Finally, a Reckless Breyer!

At long last, a Breyer statue of a Korean-American hero!
A decorated veteran of the Korean conflict, this little mare hauled ammunition for her comrades during the 1950s, well after the US Cavalry had been disbanded. Reckless performed her duty not just bitless but often without human supervision once she knew her route. Ignoring heavy shelling, she hauled ammo up and brought wounded back down steep, rocky Korean terrain.

Robin Hutton started the Official Sgt Reckless Fan Club on FB, wrote a detailed book about the mare's life, and successfully campaigned for the superb memorial statue of Reckless. Hutton's books contains a good many details the original book by Andrew Geer lacks, but Geer's quite worthy account is free online: https://archive.org/stream/recklessprideoft011755mbp/recklessprideoft011755mbp_djvu.txt

While she may have had some Mongolian blood somewhere, I still contend this little mare was most likely carrying Japanese TB blood. In the early 1950s, WWII was way too close for most Americans to want a hero to remind them of Japan.

The Torture Continues

Anyone thinking that the ban on Rollkur on show grounds is working needs to read this fine critique, one supported by excellent photos.

World Young Dressage Horse Finals – Outrage in the Five Year Olds!

For the BBC

In one Olympic event, competitors wear not Spandex, but 19th Century business suits. They then perform obscure, slow movements on horseback. A niche sport, Competitive Dressage hangs on to its Olympic status tenuously. To pump up excitement, some competitors began exaggerating their horses' movements. Using Rollkur (hyperflexion), they added flash, but they also started a war. Those favoring the time-honored patient training required by dressage as art (Classical Dressage) say Rollkur hurts horses, perverts history, and harbors those driven by ignorance, greed, or glory.  

This summary admittedly favors Classical Dressage. We feel Competitive Dressage endangers the health and welfare of the ridden horse. To explain our position, it's necessary to explain a bit about the history of dressage and the politics and power struggles involved in recent events.

The origins of Classical Dressage trace to the ancient Greek text The Art of Horsemanship where  Xenophon says forcing a horse to perform is like using "whip and spur" on a dancer. Yet force, now blatant in training and the warm-up ring, pervades Competitive Dressage. Over the last couple of decades and especially after 2003, the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI), the controlling organization for equine sports, has allowed force through abuse of bit and spur, sometimes ignoring or violating its own rules.

Force is a perversion of Classical Dressage, which seeks not to exploit the most talented horse but to maximize the capabilities of any horse through careful and systematic training. Two 20th Century masters epitomized Classical Dressage. As a young cavalry officer, Alois Podhajsky, director of the Spanish Riding School (SRS) from 1939-1965,  won a Bronze medal in the 1936 Olympics on a cavalry-reject Thoroughbred. Like Podhajsky, German Olympian Reiner Klimke devoted his life to kind and careful training. Riding a series of better horses using Classical dressage methods, he won six Olympic Gold and two Bronze medals. This video explains both Klimke's method and the importance of the warm-up:  Aachen 95 Klimke.mpg

Abuse, already present at the time of Klimke's death in 1999, quickly escalated. Warm-up rings abounded with Rollkur contortions. The harsh use of bits and spurs drove German trainer/veterinarian Gerd Heuschman to expose the resulting injuries in his 2007 book Tug of War. Finally, the viral Blue Tongue video inspired outraged petitions from around the world, forcing the FEI to pass a formal ban of Rollkur on show grounds in 2010. However,  instead of rigorously enforcing the ban, the FEI blocked the viewing of warm-up arenas, banned cameras, and sanctioned the use of Long, Low, and Round (LDR), a sort of Rollkur-Lite. Undercover photos showing full Rollkur confirmed the FEI failed to follow its own ban.   

We also point to the FEI's failure to apply longstanding dressage rules during actual competition. Without changing the rules, the FEI simply allowed movements consistent with Rollkur-trained horses to win. Horses with overbent necks, faces behind the vertical (BTV), extravagant front leg action with hollow backs and lagging hindquarters, wringing tails, and excessive drooling now outnumber the "happy athlete" described by FEI rules. 

