[QUOTE=MLMcFaddenJD;4654620]
How can anyone look at a blue tongue hanging out of a stallion that has been held in RK for its entire warmup -and say that the horse is 1) happy, 2)made more beautiful 3) not abused! This is not about “research” to prove or disprove whether it is “okay” - it’s about looking into the eyes of that horse and your own soul and saying - is this right! How could anyone looking at that horse say it is right - in your soul!
Might as well be watching Christians thrown to the lions -except the Christians got to die! Horses held in rollkur live on to serve only the rider’s egos, in total abject “submission”, learned helplessness -and neither the owners nor the FEI will protect them. How can this not be abuse???!!! How can it possibly be called “training”! What a joke! If you put enough pressure and tools on a horse that is bred to be mechanically easy to ride it will “submit” but it is certainly not trained. It illustrates only the insufficiencies of the trainer - nothing more.[/QUOTE]
You are grossly misquoting me.
Riding such as that exhibited in the Blue Tongue video (and other such riding) is obviously - to my eye and IMO - abuse of the Rolkur technique. Rolkur, IMO, is encouraging or allowing a horse to stretch their neck in and down for a stride or two, in the interests of stretching the horse and allowing it to loosen its muscles. That is the Rolkur I refer to when I talk of research - I would like to see further research to indicate whether such stretching of the horse (in a Rolkur position for a stride or two) is harmful, beneficial, or if it makes no difference to the horse. I suspect it to be either of the latter. Dressage is a relatively new discipline to me, so I allow for the high likelihood that I do not fully understand the use of such techniques and thus maintain an open mind and am slow to judge or critisize the method when used in moderation and where I feel it is likely used ‘correctly’ (ie. for a stride or two, to gymnasticize, without the use of force, on a happy horse).
IMO I honestly very much disagree with the riding techniques displayed in the Blue Tongue video. I do not believe that any horse should be subjugated and held in such an extreme position for such a long period of time; the key to gymnasticizing a horse is variation and there are, IMO, there are better and more effective methods of having a horse work with you in harmony and partnership, whilst keeping the horse’s dignity intact (rather than forcing submission). I would like to see more studies concerning the improper use of RK, however it is clear to me (JMO) that the horse in question is not a happy one. As I have previously mentioned, I believe the improper use of RK to simply be the manifestation of a specific mindset on part of the rider - it is just one result of much more going on within a specific method, much more that I disagree with. On that note though, while I do not agree with a rider putting a horse in a RK frame to force it to submit, on the other hand, I cannot criticise said rider if that is the only technique they know of or that they feel they can possibly use in such a situation. I believe it could be done differently (in a manner much more beneficial to the horse) and would hope that riders would then work to improve their horsemanship (and further develop their horses) to a level where they were not using physical ‘force’ to ‘control’ their horse.
Make no mistake, I am all for the horse and I disagree with much that is occuring within dressage, particularly at the GP levels. On the other hand, I feel that a lot more research is in order and that criticising and demonizing those who use Rolkur either correctly or incorrectly (and especially the former) is not the right answer. I personally do not see happy horses when they are trained in such a manner (with the extensive use of Rolkur and other such methods), however others fail to see it, so maybe the answer is education and research all around so that we are all on the same page. That and positively recognising the riders who are riding according to the age-old Classical principles, who do have happy horses.
Personally, I also disagree with the training of horses mechanically and through force - my methods fail to include such elements, obviously because I believe it to be the way it should be done.
Does that make sense?
; I suspect that study of the footfalls , ala Hilary Clayton would also show some disrupt[tion:sadsmile:;and potentially dangerous “unloading” though, this could be done si:yes:mply with videos of upper level competitors:yes: