Rollkur Revisited

Monday March 5 2012

Part I of a 2-Part Series

I know this debate is old, but seeing that this is still a regular practice, it bears bringing up again. Every time I see this method being used, it still brings up this vexing question: What on earth is the purpose of this??

I know the practice of Rollkur was officially threatened with "punishment" by the FEI in February of 2010. 

FEI defines rollkur as "flexion of the horse's neck achieved through aggressive force." Or you could call it  hyperflexion where the horse's head and neck are contorted past vertical.

FEI Director Trond Asmyr stated in a video back then, "All aggressive riding is not acceptable, whether it is in dressage or other disciplines…. The group agreed that any form of aggressive riding must be sanctioned."

This brings up two questions:

 • Is, then, hyperflexion of the horse's neck okay if it's done without "aggressive force"?

 • What is "aggressive force"?

This brilliant idea of hyperflexion spilled over into the Western discipline. The shots on this page are from warm-up arenas at a couple of huge, well-known shows. Just about everybody there was doing it. Yank-yank-yank up on the reins, to get the horses to cram their heads further into their chest and hold it there. If the head came up at all - you know, for the horse to look where it was going or to breathe - yank-yank-yank to get the head back down. Is that aggressive force?

Do me a favor when you're done reading this, and go outside, shove your own chin hard into your chest and hold it there and jog a half mile. How's that feel? Is your head in an unnatural position? Can you see where you are going? Can you breathe right? Can you swallow? Have you torn some of your neck muscles?

When these horses' heads are cranked beyond vertical, can they see where they're going? Can they breathe right? Can they swallow? Are the neck vertebrae and ligaments and tendons and muscles tweaked and tearing? 

Do you consider this look 'pretty'? Does the head and neck look unnatural to you? Do you have eyeballs with which to see? Do you have common sense? 

Apparently some trainers feel the horse has to be trained in this unnatural position to… to do what? What can't you 'force' your horse to do without this method? Is this Rollkur, or isn't it? Is this partnership with your horse, or is it complete domination? Can you not ride without completely dominating your horse?

I certainly don't want my endurance horses going down the trail with their heads high in the air, but nor do I see why I would want my endurance horse, or any horse, going along with his chin shoved into his chest. (And on second thought, I used to ride an endurance horse that did 8500 career miles with his head up in the air, won 4 Tevis buckles in a row, competed till his mid-20's, and lived to be about 30. He was never dominated, and he had a long successful career and life.)

And I have seen many good dressage and Western riders that do not force their horses into this unnatural position, and their horses move nicely and seem to be doing all that is asked of them, and doing it well, and you can see a definite partnership.

This horse seems to be moving well and behaving well without having to over-flex. 

I wonder, how ever did this bastardization of classical dressage come to be a fad, ("round top line, collected moving is great - let's way over-do it!" ??). How did JUDGES get suckered into approving this??

Theresa Sandin took a good look at this issue on Sustainabledressage.net here.

Apparently Dutch dressage rider and coach Sjef Janssen started this method back in the 1980's. Here are some quotes from Janssen:  "…riding them deep is very good for the horse, especially the neck and the flexibility." "…two professors have conducted a research project, and soon there is an article to be published, and so what we did unconsciously in our training has now been proven very good for the horse's well being." (Anybody seen this article yet?)

One can find any number of 'experts' who will try to explain away this system with muscle diagrams and techno-speak, which makes people feel better about using the method because they can point to something or someone to justify it. 

However, if you USE YOUR COMMON SENSE and your OWN EYEBALLS, you can see that this is not right. "Riding Deep" my A$$. It not only looks unnatural and is not beneficial to the horse, it's harmful and it looks stupid.

Can anybody tell me why this is supposed to be a good thing?

