Having a horse with floppy ears does not mean that all other horses without floppy ears have had their ears nerved for the show ring. Or any.
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I guess I misinterpreted the “nerved ear” claim. They are sure that the horse not moving its ears is a sign that it has been deadened? Well that makes even less sense.
Yes, she says that if the horse doesn’t have floppy ears that means it’s ears are nerved for competition because floppy or forward ears are part of the judging criteria. Insert eye roll.
Probably because it’s likely fabricated. Valegro has had one of the biggest “please come meet him” encouragement I’ve seen in a long time. You can’t tell me that every pony-mad person that go introduced to him for photo shoots and at New York and at UK shows where he was basically The Celebrity never noticed “damning” injuries to his mouth?
One of my horses had a split in the middle of her tongue, right where the bit sat. Her tongue was nearly cut in half (it healed just fine) after she bit it in a lightning strike. I imagine if someone had wanted to make trouble for me, it would be easy enough to get a picture of the tongue by demanding an inspection on the basic of welfare concerns, and then I’d be lambasted over the internet for splitting her tongue with a bit.
So yeah. Evidence that no one else has seen, using publicly available footage, of a well-publicised and scrutinised horse whose rider is under a lot of heat when no other evidence or footage exists of the horse being mistreated? Most likely faked.
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Photos are retouched all the time and there aren’t tons of videos of him without a bridle so it doesn’t seem totally outrageous that they could have gone generally unnoticed or was something that those around him are well aware of.
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There was a vet who chimed in about this discussion re:nerved ears in another group and said that the area involving the ears is quite complex and that it would be difficult to isolate the nerving to solely ear movement and would be difficult to not cause paralysis of the face as well. I think it’s a bunch of BS.
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My horse has a discoloured spot on her nasal bone from being bumped forward by a stallion whilst being served. She scratched her nose and the hair grew back a different colour.
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Seriously? That grainy footage is evidence? It looks like the horse has eaten something white and sticky - any wormer, omeprazole paste, sugar cube will leave white residue in the lip corners. Bute paste, my horse haaaaates bute paste and will wipe his face all over you to get it off his lips… but he can’t clean it out the corners.
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Maybe add a warning that this is a Dressage Hub video? I would not have clicked it if I had known.
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Over a weekend my horses nose got bare spots from the new leather halter. Ugh, I bought a sheepskin cover for both his nose and poll. Plus I oiled and rolled the heck out of it. I felt really bad, it must have been annoying or worse, painful.
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I’m guilty of also using an ill-fitting leather halter for one of mine that was shipped up from Florida to Pennsylvania. She still has white hairs on her face. This can happen.
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Everyone knows that horses do scrape hair off themselves at times, in stall or turnout.
What a big fuss over nothing.
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yes…my current 4 yr old has had the hair rubbed off by the new resident pony over the fence!
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You guys are right. It couldn’t possibly be from an overtight noseband. And the marks in the corners of his lips are most certainly not from heavy contact on the snaffle.
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Honestly, I was a massive Charlotte fan driving to other states for entire weekends three separate times to audit her clinics. She never once said anything that was contrary to what I saw her do in the ring one time. Are these scars? I don’t know but it certainly isn’t a top international horse being given dewormer before a photoshoot or some froth from a sugar cube.
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There is a visible impression on his nose in that third photo. geez
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