Books, Mud and Compost. And Horses.

 We went to see  El Caballo de España  at Castle Ashby last year, and they were just as good this year.  I particularly like the dark bay, who, if he is the same one as last year, is a Tres Sangres ( half PRE (Spanish), half Anglo-Arab). At rest. And some more equines on the day:

Yesterday (the day that didn't rain) we went to see El Caballo de España at the Castle Ashby Craft Fair. My only regret is that I really haven't sussed photographing movement so have very few photographs which are any good.  Such a shame, as the horses really merit much better.  

Because I'm not that kind of horse.

and the British dressage team, who won a team silver last night at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky. I was working late last night, but finished just in time to see Laura Bechtolsheimer's ride on Mistral Hojris, scoring 82.51% . Not a tail swish in sight - it was quite, quite beautiful. Thank you BBC for showing it. I'll post a video as soon as one pops up on the net.

and Thanks Sue and Haffy for these.

Thanks Haffyfan for this video. Again I'm handicapped by my ignorance of both disciplines: can anyone tell me why the reining horse is holding his head so low? Whatever his head's doing, I thought the reining rider was incredibly relaxed, and I know which horse I'd rather be on. The dressage horse looked stiff in contrast (imo), particularly in the pirouette, which he looked reluctant to do. Here's the video Susanna mentioned in the comments to the Rollkur piece. This shows Stephanie Croxford and Mr President : I particularly like the end, where he's enjoying the applause - as you will probably have gathered by now, I don't have a lot of sympathy for the "I can't do a prize presentation as my oh so sensitive horse will explode" brigade. If a horse can't stand noise like applause, it makes me wonder a. what life's like at home - does everyone creep round in cowed silence? and b. why some time can't be devoted to training ...

Or should that be LDR? Anky van Grunsven, Dutch dressage gold medallist, is suing Astrid Appels , a journalist on Eurodressage.com, for illustrating an article on rollkur with a picture of Anky's horse Salinero. Anky says her method of training is not rollkur, despite looking to the uninitiated (and I include myself here) remarkably similar. I've written about rollkur before ; it's a training technique used by some dressage riders. Anky's version of this she calls Low, Deep, Round. To me they both look the same: the horse is ridden for long periods with its chin pulled into its chest. I don't like the way a lot of dressage at the top level looks: I am not even at the foothills of dressage, but to me a horse swishing its tail, with its ears back, is an unhappy and tense horse, and that is how some horses look at the top level of the sport. I still think it ludicrous that Anky won the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics with a halt that was nothing of the...

I said in a previous blog post that I'd never seen or heard of a horse doing rollkur on its own. The following example isn't really a horse doing rollkur because it feels like it: it's more because the horse wants its own way and is evading the bit, but still. Here it is: "She had a mouth like iron, but she could not be accused of bolting, or even running away. She would just tuck in her chin until it touched her chest, drop the bit, and canter slowly, steadily and relentlessly on. The most that you could hope to do when she was in this mood was to turn her into a circle, and wait until she grew tired - unless of course you had a friend on foot who would run in and grab the bridle." (Stella Markeson - Horse Portraits, in Riding Magazine, Sept 1961) This is of course evasion, and not at all actual rollkur, but I found it interesting to read of a horse doing something similar!

The FEI have now held their meeting, at which they discussed Rollkur. This is their statement: "The FEI condemns all training methods and practices that are contrary to horse welfare. The welfare of the horse has always been and will always be at the core of every aspect of the Federation’s work as the international governing body for equestrian sport. During its meeting in Copenhagen (DEN) on 15 November, the FEI Bureau had extensive discussion on the issue of hyperflexion. The FEI Bureau insists that, with immediate effect, stewards in all disciplines use the disciplinary measures available to them, such as verbal warnings and yellow warning cards *, to prevent any infringement of FEI rules. The FEI is now engaged with World Horse Welfare, a leading international equestrian organisation, in addition to continued consultation with riders, trainers, officials and veterinarians to thoroughly research the issues. The further education of stewards will also continue to ensure...

According to Horse and Hound, the FEI are going to debate the Rollkur issue at their general assembly on 15th November in Copenhagen. A spokesman said "important developments will be announced as soon as possible." When you look at the FEI's dressage page , and see listed along the right hand side article after article on Anky and other Dutch dressage riders (Anky, the Olympic gold medallist, is very well known for being a Rollkur practitioner, as I believe are most of the Dutch team) it is immediately obvious what a tension there is here. On the one hand, the top echelons of the sport support rollkur, and are presumably lobbying very hard for the FEI not to change their stance; on the other there's a great deal of public attention being directed at a sport which has only just emerged out of the shadows and started to become popular. In an ideal world, I would suggest a moratorium on rollkur being practised until definitive studies have been done on the effect o...

Horse and Hound have a poll going on on their front page at the moment. You will have to scroll down the page a bit to get there - it's on the left hand side, but if you want to tell H&H what you think, here's your chance .

I've been meaning to write about this all week, but reading the exclusive in Horse and Hound about the controversy tipped me over the edge. For my non-horsy readers, rollkur is a training/warming up technique used by some dressage riders. It basically involves riding the horse with its jaw pulled in virtually to its chest, in order to increase suppleness. Patrik Kittel , a Swedish competitor in Odense was videoed riding his horse in this way. If you watch the video , you'll see the horse's tongue hanging out - blue. It takes a while before the rider notices this. When he does, he stops, puts the horse's tongue back in, and carries on. There are two things which bother me about this. Firstly, I am fully aware large sections of the dressage world, and some of its brighest stars, consider rollkur perfectly ok, but the FEI guidelines state this practice should only be for short periods, allowing the horse to rest. Patrick Kittel apparently rode the horse for two hou...