[slide show here]

Next is Part II: Rollkur and Endurance Riding

2011 Scottsdale Arabian Show: The Athlete and The Adored

Saturday February 25 2011

On one side of the Scottsdale Arabian Show venue, the Athletes took the stage in their Championships and showed off their agility. The working cow horses do it all - combining "the thrill of cutting and the finesse of reining." The working cow horse does a bit of cutting, spinning, rolling back, wheeling, sprinting, flying lead changes, sliding stops - and a bit of thinking. You can see some of them change horsenalities when their cow steps in the arena - their whole body shifts forward, all attention on that cow.

You can see some of them eyeballing the cow as they are turning it. **(There were also reined cow horse classes... are these two the same thing?)


I lusted after one of them (#880! More pictures of him in the slide show and photo galleries from today). He won his class. I bet he'd make an outstanding endurance horse, as would many of these physically fit, sturdy and well-built horses.

Near as I can figure from the prize money listings, first place in the Championship classes receive from $125 to $1600.


On the other side of the venue, the Adored took center stage in their Halter classes.


These finely chiseled, delicate, fine-legged, wide-eyed, head-tossing, shampooed and shined and greased two-year-olds showed off their looks. Winners of the Championship classes took home $12,483.33, Reserve Champion $6,241.66. (Yearling Champions received nearly $40,000.)

At higher levels of Hunt Seat Equitation, riders sometimes switch horses as part of their test, and are judged on how well they ride a horse other than their own. Wouldn't it would be quite interesting to turn the tables on these two classes of Arabians? They are the same breed but oh so different in every way. Stick the Working Cow Horse in the Halter arena and let them show off their looks, and stick the Halter Horse under a Western saddle and point them at a cow.

Now, that would be a show to see!

Slide show here:


Many more photos here:
http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2011SAS/

2011 Scottsdale Arabian Show - All The Pretty Horses

Thursday February 24 2011

At the Scottsdale Arabian Show, you have your Working Horses and your Pretty Horses.


Many halter classes for the Pretty Horses today - 3 and 4 and 5-year-old mares and stallions in the morning, and yearling colts and fillies in the afternoon. I will forever think of them as the Woo Woo classes, because that's the cheer you hear going around the arena when a group's favorite horse comes in the gate and trots/props/leaps/bounces/floats around the arena. "WooWooWoo!" The background beat is the kicking of trash cans, the shaking of chairs, the banging on anything that makes noise. The showier and just-on-the-edge-of-control the horses act, (or not), the more it pleases the crowd.


Meanwhile, reining continues all day on one end of the venue (I missed Fireman), while on the other end of the venue - the cowboy barn end - the calves have been trucked in for the Cutting and Working Cow Horse that will begin tomorrow and Saturday.


Hunters take up another outdoor arena, while in the covered Equidome, classes vary from Driving to English and Hunter and Western Pleasure to Sidesaddle, and the single Arabian Mounted Native Costume class of the day. Such fun, colorful, imaginative, elaborate outfits of the native Bedouin type can run you into the thousands of dollars - and well worth it for all the time that must be put in making them. Classes are judged on 75% performance and manners and 25% on "appointments" - whatever that is. The costumed horses and riders are very popular with the crowd, though the class itself is short - doesn't last more than 10 minutes, and there's not even one class a day at this year's Show (and Tuesday's class had only 4 riders in it).


Then, finally, came the Wild and Pretty Horses - in the Arabian Liberty class. You bring your stallion into the arena, turn him loose and let him "perform" - i.e. run around and show off - for 2 minutes to some lively music. When the music stops, you have 2 minutes to catch him. Some of the horses show off mightily, which gets the crowd going, which gets the horse going more, which really gets the crowd cheering. One horse today did such a quick spin while showing off that he threw a shoe. One girl (and the man with her) could not get their horse's halter off because he seemed to not want his ears touched - but after his 'show', he walked right up to the girl to have his halter put back on. (There were only 4 in today's Liberty class.)

There's a final for this on Saturday where the winner gets $5000. All for looking pretty! Presumably that will buy him a good stash of carrots, in addition to gaining some fame and girls.


