Posted on 12/30/2005 3:19:33 PM PST by N. Beaujon
I WISH I traveled in circles who knew the current names and trends in dressage :~D It's been a long time now since I followed it.
As for change coming at AQHA shows, it sure is coming slow. I saw horses with their heads on the ground and 'dead horse walkin' movement winning at the schooling show I went to last year, and those were the hunters ;~D
From what I have read and been told, they have begun to change in Western Pleasure. I have a friend who is "plugged in" and keeps me updated. Yes, you are right about the so-called hunter look at shows. Guess we can't have everything fixed at once.
Here is a great website that explains rollkur as well as classical dressage. The website's author was threatened with a lawsuit by some of the individuals in question and she was off-line for a few months. But, she is back and has made changes to protect herself legally.
http://www.sustainabledressage.net
Very interesting site, I hope to take the time to read it in full when I can concentrate on it.
I've never had or shown QHs, I showed Arabs, which have their own issues and controversies I wouldn't go back to, I'm a trail rider now... but I've followed it a little.
I went to that very interesting website you posted and all I gotta say is:
HOW STUPID can those people be??? Why does everyone have to take everything so far? don't they know when to stop??? Sheesh, those poor horses looked ridiculous ( as do the western pleasure horses). I had no idea this was going on. People in the never ending quest to make a working horse's life miserable.
Well, most people didn't know what was going on unless they happened to watch the warmup arena. They don't ride them like that in the actual test because they wouldn't get very good scores.
What really set off the opposition was the WEG in Las Vegas. The driving forces behind publishing this horrible training method are Americans. We were appalled at this upon seeing it firsthand and in person.
Even though the proponents of rollkur claim that their horses are happy and eager to work this way, you can see it in the horses' faces and eyes how they really feel.
Tuffy, I am so glad that you are able to see the wrong in it. Many do not.
My BILs horse would not stand still for shoeing. The ferrier lunged him and a few other things but nothing worked. He put a twitch on his nose and he was in lala land:')
A twitch works for Bud when the vet comes out. It's like magic on him.
There were tons of pics on that site and not one horse looked happy to me, they had a worried expression on their faces.
You know, it's really depressing to see dressage people doing stupid stuff. They've always had my utmost admiration for not doing artificial stuff like alot of other disciplines do, a la Tennessee Walkers.
No, hair, I firmly believe that some horses are just not made for some riders. It's chemistry. I have friends who have horses I can find no love for but they simply adore them. Fortunately, I've never been in this position of having to sell off a "bad" horse because I really check them out before I buy them and know what I'm getting into before I take them home. I suspect a lot of people buy because they fall in love with the look or the color or are sold a bill of goods (you KNOW how convincing horse traders can be!) and they get stuck with something they cant handle. There are a lot of people who can handle that horse (without any resort to violence.) I know my gelding for example was considered "untrainable." Wrong. He is an absolutely doll. It took a lot of time and patience but I am so in love with him because of the time and patience it took to earn his trust. He has NEVER been beaten. Another trainer might/ probably would have resorted to beating him. That would have been a disaster. He is proof that none of that was ever needed.
I trust I didnt have to say to those on this board that you sell a problem to just anyone. You have to be real honest up front and find a buyer who will not engage in "cowboy" (as you like to put it ;) ) methods. They are just totally unnessasary.
I trust, I didnt have to say that to this group, that you check out the buyer as thoroughly as possible to make sure that horse goes to a good and compatible home.
If someone needs to resort to that level of violence they either lack the skills to be around horses or have major anger management issues and shouldn't be around anything that they can dominate. That's mho. I'm just not giving this brat any benefit of the doubt. she can spend the rest of her life, as far as I'm concerned, making it up to the horse world and proving her worth. JMVHO.
smirk. Funny, that doesnt rankle me in the least. Call me a hypocrite but PEOPLE should know better.
"Overbending" may be on the fine line, but putting a gash in a horse's head that requires 22 stitches and staples to close isn't.
Regarding opening a gash in a horse's head as abuse has nothing to do with thinking of horses as "pets", and is certainly going to result in a frightened horse. Sentient creatures don't deserve to be beaten, whether they're fluffy lap dogs, horses, wild animals, or children. Self-defense is the only excuse for doing bodily harm to a sentient creature, and horses aren't given to unprovoked attacks on people. If a horse is doing something that could injure a human, it's out of fear and a (usually misdirected) attempt at self-defense -- bashing it over the head is hardly going to assuage its fear, or convince it that self-defense is not needed.
I don't think anyone is disagreeing with you on that point. The quote you pasted that I made was not in reference to this incident, but to alot of peoples attitudes about horses "in general".
Becky
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