I saw this article about Spurs on Facebook

And people are losing their absolute minds over it.

Now I’m not a spur user at the moment as I’m of the school of thought that the spur is not to be used for forward but more refinement of more advanced aids. I have a 6 year old and it has not been needed.

But my understanding was that some horses could easily get spur marks and then it wasn’t necessarily due to bad riding or abuse (one thought I had was clipped horses.) Obviously that’s what the article is exploring.

Obviously our horses should not be bleeding in all the time. And I’m sure it could absolutely be caused by bad riding but I don’t think that’s the only reason?

What do you all think? Most of the people that I’ve seen write lengthy and angry posts about this article are very far from upper level dressage riders. In fact some of them are in different disciplines all together. In riding woolly mammoths in the winter. Not clipped 4th level horses. And some of them I know do wear spurs but more the western type with rollers.

Anyways, Facebook is always interesting these days.

I love a good discussion though so if someone knows more about this with actual evidence to back it up please share! I’m definitely just a low level ammy myself riding my own woolly mammoth so I’m pretty slow to judge anyone else.

I read the article and a handful of comments. Way too much negativity and finger pointing. I don’t ride with spurs so no skin in the game, but they are a tool like everything else.

Should horses have spur rubs, nope, but sometimes spurs have to be adjusted due to rider leg position and other non-nefarious reasons.

It’s like saying all horses should be ridden bit less because sometimes a horse will get a bit rub or a horse bit their tongue.

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Those were my thoughts too. But I try to not be too judgemental unless I know for sure that something is from abuse or bad techniques.

I ride with spurs. My horse is a thin-skinned chestnut, so I do have to be very careful. We have had a couple of welts over the years.

Examination of the circumstances show that it’s been at coat change time (you know that month where you look in despair at the balding spot on your horse’s back under his perfectly fitted custom saddle and think it’s all gone to hell?) and if he has tried one of his sideways super-teleporting tricks, in which he basically slams himself into your leg.

No-one feels good about it. Changing to a roller spur and lengthening my stirrups has helped.

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Yup. Just be sure during coat changing in spring and fall and whenever you ride in wet, muddy conditions that you need to check your rollers are not getting clogged up. Once they stop rolling they’re as bad or worse than regular spurs. I had this happen once at a show that happened to be both in early fall and muddy AF and was mortified. It was my last class and no-one noticed but me, but I felt terrible when I found a little rubbed spot that was this ll close to being bloody.

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I do agree that things can happen to cause marks. But as someone who catch rides/travels to train I find there’s an awful lot of people riding with spurs that really shouldn’t be. Lots of horses that are dull to leg, even with spurs on. Lots of people riding and you can see their spurs nagging with every stride, whether the rider means it or just has a busy leg. I actually just clipped a horse that had scar tissue from the years of its riders spurs.

Now this isn’t saying I’m against spurs, I ride with them but I end up taking them off on a lot of those horses. But it seems to me if the riders leg isn’t strong enough to be effective it becomes an improperly used bandaid. But same could be said to riding with a dressage whip or many other things. Less is more in my book.

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The photo was of a horse absolutely raked by spurs. The article was benign; the photo was infammatory.

If they’d used a picture of a legit rub… no issue.

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When I see spur marks in dressage it’s usually because the rider doesn’t keep the leg with the heel out and it’s often the outside leg. I pull the spurs off and have them work on turning the heel out and getting the horse to yield to a leg aid better. I have yet to see blood on any horse thank goodness.

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It was the Karen Rohlf rebuttal of the post that caused a lot of the kerfuffle from what I saw. She reposted the article and shredded it.

Her points were valid and articulate, but I am far, far, far from qualified to have an opinion.

Spur marks are unacceptable. In any discipline, but particularly dressage which is all about fine levels of communication. Occasionally spur marks happen to good people. The horse can be worked in hand or without spurs until it heals. I have seen sensitive skinned horses marked by the riders boot. This is not an acceptable excuse, the rubs need to heal and the root cause addressed. I had a grey that would have issues with the skin on his back after clipping. Then I had a chestnut who would get girth rubs after clipping These days I clip my horses leaving hair under the saddle, girth, and boot. They look a bit odd untacked but it is hardly noticeable under saddle. Less so than the big squares left under the heel. If the bit rubs or the spurs rub this is a problem that needs a solution not just one of those things.

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Yeah I will say isn’t Dressage Today known for having just horrible photos for every article?

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I didn’t see her response. I will have to look for it.

Found it! I thought her response was good. Not nearly as inflammatory is the other trainers I saw sharing the article.

Its been years since I figured this out, but: I wear spurs and when I first started riding my almost white horse, I gave him spur rubs. Was using a basic straight neck spur. mostly from my dominant leg.
For some reason I switched to a pair of roweled spurs - rowel not quite smooth, but the edge is sort of like the edge of a dime. Anyway, bingo, no more rubs. Does it sit different on my boot - maybe. Something about the shape, maybe. But haven’t had a rub since

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They cause fewer rubs because they roll along instead of grabbing, sticking, and pulling. Think of it like the difference between a ballpoint pen and a fountain pen. It is WAY easier to wreck the paper with the fountain pen than the ballpoint pen. It’s still possible to wreck the paper with the ballpoint, but you’ve got to work harder at it.

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An even more common cause is that the rider, not having the strength or ability to squeeze properly with one leg or the other turns their toe out and uses their heels.

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I’ve used Spurs probably about five times in my whole riding career (over 25 years and yes I’m still mediocre lol)

I did use them twice on my young horse at the suggestion of a trainer. It was supposed to be temporary and I can’t remember the exact reason, I know it wasn’t for forward energy but to clarify something in my aids/to my horse.

Anyways I really don’t want to use the spurs much so my trainer committed that she thought my leg was even more solid than before and that I rode even more clear with my aids since I was really trying not to use the spurs ha ha. So it ended up being more for me than him. After those two rides, we dropped the spurs again.