What are the ethics, the rights of the editorial photographer? Where does freedom of the press begin and the rights of the individual end? This discussion is one in the front lines in the public as pictures and video are published of several notable horsemen in both the dressage and western world. It has also been front line on a personal as well as a professional level as different photos have been made available to our own magazine over the past year. We have spent a lot of time discussing when and how pictures should or shouldn’t be used. It is something that we struggle with on a continuous basis, as we want to ensure that whatever we do, it is always first in the interest of the horse. We have seen the power of journalistic freedom and have also experienced the shocking experience of what happens when one person or a group of people can control the media. Such was the case with rollkur. Just four short years ago there was a lock down on pictures and stories printed on the practice. Those that tried were sued. Many riders had no idea what it looked like, those that did were told it was done just for a moment in time. While preparing for the June 2006 Double Issue on rollkur, we actually had individuals back down, saying they were unwilling to even help prepare the material, worried that they would lose house and home and their very livelihood. We were advised, and we worried about what would happen to us, both personally and professionally, and the consequences that we had seen to date were terrifying. The stress was incredible as we prepared, with voices ringing in our ears, “Don’t do Horses For LIFE
this!” “You are going to lose everything!” But within minutes of the magazine hitting the airwaves, there were forty different discussion groups in a dozen different languages discussing what rollkur was, seeing what it was in both pictures and video. They were shocked, dismayed and horrified. There were too many voices in that moment to shut them all down. But as shocked as they were, what they didn’t realize that what was most shocking was that in this modern day, that very successfully for several years, our equestrian freedom of speech was gagged until that day. We have this very modern-day example that there can be no doubt that without the freedom of the press, especially the freedom of the press in the form of photography, it is the only means that can ensure that the horse stays protected. It was the still photos of moments in time, close-ups of eyes, muzzles, faces that brought the issue of rollkur to the public eye. It was not eyewitness reports, not even video where the eye gets somehow distracted by glossy coats, braided manes and flowing movement. Somehow it was those snapshots of moments in
time that grab our hearts where we can finally truly see what the horse is going through. If for no other reason than the protection of the horse, we cannot take away the right of editorial photography in any venue. The freedom of the press does and can protect us from and inform us so much. Which is why we need to ensure that freedom continue. Photographers should be allowed not only at all horse
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shows, including access to the full grounds, but at all clinics. Places where there are gatherings of equestrians should be open to the press at all times.. Not to do so is to take away the only protection we can extend to the horse that is completely honest and unbiased. It is our freedom of speech to protect, not just for us, but for our horses. Because every photograph is a moment of truth, one where there are no lies, no half-truths; it is the truth of that moment. Freedom of speech is a universal right of each and every human being protected by United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We must not forget that freedom of expression is related to freedom of the press. Freedom of the press is the extension of freedom of speech. This freedom means that we need to have the ability to express opinions and ideas freely. When you have editors, web masters, horsemen across the globe threatened with lawsuits, that is a threat of punishment and takes away our freedom of speech.
