wrapping up this week's discussion

Summary of the three things question from yesterday:

Lynda offered:

1. Double bridles are not permitted at levels below Grand Prix. (Harder to get hyperflexion in a snaffle!)

2. Horses that do not track up fully in trot exercises will be severely penalised.

3. The horse's poll must ALWAYS be the highest point of the neck.


I wrote:

1. Institute a review for all judges and stewards as to the existing standards, the new distinctions, with visual examples of what is okay and what is not. Sad to say this but I think some of the upper level judges need to see what a horse whose nose is slightly in front of the vertical looks like!

2. A strengthening of the process so that stewards are not intimidated or argued with - a rider can appeal a warning, etc. but must cease what he/she is doing until the judge reviews the call. Intimidation or argument with stewards is grounds for immediate disqualification. (there is no reason to argue with the stewards if there is an appeal process in place and especially if there are cameras so that looking at the infraction is simply done by the judge)

3. Include long-time classically trained dressage riders/trainers in the working group, the round-tables, committees, etc. IMO, Sjef Janssen being included as the "dressage representative" is counterproductive. According to Janssen, he invented rollkur. It seems unlikely that he will now denounce it as abusive. We need a balance of perspectives discussing these issues. He is not representative of the discipline and sport of dressage as many of us know and cherish it.


and Maire added:

Absolutely, stewards must be protected from intimidation. I am absolutely stuck on how to define aggressive force. Do they look at the rider's position, the horse's position or both? This is crucial as it is how they have distinguished Rolllkur from LDR. I wish they had not made this distinction but it is a given for now at any rate.

They could have a clear length of time that a LDR frame is held for.


I think we've covered some good things here. Thank you to everyone who came by to read and most especially to those of you who took the extra time and thought to comment.

Don't hesitate to continue adding comments if you've had a busy week and want to jump in. People come to these posts all day and all night long, and your words will continue provoking thought!

*******

This morning when in between sleep and wakefulness, I found myself thinking of the spectrum of thought on the issue of competition.

On one end is Nevzerov and his Haute Ecole, who I read just now have put up a petition calling for a complete ban to equine competition.

On the other end are riders and trainers who seem to feel that whatever they need to do to get the horses into the winners' circle is warranted, and if necessary they will invent a name for it and say it's better than classical dressage, in order to make the ends justify the means.

Most of us probably fall somewhere in the middle. Here at our little farm, my daughter enjoys competing at the local level, so we do occasionally go to shows. I've never taken Keil Bay to one, although he would probably be fine as long as he had plenty of hay and attention. Cody, our QH with PSSM issues, doesn't trailer well right now and wouldn't do well being stalled overnight, so his comfort dictates what we do with him. The pony seems to enjoy the "specialness" of being loaded and groomed and ridden in front of people, and although he's encountered some scary things (applause, a judge in a box, giant dressage markers, etc.) with some care he has overcome those fears. And we have never hesitated to scratch due to extreme temps or other last-minute factors that we feel will adversely affect his experience.

I noticed yesterday that Redford followed me out to the horse trailer where I am keeping hay. I went into the trailer and Redford came halfway in behind me, and suddenly Salina came charging out of the barn, whinnying her most concerned whinny. She does this any time either of the donkeys go near the trailer or practice loading.

For Salina, who was a fancy brood mare for years, babies and trailers mean one thing: mare and foal inspections. It is not a good memory for her.

I promise her repeatedly that those days are over, but she comes right out to the trailer and insists that the donkeys get out.

As I have wondered before about cross country courses, I wonder about competition: would any horse choose the trailer and a show stall and the loudness of music and announcers on speakers over home? I suspect most wouldn't, although obviously many seem to do okay while there. Others do not, and we see ulcers, stall vices, difficult to manage behavior, etc. as a result.

I think my final point is that if we choose to put horses into competition as our partners, or in my case, to join in as a spectator, we must do everything we can to make the experience a positive one. In my mind, doing no harm is an absolute, but I think going beyond that is a better goal.

The first thing I notice when I go to dressage shows is the horse's head, the frame, the noseband, the bit(s), and how the rider is impacting these. I think the fact that this part of the horse and rider stands out so blatantly is a huge red flag.

I notice too the busy legs of the rider, and the spurring forward.

Often I wander back to the stabling area, and see horses in tiny, dark stalls with no turn-out. In my mind I see them missing freedom, but the worse thing is that probably many of the horses don't even get that at home. They might have bigger stalls with more windows, but it's likely they don't have turn-out to the degree I feel they deserve.

The FEI cannot manage all of the above, nor is it their duty. But I do believe they play an important part in setting and adhering to standards that protect the horses in show stabling, in warm-up arenas, and in the actual competition rides.

We have to start with that, and move outward.

I think we've experienced here, this week, that it is far easier to complain than to engage in meaningful dialogue and to actually grapple with some of what the FEI committees and working groups experience each time they meet.

Back in my public mental health therapist days, I ended up as coordinator and then director of outpatient services for children and families. There was long-standing difficulty between the mental health clinics and the social services agencies. We had very different mandates, and yet we were all supposedly there to help children. And it was clear that more children would be helped if we worked well together than if we didn't.

In an effort to bridge the troubled waters between, I instituted a monthly luncheon and invited all the mental health child and family staff, as well as the social services staff. The first month there were two people in attendance. Me and one worker from social services. Eventually more people came, and we ate lunches together and to some degree realized that we were all trying to help children and families. And that it was harder to complain about each other after we had shared lunch together.

We did several years' worth of work trying to find ways to support one another. That work involved lots of meetings, lots of administrative and structural change, and sometimes negotiating that felt a little bit ridiculous, but got us the next step further that day, that meeting.

Still, when it came to individual cases and children at risk of harm, we did what we had to do. I threatened numerous times to involve the national media and the governor's office when children were being left at risk. I stopped being polite in open court when testifying as an expert witness. If I had seen mistakes made and incompetence allowed, I said that. I was not popular, but often in private, I was thanked for what I was doing.

It was difficult - trying to maintain working relationships with people and agencies I would disagree with the next week when a new case landed on my desk.

I think this is what we have to do here though - create relationships with the organizations who govern, such as the FEI, while at the same time serving as active advocates for the horses.

Talk and discuss, as we've done here. Try when we can to leave the role of complaint behind and take on the role of change-maker.

And when we go to the shows, take our video cameras to the warm-up arenas. Keep watching, reporting, speaking out when we see things that are not right. And let the FEI know about it.

Again, thank you to Malina and all who participated this week. Hopefully we can do this again after the working group completes its current tasks.