I have an arab. Do I want his head behind the vertical? No. Do I try really hard to avoid it? Yes. Is he still an arab? Sadly. Do I deserve to get eliminated by some knee jerk rule?
Should we ban all nosebands period?
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Because sometimes things can get lost when theyāre reported on secondhand, hereās a translation of the full 46 recommendations. I realize even translations are imperfect, btw, but for those interested.
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This past weekend, a rider was reported by a fence judge for over using the whip, striking too many times and with anger behind the strikes. Before the rider had finished, the TA was to be seen driving his vehicle across the course in order to give said rider āa talking toā immediately they completed.
There is no point in having codes, rules and laws if they arenāt enforced.
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So the best solution to lack of enforcement of the existing whip rules is to just ban whips? Whoās to say theyāll bother enforcing that?
Itās cool if you use exclusively positive reinforcement with your horses, but that doesnāt mean youāre any better or worse of a horseman than someone who uses negative reinforcement techniques (like teaching a horse to move forward in response to leg pressure) or uses whips or spurs judiciously.
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I didnāt say ban whips, nor did I say the rules needed to be changed. The rules do need to be enforced. Itās not an appropriate response, as is.
And I donāt use exclusively positive reinforcement. I wish I was skilled enough/had the ability to do that now, but I donāt. Hopefully someday.
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I have ridden oh about 15 Arabs and Part-Arabs, including a few I trained to saddle myself. All of these Arabians were wide enough between the jowls so I could put my fist in, some of them were so wide between the jowls that there was at least 1/2" extra room for my fist.
At my present lesson stable Iāve ridden 6 Arabs, most with highly imperfect training (my riding teacher and I often discuss what a good horse that Arab would have been if we had been the ones introducing that horse to saddle.) Inverted hysterical Arabians, Arabians who never learned to accept the bit, Arabians who had their brain fried, and Arabians who would not dare to reach out for contact.
I have managed to ride all of them without them going behind the vertical for more than a second. In fact I told my riding teachers, each and every riding teacher Iāve had the last 15 years, that if the horse I ride goes behind the vertical I want the riding teacher to yell at me immediately because it just is not acceptable to me at all. In fact Iāve told my riding teacher it is perfectly fine if she yanks me off the horse if I cannot keep its head in front of vertical. She has never done so, in spite of me having MS with all its neurological problems and the fact that I prefer nowadays to ride in a, gasp, double bridle with a curb bit.
It IS possible to ride a horse in front of vertical. Legs, legs, legs, gentle responsive contact, that is most of what is needed to achieve this. If I can do it with all my physical and neurological problems, why canāt riders who are much better trained and much more capable physically than I am do it?
With my present double bridle curb bit (mullen mouth, though I did it before with a normal Cambridge mouth curb with a low port) I can ride on contact with just the curb bit at the walk and keep the horseās nose out front properly, Arabians and Part Arabians included. I usually do this withing the first two rides on the double bridle to prove to the horse that they have nothing to fear from the curb bit in my hands. Now I am not perfect, I can do this with curbs with a 5" shank, but if I put a 7" shanked curb on the horse I cannot keep proper contact with the curb without the horse going behind vertical, therefore I do not ever try to keep contact with a 7" shanked curb bit. I know my limitations.
I never enjoyed watching a Saddle Seat ridden ASB before this. Nowadays I enjoy watching the Saddle Seat ridden ASBs more than the competition dressage horses because at least the ASBs usually have their heads in front of vertical, not that I enjoy watching either of them that much.
In the last 50 years riding behind the vertical has become normal for competition dressage horses, and if something ends up being normal most people think that it is correct if the riders win their classes. I am so totally old fashioned about this, seeing a horse behind the vertical will always bother me, especially with Arabians (since I love them so much.)
And I do not use nosebands on these horses. Nosebands are fine, they are great to use with a standing martingale if you need one, but only with at least 2 fingers side to side vertically between the noseband and the horseās face. That is another old-fashioned pet peeve of mind.
YMMV.
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Iām not sure what Iāve said that you disagreed with, then! The enforcement of whip rules has definitely been inconsistent and sometimes lacking. That doesnāt mean whips are inherently abusive, or that a ban is a good idea.
Animal welfare means ensuring that horses are well cared for, protected from abuse, and kept as safe as possible. It is a great thing, extremely important and we need to do a better job of protecting it. Animal rights takes the stance that any āuseā of horses by people is āexploitationā and therefore inherently wrong, whether those horses are top level competitors, breeding stock, or beloved trail buddies. I hope what you actually support is the former.
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You are clearly a much more accomplished and better rider than I am if your horses never go behind the vertical for more than a second.
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I have no doubt that you are a better rider than I am. Most of the people on this forum are probably better riders than I am because I have a systemic neurological disease.
The reason the horses I ride do not stay behind the vertical for more than a second is that I always keep an eye on the top of his neck, 3rd cervical vertebra to the poll. Going upwards is fine for most riding, if the top of the neck is flat horizontally it is good, if the top of the neck slopes downward it is immediate leg aids, loosening my contact, and letting go of the rein if necessary. If that is not enough, then a gentle touch with the spurs is usually sufficient to get the horse to reach out into proper contact.
It is NOT because I am a better rider than you, it is because I will do just about anything non-abusive not to have the horseās face behind the vertical. Leg aids are my friend here.
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The translated wording (in English) from the document is:
Recommendation #31
Enforce the prohibition of intentional or unintentional infliction of unnecessary suffering or discomfort, and of an overly constrained posture or frame.
Prohibit flexion of the neck that places the nose line behind the vertical (āhyperflexionā) throughout the Olympic grounds and apply sanctions with immediate effect for all equestrian disciplines.
To me, this sounds like prohibiting the conscious use of Rollkur as a training technique on the Olympic grounds (which I support) versus say, eliminating a horse that happens to pop behind the vertical because of a momentās evasion without the rider deliberately attempting to flex the neck behind the vertical.
Also, it doesnāt look like they are proposing to eliminate the use of spurs, but allow riders to not wear them in dressage, versus requiring them:
Recommendation #16
Authorise riding without spurs in dressage, as is the case in all events.
The whip rule reads as thus:
Recommendation #15
Prohibit the use of the whip more than once per event and more than twice during the warm-up. The use of a whip more than once per event and twice during warm-up will result in a sanction or even disqualification. Video surveillance used as evidence if necessary.
I agree this last one sounds a bit excessive IMHO. I mean, in an ideal world, weād have fence judges at the Olympics who could confidently use their discretion about what was excessive punishment versus normal discipline to keep a horse safe and forward.
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I have been thinking about the rationales of the experienced horsemen who wrote books about fine riding aiming which can lead to riding dressage.
There seems to be a consensus among some of these writers thatā
- Riding behind vertical is not good.
- Riding behind vertical is something that WILL happen as the horse learns how to understand the riderās aids with the bit while the rider uses contact.
- Instructions of how to get the behind the vertical horse so that the horse goes either vertical or somewhat in front of vertical and takes proper contact with the bit.
The reasons going behind vertical all the time was considered bad was the rather high risk, especially with fine necked horses, of the horse learning if he goes enough behind vertical and rests his chin on his breast, that the rider cannot control him with rein aids. This can result in a series of undesireable behaviors, from full balking to running away and refusing to turn.
I remember some writers cautioning about getting the poll joint too pliable, especially with really long necked horses. If the poll gets too pliable then the horse can, when driven forward with the legs or seat, go behind the vertical and not do the contact properly. In this state the horse finds it rather easy to evade contact and prevent the rein aid from working through the body, ending up influencing the hind leg.
Some writers talk about horses with larger than usual glands right behind the horseās jowl bone where it meets the neck. One phrase I remember is that these glands can cause excruciating pain to the horse when the horse yields his mouth/head/poll to a restraining rein. The horse either flings his head around or lowers his head to go behind the vertical to avoid this excruciating pain, which means the horse is avoiding proper contact with the bit. These horses HAVE to go in front of vertical to get back to the proper relationship between the horseās mouth and the bit.
With horses with really big jowl bones, like many Arabians and some QHs, the jowl bones run into the muscles of the neck, mechanically preventing a vertical face. These horse either invert or lower their heads and go behind the vertical and behind the bit when driven into the bit with the leg aids.
Then there are the horses with very little space between their jowl bones. These horse cannot do the vertical face without partially strangling themselves. They can be delightfully light with their mouths in front of vertical, yielding their lower jaws and yielding their poll as much as they can comfortably, or if the rider insists on a vertical faceāthe horse lowers his head and goes behind the vertical and behind the bit, dropping all pretenses of contact.
This synopsis comes from reading advanced riding books, mainly Forward Seat and Dressage (Austrian, French, German, Dutch, Portuguese etc.) for over 50 years. One thing gets emphasized by some authors, another thing gets emphasized by other authors, but until a few decades ago most of these advanced equestrian authors agreed that going behind the vertical was bad, could have dire consequences eventually, and prevents the proper action of the bit on the horseās mouth, lower jaw, poll and neck for doing collected work with proper contact.
AND their proper contact was rather light. The ONLY places I read about proper contact of KILOS was for horses galloping at top speed, either on the race track or cross country, not in the riding ring riding no faster than a canter.
I rejoice that readers of the classical dressage writers had input on this part of their laws of horse competition.
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I agree.
I suppose itās easier to write a rule limiting the ānumberā of times you can āuseā the whip but Iād argue that the amount of force used is probably more important from a horse welfare standpoint than the number of times.
Hitting a horse with a whip as hard as you can even once is IMO abusive. But giving a horse several light taps with a dressage whip usually is not. However, the latter would be prohibited by these rules while the former would not.
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If a horse rears on me Iām going to hit it as hard as I can, and I have done so, and it was effective at stopping the behavior and preventing future behavior. I donāt think blanket statements are ever effective.
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This is an excellent watch, lots of good information for riders and she talks a lot about falls and how we need to work hard to prevent them for the sake of the horses and our sport.
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Love this
True Blue Too euthanized at Burgham after a fall in the warm up.
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This one is getting less attention. Is it because it happened in warmup? Does anyone know what happened?
The rider commented on a social media post that they think he broke his pelvis over a very low warmup jump. I just went back to double check her exact words and I see she deleted her post. But thatās what it had said.
Em
