No more Olympics would be a good thing.
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It’s pretty impossible to get a massive international governing body in bed with other huge like-organizations to do anything a relative few spectators want them to do.
Another idea is that people could start protesting at important events with signs showing cruelty, like PETA does, to get some publicity—oh wait, horse people seem to hate PETA. I don’t. I don’t agree with everything they advocate for, but think they serve an important purpose and help bring quiet cruelty to light. Which is what you (g) want to do, right? So then you’ll have to get loud and in-your-face about it, to make your presence felt and heard and get the general non-public involved so as to put pressure on the huge international governing body by another huge body that could be pressured by loud public out-crying. But it seems like people don’t want to do stuff like that, so here we are. Signing petitions.
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I would gently suggest that their tactics harden attitudes against them more than they win hearts and minds.
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This was posted on the other current thread about welfare (“Were you surprised…”)
So maybe they need to starting having the steward check done right there in the ring, in front of the judge at C and the scribe. The TD should also be present. And part of that check would include looking at the tongue, and it would need to be done immediately after the final halt and salute - before the tongue has a chance to regain its natural color.
My God, I can hear the venomous outbursts now from some of the world’s top riders if a protocol like that became a reality.
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It’s up to the judges, of which there is more than one watching, to see a problem with the horse’s mouth, lameness, etc. during the test. That’s their job.
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The part I don’t get is: WHY? Not why don’t the judges penalize it as they should. Not why doesn’t the FEI do anything. No, my question is WHY do the riders, supposedly the “top echelon” of our sport, ride this way? My god, I’ve had students on their first try with the double bridle ride more correctly than that! It’s NOT correct. It’s the antithesis of correct dressage. What is the purpose? What do they think they will gain by hauling on the horse’s (tightly tied shut) mouth?
I get very annoyed when non-dressage riders say that we “pull the horse into a frame.” Because that’s not true. But then you see this kind of crap, and holy shite that’s exactly what they are doing and its WRONG. Now I’m back to WHY? What do these riders hope to gain? Winning? Well, yeah as long as the judges ignore it. But why doesn’t correct dressage win?
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That “pull horses into a frame” is perpetuated by hunter/jumper trainers who THINK they understand dressage but don’t. I’ve seen this RAMPANT around here with lower level hunter jumper trainers selling themselves as experienced with dressage.
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IMHO the judges have been asleep at their job for ~30 years.
Here is the 1995 Aachen warmup. This is not new news. The stuff that has everyone up in arms today has been around since the days of Uphoff/Rembrant and Werth/Gigolo in the early 1990’s…followed by Anky and Sjef.
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Absolutely the “why” is because they win. It’s been almost 30 years since I saw AVG win in Las Vegas and I can still feel the disgust and revulsion I felt seeing how much torque she (and others) where putting on their horses’ mouths. Literally water skiing via reins.
Looking back on my show riding years, the hunter trainer stands out as the best. I went to some great clinics too, but overall she is the one that got the best results from the horses and I never saw her use force or gadgetry. (And she wasn’t abusive to her students)
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He doesn’t consider that wringing tail as a horse that is being stressed?
We were able to watch the warm-ups and this is the type of riding we saw a lot of. And as in this video, the warm-up area was blocked from spectators.
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Interestingly “Western Pleasure-like” movement in the first part of that video.
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Do horse shows list who’s judging like dog shows do before the actual event? If these are judges that look at this and see no problem they should be named to know who to avoid since they clearly aren’t scoring right, where it’s bias due to big names or lack of G.A.S.
Why not let it be known that Judge John Doe gives 80%+ scores to horses with blue tounges, wringing tails, gaping mouths that don’t even halt at the halt? Since scores are based ONLY on the judges opinion, let it be known which judges find riding like this appropriate
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I think it’s a vicious circle of extravagant movement combined with a very stimulating environment adrenalizing the horse, the adrenaline leads to an increased amount of endorphins which desensitises the horse to pain, harsher aids applied to try and control it all.
" Adrenaline tells your body how to reallocate resources, causing the physical responses, one of which includes the release of endorphins, neurotransmitters that act as your body’s natural painkillers "
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Yes.
Exactly. Why else? People don’t compete at these levels to “just go out there and have fun”.
??? No. When this type of riding is what’s winning on the big stage, it’s pretty hard to argue that it’s the hunter trainers’ fault 
. Competition dressage perpetuates the issue itself.
People may not understand CORRECT dressage but that’s not limited to people in other disciplines - apparently it includes some UL judges too.
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I usually do not share things on FB but I’m really quite floored with this one.
This comment is by Natalie Lamping who is an FEI judge in response to the “ FEI “Actively Looking Into” Swedish Newspaper Report on “Blue Tongue” in Horses Competed by 3 of World’s Top Dressage Riders” article.
This is the article discussing the 3 horse’s with blue tongues and her response is “sometimes it’s the horse that pulls.”
It takes two to tango and a horse that pulls so significantly that it results in oxygen loss to the tongue should not be showed. Period.
The reason this type of abuse happens is because judges don’t see the issue appropriately. The problem is judging which ultimately affects everything - how trainers train, what people breed, what trainers are chosen by clients, so on, so forth. We need to clean house.
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Lamping was insane to post this. How embarrassing!
If the top horses in the WORLD must pull on the rider enough to turn their own Tongues blue (as if) then they are not as well trained as a top world horse should be
OR
The premise is ridiculous
OR
The training bites the big wazoo.
Choose which one. Doesn’t matter. The long game for each is the same: Bye Bye horse shows.
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Exactly! It takes two to pull - if the rider isn’t holding that much weight in the contact then the horse can’t pull that hard. What a ridiculous notion that a horse would pull so hard as to cut off circulation to its tongue and that’s somehow okay?!
I’m not shocked, obviously, but I am outraged. That an FEI judge feels alright posting such an idea on a public Facebook page means that such an opinion is widely accepted in their circle (aka… ant least some other FEI judges). 
🫣
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Maybe someone needs to set up a Wall of Shame for Dressage Judges. 
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Wait, what in the sam hell is she talking about? Yeah, the horse pulls, but then the rider’s job is to lighten them up. Not sit there like a brick wall for them to pull against.
And a horse who is willing to pull hard enough, long enough, to turn their dang tongue blue… what discomfort is the horse avoiding that a oxygen deprived tongue is better than the alternative?
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