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Ignoring Reality - The Lame Horse In A Clinic


Grand Prix Clinician/Competitor Paul Alvin-Smith

Unfortunately from time to time horse riders are faced with a difficult decision. They have worked hard to train and prepare for a clinic riding experience with a noted name with their daily trainer, and their horse has been going reasonably well as far as they can tell.

The moment they enter the arena to participate in the clinic, it becomes clear to the clinician that the horse is not sound. The horse may act up in frustration at the demands that are being asked of it by the rider, and the rider and their daily trainer may have not recognized it or if they have, perhaps have chosen to ignore it as a 'training issue.' 

 My husband Paul and I give dressage clinics internationally, and work as a 'duo' in training horse and rider at these events. When we are faced with a horse that we see is clearly not 100%, it is difficult for us to point it out in such a public venue to the rider and their trainer. We fully appreciate that much money, time and effort has been spent by the rider to participate in the clinic, but we must advocate for the horse. Even if it means we upset both rider and trainer.

 Diplomatically we will take the trainer aside and mention what we see, and ask if they can or have noticed the issue before. If there is a state of denial, which can happen, there is no option but for us to point this out directly with the rider. 

 We have heard every excuse in the book at this point, as we have been giving clinics for many years. Calls for medication not working, must have done something during turnout or during the night, inability to see any issue, notes that the horse was doing ' just fine' all week ~ well, you get the picture. Sometimes a horse does go lame within 24 hours. When a horse is not showing signs of acute injury however, it is hard for us to always believe the backstory.

Our suggestion is to call their vet and have the horse looked at professionally, and sometimes this happens and sometimes it doesn't. To my knowledge, we have never been wrong in our diagnosis of there being a soundness problem responsible for the training issue.

If we need to pull a horse from a clinic due to soundness issues, we always offer to allow the rider to substitute a horse either right then or later in the clinic schedule. 

The results of us pointing out lame horses at some barns has negated the barn owner wanting to host us again, and that is OK. We will always stand by the horse, the one that cannot speak by any means but by its actions, and we don't apologize for speaking out on its behalf. 

We are sorry if our frank and honest approach upsets trainers or rider/horse owners, but we know that certain lameness issues will not always resolve even with the best of treatments, and watching a rider try and try to train a horse that cannot meet the demands made of it due to chronic soundness issues and spend their money on pointless lessoning, is not something we will endorse by ignoring what we see. Very often riders will lose confidence and even get hurt long term if they are encouraged to continue riding an unsound horse by a trainer that is blind to the medical problems the horse endures. 

 Not every horse can be 'fixed' not matter how much we want it to happen. 
Sorry folks. That is just the way it is sometimes.


Nikki and Paul Alvin-Smith, Grand Prix Duo

 
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