Many feel the violations stem from prominent FEI officials with strong ties to Rollkur and other dubious methods. Prominent trainer and coach Sjef Janssen helped shape the FEI's policy on dressage, and his wife Anky Van Grunsven brought Rollkur to prominence in dressage. Although multiple Olympic winner Van Grunsven has distanced herself from Rollkur after the ban, she once openly claimed it and was its most successful practitioner. She also taught Edward Gal, rider of Totilas, whose goose-stepping trot violated specific FEI dressage rules yet earned record-breaking scores. Another FEI heavyweight is Joep Bartels. Although recently acquitted, Joep Bartels had to defend himself in a civil case regarding purportedly Rollkur-associated injuries suffered by a horse entrusted to Bartels Academy.

Dressage judges also play a role in these scandals. Anyone with a copy of the rule book for dressage can see high-scoring horses violated rules of correct movement. Is it possible that the FEI would penalize judges who favor the less eye-catching Classical riding by not assigning them work? Would they reward with work judges willing to give high marks to horses not meeting the requirements spelled out in the FEI rulebook?

Now, the abusive practices rampant in Competitive Dressage have reached Vienna's historic SRS, a bastion of Classical horsemanship for close to 450 years. On November 29, 2014, Anky Van Grunsven hosted a visit to Amsterdam by the SRS. There, her husband offered up his already well known opinion that Classical training methods are grossly deficient. Some former SRS riders already bemoan the "improvements" the influence of modern, Competitive Dressage training methods has brought to the halls of the SRS.

Those of us who love Classical Dressage, who love the horse-human partnership it shows, and who simply love horses, ask the BBC to investigate the corruption and abuse Competitive Dressage has brought  to the dressage world.

A summary of dressage today for Hector Carmona to submit to the BBC

A summary of dressage today for Hector Carmona to submit to the BBC:

In one Olympic event, competitors wear not Spandex, but 19th Century business suits. They then perform obscure, slow movements on horseback. A niche sport, Competitive Dressage hangs on to its Olympic status tenuously. To pump up excitement, some competitors began exaggerating their horses' movements. Using Rollkur (hyperflexion), they added flash, but they also started a war. Those favoring the time-honored patient training required by dressage as art (Classical Dressage) say Rollkur hurts horses, perverts history, and harbors those driven by ignorance, greed, or glory.  

This summary admittedly favors Classical Dressage. We feel Competitive Dressage endangers the health and welfare of the ridden horse. To explain our position, it's necessary to explain a bit about the history of dressage and the politics and power struggles involved in recent events.

The origins of Classical Dressage trace to the ancient Greek text The Art of Horsemanship where  Xenophon says forcing a horse to perform is like using "whip and spur" on a dancer. Yet force, now blatant in training and the warm-up ring, pervades Competitive Dressage. Over the last couple of decades and especially after 2003, the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI), the controlling organization for equine sports, has allowed force through abuse of bit and spur, sometimes ignoring or violating its own rules.

Force is a perversion of Classical Dressage, which seeks not to exploit the most talented horse but to maximize the capabilities of any horse through careful and systematic training. Two 20th Century masters epitomized Classical Dressage. As a young cavalry officer, Alois Podhajsky, director of the Spanish Riding School (SRS) from 1939-1965,  won a Bronze medal in the 1936 Olympics on a cavalry-reject Thoroughbred. Like Podhajsky, German Olympian Reiner Klimke devoted his life to kind and careful training. Riding a series of better horses using Classical dressage methods, he won six Olympic Gold and two Bronze medals. This video explains both Klimke's method and the importance of the warm-up:  Aachen 95 Klimke.mpg

Abuse, already present at the time of Klimke's death in 1999, quickly escalated. Warm-up rings abounded with Rollkur contortions. The harsh use of bits and spurs drove German trainer/veterinarian Gerd Heuschman to expose the resulting injuries in his 2007 book Tug of War. Finally, the viral Blue Tongue video inspired outraged petitions from around the world, forcing the FEI to pass a formal ban of Rollkur on show grounds in 2010. However,  instead of rigorously enforcing the ban, the FEI blocked the viewing of warm-up arenas, banned cameras, and sanctioned the use of Long, Low, and Round (LDR), a sort of Rollkur-Lite. Undercover photos showing full Rollkur confirmed the FEI failed to follow its own ban.   

