Classical Dressage Art in Motion

It is sad to see folks like British rider Lottie Frye with her Everdale competing at Amsterdam CDI receiving some significantly bad press and attack over her training style, and Cesar Parra, another Olympian this time representing Columbia who works in the U.S.A, subject to the same. Lottie Frye went from hero to zero in short order, the horse showcasing some telling signs that the training methods employed on the equine, who I'm sure is nonetheless much loved by Frye, are perhaps not the kindest. And from a classical dressage exhibit standpoint, certainly not correct and true. But the judges certainly rewarded it, placing her 1st. We all love our horses, but our actions speak louder than words   The reality is that whether the alleged activities of applying screws to horse's mouths such as mentioned in the FEI suspension of Parra, or the inevitable topic of rollkür training techniques are back, it seems that elite riders are still being rewarded for the results of those meth...

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 tr...