This why you never associate with people who don’t have horses. 
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And this is why nothing ever changes. If you mention it to the stewards and tell them what stalls you were in, they now have something to point them in the starting direction. But if no one ever passes anything along until after the show, nothing will change.
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It’s not just horses though, it’s all animals. The general public is skewing towards having no understanding of domestic animals or wildlife of any kind.
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We had a newcomer at our agility club complain and threaten to call the police for animal abuse…because their large dog that jumped on an 80+ yr old man was physically yanked down by the trainer. Dog was in a flat collar and they were asked to not return.
If that is your line for abuse, I can see why you think riding horses is abusive. But that line of thinking is so flawed, and I’m really not sure how you even begin to correct it. It’s honestly frightening to me that these people think any sort of physical correction is abuse.
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Obviously, those people are ridiculous and likely don’t ride and maybe have one indoor cat (an animal you can’t really discipline or train at all).
But I will also say that people who do practice unethical or abusive horsemanship often use this as an excuse–“how dare you not allow this bad thing [harsh bit, drugging while showing, abusive training practice, no turnout], you’re just as bad as the PETA fruitcakes who say we shouldn’t ride at all.”
People who actually ride and know horses and show need to be able to have intelligent and nuanced conversations about what is abuse and how to prevent it.
(Not directed at you, but just saying we need to get beyond the black and white of either the PETA lunacy of “set them all free” and “everything goes.”)
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It is the same set of people who excuse everything their children do, too. Teachers are seeing the same level of outrage and cries of abuse/bullying/shaming/mistreatment by parents in schools-- as in calling to report their 1st grader bit another student and having parent scream about how the other kid had it coming. Or the 7th grader who was, once again, on their phone in class, had phone taken by teacher and placed in a safe location until the end of class, so parent calls school board/superintendent and demands teacher be fired.
In the animal world it’s every animal is a “rescue” from a “horrible situation” and they must now be allowed to roam free/run the neighborhood/ not be leash trained/ taken into the grocery store/ pampered but not actually cared for by a vet because vets are too expensive and stupid and CBD will cure it all as will my ‘natural trimmer’ at my “$100/mont is all I can pay for self care board” barn but I’m desperate for hay this month. Sorry… rant over.
The general public is so deeply influenced by social media and what they see there, the ignorance is truly mind blowing blowing.
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^^^^Great post!
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I guess they have never watched a mare “teach” their foal how to behave
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Hey now. My indoor cats are better trained than some people’s dogs. 
Discipline doesn’t work so well, but they are definitely trainable if you find what makes them tick.
I completely agree that riding and showing exists along a continuum of practices. I think everyone has a slightly different place where they feel like things move from okay to borderline to not okay. But absolutely we need to be able to have civilized discussion when we’re faced with someone who sees things differently, without jumping to “PETA nut”/“animal abuser” name calling.
It is also hard to have those discussions, especially if someone with more experience and in a relative position of power does something that feels borderline.
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I often don’t even like associating with people who do have horses…
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You clearly are not hanging out with us old school eventers.
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I’m not, I’m surrounded by “gamers” and a few treasured retired-eventers who are now DQs - yes, I’m thankful for my DQ friends because the gamers often make me angry/frustrated with their “husbandry” practices.
They should keep practicing. In the mean time the horses suffer.
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Yes! A local shelter now posts trigger warning on posts where an animal is on the euthanasia list. It’s horribly sad but also the consequence of people not taking care of their animals.
I work cattle and use spurs as well as a spade bit. You would be shocked at the people who have horses that get onto me for it. They do not understand that our bits are used with very light signals and actually snaffles are more dangerous than what we use.
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Ha, I am not a cat person, so I stand corrected! But yes, that’s exactly what I was thinking–sometimes I think that for many riders, including myself, you come into riding from a position of ignorance, and are immediately confronted with trainers telling you how to do things. And you have to trust the trainer about a lot of things. But ultimately every rider has to develop their own moral compass and continue to develop their own education, versus relying on one person.
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One thing I have noticed among horse people, both in person and by reading their writings, is that the concept of “GOOD HORSEMANSHIP” can reach the status of a religion. You are a good horseman, therefore there are thing that you do to make sure that your horse has a good life (even if it is not ideal) and there are things that you DO NOT DO to or around horses. If you have to be bad, well, by golly, you feel guilty about it, you apologize to the horse and mean it.
I was fortunate to fall in love with Hunt Seat riding early on when we returned to the USA in 1963. The old cavalry officers still had a lot of influence, whether for good or bad. The hunt seat ones sort of laid out a comprehensive program which hopefully ended with the students capable to go off on their own. HOWEVER these cavalry men were trained to train war horses for battle and “police actions.” The horses’ instant total obedience was the goal, and this was obedience to ONE HAND on the reins because the other hand was wielding a weapon in the chaos of battle where many people are out to kill you. Civilian riders do not have to train for this particular level of horsemanship so the cavalry teachings started changing because the decommissioned cavalrymen had to earn a living as a civilian.
Vladimir Littauer saw the coming changes as well as the sheer amount of horrible riding by Americans. He developed a method that is relatively humane (a bump on the mouth by the bit, not a full arm sudden yank, etc.,) so the people, mostly women and girls as time went on, had an example of what could be, if they were exposed to it. I lucked out, I lived in Northern Virginia, on land that George Washington owned and possibly fox-hunted on. My school libraries had books that led me the right way.
We need to make good horsemanship a “religion” again. The horses of today are not that much better off than the riding horses of the past, yes modern veterinary knowledge and technology helps them, as well as improved husbandry practices.
From what I see and read about, it occurs to me that the cure for horse people losing their social license to ride, is that all riders from world level winning riders need to convert to the religion of GOOD HORSEMANSHIP.
All horse people, from the proud rider who wins medals in international competition to the backyard horse lover who adores their idle, expensive pet and pasture ornament, we all need to show the world that we can handle and work with these wonderful animals. We are all responsible for leading by example, we need to learn how to, diplomatically, teach a rider that there is a much better way.
If we don’t our descendants could lose their right to even “own” a horse.
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Right after reading this thread, I was scanning Instagram and a post referring to this blog post turned up – it reminds me of an editorial I read a few years ago on a dog show website (author wrote something about how “unless you ran into a burning building, you most likely did not rescue your dog…”):
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This was a terrible accident that happened to a wonderful rider. Not a welfare issue.
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I agree 100%. But there is a large and very vocal segment of the population, some of whom are even “horse people” who believe equestrian competition is inherently evil and fundamentally different from whatever type of riding they choose to do, who will (wrongly imo) seize onto accidents like this one as “proof” that horses are treated as disposable by anyone who competes.
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This is a good read; thanks for sharing! I am saving for future reference to pass along.
From what I can tell, my guy was very well treated and well loved on the track. His hard knocks happened AFTER when he bounced around a few inexperienced horse owners.
I managed to connect with the trainer who took him from the track as well as his exercise rider and former jockey. They took great care of that horse for how terrible he was at racing over the years. They love getting occasional updates and are delighted he finally found something he’s good at apart from sleeping (which apparently he has just always been a champ at since he was a 2 year old).
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Or a very alpha mare establishing hierarchy with a new herdmate mare. That’s the most brutal-appearing thing I’ve ever seen one horse do to another. Minimal physical damage but the aggressive chasing and posturing!. 
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