We also point to the FEI's failure to apply longstanding dressage rules during actual competition. Without changing the rules, the FEI simply allowed movements consistent with Rollkur-trained horses to win. Horses with overbent necks, faces behind the vertical (BTV), extravagant front leg action with hollow backs and lagging hindquarters, wringing tails, and excessive drooling now outnumber the "happy athlete" described by FEI rules. 

Many feel the violations stem from prominent FEI officials with strong ties to Rollkur and other dubious methods. Prominent trainer and coach Sjef Janssen helped shape the FEI's policy on dressage, and his wife Anky Van Grunsven brought Rollkur to prominence in dressage. Although multiple Olympic winner Van Grunsven has distanced herself from Rollkur after the ban, she once openly claimed it and was its most successful practitioner. She also taught Edward Gal, rider of Totilas, whose goose-stepping trot violated specific FEI dressage rules yet earned record-breaking scores. Another FEI heavyweight is Joep Bartels. Although recently acquitted, Joep Bartels had to defend himself in a civil case regarding purportedly Rollkur-associated injuries suffered by a horse entrusted to Bartels Academy.

Dressage judges also play a role in these scandals. Anyone with a copy of the rule book for dressage can see high-scoring horses violated rules of correct movement. Is it possible that the FEI would penalize judges who favor the less eye-catching Classical riding by not assigning them work? Would they reward with work judges willing to give high marks to horses not meeting the requirements spelled out in the FEI rulebook?

Now, the abusive practices rampant in Competitive Dressage have reached Vienna's historic SRS, a bastion of Classical horsemanship for close to 450 years. On November 29, 2014, Anky Van Grunsven hosted a visit to Amsterdam by the SRS. There, her husband offered up his already well known opinion that Classical training methods are grossly deficient. Some former SRS riders already bemoan the "improvements" the influence of modern, Competitive Dressage training methods has brought to the halls of the SRS.

Those of us who love Classical Dressage, who love the horse-human partnership it shows, and who simply love horses, ask the BBC to investigate the corruption and abuse Competitive Dressage has brought  to the dressage world.

"Scared Bitless"

Funny how life, work, and work with actual horses keeps one from blogging, but here's a short post I had to reblog:  "Scared Bitless" 

This 2013 article from Epona.tv appeals to me since, although I train my horses to carry a bit just to have them well rounded and ready for anything, I ride 95% of the time bitless. I don't show and hence I'm more interested in my horse's comfort than in meeting any rules.

My horses are better behaved and more obliging than most of the horses I see, so I'm constantly amused and occasionally irritated to hear that horses need a bit. This is, in my opinion, untrue.

Given my preference for bitless, I loved reading the FEI's fluttery responses to the Epona inquiries about bitless dressage. It may well be time for those interested in horsemanship to just forget about the FEI. Under the FEI, the current competitive dressage situation looks to have reached a level beyond help. Purists and others who favor the horse over prizes, now distinguish between classical dressage where the horse looks to be performing on its own and competitive dressage, where a horse often looking nervous or even in pain, exhibits a flashy, hollow-backed trot, rather like that of the high-stepping and notoriously artificial movement of American gaited horses. 


Epona.tv's next to last line suggests they agree: "Dressage is not 'steeped in tradition' - you killed all that a long time ago and now there's just the outfits left." Ironically, it wouldn't surprise me at all if the FEI were to change the rules to ditch the 19th C business suit, the shadbelly, for Spandex, shiny Spandex. With glitter. That'd be in keeping with their idea of "tradition."

An Eloquent Voice of Reason

Racing has long been controversial and racing over fences even more so. Of late, dressage riders have turned gorgeous horses into pretzels. Then some FEI level endurance riders began running horses to death and indulging in various less lethal but still disgusting behaviors.

