Do horses like us?

    In my wanderings around the internet, I found this website called the Country Squire Magazine. A British publication, it focuses on the British countryside.

   Deborah Jane Nicholas, apparently a frequent columnist, has had several articles published, some of which I read, but this one I found rather unusual, if not depressing. 

https://countrysquire.co.uk/2018/09/01/horses-dont-really-like-us/

Clipped from the 1 Sep 18 issue of Country Squire Magazine, author deborah jane nicholas

    Nicholas says, in essence, that horses do what we tell them to do. Period.  She sniffs at the idea that horses willingly do the strange things we ask of them. She says that horses don’t like us. 

    I’m really surprised at the tone in her post, and wonder what sort of relationship she has with horses.

    Mind you, she brings up good points. We ALL have met horses who don’t want to do what we ask of them. Much of that comes from prior handling, I agree, but I’m also convinced that in many cases, that’s just what the horse IS. You see it in ads on the internet: “more whoa than go.” Just like people, there are jocks, like Raven, and there are couch potatoes, like my first horse, McDuff. 

  Her point is that many times, the rider or owner fails to take into account the horse’s reactions to what we ask of them. For instance, she has a video of what can only be called a moron. The moron-probably inspired by some Hollywood movie, runs at the back end of a horse, attempting to mount it with a leap from the back. The horse, being a sensible beast, sees this human running at him from behind-just like a predator would-and simultaneously bucks the idiot off and gives a him a good kick in the chest.  The idiot had it coming, as far as I’m concerned.

   But then she shows a photo of a very nice dressage horse with its ears pinned. She implies that the horse is merely obeying, that he really does not want to be doing dressage.

   That may be true in this specific case, but how, then, can she explain Fuego de Cernada, aka Fuego XII, a PRE stallion I’ve written of in the past. Fuego’s 2010 WEG freestyle dressage performance could only have come from the stallion himself. I have never seen an animal produce such an emotionally charged performance in my life. You could see it: Fuego was doing it all on his own. He added so many flourishes, so much emotion into his performance that he was, counter intuitively, scored low. We in the audience boo’ed the judges scores. We saw a horse that adored dressage, adored the adulation, soaked up the cheers and pretty much, thoroughly enjoyed showing off. It was, after all, freestyle.

   How does she explain Beezie Madden’s fall from Authentic in the stadium jumping competition of the 2007 World Cup? The gelding continued jumping the course, all by himself. 

    While I’ve never watched the Grand National, (a steeplechase for my American readers) , I know that often, a horse will lose its rider and continue jumping the course. 

    I’ve certainly seen racehorses continue the race after losing their jockey. They win...and are elated! The horse doesn’t understand ‘disqualified’. He just knows he won!

    How does she explain Charlie, an OTTB in our barn who, if you put him in the round pen, will lunge himself. You needn’t be inside the ring. You don’t even have to pop a whip to get him going. He works himself. When he considers himself done, he calls to a human to come get him.

  How can any of these actions be called ‘forced”???

   The author also mentions that she has yet to find a photo of a pony with its child owner that looks happy.

   I can understand that. Children don’t usually have the experience of good hands and a good seat. Children don’t think of a pony as being an animal. The pony is another child. They treat it as a playmate. An adult who gives a child a pony must also teach the child that the pony isn’t a toy, it is another living, feeling being, to be treated with respect, kindness and patience. Note: the pony feels no such restrictions, by the way.

    The author goes on to say that horses don’t like us. They don’t hate us, but they’d much rather just be let alone.

    I’m not too sorry to say, that in my opinion, and experience, she’s wrong. Or perhaps she’s confusing cows with horses. I have no experience with cows, but I’m certain there are folks out there who will tell me their cow likes to be petted, sat upon, maybe even asked for a piaffe. I’ve seen pictures of people riding cattle, although it can’t be very comfortable.  Cows don’t seem to have much in the way of personalities. But that may be because we don’t normally think of a cow as being a pet, like a horse. To be brutally honest, cows are..well, creatures that we not only use their milk, but..we eat them. We don’t eat horses. They’re too much like family. 

    Horses have personalities. They have opinions, feelings, a sense of humor. They have favorite people, other animals, other horses. They can differentiate between intentionally inflicted pain from the accidental. I’ve apologized to my horses when I’ve done something hurtful and they certainly seem to understand. Or perhaps I’m so tuned to the equine persona that I can see personalities where Nicholas cannot.  

    Nicholas states that the only reason a horse comes to you in the pasture is because it hopes you have food.

    Isn’t that a thing all in and of itself? Isn’t 'hope'  something a thinking, emotional being does?  Cows don’t come up to you hoping for a carrot. They just look at you. The horse, at least, has learned that you come bearing gifts.

   But what if...as in the case of Raven...you don’t have a treat? What is it, then, that makes him nicker a hello and come up to me when I enter the paddock with a halter? The halter means ‘we are going to do something’. What it might be, he doesn’t know, but it’s probably ‘being ridden’. A horse that didn’t want to be ridden would run away from me. A horse that didn’t know me would just stare at me from the far end of the paddock.

   Even the oldest horse can outrun us any day of the week. Why does this horse...and virtually every other horse I’ve ever owned or leased, or even just made friends with..come to me when I clearly have something in mind for it?

   Is it “like”???

    How does the author explain the gauntlet I must run every time I go to retrieve Raven from his paddock...that being Laddie, the gigantic eventing OTTB. I must go through his paddock in order to get to Raven’s.

    I’ve never petted him, handled him, and certainly never given him treats.  Still, Laddie is right there at my elbow as I pass through his paddock. I have to shoo him away. He WANTS pets, he wants to interact. The look in his eye as Raven and I walk past him can only be described as envy.  He wants to work. His owner studiously avoids him, so is it loneliness? He has horses all around him. Has this horse, a racehorse/eventer who has spent his entire life working with people want to?

      How does she explain the Arabian stallion I massaged the day before a 100 mile endurance ride? His owner told me, I have to ride the hell out of this stallion or he’ll ride the hell out of me. The next day, I was working with my vet as a scribe when the stallion came in, lame, at the first 25 mile vet check. He’d been quicked three days earlier when he was re-shod. Despite being lame, the stallion did NOT want to quit. No, no, no, he insisted, get aboard Dad and let’s GO. He refused to get on the horse ambulance, he wanted to GO. He said so plainly, I can do this. I can. I want to. 

        We’ve all seen horses express refusal to do something: bore out at the track, refuse a jump, buck off a person they don’t want to carry. 

    These are actions of thinking, aware creatures, not slaves. I feel very sorry for Nicholas.  She sounds as if she read Descartes and believes what he said: that animals are merely animated machines, incapable of love, friendship, even, believe it or not, pain. 

    This isn’t to say that horses are incapable of disliking people. Rebel, a PRE cross in our old barn, definitely disliked people. He’d never been hurt or abused while in that barn but he was dangerous and ultimately put his owner in the hospital. 

   I owned (well, he was the ex husband’s horse) an Appy/TB cross gelding, Smoke, who also disliked..one could even say hated..humans. We'd never hurt him, but at some time in his past, he had been mistreated, and from then on, he then hated every human. He definitely tried his best to hurt US. He was truly an evil-minded horse who had vices the likes of which I’d never seen before and hope to never see again. 

   Both those horses could have been poster children for the author’s post.

    But those horses were few and far between the hundreds of horses I’ve known. Yes, I’m going to break the rules and be anthropomorphic. Horses are incredibly good judges of humans. Like humans, they are self-aware. They have opinions, can hold grudges, fall in love, be mischievous, curious, easily frightened or brave as lions, be lazy or workmanlike, have hobbies, keep pets, everything that enables a creature to be an emotional one. Now that we know that dogs can be autistic, I bet horses can even be mentally ill, just like humans. 

   I wish I could remember where I read it, but one man wrote that horses invited us into THEIR world, not the opposite. We become members of THEIR herd.

    I don’t know how many horses she’s met that demonstrate hatred or dislike of humans..but I wonder if it’s the HORSE that is the problem.  

