Is it economically reasonable to raise a foal for meat in Europe?
Epona. tv has lots of interesting commentary on Facebook
Eliza Sydnor had an interesting response.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid014Ro5Ap9UGbbxuTB5YtQrzDSAMzZXuFMAXccWR1XD2WiqLQm8V1uCAVVDct6yjjrl&id=100039979796041&mibextid=Nif5oz
I believe the definition of culling is removing it from the gene pool. How you do that is irrelevant to the definition. It could be killing it or it could mean you don’t use it for breeding purposes ever and everything in between. Way more things should be culled in my opinion then they are now.
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Eurodressage
Newsletter of the Week
Window Dressing
The highly anticipated documentary “Operation X: Secrets of the Horse Billionaire” aired this week on Danish commercial television and it has sent a shockwave through the dressage world, although some consider it mere ripples. While the abuse, torture, and malpractice seen and condoned in the world of endurance, saddle seat and Western riding are far worse, let’s not get caught up in “whataboutism”. The industry is being forced to take a closer look at one’s own practices and self-reflect. Am I a good horse person, do I need to use so much force, kicking and pulling when I ride a horse. Is it truly necessary?
Eurodressage has mainly covered the reactions (article 1 - article 2) to the documentary as the two episodes were not available outside Denmark. However, the clips TV2 Denmark shared of spur wounds, whip marks, and violent riding in draw reins were highly disturbing, but those deeply embedded in the industry shrug their shoulders and call it usual business. This type of riding happens almost everywhere with the old-fashioned mojo of “wild horses need to be tamed by force” refusing to die. Even the FEI issued a lukewarm statement that says nothing.
Andreas Helgstrand suffers from “Tall Poppy Syndrome”: his stellar rise on the scene as a megalomaniac horse dealer making millions by the minutes made him a very high tree that catches all the wind. From selling horses to billionaires, to buying young stallions for (fake) multi-million euro amounts at auctions - breeders, horse owners, breed societies all fell in love with his charisma and rode on his financial wave. Andreas sailed to America like Columbus and conquered Wellington, but it all seems to have blown up in his face. His farm in Wellington has been sold (albeit for a good profit), the show grounds in Wellington are for sale, not a single new stallion has been bought at the licensing this year, he hardly presented any colts himself and his October auctions of the chaff in his collection made unimpressive headlines in the media.
The outrage to the documentary is hypocritical. All these riders who are now posting statements that they “distance themselves from these violent acts of ridings” have for years been leaching on his success as a horse dealer and stallion owner. They were as rabid as Swifties buying tickets to her concerts to take clients to Denmark and get rewarded with fat commission fees. Now they bite the hind that fed them for years! Ridiculous. It’s pure window dressing.
Also the outrage to what happened at the yard. “Oh my god, I never expected this!” Really? Helgstrand has had several blow-ups with unfriendly horse riding over the years: the rollkur incident with Torveslettens Stamina, his student and employee Thomas Sigtenbjerggaard with Nintendo, the incident with Akeem Foldager, and who has forgotten the reverse piaffe of Polka Hit Nexen at the CDIO Aachen, the mare who couldn’t cope with the pressure of high performance sport? And what about Jovian being pushed to Grand Prix level at age 8. He can’t piaffe because the horse has no notion of true collection. Why the rush? Why not wait until such a tall horse turns 10 and is given the time to get stronger and more mature? No, there is nothing new there. Andreas always presented mega spectacular and talented horses that couldn’t cope with tension.
Maybe the biggest lesson he could learn from this crisis situation is that “less is more”? Give horses time to grow, time to learn, time to mature, time to collect, time to carry oneself, and where mistakes are made (as we all are human), time to heal.
And who’s accountable for this? They buyers who keep buying from him? The trainers who keep sending their clients there to strike up commission fees? Or the judges who keep rewarding famous riders on spectacular horses even though the tension and sweat are dripping off the horses, the mouths are dead or so wide open you can see the letter A from C? Another major issue is that activists who believe dressage should be about neck rings, bitless bridles, and lots of patting, call everything hyperflexion as soon as the nose comes behind the vertical. Rollkur, hyperflexion and LDR (Low Deep Round) have been wrongfully heaped together and equalized as animal abuse. This minority group is growing and their voice gets louder. Watch out or equestrian sport will completely lose its social license to operate and then we’re all broke.