The Scottsdale Arabian Show is building toward its conclusion on Sunday and the Championship halter classes, Championships for reining and working cow horses, Championships for the different riding disciplines and driving. Which will all prove to be interesting, since another cold, wet, windy winter storm is coming through (sunny Arizona!) starting on Saturday.

Might be a lot of Wet Working and Pretty Horses at the end of the day.

Slide show here:


Many more photos here:
http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2011SAS/

2011 Scottsdale Arabian Show I

Monday February 21 2011

I set foot in a different world today, one I've visited before a few times, but always find fascinating. It brings together all kinds: horse loving kids, trainers, rich rich owners, the big famous barns and little family backyard horse, hard working grooms, the hopeful, the jaded, the bling, the costumes, the makeup... all hopes pinned on the hot blooded Arabian horse, the breed that is (according to arabianhorses.org) "the foundation stock of most light breeds".


The 56th annual Scottsdale Arabian Show is underway in Scottsdale Arizona. Since 1955, "it has grown from 50 horses to nearly 2400 horses bringing top owners, trainers and breeders from around the world." The show is mostly run by volunteers - about 600 of them from all over the country.

There's big prize money at stake - over $1 million in total over the 11 days. First place in the lowest level halter class gets $90; first place in the SSS Yearling Auction Colt/Filly class gets $39,603.38

Today I happened upon the semi-finals of the Scottsdale Signature Stallion Auction Championship Yearling Colts/Geldings - AOTH (Amateur Owner to Handle).


First they gathered outside the ring and came in one by one. There was at least one person with a big blown-up garbage bag that he shook to get the babies a bit worked up before they went in the arena. Accompanied by whoops and cheers from onlookers lining the fences, some of the babies zoomed around their handlers in circles; some bounced like bunnies in extended trots; all had their tails up over their backs and were having a good time.

It sounded like they were judged only on conformation and movement; while maybe they were supposed to somewhat behave, it seemed like nobody objected to anything else they did.


One by one, horses made their way around the arena, sort of trotting, or leaping or cantering or rearing or spinning or springing or prancing or some combination thereof - definitely marching to the beat of their own drummer, which was not necessarily the same beat as their handlers'. I enjoyed the naughty ones the most. One of them even got loose, oops!, before he was caught at the other end of the arena.

Then they were asked to walk around the arena (which was sort of walk, or trot or leap or canter or rear or spin or spring or prance or some combination thereof); then one by one they were called forward to stand up in front of the 5 judges.


I couldn't quite figure out the method some used to get their colts to stand certain ways. This is JUST MY OPINION, but I never have and never will like the grease smeared around their eyes and noses. It does not enhance their looks. Someone once told me it makes the eyes look bigger, but it really only makes them look like grease was smeared around their eyes and noses.

It must be like trimming manes of racehorses. Somebody decided once upon a time that short manes looked good (although maybe it's really because the jockeys didn't like long mane whipping them in the face), so that's what's always done. I think long manes look better, and I know my retired racehorse Stormy likes his long hippie mane.

With 19 colts in the ring, it took about 90 minutes to complete the class. By the time they were done, the babies were pretty tired. I felt their fatigue. The eyes of some were sleepily fluttering - then they'd spring to life and leap up, then they'd stand with a hind leg cocked - until once more when they had to do their high-headed stretched out pose as the judges walked around and studied them once more.


To me, it's kind of like jazz. I just don't understand it, but it's interesting. I look at each colt - one of these is going to be worth at least $40,000 in a few days for looking the prettiest - and think - how many miles could he carry me?

I'm sure most of the exhibitors might think endurance riding is interesting but they can't understand why I'd like to sit in a saddle (and sometimes suffer) for 50 or 100 miles. They'd probably look at a group of us and think, Who here could stay on my horse?

The top ten were called (each received a blue ribbon, and would receive $6718) and the others dismissed - it was rather anticlimactic. I thought they'd get to come in and trot around for us and show off again, but maybe that will be in the finals.

One or two of these colts is going to have quite the interesting adulated life ahead of him.

Slide show here: