I just finished watching one of the Dutch dressage team members show her first Grand Prix test with her latest horse. I won't name names. Well O.K. I will. It does as usual, begin with an A. That covers a few riders I know.
I am incensed. How can the F.E.I. and those that dictate the ethics of the sport of dressage not only sanction this sort of dressage work, but continue to reward it. The marks given for this particular abysmal performance actually stated 'good'.
The beautiful horse, who clearly has talent and a great heart showed almost no diagonal trot work, his piaffe/passage work was awful and there was no walk. AT ALL.
This rollkur training damages all the joints of the horse including the jawbone, and the use of alcohol to numb swishing tails and any sign of bad behavior masked by God knows what concoctions that somehow pass scrutiny is mind-blowing.
Alois Podhasky and Dr. Reiner Klimke and the like will be turning in their graves. How can this type of training be justified? When will it end? The magic of true, classical dressage is truly, at an end.
During our travels as clinicians we see and hear from our students of many experiences with similar totally incorrect training methods that they have audited at other clinics or even ridden in and be told by ex USA team riders that they should employ to 'get their horse through his resistance.' Horses with draw reins, noses tied to chests, straps behind the back of the horse to teach the horse to move his hind legs more underneath him. Tension is key they are told. WHAT???? You want to see and feel tension?
Well I can't do much about the rollkur and short cut methods that people employ, the many horses that will simply be discarded on to the giant heap of broken equines as a result. All I can do is try and train people properly, guide them away from bad practices and refuse to participate in any way in buying horses or suggesting horses for students that are trained so pitifully.
Please. Do the same.
I am incensed. How can the F.E.I. and those that dictate the ethics of the sport of dressage not only sanction this sort of dressage work, but continue to reward it. The marks given for this particular abysmal performance actually stated 'good'.
The beautiful horse, who clearly has talent and a great heart showed almost no diagonal trot work, his piaffe/passage work was awful and there was no walk. AT ALL.
This rollkur training damages all the joints of the horse including the jawbone, and the use of alcohol to numb swishing tails and any sign of bad behavior masked by God knows what concoctions that somehow pass scrutiny is mind-blowing.
Alois Podhasky and Dr. Reiner Klimke and the like will be turning in their graves. How can this type of training be justified? When will it end? The magic of true, classical dressage is truly, at an end.
During our travels as clinicians we see and hear from our students of many experiences with similar totally incorrect training methods that they have audited at other clinics or even ridden in and be told by ex USA team riders that they should employ to 'get their horse through his resistance.' Horses with draw reins, noses tied to chests, straps behind the back of the horse to teach the horse to move his hind legs more underneath him. Tension is key they are told. WHAT???? You want to see and feel tension?
Well I can't do much about the rollkur and short cut methods that people employ, the many horses that will simply be discarded on to the giant heap of broken equines as a result. All I can do is try and train people properly, guide them away from bad practices and refuse to participate in any way in buying horses or suggesting horses for students that are trained so pitifully.
Please. Do the same.
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