I must be speaking a foreign language that people have to repeat a question over and over.
If it makes you feel better about your sport to say the issue is MY perception, have at it. No sweat off my buttkus. I’m just trying to warn you what everybody else sees.
Blinders may protect a horse if worn, but they won’t protect the sport.
Thanks for mentioning this because I did not realize you have been playing devil’s advocate here; I have been responding to you with the belief that you actually thought kids are going to start flipping their horses over backwards because of this clinic.
I was just speaking with another instructor and she feels the same as I. I think it’s a dangerous thing to teach as the possibility exists a kid might try it.
Can I just say that if my husband dies, I am clearly going to prison because I told so many people I was going to kill him. In the other hand, maybe I’ve said it in front of an impressionable teen…
Well said, Knight’s Mom
In the campaign to keep our social licence to operate, those against equestrian sport work in short soundbites (when did a 3,000 words essay on any concept ever go viral on social media?)
Re SLO, it matters not one jot what KP said or meant in the rest of her session, or whether her student riders are capable discarding ideas they don’t like. In mentioning the “good licking” and that she would have flipped a particular horse over, Katie handed our opponents two plum pieces of ammunition.
Lead governing bodies make huge decisions on the basis of public reaction to adverse video clips.
Modern pentathlon dropped its riding phase off the back of outcry over the beating of a napping horse at Tokyo Olympics. No-one was interested in context or that the rest of the competition had run smoothly and no-one else laid into their horse. [The riding phase was probably on borrowed time in MP, to be fair, but the Tokyo incident was the tipping point.]
Then Mark Todd had his trainer’s licence suspended by the British Horseracing Authority, for four months (albeit with two months deferred) because of the “tree-branch” video, notwithstanding his previous exemplary record, or that it had taken place two years earlier at a private clinic, or that it involved a discipline that is nothing to do with the BHA.
Many of the “old guard” is increasingly a liability re SLO, because they either can’t or won’t accept that equestrian sport is under a much wider microscope nowadays. They don’t seem to have notice that lead bodies now respond to the reaction of non-riders when anything negative goes viral.
I’d love to know how many seasoned professionals have ever been to a clinic given by someone with a more enlightened approach and conceded that maybe there is a better way to achieve the same result.
I will be amazed if equestrianism is still in the Olympics by 2032 because of the way SLO is panning out in Europe.
Its really worth googling articles on SLO from media in other countries and reading more widely round the topic.
I recognise that teaching someone to ride a horse is more challenging than, say, teaching the violin, as you often have to intervene quickly to prevent an accident or other physical harm. But think-before-your-speak is now critical.
You are not speaking a foreign language but you are putting words in Katie’s mouth that she did not say.
The best example is Sea World. Since it’s beginning, the very symbol for Sea World was the Orca, visible in all signage and every printed material. Then out comes first Free Willy and then Blackfish. Long story short, public outcry caused all captive breeding to end and Orca shows are no more.
Carriage rides in big cities are under constant attack to end. Circuses are either gone or animal free. “Fur is murder” means that industry has significantly decreased.
Welcome to the world of unburgers and goat yoga.
The new normal.
Talking to my real life horse people outside of COTH- every single person agreed the horse flipping and lickin’ comments were disgusting. These aren’t beginners bopping up and down on Pookie once a week with no experience in the real horse world. These are people with at least 20 years or more of experience showing and riding H/Jers. They aren’t soft either.
Was KMP telling the student to flip the horse? No. Did she tell the student to beat the horse? No. She told the kids that that’s what she would have done if the horse would have behaved like that although they wouldn’t have “dared” to because she would have done the aforementioned actions. (sorry weirdly worded sentence!) What does this imply to me and prehaps someone else who isn’t as familiar with KMP? To me this implies that she knows the horse is scared of her and it knows that it will suffer severe consequences for any “bad behaviour”. Well that’s a fantastic way to train.
Additionally, we really don’t know why the horse didn’t whoa or do whatever it was it was supposed to do… was it because of an ineffective rider, was it because the horse was new to the rider and the rider didn’t know all of its buttons, was the horse in pain, was the horse not properly schooled and was misunderstanding the aids? We have no idea. I don’t know- the first thing you go to isn’t generally- well you are weak - I’d flip him if that’d been me. If the kid isn’t listening, they need to be made clear to listen and repeat back what they are supposed to be doing- maybe it was the wind? I know I’m super deaf in the wind. If a kid is repeatedly not doing the right thing- figure out why. There is some miscommunication somewhere.
Her comment was just not constructive or useful in anyway and in the wrong hands have the potential to be dangerous and abusive.
I have no idea if KMP flips or beats horses. None… however, no matter how old and cranky you are, you need to be aware that if something is being streamed, what you say is out there for the whole world to see and critique and make judgement on- whether or not they are a very experienced horse person or Cheeto-fingers living in mom’s basement. Things can be assumed and taken out of context. People need to be careful. I had a co-worker (old and cranky) who was aghast that I carried a whip when I rode- it was unnecessary and even the slightest touch of a whip was abusive in her eyes. To her I was a horse abuser. That’s what the general public thinks. We need to be more aware of what’s coming out of our mouths even if we are not actually meaning what we are saying.
Who whoa whoa - are you SURE those are good examples for your point???
I think you may have just shot yourself in the foot there.
Replying to myself here, if we treat our animals the way Sea World treated their orcas, circuses generally treated their animals, and FUR FARMING? Then we really shouldn’t have horses.
Yikes.
This brings to mind the quote in Jay Duke’s blog which stood out to me as something that I’ve been aware of, as I like to keep tabs on social media reactions to horse news and animal-related posts etc., but haven’t really seen stated just like this before:
Blockquote
To all those defenders, your opinion is equally relevant as the 45-year-old man in Thailand who has never touched a horse. Or the 12-year-old girl in South Africa who has only seen a horse in a book or on TV. Or the mother in Kansas who is considering starting her kids in a school horse program. It’s called SOCIAL LICENSE TO OPERATE
To be clear, I agree that this is the way the world is going, he’s not wrong, and I also can’t think of any way to stem the tide. But it makes me wonder how, and why, we (collectively, as I think this applies to pretty much anything now, not just animal and horse related industries) have reached this point where people who know nothing about something are able to give their opinion and the people that do know something about it have to take it into account. It makes no sense on any level, yet here we are.
We’ve gone past the point where education works in these conflicts because now people just expect a reaction to their opinion rather than being told their opinion doesn’t matter because they are ignorant or uneducated.
Again, I don’t have any answers, but it’s absolutely baffling.
Well then you and your cohorts only have yourselves to thank, because before this wholly disproportionate outcry those 5 seconds of unfortunate words were buried in 3 hours of video out of hundreds of hours of video on the decidedly non-mainstream USEF Network. Now they’re selected out, edited, wrapped up in a cute little bow, and served on a silver platter with a heaping side of condemnation for all the RARAs to share and say, SEE, HORSEBACK RIDING IS CRUEL.
Let alone that in the case of Mark Todd and Modern Pentathlon, horses were actually hit. This whole onslaught over the perceived meaning of words treads into Minority Report territory.
And FTR, I felt the same way when the MP thing blew up— our own people sharing it far and wide with exclamations of abject horror did nothing — nothing — to support the future of equestrianism in that sport.
Katie’s words were wrong. They should be addressed accordingly by TPTB and generate some real discussion in the industry. But elevating this to the point that every journalist and RARA in America can’t help but see it is shoot-yourself-in-the-foot stupid.
Jumpng off point above in bold.
Is “Stick and Back” an orca show?
I think it is interesting to explore where the lines we draw are drawn.
Which is why I think we all need to be very clear and careful about what we believe in these instances.
That some of the comments made in this recorded session were taken out of context and are not meant literally.
That yes, maybe we need to learn to leave hyperbole out of our vernacular.
That in this age of social media we need to be very careful what and how we say things.
As demonstrated, for example, ‘Stick and back’ is pretty clear, easily understood and not abusive.
Is stick and back = a ‘good licking’??? If as demonstrated ‘stick and back’ is a ‘good licking’ well…
Why the need for KMP to add the bit about animal activists and a good licking? I have no idea.
Introduction of he term, and demo was sufficient, I thought, to show how to safely and efficiently use your stick without excess. shrug
But we, lifelong students of horsemanship and lovers of equines and equestrian sports, don’t need to aid those who want to stop all equestrian sport/activities by agreeing with them when what is clearly hyperbolic/not literal is taken as such. If we jump on board that ‘stick and back’ = a ‘good licking’ and condemn it… well…
We need to be the rational ambassadors who share our experience of using a wall/fence/obstruction to avoid the use of harsher aids while getting the job done safely and without harm. While also assisting in learning how to better communicate what it is we do and how and why.
I don’t agree with KMPs comments on GHM and the move away from some old school teaching and stances is definitely a good thing, But we should not aid and abet those who wish for this to be taken to the extreme of horses no longer being part of our lives in the ways we’ve all come to love and value them. And I’m still finding my own way to what that means and where that line is.
JMHO
Yes, the Tokyo horse and the Mark Todd incident did involve actual hitting. But opponents of equestrian opponents’ don’t make a distinction between words and deeds. If folk can’t get their heads round this we are all in some trouble.
And if we don’t realize we’re our own worst enemy when we respond to these situations with vitriolic outrage instead of measured critique and acknowledgement that we can do better, especially when no abuse actually occurred, then we’re only hastening this result. Divide and conquer.
… and this " the whole thing has been blown wholly out of proportion" is exactly what we were saying across the pond two or three years ago, until we realised too late that SLO had turned into the proverbial runaway train
What is SLO?
I’m sure. I don’t expect everyone to agree but that does not negate my reason for saying it.
My opinion. Everyone is free to have their own.
Wait wait wait wait wait…
What’s wrong with goat yoga?!
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