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Why the FEI should ban Rollkur...
I live in a small rural town in the North East of England, with a large horse owning/riding populace. I have returned from a fitness walk around my local town and have just witnessed someone hacking out (I think the american term is Pleasure riding) in draw reins and a bubble gag. Firstly the point of hacking out a horse in training is so that it gets a day off so it does not become sour to its training, secondly these sort of external aids should only be used for short periods of during an actual training session to help build the correct muscle structure. I personnally do not approve of these external aids as there is no real replacement for strong groundwork.
The reason rollkur should be banned is that the fashion for a large forestep created by Rollkur that has given amateur riders the green light to think that hacking out with these external aids attached is fine with no thought of consquence to the animal. We need a lead from the Industry leaders.
The reason rollkur should be banned is that the fashion for a large forestep created by Rollkur that has given amateur riders the green light to think that hacking out with these external aids attached is fine with no thought of consquence to the animal. We need a lead from the Industry leaders.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kt Mehers on
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Besides the permanent damage done by hyperflexion/rollkur, if a horse is working behind the bit the whole "engine of the horse" ie the hindquarters is completely disengaged and the horse is essentially dragging itself forward not driving itself forward. So yes traditionally you did not work behind the bit, in fact you were heavily criticised and marked down if the horse worked behind the bit, just as if the horse worked above the bit, (nose in the air). It worries me that our top judges seem to think this is ok. On the video I would like to see more horses do this, but the more you work your horse in rollkur the more damage you do physically and mentally so the horse loses the ability both mentally and physically.
Thank you for your reply and let's keep this going, because I don't how else we get the message out that this is unacceptable.
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Permalink Reply by Jackie Cochran on
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I looked at the video. It looks like the Rollkur folks have invented a new "air above the ground", the Rollkur buck. Look at the suppleness of the movement, the switching of the weight to the hindquarter, with the fore-quarter elevating properly. Look at the springy action. Can you see it now--Dressage shows can compete against rodeos with their own bucking class. The judges could judge for all of the above, though I think that they would prefer the action to happen all in one place instead of having to follow all those wonderful forward bounds.
This bucking is the best movement of a horse ridden by Rollkur riders I've seen, and it is nice to see that the horse may be capable of moving properly.
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I was looking at the video again.
However much I may disagree with her training methods that lady can stick on a horse, she only came off when the horse turned sharply. I would of been off the first leap.
She even rode the courbette the horse did. Very impressive.
I finally remembered where I had seen a picture of a dressage buck. In "Effective Horsemanship", Noel Jackson describes what he learnt at the Officer Instructors' Course at the Portuguese Army's school at Mafra. On Plate II he shows a horse between pillars bucking with a rider on his back. In the text, on p.43
"At the Equitation School they carried this further and had horses trained to buck and--more important--to stop bucking, on command. They were used, tied between pillars, to help students to learn to absorb in their loins the reaction of the horse's movement, and to stay with them. The exercises were done in saddles, but without stirrups. They are not, of course, economically practical exercises for commercial riding schools, for it is obviously expensive to maintain specially trained horses for this purpose alone. These exercises are, however, an interesting example of the thoroughness of classical teaching; and I mention them to show to what lengths the Masters went to teach their pupils a supple and well-balanced seat. The power of the horse's buck in the pillars is directed upwards and none is dissipated forwards. Furthermore, in the pillars the horse is under control, and the Instructor working him with whip and voice can regulate the power of each buck, and the number of consecutive bucks. The horse in Plate II, Catayo, an Argentine, had an extremely violent buck, and it required a most supple and athletic rider, with much practice, to sit three of his bucks consecutively. The horse was first put into a piaffe, to enable the student to relax and get with the horse's movements, and was then given the aid by the Instructor to buck, either strongly or weakly, and was stopped on a word of command, as required. Essentially, the rider needs to be flexible and supple in his loin and to have the knack of absorbing the reaction."
As you see I was not totally kidding about the dressage buck. This lady can ride.
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I have to be honest I'm still not impressed she can ride a buck or too, I would expect any rider who rides in international competitions to be able to do that, it does not give her the right to use the lazy riders quick fix of rollkur.
We really need it banning as Anky winning competitions through fashion not skill is what is giving the green light to amateurs who will and do overuse the technique.
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YES Rollkur needs to be banned, along with ANY behind the bit movement. Boy, aren't I a purist and I don't even ride dressage. Still , good horsemanship is good horsemanship no matter what your saddle. Now we get to discuss exactly what constitutes good horsemanship!
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Permalink Reply by Vanessa R on
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I wish that all the dressage riders would go back to wanting to look like this:
To me, they should actually be deducted points in the dressage ring if the judge is good. The point of dressage is to have your horse in perfect self carriage and the training to do the exercises asked in the test.
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Quite good, wouldn't it be great if riding like this would be a BASELINE instead of being considered exceptionally good?
One thing I'm noticing in dressage videos is that the horse often starts the exercise correctly, but as the horse's muscles get tired the movement degrades, and one of the ways you can tell that the movement will degrade is that the horse starts going BEHIND THE BIT. When the horse is asked to do a different gait or degree of extension, the horse revives, starts going well until THOSE muscles get tired, and then the performance degrades again. When the horse gets tired it seems that the horse finds extension easier to do correctly (if allowed by the rider) than collection.
I guess what I am trying to say is that riding behind the bit is not limited to the Rollkur folks.
If the horse goes behind the bit EVER in a performance it is a sign that 1) the rider is too heavy on the hand, 2) the horse is not in self-carriage, and 3) the horse is tiring.
Horses in nature NEVER spend 7 to 10 minutes in full collection. It takes extreme physical development of the horse to do collection properly, just as it takes extreme physical development for the horse to race or jump high jumps at speed.
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that was just his "victory gallop" the actual dressage test was quite exceptional :)
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Later on I'll have to find more videos on this, if this was the state of the horse when he was tired I am sure that the test itself was near perfection. I would still like this level of riding be considered the baseline that everyone would achieve on their way to perfection. I will never get this good, but it is good to have unreachable goals, it makes me stretch and try to become better.
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Permalink Reply by Wendy on
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Thank you for putting on that video Vanessa. Dr. Klimke has been my inspiration for learning to be "one with the horse". This example is what we should all be striving for!
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