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It happened in 2006 and it continues to happen today. One rider sits at a warm-up in Australia in 2010, she takes pictures and posts them to her facebook. Shortly after, the letter from the lawyer arrives. Freedom of speech is always often under threat from every direction, as it challenges the status quo, and often challenges what is seen as the establishment and asks for change. “Freedom of speech, or the freedom of expression, enables all to express ideas, uncover truth, evoke powerful emotions, effect radical change and changes the course of history. In the history of mankind, every great and important undertaking in the world involved the exercise of free speech.� Gwendolyn Cuizon It might be said that is not true, that photographs don’t tell the truth, that it is too easy to show a bad moment in time on any rider, on any horse. And that there are those that will do so deliberately. This is where ethical concerns come in. How do we balance the right of the individual to the necessity of freedom of speech and the freedom of the press? While one moment in time might not represent the body of work of a particular rider, it is still the truth within that moment. So then there are those that ask - is all overbent, rolkur, LDR wrong or do we accept that there are horses that need to be retrained and that these moments in time are going to happen? As a trainer and rider who has been there and done that, had some not very pretty moments in time, retraining horses that had become dangerous, horses that other trainers had given up on, this is a very life changing question to face in myself. And after looking into my own experiences and into my own soul with what I hope was a completely unflinching and honest and open heart, and with the words of wisdom I have heard from some of the incredible horsemen that we have worked with through the past several years through the pages of the magazine, the answer is not so difficult after all. The answer is in the end obvious. The difficulty was in being open to it. 12
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Truth is often direct and simple and obvious when we have stripped it of emotion and ego and id. With all excuses gone, with a heart that tries to be open to the lessons that the horses have to teach, the only answer is that all moments in time count. If there is a moment in time that is not pretty, then that means that I have failed as a trainer. This does not mean that the problem hasn’t been solved. It means that even when we seem to have found the answer that out of all of the answers possible, there was a better one that I had not found. In photography we match three components for each and every picture. ISO, aperture and focus and there are many exposures that will work. There will be many that will be right. But there is only one perfect exposure that makes you exclaim WOW! I have come to realize the same is true with horses. There are many answers, but there is always one completely right answer, because the ingredients, the choices, the how of getting to the answer, matters just as much as the final answer does. Intention matters, our relationship matters, having a relationship matters, past experiences of the horse matters, gaining trust matters... it all matters. So if someone can show you even one bad moment in time, that means that I have failed as an instructor, as a trainer. Even when I find an answer or a solution that nobody else could find. Because it wasn’t the completely right answer. A bad moment in time shows a failure, a lack of knowledge, the inability to find the right, perfect answer for me and for that horse at that moment in time. If I had known more, if I had known better, if I had taken more time, I would have been able to find the right solution. I remain as humble before the horses and hope they can continue to show me how to grow and become a better person, more truthful to myself as well as to them. But what is glorious about the wrong answers is that they are also an opportunity to question ourselves and find the right answers. Sometimes that takes us questioning everything we have ever learnt or thought that we knew about horses. Sometimes that means that we have to throw away assumptions of generations. For example, do we have the inalienable right always to do whatever we feel we have to the horse? Or that we have to face that this is a living breathing creature that we need to deal with, and that perhaps we have to work with the horse, not just on a physical basis but on a emotional, relationship basis as well? While I do not know the answers, I know that I am beginning to question what right we have in any situation, whether it Horses For LIFE
is a clinic or at home, to climb onto their backs just because we can, physically manipulate their bodies to our pleasing, without ever considering developing a relationship first, but that perhaps is another editorial. After endless months of soul searching, I have no doubt that we need to protect the horse, and that the only way we can do so is if we protect the rights of the equestrian photographer and journalist. We need to ensure that all equestrian events are open to the photographer. In this modern day of cell phones with cameras, we need to rely on the discernment of the educated rider to know that we can judge no rider or trainer on a moment in time. None of our modern day trainers are gods. None are perfect. To expect perfection is so unfair to those that are on the same journey that we are all on, and all deserve to be treated with a compassion and an empathy that we would like to see displayed to ourselves if the same were to happen to us. But
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perhaps to aid the average equestrian who can only judge by what they see, our riders and trainers in this new internet age should perhaps consider preparing a body of work at their own sites that reflects their values of horsemanship, so that riders have a reference that truly reflects the work of trainers that they wish to emulate. I have seen the power of truth, of showing what is really happening, as we continue to see improvement each and every year in the show ring and the warm up ring all around the world. Change is happening and there are many brave and selfless riders and trainers all around the world that are willing to risk all to aid the horse. Those that do, need our support, and we all need to speak out to ensure that access and editorial freedom are there.
Sadly, there are shows even today that do not allow us that journalistic freedom. Just this past week one of our photographers was denied access to the Royal Red. The Canadian National Arabian & Half-Arabian Championship Horse Show. Another one of our photographers was denied access to a clinic in the States. Again, we need to not forget that Freedom of Speech is a universal right of each and every human being protected by United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We must not forget that freedom of expression is also strongly correlated to freedom of press. A photograph is part of that freedom of speech. It protects us and it can protect the horses. Horses For LIFE
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The Great European Schools of CLASSICAL DRESSAGE by Alain Laurioux and Guillaume Henry Reprinted with kind permisson from CADMOS http://www.cadmos.co.uk/ and Trafalgar Square http://www.horseandriderbooks.com/ 20
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