If they didn’t need spurs, they could have bought dummy spurs at any point in time. No one has been required to ride with an actual spur that touches the horses side.
1 Like
My sensitive youngster can tell when you wear dummy spurs and is NOT having it, but I get your point. Maybe a PR move? How about spurs and whips are elective and you get extra points if you don’t use them?
I have never shown at anything FEI but I think their rules are complicated enough without making things more so.
You know they move at a glacial pace, as far as changing long standing rules is concerned. The fact they dropped the spur rule (which is really of no consequence to anyone) they seem to think is a big deal , though they know it is just PR.
The horses I have raised, backed and trained have not needed spurs. I can’t imagine them reacting to a dummy spur, which has no neck. I would have had to have had a strange lower leg position for them to react to a metal band above the heel on my boot that did not touch them in any manner.
Good to see they are at least thinking about how things are perceived. How long they will take to address actual abuse issues, many of which you referred to in your previous posts, is yet to be seen.
2 Likes
I have always thought it was absurd that FEI rules required spurs but they could be dummy spurs. What kind of thinking is that?
4 Likes
Appearance is the only answer. Odd isn’t it?
1 Like
What is interesting is that I didn’t see a picture of “dummy” spur in the USEF rulebook. Is there one? If you google “dummy” spur, you get a whole range of different things. Not just the blank with no neck.
What I was using on my young horse was called a Fair Rider spur. Sprenger fairRider Spurs - Aluminium Silver Thick Rounded Neck (horsebitemporium.com) I thought this was a dummy spur becuase it has no neck. He said it was an unfair device of torture and I only touched him with it once and was thinking I should have bought that funeral plot. Is this not a dummy?
I am actually happy that he is this sensitive. I find it works to your advantage when they are older.
I’ve never seen anything like that before. 
Dummy spurs have been around forever, perhaps not in Dressage where spurs are put to use more often than not?
What you linked to isn’t what I know of as a dummy spur, since it is apparently elongating the back of your boot when you give an aid with your heel, which a dummy spur won’t do.
I hope USEF will give a description, for people who are unfamiliar with dummy spurs , but I’m not surprised that they don’t have a picture.
There are also dummy spurs that have a small nub, but you would have to contort your leg to make the nub touch the horse.
It’s too bad to think that people may have been riding with spurs (in effect) when they haven’t had to.
1 Like
The picture of the spur scar used for the article in the original post is not typical. Used correctly spurs, like the whip are not the problem, it’s the rider who is the problem. Again it’s not going to address the real problem unless they look directly at the person who caused such scars.
I have ridden with clinicians who hate either the spur or the whip but not both. I find that interesting.
1 Like
These are dummy spurs:
The ones you showed stick out from the boot a distance like a small standard spur, but instead of just one poke point the pressure surface is dispersed much wider around the arc of the spur. The description describes a clear contact action. Interestingly the description does not list dressage as one of the disciplines they are legal for.
Dummy spurs like the ones I linked to in the Dover catalog don’t have anything that sticks out at all to contact the horse.
—————
On the spur discussion in general: the goal of a rider who wears spurs should be a leg quiet enough to wear spurs and never have them come into use unintentionally. They are there if you need them but never used if you don’t. They are not evil in and of themselves but are a useful aid when correctly used.
They are helpful when a particular horse’s and rider’s anatomy means that, when the leg is positioned properly, the rider’s heel falls nowhere near the horse’s side and having a small extension on that heel can allow quieter aids than a spurless heel might in moments when the horse isn’t responding to seat and calf pressure alone.
5 Likes
It definitely is not.
The one badger shows in her post is a dummy.
Um ok. Not sure what that has to do with the news of a rule change?
Just noticing that the rule change is meaningless, except from a PR standpoint.
2 Likes
