Wow… is that really necessary? Coming from a country where horses were killed in order to cash insurance money?? Germany for sure is not innocent at all and believe me I know, but IMO the US is not one cent better and obviously they swallowed all the European training methods very enthusiastically 
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For sure, people universally suck.
People suck everywhere.
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Oh, I’m sure you’re right. I’m not a Dressage expert , I’ve never ridden in competitive Dressage. I’ve never ridden with fancy international trainers of any sort.
My first awareness of the abuse in Dressage was the European rolkur uproar and the horrible sight of a rider being unaware that their horse’s tongue was hanging out and blue from lack of circulation.
I was taught by owners, and allowed to ride of some of their very fancy horses. The horses were never abused, and it was made very clear to me that if I was to ride, I was to put the horse’s safety and welfare first. I am grateful for the teachers who gave me a chance to ride and learn.
I had no idea how lucky I was not to have someone like Parra or Helgstrand or the jumper guy with the electrified spurs as a mentor.
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Let me be clear: I am not in the US, I’m in the EU (as far as my home farm). I am not defending the US at all. I am having a discussion with someone else about whether we think the same level of abuse rises to criminal behaviour between the US and EU systems. I’m saying I have heard horror stories about EU dressage facilities like I have about US ones like CP’s. That leads me to question whether the abuse would be receive any more scrutiny there than in the US.
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This. Big time. Which is why I cringe when one country is single out whether as worse or better. I don’t think the EU is better than the US or vice versa. I think it’s same-same.
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Even within the US each state defines cruelty with different degrees of criminality.
There’s a group called the ALDF - Animal Legal Defense Fund. I wish they were more active but they are all lawyers and law students who seek to use law to fight cruelty.
It’s a wonderful premise. They told us of their wins at an event I attended but they are not yet tuned in to this particular issue.
They did sue some horse abuser and got him to pay the care and medical costs for one of the victim horses for life.
But they are a group trying to work with law enforcement and law makers to elevate the criminal level of abuse acts.
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Love that they exist; hate that they are needed.
The videos from Parra’s facility are like horror movies, particularly poor William.
Again, I say, the people involved - the direct abusers, the assistants, the people paying for it, and, yes, even the people holding a glass of Champagne and looking on approvingly - all need to feel the blowback from this.
And Cesar Parra himself needs to do some jail time. Absolute sicko.
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And in Europe they are a step further because they have actual animal protection laws…. Probably one step further then lawyers doing it as their hobby….
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Sorry then I misunderstood your original post about it
Again, though, no. The US does have ‘actual animal protection laws’. The comparisons and one-upsmanship aren’t necessary or helpful. It’s bad for animals both (and all) places.
Let’s not play who is better but join together and demand perps like AH and CP are held accountable by the orgs we pay all these fees to. We have to show that we are not okay with this from the grass roots on up.
This.
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I agree…Adam also made the comment he hopes the state steps in. I don’t think he understands that the state won’t step in and rarely steps in when horses are dying of starvation. Our own governing bodies don’t do anything which WE who are members need to figure out how to address.
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Good point and who wants or could bear the cost (stress) of being aggressively sued for “breaking” the NDA by a person like CP?
This states he sued the NJ Humane society for the earlier incident. Surely this adds to the chilling effect of speaking up.
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A bit of a crosspost from a discussion on a Hunter/Jumper thread, but I feel it is relevant to this discussion as well. The French Government has come out with a list of 46 recommendations to improve horse welfare for the upcoming 2024 olympic games in Paris.. Worth a read, and many of them seem very reasonable, but I doubt we’ll see much implementation from the IOC. I’d like to believe that if these do become enforced at the olympics, it would make for an easy enact them within our US organizations. I’m not very familiar with USDF, I’ve only ever done dressage at the local schooling level, but I assume it is similar enough to USHJA in their reluctance to implement welfare measures that might impede the success of the big ($$$) competitors. Would enforcement of these at the competition level start to disincentivize abusive training practices?
I’ll share some selected recommendations below:
Recommendation #31 (Dressage Specific)
Enforce the prohibition of intentional or unintentional infliction of unnecessary suffering or discomfort, and of an overly constrained posture or frame.
