Yup. It absolutely horrifies me. It didn’t used to. Then I got older and smarter.
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I don’t support it either, but I can think of quite a few people with all the pretty show clothes and the fancy horse who wouldn’t know the difference between a poll and a pigtail. It’s not completely their own fault.
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Yes it is…. All these people spending all this money without knowing what they are doing are part of the problem 
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People with more money than sense are everywhere - it’s not 100% their fault when other people who DO know better go “sure I’ll take your cash” and do shady stuff. The blame falls on the person spending the money (whose goals are usually winning and/or bragging rights) as well as the people who enable them to get there.
Rich people have been sticking their noses in things far outside their capabilities since forever. Unlike most pursuits, animal sports have a nonhuman, nonmachine component that often suffers.
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this will disappear. Helgstrand owns COTH and the financial backers certainly will not let their own publications fuel the press coverage
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We shall see.
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I would have assumed it would be gone by now…
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I think they are counting on it dying down. Without grossly obvious abuse like gashes, blood, and emaciated bodies, I’m not sure there is enough shock factor for wider exposure. Look how long racing took to start changing and they had horses breaking legs in front of tens of thousand of spectators.
I mean, we all see the videos but if you’re not a horse person, you’re not going to know what you’re looking at when you see rollkur and the wider culture has been exposed to kicking horses cowboy style forever.
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Ignorance CAN be a choice, but it is not always a choice. When a trainer takes a student under their wing, they can fill them with all sorts of ideas and keep information from them.
On the other hand, yes, there are absolutely people out there who decide to stay ignorant so they don’t have to face facts that are right in front of them.
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Including all the p***-poor examples of neck reining we have seen for decades in TV westerns or movies - jerking the horse’s head around by yanking sharply on the reins. 
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Oh man, there’s nothing worse then the gaping mouth hands in mid-air cowboy. Brutal.
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Too late. It’s been published, and it was published in a U.S magazine. We have freedom of the press here (please…no political comments). If it’s suppressed that will only cause more damage to GEG and Waterland Private Equity.
It’s a well written and informative piece and I’m glad COTH went ahead with it.
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It may not matter if the general public doesn’t understand the abuse in the videos, although whipping and spurring translate pretty well to any animal lover.
The sport horse world demographic knows what they’re seeing though, and they have option of where to spend their money (horse shows, sales, trainers, etc.)
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It really has brought up a lot of good discussion on Facebook etc. But I get the distinct feeling that is where it will end.
Very few low level riders with competitive aspirations will want to know their coaches/trainers true feelings, in case it doesn’t jive with their own philosophy. Dressage instructors/trainers are hard enough to find in so many areas. Imagine you finally stumble upon one, you start dreaming of the show ring… only to find out they sided with Helgstrand, or condone bad riding in the warm up ring, etc. I’m probably not expressing that very well, but for many it would mean walking away from the dream.
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I’ve been thinking about this and some things that could be done. With respect to USEF and FEI, it seems most of their rules/code of ethics etc tied to their oversight of competitions. Not much real ability to deal with “at home” behavior. That said, they both have a “yellow card” process which can and should be more widely used. Create some fairly clear list of unacceptable behaviors, publish and then IMPLEMENT at shows. TD at warm up rings to watch/enforce. Perhaps add cameras to those rings. Significant penalties when 2 or 3 yellow cards received. Make examples of people. No more verbal warnings.
Horse racing has implemented a limit on # of times whip can be used, and it has had an impact. Jockeys have been fined or suspended for some # of days.
Yes, it will be work and may require additional sets of eyes, but if that’s what it takes…
Another idea would be to make members take an annual test, like Safe Sport does, but focused on horse welfare and what things are bad.
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They can yellow card now. No one has the balls because they won’t be asked back.
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yes I know, and there in lies a part of the problem, doesn’t it? Its really not unlike the whole safesport thing. Love it or hate it, once people acknowledged there were problems in sports, and developed a process and program, things have changed. So some organization needs to step up. To quote a corporate saying “culture starts at the top”.
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And that’s the problem. They should be encouraged to hand out cards, and protected when they do so. And I think 3 yellow cards for a rider should result in permanent suspension.
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I think people would be more likely to change disciplines rather than give up altogether. For example, I ended up in hunter/dressage land after leaving stock breeds because I could no longer stomach the abusive training methods, which were pervasive in my area at the time. It’s not to say there aren’t issues in the hunter and dressage barns, rather, I had significantly more options and have landed with some truly exceptional trainers since making the change.
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