     I have a feeling it’s the author, not the horse.

Do horses like us? 

After the fall

Well, it had to happen, eventually.

I've been riding Raven for several years. Bareback, usually.

I'm not quite sure what set off the normally unflappable Raven, but today, he shied (napped?) and I came off.

He'd been unusually fresh this afternoon. I think it's because Anakin, one of the mares in the barn, may have been in heat.  She stuck her head over the wall into the arena to say hello to Handsome Raven.

Raven is a gelding, of course, but being one merely means he is unable to actually mate with a mare. (and I knew a gelding who could almost achieve intromission. He pestered the hell out of his female donkey pasture mate when she was in heat.)

A gelding still knows he's a male and what male horses do. They're not misogynists. They can still chat up the ladies (when the lady allows him to.).  

Anakin finally left the side of the arena, where she'd been hanging out in her paddock, and it took more than a few minutes for me to bring Raven's mind back to what we were doing...riding.

I don't know what caused it. I apparently didn't have his full attention, because he suddenly leaped forward and I fell over his right shoulder. It happened like that.



You know the 'things they tell you to do' in a fall, of course. It's usually advice to someone in a saddle. I'm betting had I been in a saddle I would never have fallen off. But Raven is slick as a seal this time of year and I was in jeans and bareback.

So much of the advice was useless to me, talk about slipping your foot out of the stirrup, throwing the reins away, etc.   You're told to curl up into a ball. "Tuck and roll", they say, don't stick out your arms or hands to break your fall, etc.

And it's all bullshit. I mean, it is very relevant and very good advice but a fall takes a split second. One moment you're on his back, and the next moment you're on yours.

 I remember the very first time I fell off a horse. I was going over a very small jump. My school horse, a big rangy Appaloosa named "Sarge", went left and I went right. I remember thinking how odd the world suddenly looked, and then bam, I'm on my back with no wind in my lungs. 

I seriously doubt that anyone can plan on what to do when you're about to hit the ground. Our minds just don't work that fast. Gravity, we know now, works at the speed of light. Our minds don't work that fast. Even our nerves don't. Your mind is still trying to understand that you are about to fall. It can't process that fast and I'm absolutely sure that a yellow sticky note doesn't pop up into your mind saying " You're about to fall so do 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in that order....."

Let's not forget that, unlike cats, we can't turn our bodies in midair. Wellllll, perhaps if one has trained as an acrobat, but, ordinarily, we don't have the leverage to conform our bodies into the desired shape whilst flying through the air.
Not relevant to today's fall, but the torques that a stirrup holding your foot is going to cause some hard to overcome elements to a 'successful' fall. 


Not for me the slip the feet out, throw away the reins, tuck and roll.  Not having all that extra stuff to do while in the middle of coming off was of no advantage. Nope, my mind had no idea my body was in the air.

What 'they' also don't take into account is that gravity is unrelenting. It works every time.

But I can say that I did have an advantage. Well, two.
The first was that I was wearing my helmet. In fact, that was the first thought I had when I realized that I had fallen. I am so glad I was wearing my helmet. This despite the fact that I didn't hit my head.
The second thought, then, was...I don't think anything is broken.  The third thought was, wow. I tucked up, without thinking, because I had landed on my left shoulder and hip, my head up and off the ground.

How I did that...well, it's funny how muscle memory...and training...stays in one's brain despite many years of non-use.

When I was in 7th grade (which means I was, um..........12? 13?) I took a class in Judo.
My sensei (teacher) was the  schools  girls gym teacher  who was  probably one of the first women in the US to hold a black belt in karate.
For a week, the first thing we learned was...how to fall. I learned to tuck and roll! I learned to stop a roll with an out flung arm, but learning how to fall was undoubtedly the best thing I've ever learned in my physical life.
She also taught us self defense measures, which, at the time, wasn't considered very lady like, but she was pragmatic. She knew girls were the preferred prey for rapists.

 This, too, came into play once in my life when I was attacked by a guy, who came at me in a fury, fully intending to knock me down and try to kill me. I kicked him in the nuts. Oh, man, that was the most satisfying kick I've ever experienced. He went down like he'd been shot and I got away, unharmed.

I don't remember purposefully filing 'how to fall' in to my brain, but I didn't have to. My reptilian brain...that hunk of brain matter at the back of your head, had filed all that muscle data into long term storage labeled 'Use in Emergency".

It worked. Again.

I lay there for a moment, thinking how grateful I was for wearing my helmet, and then saw Raven standing next to me. He was calm, head down, reins on the ground before his hooves. Good boy. 

After a few moments, I took stock of me. Nothing seemed to be broken. I got up, took the reins and thought, okay, get back on. I'm no longer the type to be afraid of riding after a fall, but...it's good to do so anyway. So I got back on and rode a few circuits in the arena, just to set things right in BOTH our minds, then called it a day.

Raven was a bit embarrassed, I think. I didn't tarry too long after our ride. I unbridled  him and put on his halter, walked him out to his paddock and let him go with my customary gift of a some carrots.
Usually, when I've done that, he either heads right out to the middle of his paddock, or he gets a drink from his trough.
But this time? As I shut the gate and was about to put up the hot wire, he came up to me and put his handsome head over the gate. It was obvious he had something to say.

Sorry.

I patted him. "It's okay. I'll be fine."

Well, as fine as a 64 year old woman who's just fallen off a horse can be and still be in one piece. My neck hurts. My shoulders hurt. My hip hurts.

I was grateful, too, that I wasn't alone at the barn. Our stable girl was cleaning stalls and two other horsemen were there, but no one saw me fall.
How many times have you gone to ride without another soul around? We treasure those moments, when you have the arena to yourself, when you don't have to deal with other humans, but sometimes...sometimes you WANT someone around, in case you really get hurt and need help.

The moment I got home, I took a hot shower, slathered on the Ben-Gay liniment, and took some aspirin. My husband came in just then and asked me the usual, "How was your ride?" and I said "Bad".

"BAD?" in exclamation point eyebrows and verbal  all caps.

"Yeah, I fell off."

"You okay?

"Yeah, but I'll be sore for a few days."

And I will be.

Will I ride tomorrow?

I should. But I'll let my body call THAT shot.


  

Buying a horse

http://www.hay-net.co.uk/guest-/10312/how-to-produce-a-horse-for-sale

Above is a link to an excellent article, found on Haynet, on how to sell a horse. Haynet is an excellent website devoted to horse crazy folks such as ourselves. 

I do hope Haynet doesn't mind that they inspired this post. 

Having been both buyer and seller of horses, I thought I might chip in with a post on what a buyer should do in the process.

There is more than just money involved when you are shopping for a horse.Of course, you want to do a lot of homework on the process of buying a horse: Conformation, pedigree, etc. This is concerning a few other things that might not immediately come to mind when you head out on the road to look at a prospect.

First and most important: you must be honest with yourself. Precisely WHAT do you want a horse for? How experienced are you as a rider? How good a horseman are you, meaning how capable are you at the everyday care of a horse?

Do not go horse shopping with ‘unrealistic expectations’. If you want a horse on which to learn to ride, you are looking for a completely different horse than if you are looking for a 4^th level dressage horse on which to compete.

EQUUS magazine, (issue 13, which is many more years than I care to admit), published a matrix titled “The 7 Attributes in buying a horse”. It is undoubtedly long out of print, and I do not have the time (or money) to ask permission to reprint it.

Essentially, the Y axis is the rider’s experience level and the X axis is the aspects of the horse. The human experience level ranged from raw beginner to high level competition, as well as breeding. The horse’s attributes were: temperament, size, conformation, age, skill, soundness, and pedigree, with a score of each attribute of 1 being essential and 5 unimportant. With the exception of breeding, the higher the score, the greener the rider.

In a nutshell, it enabled you to decide what horse would be best for you.

  If you are a novice or a beginning rider, you do NOT want that drop dead gorgeous but green as grass three year old colt (a wise old horseman told me once, Green + Green=Black and Blue).

