The Color of the Tongue Is Not the Issue
09. Jan, 2010 
5 Comments
In a January 3 Daily Mail article on 2012 Olympic Boycott Threat, Roly Owers, of the World Horse Welfare charity, said of the use of hyperflexion in dressage training:
In the right hands it is a valuable training method, and it cannot make a horse’s tongue go blue, no matter what people seem to think.
Has he seen the video and photos? Even if the video and images had been enhanced (and this is NOT an intimation that I feel they have), heaps of other evidence prove that hyperflexion is harmful to the horse in both body and spirit.
In contrast to Owers’ statement, Lady Sylvia Loch, dressage trainer and author, told the Observer,
It is a shocking symptom of where the sport is going, it’s the tip of the iceberg. What is going on behind closed doors in the training of these horses is very wrong.’Rollkur is so, so cruel. The horse can only see its own feet, so it is reliant on the rider for balance which is simply psychological torture.
Patrick Print, chairman of the British Horse Society, has written a letter to the FEI, asking it to investigate. In it he wrote,
Please note that we pass no comment on the aesthetics of seeing a competition horse contorted in a way it never appears to choose for itself. Our concern is only to speak out when we believe that the welfare of horses demands it.
Esthetics? I was unaware that mere esthetics were the issue. Why the British Horse Society bothered to comment at all is a mystery when I try to parse the actual meaning of the sentence above. They are speaking, but what are they saying? Have they been taking lessons on communication from the FEI?
Maybe they had just read A Beginner’s Guide to Rollkur, where I found this image reproduced from Horsetalk NZ. If they tried out the head and neck position depicted here, it’s possible that their clarity of focus and communication were compromised.
I’m delighted a rag like the Daily Mail has taken up the cause. No one likes a good kerfuffle like the British newspapers. Awareness outside the realm of the insular horse world may just bring the kind of scrutiny needed to call a halt to this crime of training methodology.
Take a look at two nice posts about the nature and disadvantages of hyperflexion at In Pursuit of Classical Perfection and Writing of Riding
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I think they should just ban nosebands during competition.
If you’re having to use a noseband to keep your horse’s mouth tied shut and to keep him from evading the bit, then in my opinion, you have no place in a dressage show, especially at the upper levels!
Mary
.-= Mary Hunter´s last blog ..Teaching Your Dog (or Horse) to Think =-.
Mary
As you know there is a current petition to change the allowable circumference of nosebands in competition.
I thin it wil be a cold day in hell before they ban nosebands entirely and reward real talent and softness.
Is it going to take an act of GOD to get this situation resolved? What’s with the BHS? Is that how they feel about the welfare of horses? I have signed petitions and written to companies sponsoring future events about boycotting their products….I read this and that over and over. What is it going to take?
Who is the last word on this!!!!! Horses are being treated like a piece of equipment, and when they burn out the engine they throw them in the junk pile. I’m furious!
Lori
The acts of god are performed every day. Look into the eyes of those horses on whom hyperflexion is forced.
It is the awareness of those acts of God that it will take.
I don’t know how this will end. Probably not in favor of the horses.
Likewise, the entity with the last word?
Horses as equipment is not a new concept. At least in earlier history mankind had the “kind” in it (at least sometimes–think of the gentle farmer).
Horses as equipment for SPORT is relatively new in human history. The terms of that one-sided agreement have yet to be defined. The squeaky wheel is not being heard. I’m afraid fury hurts only the furious.
I do not know what to do. ;(