You must be new here. 
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Long time member, but this seemed a stretch even for me.
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Oh no, this is definitely not that wild of a stretch for this forum
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Returning to the original point (I think) was that somehow this is “not as bad” as what other disciplines do. As an active participant in many other disciplines, I think that’s the biggest bunch of horse puckey I’ve ever seen.
There’s nonsense everywhere. And then a whole discipline or training method gets painted with a broad brush. And then we move onto the next “version” of the discipline, rebranding it as kinder or whatever, and the previous participants who weren’t being abusive are looking around going “wait, that wasn’t us”. It’s like the reformation over and over and over again.
There’s no denying that Helgstrand had an issue. I would not extrapolate that to “all of competition dressage has an issue” if it is not the majority of the competition dressage competitors and judges. That judges may be rewarding “the wrong thing” is not, in and of itself, newsworthy as this occurs in all equine sports because of the way that it is a system.
A much simplified version:
Rider gets horses that perform well -> Judges reward rider -> Rider becomes a pro and becomes under financial pressure to have horses perform well -> Judges reward rider -> Pro world is really tough financially and unfortunately horses are all different so rider starts to take shortcuts/compensate for horses who wouldn’t make it otherwise -> Judges reward rider who is still turning out quality horses
Happens everywhere in every discipline.
I’m not really sure what the answer is. We’re doing it with stewards and videos and the like and maybe increased regulation is good for us. I’m not sure.
We don’t want to remove the sport entirely - it does good for the industry and for horses long term. I’d like to say there’s a way to relieve the financial pressure, but knowing owners and trainers, and all of the dynamics around it, I’m not sure that there is. No owner wants to hear that the $500k they spent on Pookie isn’t going to make them a winner, and they will certainly yank Pookie from the “underperforming trainer” and find someone who will succeed with them, even if Pookie doesn’t have that potential and owner got taken for a ride. If owners were realistic, that’d be great, but they just aren’t. Even owners of backyard plugs put tremendous pressure on trainers because we’re all a little bit barn blind. Hard not to be 
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We even managed to stay on the topic of horses. Pretty good for a thread with 500+ posts.
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I don’t think anyone has said that, not one single person, have they?
I’m not sure it’s even been implied. Comparisons have been made and discussions have been had about how abuse manifests in other disciplines, but I’m pretty sure I haven’t read that the Helgstrand debacle (and other garbage ‘training’ that happens in dressage) is somehow less serious because some other discipline does x,y, and z.
It was in the article that actually brought up the whole western thing to begin with I think…although man, this thread lol
Really? If you’ve got your hackles up about something, you’d think maybe you’d be able to point it out. Methinks, perhaps you’ve taken a hit where none actually made contact.
Nah, my hackles aren’t even remotely up.
It is in the article above from Eurodressage. What I was saying “I think” about was that it sparked the western discussion. I lost track because that was about 200 posts ago and that was where it appeared to originate.
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I owned and successfully competed Quarter Horses for many years before moving on to sporthorses, so I’m very familiar with the breed. I also boarded my non-QH’s at a well known (at the time) QH breeding and nationally competitive show farm, and some of my friends from that barn still have offspring from that breeding program. Although that QH type is no longer being bred for showing, I’m familiar with the breed.
When I competed in western pleasure, we didn’t ride them down hill. The neck was up, the horses were collected, and all gaits were true and pure. We rode with light contact, and rarely slack reins. Even in win pictures (mine and others) , the horses’ heads are up, ears forward, and as we used to say, “looking through the bridle”.
I understand that the QH type bred today is different, and I’ve been told, when looking at current day QH conformation photos, that “posty hocks” are desirable. Meaning no angle, and straight, like a post.
I have no argument with that if that’s what the breeders think is needed, and found the change interesting.
Throughout equestrian history, horses are ridden uphill. The Western discipline chooses to ride them downhill. I’m not sure what the benefit is outside of cutting horses, but I’d like to learn.
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I think posty hocks are only desirable for the halter horses - it isn’t outside of that discipline, which is a whole 'nother can of worms. I don’t understand this particular “feature” at all, but it looks like halter evolved kind of it’s own way - so it’s no longer horses who would be suitable for other things.
Similarly so with the Western pleasure horse. But I think that’s a function of showing - we just do that as humans. Things get more and more extreme, because if a little is good, more must be better. Show hunters (as a for instance) bear no more resemblence to the hunt field than a western pleasure horse does a working cow horse.
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Back to the topic…
Has there been any fallout in his FL business from this?
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ahhhh…spoken like a politician! What BS
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From the article “A lot of the ways in which the company can improve simply involves basic horsemanship, respect for animals and common sense. Hopefully, what happened to the Helgstrand organization provides a lesson for other training facilities that need to learn one.”
I don’t think someone/place that ‘high up’ in the horse world would have to improve in these areas. 
They should be setting the standards.
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Changes in the Danish Dressage Federation
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Exactly. Their PR department sure can shovel the BS.
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It’s insulting to the readers to assume that we are so gullible, blind and uninformed that we would accept such a lame excuse or believe them AT ALL.
One would think that the other multiple assertions of cruelty in the media would have already signaled the need for Helgstrand self reflection.
But no, apparently not.
So I wonder what shall be the excuse next time?
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“We were gone for a few days and it’s the help’s fault.”
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The documentary still hasn’t been released outside of Denmark. I don’t know why, but I thought it would have been by now.
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