(I'm going to get myself in trouble here...Please take this as
it's meant and not personally!)
For the most part all of us here our horses have very good
lives and we do not abuse them. We're caring horse owners whom are more
knowledgeable than most other disciplines, but discussions like this are the
main reason I quit riding competitively, until I found endurance, and gave up
boarding to lease my own place and leave all the arguments behind.
The whole discussion started over Draw Reins, yes, they have
their place. In the hands of most amatuers? Nope. I've seen horses abused with
them often here. German Martingales, same thing... Mechanical Hacks... saw a guy
bring a horse over backwards on him and break the horses jaw from sheer pressure
of the hack. Bits... we all know these. My point is that anything and everything
can be abused in the wrong hands. And, trainers that only go with one way of
thinking and start all their horses a certain way are part of the
problem.
The other portion of our problem here in America is that
certain "looks" are popular. The look of the dressage horse, super collected,
with the vertical face is en vogue this season, so all the dressage people rush
out and buy draw reins, german martingales, and lunge gadgets and get their
horse "in frame". Forget that his back and hocks can't handle it and he's lame
in six months, he was in frame. The HJ people school their horses to death and
ride them in all sorts of gadgets at home. I even knew one guy who put tacks on
the tops of his jumps so that his horses would never hit a jump! Saddle seat
people are the worlds worst about beatings and bit abuse... I rode there for
almost a year, and I left crying just about everytime. Everybody want's their
horse to look like Bonfire or Gem Twist or ???? saddle seat star when old Sparky
can't ever do that.
I'm not a purist, I've owned and used my fair share of
gadgets. My horse has a way of throwing them back in my face. Tie down and
martingales? Good things to lean on so she can rear higher. German Lunge
Martingale? She could still get her head up and hollow her back. It took me a
year in a snaffle and lots of good lunge work and cavaletti to develop self
carriage, no she doesn't have a good headset, but she carriers herself very well
and steps under and flexes well. Isn't that all we want? Is there some endurance
horse who "carries himself" properly that we're all going to flock to and make
our horses look like them?
(climbing back into my hole with my flame retardant
suit...)
