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I actually thought he stepped on himself. But I’ve heard the same thing cef said above now too, from someone who has followed the horse for some time.
He does, it seems, have quite a history of getting nappy like this. That must be why it didn’t look like a spook.
Years ago I had gotten a horse from a big trainer that would do something similar whenever he was asked to do certain things. We had tons of vet workups done, all sorts of stuff. There was nothing wrong. No pain.
For a long time I told myself it was because someone had blown his mind and forced him too much.
And if you want to insist every horse that ever gets nappy has been abused, if you want to think that, no one will be able to change your mind. But I think some horses just don’t want to work for you, and you can’t make them work for you, and they just aren’t going to do it.
In dressage, there isn’t anything you can do to MAKE a horse WANT to work for you. And in dressage, in order to do the work, the horse has to be willing to do it. It’s as simple as that.
I don’t think horses necessarily do these things because they are in pain at all. It is just something that happens. There are many competition horses that over the years, have developed habits like this. Some early on, some after years of competition.
Gifted, for example, simply stopped piaffing in the ring.
No medical stuff, not a question of bad training, and the rider wasn’t forcing him through pain. Carol Lavel is not like that, she just isn’t. He was retired after that. She discussed it very, very openly.
The horse was not a mean or naughty horse. She wasn’t a bad trainer. He was not suffering. He had no pain. She would not have made him work in pain, and she, more than just about anyone, is capable of feeling a horse alter his stride if he is uncomfortable. He just didn’t piaffe in the ring.
At the time I asked the person I was working with what you do in that case. He shrugged and said, ‘You retire them’. Oh well, it happens.
Balkenhol’s horse Goldstern simply developed the habit of looking up into the stands and just - spooking a huge major spook and proceeding to blow the whole test. He was taken off the team. I have a video of Linda Tellington-Jones working with him and telling Balkenhol all about it, and well, it just stayed the same. I could probably think of more cases if I wasn’t so senile.
1.) I think it’s unrealistic for anyone would assume that these riders all ride nothing but perfect horses, that they never get horses with problems or a history. In fact, MOST of the horses these people have achieved great success with have been very challenging in one way or another.
2.) I also think it’s unrealistic to assume that if a person is skilled enough, they can erase all traces of every problem. THat’s unrealistic.[/QUOTE]
I have been told more than once that the greatest horses all seem to have their quirks that you need to learn to live with. More quirks than the not so great horses.