Recommendation #1:
Provide relaxation areas (grazing areas, lungeing and exercise areas, galloping track, paddocks, etc.) in sufficient quantity and surface area to be accessible to horses as needed, while respecting a controlled environment that guarantees the safety and biosecurity that are essential in competition.
Recommendation #7:
Improve the controls against the excessive tightening of nosebands and curb chains: Provide a more calibrated check, preformed randomly during training sessions and systematically when entering or leaving each event, using a 1.5 cm ISES taper gauge placed on the nasal bones (which allow one adult finger to slide between the noseband strap and the hard nasal bone) and apply a penalty in the event of an infringement.
Recommendation #8:
Review the list of tack which, by its creative design or manufacture, can cause harm and discomfort to the horse, and prohibit its use in competition, in particular nosebands that increase the capacity to tighten (crank, lever, grackle, double, etc.) as well as flash nosebands in all disciplines: Create a positive list of authorized nosebands.
Recommendation # 11:
Prohibit the use of martingales in combination with an elevator (gag) bit throughout the entire Olympic Games grounds.
Recommendation #12:
Prohibit the use of running reins (draw reins) throughout the entire Olympic Games precinct.
**Recommendation #15: **
Prohibit the use of the whip more than once per event and more than twice during the warm-up. The use of a whip more than once per event and twice during warm-up will result in a sanction or even disqualification. Video surveillance used as evidence if necessary.
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FWIW, the U.S. enacted the PACT Act in Nov. 2019, which made animal cruelty a federal felony. The article linked below mentions certain horrible types of abuse addressed by the bill but I don’t know if the bill itself spells out those specific abusive acts, or if it only alludes to them. And I don’t know if the “other bodily injury” verbiage can be used in instances such as the Parra training methods.
It remains to be seen if LE and juries think harsh training methods such as those used by Parra rise to the level of “cruelty.” Those of us on this forum expressing outrage at the Parra situation would likely consider his methods excessively harsh and yes, even cruel, but will the average “person on the street” think the same? Don’t forget that a jury voted unanimously to not hold him responsible for the William incident. Granted, that was not a criminal trial but it was a JURY trial comprised of average people who were apparently swayed by a slick lawyer who not only convinced a judge to rule that the video of the incident was inadmissible as “prejudicial” toward Parra, but also convinced the jury that lunging is a common practice in the training of horses, horses are unpredictable and can be dangerous, yada-yada-yada. (And I don’t know if those arguments were actually used in the civil trial, but I can see an attorney using those types of statements.)
At any rate, I fervently hope that every possible charge be thrown at Parra and his enablers - he needs to be formally declared anathema.
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An NDA might also be some protection against being lied about. If I were a pro trainer, I would dread the cheesed-off ex-student who tells whoppers about my barn practices. There is a great deal of that; baseless gossip by people who are angry, jealous, or just bi+++y.
But possibly NDA’s don’t cover falsehoods? I don’t rightly know.
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Was a follow-up ever published regarding that lawsuit? Did the SPCA - i.e., its insurance carrier - end up having to make a cash payout to Parra?
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WTF? What is this supposed to accomplish?
To borrow from political discourse, after seeing some of these videos I think, ‘the cruelty is the point’. 
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I was talking about that device with the person pulling on the cord.
I can understand the stretchies (don’t approve of it but I can understand the point). But I don’t see what the W thing is supposed to accomplish.
Silly me. I just thought they were breeding for that spider-y movement of Totilas. I wouldn’t have conceived of a “training” method to accomplish it.
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sadly this is probably not worth the paper printed on. What’s troubling about all this is that much of what is going on is behind closed doors and away from the horse shows. This is where it starts. In all horse disciplines. The USEF can clearly do more but their ability to directly oversee is limited to horse shows/competitions. It takes gutsy people to come forward as the two young men at CP’s barn and the undercover person at Helgstrand. The USEF should be gutsy enough to come up with strict and inforced policing at shows. They and the FEI should stand up and really nail a few visible known people. Set examples. We can only hope.
But its a bit like weeds. Pull the plant up at the shows, but the roots are still there at some training barns.
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