The amount of times I have been asked to save the dressage world is uncountable? Can’t you publish this, can’t you write about this? You should expose all these riders by taking photos and films in the warm-ups. It’s your journalistic duty to be a whistleblower (and get bankrupted by lawsuits). No, for over 25 years I have always firmly believed that top sport can only be changed in one way: better judging. As long as judges reward tense and mechanically moving marionette horses at top sport level, dressage cannot improve from the top down.
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That leaves the only solution is to ban all horse sport.
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Whoa. I only read the first paragraph so far but I’m not sure the abuse in the western world is worse. That’s suggesting the abuses highlighted here “aren’t that bad”.
God. Is there going to be tiered levels of abuse? I’m only tier 1, so it’s ok.
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How can one empathize with a billionaire who throws his staff under the bus is beyond me. Seriously, empathy? Very disappointed with her response.
edited to add that this is like empathizing with Donald Trump
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Oh I’m glad to hear that. Maybe I misunderstood what he meant; sounds like their stallions produce that many a year.
I’m afraid I call bullshit on this. Mr. H has had plenty of time for self reflection, spanning decades of abusive riding. Guilt apparently is not in his nomenclature. So I’m OK with going for shame. I really don’t care what it takes as long as they stop doing this bullshit to the horses.
And yes, I’ve done some things I feel terrible about. I was also young, driven, frustrated, and stupid. I don’t do those things anymore. I also did not build a corporate dressage empire based on abusive riding. I’m really glad that I never placed myself in a facility with the culture of Heglstrand. Those riders chose to be there, they could’ve quit any time that their conscience got the better of them. But they chose not to.
I certainly don’t think that Mr. H gets a pass because other people have done it worse, done it not quite as worse, and that there’s some sort of food chain of bad. Social media is proving to have perhaps its only real value… And making facts more available. I would be feeling very different about the situation if Heglastrand wasn’t such a ginormous force in the dressage world, and if he hadn’t already received so many little slaps on his icky wrists.
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I saw that earlier when I was on Facebook and rolled my eyes. I don’t know her personally, but some of my friends ride in her clinics on occasion and like her a lot. I remember her mother as a judge when I used to compete as a teen/early adult.
I definitely disagree with Eliza’s take on this situation. Yes, many of us are guilty of bad riding and losing our patience, etc. at some point in our riding careers, but I know that I’m ashamed of myself for things I did when I either didn’t know better or worse, knew better and just lost my composure. There is no excuse. And I’ve never bloodied a horse’s mouth or left a spur or whip mark on one, but I’ve gotten unnecessarily rough and heavy-handed and if anyone saw me do it, they damn well should have shamed me because it’s shameful to do.
I have no empathy for anyone who mistreats an animal. Full stop. I’m sorry. And that includes myself. I don’t deserve empathy if I’m hurting a horse. And neither do the people involved in this mess.
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'petersen’s ride on martine at the 2018 Vegas World Cup final"
Who are you referring to?
Sorry - I had the horse’s name wrong. It was Lars Petersen on Mariett in the World Cup finals in Vegas. I’ll correct my post.
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I find it hard to have empathy with someone who has condoned, indeed encouraged, systematic abuse.
That would be like having empathy for Michael Vick.
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I was really turned off by her post too and surprised that so many people were agreeing with it. It read like click bait.
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They eat horses in europe.
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No they selll them at auctions that ship them tightly packed in cattle cars to Mexico to be slaughtered.
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This is not a snapshot or moment in time. This guy has been at it for YEARS. I can’t disagree with ES more!
There are a lot of guilty parties at play here and all are responsible, not just AH. He is just the product of a system that has to change if it wants to survive.
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I watched Michael Jung walk Rocana for at least 20 minutes on a long rein before doing anything in his warmup at Rolex a few years back. The way it should be done. His horses are very happy and want to do the job for him.
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The definition of culling is the reduction of an animal population by slaughter.
Reduction of a horse population by gelding, or sterilizing, or keeping individuals apart so they cannot breed and therefore fewer foals are produced, are other forms of gene pool management & control but not culling.
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