You want an old timer,  in his late teens who’s been there, done that.  He might have leg issues or not be the best in conformation, but if he has a reputation as a ‘babysitter’, give him a really good look. Pedigree is nice but you can't ride it. A 'grade' horse can be just as good a horse as the most blue blooded one.

If you have no experience whatsoever at training a horse, you don’t want that cheap-in-price mustang just three months off the range. If you are looking for a mount for a child, a Shetland pony might be the right size, but an older horse is a better bet. Shetlands have a deserved reputation for being little monsters,because they are so small an adult horse trainer can’t ride them. On the other hand, if you are a Grand Prix dressage rider or an eventer, you might be in the market for a hot tempered off track Thoroughbred that, with a steady hand and a little retraining, can become a gung ho eventer.

Decide what characteristics (i.e. vices) are acceptable to you. I would never take a cribber or a barn sour horse, but some folks can accept that if the horse meets their criteria in all other aspects. If you’re not going to breed them, a gelding or a mare with less than ideal conformation is perfectly acceptable. With age, horses develop common sense and wisdom. As my vet once said about my Arab, Jordan…”he didn’t get to be 25 years old by being stupid.”

When you contact a person who’s advertising her horse for sale, do so at a decent time of day. Understand that the seller is busy, too. Mom taught me, never call before 9 (AM) or after 9 (PM). These days, texting and emails are acceptable and convenient forms of contact.

I once had a woman call me at 11 PM without so much as an “excuse me, is this a bad time to call? (It was…I’d been asleep). She said the horse I was selling; a 16.2 TB/Appaloosa gelding; was “perfect for her daughter who wanted to do eventing.” I said "He doesn’t jump". She proceeded to shriek at me, what did I mean, he doesn’t jump? He has to jump, how can he do eventing if he doesn’t jump?”  “Nowhere in my ads does it say he jumps. He doesn’t jump.” I said, aggravated at the woman’s arrogant insolence.  She then called me a liar and hung up.   

If you go to see the horse, be there ON TIME. The seller has taken the time to prep her horse for you. She’s got things to do, too, and it’s rude for you to show up two and half hours later.

If you have to cancel, let her know as soon as possible. Set a return date and KEEP it.

When you get to the barn or stable, remember the Golden Rule: leave the gate as you found it. Other rules include not feeding any of the horses anything, being polite to the staff and other horse owners, etc.

Don’t be a ‘looky lou”. If you’re definitely horse shopping, it’s okay to go and look, but don’t  go 'shopping' solely  because it’s a lovely day and you want to see horses.

Don’t take your dog(s). I know, he ‘goes everywhere with you.” But it’s not your barn, and the seller’s dogs might not appreciate a stranger peeing on their turf.

You might not believe this, but not everyone likes dogs. Just because there are dogs everywhere in horse circles doesn’t mean that everybody is fine with it.

Your dog may be well behaved at home, but in his eye, that strange barn cat is fair game. Do not take your dog, even if you keep him on a leash. Don’t take your dog with the idea that he can ‘stay in the truck’. You are at someone else’s barn, not an offleash dog park. In this State, it is illegal to leave a pet (or a child) in a vehicle for more than 15 minutes, especially if it’s extremely hot or cold. Don’t expect the barn’s staff or horse seller to keep an eye on your mutt.  Leave your dogs at home.

Don’t take your babies or little children. This is business, not a trip to the petting zoo. Some folks, (like my barn lord) have dogs that have proven to be untrustworthy around small children.  The seller is trying to sell you her horse, not be your free babysitter. Don’t expect her to keep an eye on your kid while you ride.

The only reason you should take your child is if you are buying the horse for the CHILD, in which case, the care of the child is on YOU.

Go to see the horse with a definite plan in mind, and don’t waste the seller’s time. For instance, if you’re looking for a jumper, discuss whether the horse jumps or not BEFORE you go to the barn.

Take your own equipment with you. That means, YOUR boots, helmet, gloves, etc.

You don’t want to wear a helmet? Understand that, at least in the US, horse barns/stables are not liable for any injuries you might sustain while trying out a horse. If the seller insists you wear a helmet, wear it.

Keep your opinions to yourself regarding the seller’s appearance, weight, experience, etc. You’re there to look at a horse she is selling, NOT criticize her or impress her with your show record or knowledge.

Do take someone with you, preferably a trusted friend who knows more than you do about horses and knows your capabilities.

Do be careful. There are scammers in the horse world just as everywhere else. If the seller says “this horse was Canadian World Champion Dressage horse in 2010”, ask to see the ribbons, or pictures. If his price is high because he’s registered, ask to see the papers, and don’t accept a cock and bull story about “well, they were left out in the sunshine so you can’t read them.” Ask about the background of the horse: what was he used for, where did you get him, how long have you owned him, any medical issues he’s had? DO ask about vices. An honest seller will tell you.

Handle the horse. Groom him, look at his feet, his eye, his general attitude. Tack him up, (with HIS tack, as it fits him). Lead him up to a horse trailer. Lead him away from the barn and his buddies. Will he load? Will he start crying for his friends? Will he stand tied? Do ride the horse. Yes, I have had occasions where a looky lou refused to actually get on the horse. Have the owner ride the horse in front of you, to see what he can do.

Have the horse vet checked. Your vet may even be willing to come with you for a fee, of course.  You may even arrange to take the horse home for a few days: (leaving a good check for the agreed price as collateral). Why? He might be sedated for your inspection. Don’t ask me how I learned this-it’s a long and infuriating story.  Remember he’s going to be stressed in a new barn, but there is stress from new situations and stress from coming down from a chemically induced state of calm to find himself in a totally new barn.

If you like him, make more than one visit.  

Do have a formal contract with a return clause, as well as a bill of sale. Forms for this are available on the net for a nominal fee. Contracts will save your butt. Trust me. 

If you truly want him, leave a down payment for him, contingent on the horse passing a vet check. Half the selling price is a good down payment.

 Don't  leave the seller hanging.  A down payment is strictly that: something that says I am going to purchase this horse. Taking him "off the market' makes him almost yours, but it's not fair to keep the seller waiting for weeks. Three  business days is the unofficial limit on 'holding' him with a down payment. 

 If you realize he’s not the horse you are looking for, Say So. Don’t hedge. If you don’t like the price, she may be willing to negotiate, but don’t expect it.  Americans don’t like to haggle. Don’t say, “well, I’ll see what my husband says,” or “I’ll let you know in a couple days.” Or “I’ll have to look at that price after payday”. If he’s not what you want or you can’t afford him, be honest. There is nothing wrong with saying, “I can’t afford him” or “She’s a nice mare but I realize she’s not what I want.” Then THANK the seller for taking her time to show him to you.

Good luck and good hunting. Your horse is out there. It is just a question of finding him.

My apology to Western Equitation and the evils of Rollkur

Lifted from "The Mugwump Chronicles" a Word Press blog.

Before I begin this rant, let me relate something I learned from one of my massage clients.

A woman owned a very lovely Arabian stallion. She’d bred and raised him. He was a complete gentleman. She could hand breed him or let him out with his mares. She could lead him past a mare in raging heat without him turning a head or a hair.

He was gentle as a lamb, beautifully bred, well conformed, and perfectly trained.

He could not win in the show ring. 

Why?

Well…then..as now…judges didn’t want to see a gentle, quiet, gentleman of an Arabian stallion. They wanted to see a hyped up psycho on a lead, racing into the show ring on hind legs, eyes bulging, nostrils wide, screaming his head off, dragging his handler by the lead rope. They wanted to see flash and insanity, not a well-trained, quiet horse. A horse galloping, spinning, kicking, bucking was far more entertaining than a quiet stallion you could reliably put a toddler on. 

The tales of an Arabian stallion (or any gender) being artificially jazzed up  before ever entering the show ring…with drugs, whippings, insertion of foreign objects into its anus…are not apocryphal, or even anecdotal. They are true. It’s all to win a piece of fabric. 

The owner was excused from a show ring on more than one occasion because her stallion wasn’t insane. She was accused on more than one occasion of ‘sedating’ him. WHY sedate a quiet horse? She retired him from showing because she was disgusted with the expectations of a registry more impressed with insanity than horse training. 

To continue:

There are times when I have to admit I am wrong.

Now is one of them.

In the past, I’ve been a fairly harsh critic of “western equitation”. Most especially, I’ve disliked, vociferously, the WE’s fashion for the horse to go ‘low and slow’. Their horse’s gaits are so very slow, slow enough that a lame human like myself can easily keep up on foot beside a ‘’’jogging’’ (trotting) Quarter Horse.

What I disliked most, though, was the fashion for ‘peanut rolling”. 

Well, at least he's on a loose rein

This was the form they approved of, one where the horse’s nose is a mere handful of inches above the ground. I could always tell, just by ear, when a Western Equitation class was being held in an arena, just from the coughing of the horse.

I still don’t like it, because it appears to me as if the low hanging heads were forced into that position.

Now I wonder if I was wrong because of typical bias, or wrong because while I’ve heard that the way they’re ‘trained’ is by tying their head high the night before a show, I’ve never actually witnessed it.  Somehow, though, I believe that it’s forced carriage. While a horse at liberty does carry his head relatively low, it’s not THAT low. 

In the past few years, I’ve heard that WE judges have changed their positions and now want to see a higher, more traditional head carriage, and a more natural speed of trot and canter. This is good news, and more power to them.

My bias has showed in my failure to attack the opposite position, that of rollkur , an affectation that is now common in upper level dressage. (This was not intentional. I don’t have the opportunity to see upper level, international dressage.)  

Is this a happy horse? NOT. His rider is a VERY famous and professional rider. This is "rollkur'.

 “Rollkur’ also known as ‘deep’, took the dressage world by storm. No one protested, because deep pocketed donors liked it, and famous riders and trainers did it. Suddenly, the horse that was ‘deep’ was winning despite not being correct.  In rollkur (I won’t go into the biomechanics of it too deeply), the horse’s head is sharply overbent, in some cases, the horse’s chin is literally touching it's chest. (as in the photo above).

WHY this occurred is beyond me. Was is it to give the impression of collection? Obedience? (to me, it looks like abject submission.) Acceptance of the bit? Or, was it more one of “that is so cool looking”? 

I think it is the latter. Dressage people, it appears, are no more resistant to a fad than any spangled, teal colored  spandex ‘western’ body suit than any Western Equitation costume designer. Flash wins ribbons. 
 

Butt ugly, but that's what wins ribbons. Don't think the clothing manufacturers wouldn't love to convince the FEI to accept shit like this in the gravy train of  dressage.

 
Like my friend’s Arabian stallion, substance, gentle, proper training and presentation gets the gate.

What is even more offensive is that several people who should know better, went all aboard on rollkur. It’s one thing to say, I want my horse to look like this because I’ll do anything-even hurt the horse- to get the prize.  It’s another, offensive thing altogether to say, if you don’t agree with me then you are obviously a moron. It is utterly criminal for the judges to flop over in acceptance of rollkur, in complete denial of the very rules they are hired to adhere to. 

Dressage ideology used to be based on the concept that things like collection must be achieved correctly and NOT by the use of force. Perhaps in the days since I learned about the basics of dressage, that has been dismissed. Perhaps the line about a horse’s head being ‘vertical’, neither ahead or behind the bit, fell off the page as the regulation was being printed. It certainly is being ignored by FEI judges.

Rollkur is, in reality, ‘overbent’ to a ridiculous degree. The rollkur horse is so far behind the vertical (aka behind the bit) there IS no ‘vertical’. It’s ‘diagonal’. It is achieved, in many cases, by bits that are decidedly NOT a ‘simple snaffle’ or a curb. 
No, they look at this monstrosity:

I see three sets of reins, and this 'double bridle' doesn't look very gentle.

Being ‘overbent’ or ‘behind the bit’ allows for higher movement in front, yet another concept of dressage being subsumed by flash. Now you see upper level horses (like Moorland Totilas) doing “high school’ movements in the same vein as Spanish riding.  I remember watching the World Equestrian Game’s horses in freestyle dressage…and Totilas won, I believe, by his high stepping.  

 This was NOT what I learned of classical dressage in the 70’s. In those days, balance, harmony and symmetry was the desired picture, not the  high stepping (in front and shuffling in back ) of a circus horse. But…when big money/big names take on a fad, even the FEI is not immune to the pressures.

As seems to be the case in competitive horse showing, dressage people are no different from the WE folks in going to extremes. Here’s a photo of a horse being ‘trained’ into carrying its head in “rollkur’.

 

This is not 'training'. It is  TORTURE.

 How different is this from a Western Equitation horse I saw being ‘trained’ by having her head tied by the bit to the cinch of the western saddle on her back? Was this ‘suppling”? Is this picture showing a horse ‘in training’? No. (note, too, how gaunt he is).

This isn’t ‘training’. It’s TORTURE. There’s not a bit of difference in the mindset here: force a horse into a physical position. Not one whit. Different flavor of horsemanship, but still-forcing a horse to hold its head in a way unnatural and uncomfortable, all for the sake of fashion, is CRUEL. It is abuse. It is certainly not Horsemanship. 

Now I begin to see that the WE folks, perhaps, weren't alone in training their horses to go in a specific head carriage for fad reasons, although I can’t think of a good reason for it, any more than I can justify rollkur.  In a nutshell, I believe in allowing a horse to carry his head like he wants. 

So. To the Western Equitation folks, I apologize. I was wrong. I was being a snob. If your horse rolls peanuts WITHOUT BEING FORCED, more power to him…and you.

So now we come to Raven.

Sue and I have been riding Raven on a very loose rein for about a year.

Raven has a long back, so it is difficult for him to shift his weight to his hindquarters. He’s heavy on the forehand. In addition, he had a heavy, ‘upside down’ neck, coming from that heavy on the forehand work. 

Sue came to the realization that Raven wasn’t happy with the typical collection, or being on the bit. 

So she let him have his head, literally. We’re still making him ‘work’ but not “in a frame”. By allowing him to trot, canter and mostly walk on a relatively long, relaxed rein, we are seeing something interesting: his neck has slimmed and has, over time, become arched. His back is coming up underneath us, and he is carrying himself. The underside of his neck is no longer bulging out. Allowing him to ride with his head down allows his back to come up, his weight shift back and his forehand to lighten. 

Here is how it works:

This is the mechanics of equine movement.

Most importantly, he has stopped ‘arguing’. This is not to say they were fighting, but Raven would not ‘listen’ to Sue. 

When she gave him more rein, his resistance stopped. He began to dance with her. His head came down and his eye brightened. 

To add: this is how a natural lowered head looks, and how Raven is traveling now.

Now I’m not saying he’s peanut rolling. Far from it, literally. He’s carrying it where he wants to carry it. The difference in his attitude and happiness is amazing. He always has been a good work horse, always ready to be ridden and worked. But now he is happier, in ways I cannot elucidate. Is it ‘pretty’? That depends on your definition of pretty. I think seeing a horse carrying himself, with a calm tail and a happy face, is far more attractive than a wired up horse in chains.

 I took a lesson on him a while ago, and the trainer kept urging me to take up more rein. I found myself holding onto the bit with hands of iron, and I don’t like that. I didn’t feel him ‘seeking contact”. I felt myself with a rock hard grip on his mouth. He took it without complaint, but I..I felt guilty afterwards.

I came to the conclusion that, if furthering my education in riding dressage means using the reins as a weapon, well, then, I’m not going to. If dressage has become nothing more than an overly expensive fashion show, I am out of here. 

I will still ride to the ancient precepts of dressage: harmony with the horse. WILLING obedience on the horse’s part, me doing MY job of carrying myself and working WITH him, not against him. Most especially, I won’t FORCE him to do something that might Look Good but isn’t in his best interest.