Now, with the deaths of some top level horses, evening has entered the spotlight.

Jimmy Wofford, an elite horseman, offers his excellent insight into the troubles with eventing:

"Jim Wofford: Eventing Lives in the Balance"

I fear that all elite equine competitions are endangered because of the unfortunate tendency of humans to put themselves first. I read or hear about so many incidents where the rider's only concern is being able to finish. I hear so few stories such as that of Ingrid Klimke in the 2004 Athens Olymics. Her wonderful TB Sleep Late slipped on a turn in the cross-country, dislodged Klimke, and nearly fell. She sprung back on her obediently immobile horse and continued, finishing under time, Sleep Late passed the vet inspection for the stadium jumping but once Klimke mounted him she decided he wasn't right and refused to jump him, something I rate higher than all her medals and wins. That refusal was absolute proof she cared for the horse, not the win. The world needs more Ingrid Klimkes and fewer of those who don't put their horses first.

Accidents will still happen. Horses are fragile creatures, but competitions and riders that put the horse first would lessen the number of those accidents.

If a Little Is Good, a Lot Is Better?

Cruising on Facebook, I found this photo. I do not want to get into names or anything so I've cut out identifying info. While I own neither photo nor comment, I find both so disturbing I'm posting them here, hoping to attract some educational discussion.

According to the information on FB, this yearling in the photo is a halter winner. An example of near perfection according to American Quarter Horse breed standards. How could this be? I've seen enough AQHA winners to believe this owner's comment is likely true, but how can this be? What's the matter with people, specifically, what's the matter with AQHA judges?

A few years back, I looked at a horse magazine that ran a series on conformation. The article I saw showed three AQHA horses in conformation poses and asked readers to rank the horses and then to check their ratings against those of a breed show judge. I looked at the photos and took a deep breath because I saw so many dangerous flaws in the legs and bodies of all three horses. Judged against all the information in my horse books and against over half a century working with horses, all three animals in that long gone article were too upright in the legs and had major problems with their backs and shoulders as well. And the judge's top selection of the three was the one I put last because of her underpinning. That horse looked the most like the colt here.

The colt pictured here is refined, but the refinement is exaggerated to the point where it's the refinement of a human body builder on steroids.

The heavily sweated neck doesn't bother me much. That's fixable, but the post-legged rear isn't. Neither are the upright pasterns or the shoulder. Poor horse.

Pointing out the Obvious

Back around 1970, I realized that when I pointed, my mare responded by doing what I wanted. Since I'd been told--repeatedly and by people I respected--that horses did not understand human pointing, I kept quiet about it and when caught in the act explained apologetically it was just something I did and that I realized horses didn't understand my pointing.  Despite occasional indulgent smiles from other horsemen, I kept pointing because horses responded by doing what I wanted.

Nice to see that pointing now looks to be in the totally accepted category.

"Horses Understand Human Gestures"

Now I wonder what "near" means.This article says pointing only works "when the human remains near to the reward." Is near two feet? Ten? A hundred?

I'd like to know because a few weeks ago I turned out my Andalusian to frolick in the arena, the only place not slippery with ice and snow . As he was tearing around, I wondered if he'd stop if I put my arm straight up, his halt command. He was in a full gallop on the far side of the arena maybe eighty feet away when I punched my arm straight up. When he saw my signal, he flung himself sideways to face me and halted, standing immobile while I trotted over with the expected treat. I then pointed in his original direction and gave him an "OK," his verbal release. He instantly struck off in the exuberant gallop I'd interrupted.

I have a witness. Neither of us really expected him to stop. This was not something I worked at training him to do, but he's a remarkable horse so we weren't surprised either.

Here's Simon a year earlier, his first time on double lines without a surcingle holding them up. I took him out for a friend to see and she captured this few seconds on her cell phone. Before this, I had no idea I bobbed around so much. I also know I don't have to lift my leg so high for the strike off. I'm waaaay overdramatic. I need to stop moving so much,. And maybe shut up? But he appears to take his rhythm off my verbal tempo, but I guess that's another thing horses can't do, isn't it?

Simon in Long Lines