Cruel twist to the elite sport of dressage
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Cruel twist to the elite sport of dressage
Geplaatst door de TopicStarter : 18-07-12 10:43
http://www.afr.com/p/lifestyle/sport/ol ... 6uHYeRwjZI
Fiona Carruthers
Well trained or in pain? Dressage equipment is harsher than many spectators realise.
With the Olympics less than two weeks away, claims of doping, questionable urine samples and oppressive training regimes loom large. The inevitable scandals will no doubt topple the odd toned hero from the podium.
But one Olympic sport has traditionally sailed under the radar. Dressage is a surreal, elite world where double-barrelled names rule (for both horses and riders), top horses change hands for €20 million, and haute couture sponsors dominate the billboards.
As horses piaffe, pirouette, and side pass, little attention is paid to how such a performance is achieved. But expect London 2012 to be different.
For years, a storm has been brewing in horse circles over the use of excessive gear. More specifically, crank nosebands, which operate on a pulley system that can be cranked so tight vets are now publicly protesting. Some have even released images of soft tissue and other damage, consistent with trauma from an animals’ cheeks being clamped against its molar teeth, and a noseband digging into the face.
Equally disturbing is the related practice of rollkur, a German word defined as “hyperflexion of the horse’s neck” and “flexion of the horse’s neck achieved through aggressive force”.
Riders use crank nosebands and the lever-type bits characteristic of double bridles (mandatory for high level dressage tests) to apply covert force, reining a horses’ head in until the chin is virtually touching its chest - and holding it there. The prolonged pulling posture riders adopt during the manoeuvre has been dubbed the “water skiing” style of riding. Rollkur is only used during training at home and in warm-up arenas prior to competition in the belief it creates a more flexible horse – a bit like the human equivalent of a vastly exaggerated yoga pose to make any lesser movement seem easy by comparison. And while judges would severely penalise rollkur in competition as far too extreme, they are looking for flexible, supple horses with well-rounded outlines.
Not only does the practise cause discomfort and distress to many horses, it’s achieved by applying sustained bit pressure, as is used to halt or decelerate a horse. Thus, over time, rollkur can desensitise a horse’s mouth, making it harder to pull up and potentially dangerous.
“Our biggest problem is not just riders – it’s the judges who are failing to mark down riders using questionable force either in terms of equipment like crank nosebands, or warm-up methods such as rollkur,” Stockholm-based specialist veterinary dentist and surgeon, Torbjörn Lundström, who has treated horses from the Swedish Olympic equestrian teams, told the Weekend Financial Review.
“Awarding medals and prizes to riders who get the most out of their horses by forcing them to perform, not asking them, is akin to crediting abuse. At this stage nothing will change in time for London despite our lobbying.
“This is a longer-term battle and a gradual education campaign.”
In 2006, one of the more controversial moments in modern dressage occurred when one of world champion Dutch rider Anky van Grunsven’s top dressage horses, Salinero, bolted during the award presentation ceremony after they took gold in the freestyle dressage at the World Equestrian Games (WEG) in Aachen, Germany.
Grunsven was three months’ pregnant and a photo captures her clearly terrified, trying in vain to pull Salinero up. Why a top notch horse that had just won gold in an event designed to test absolute obedience and horse/rider harmony would then bolt surprised many.
Horse enthusiasts debated the event for years. Was Salinero merely spooked by something, triggering a natural fight or flight response? As one blogger defending Grunsven wrote: “Horses are not robots. They occasionally get startled by things - ANY horse, rollkured or not.” Yet others suggested it could signify a desensitised stop button on a horse that had had enough.
To be fair, highly strung competition horses can be prone to bolting. It just doesn’t usually happen to Olympic riders competing at world championships. Either way, it’s not a good look.
In a media interview, Grunsven conceded she “never thought something like this could happen with Salinero. He has always been good in prize givings. But it was an enormous stadium, and the crowd was unbelievable.” She ended up doing her victory lap at Aachen on a loaned police horse.
Grunsven went on to ride Salinero to victory in the individual dressage at Beijing in 2008 – her third consecutive Olympic gold medal.
Things reached flash point in 2010 when equestrian journalist Astrid Appels of Eurodressage.com queried Grunsven’s training methods, prompting the Dutch champion to take legal action, stating “images of her horses could not be connected to the controversial rollkur training method”. In a lawsuit launched in August 2010, Grunsven claimed she was defamed by Appels. However, she withdrew legal action in September.
In another far more public and mainstream controversy, Swedish dressage rider Patrik Kittel was caught in video footage using rollkur on his horse, Watermill Scandic, during warm-up at the World Cup dressage qualifiers at Odense, Denmark in 2009.
In the footage, Watermill Scandic’s tongue appears to have turned blue and is seemingly paralysed, flopping out of its mouth. (Rollkur and crank nosebands have been associated with blue tongue syndrome when blood flow is restricted as a direct result of their use, and a horse’s tongue turns blue.)
In the ensuing uproar, the Federation Equestre Internationale officially banned the practice of rollkur. But many – including leading international vet Professor Leo Jeffcott who has served as an accredited vet at six Olympic Games including Sydney in 2000 – point to ongoing welfare issues at FEI events.
A former dean of the veterinary schools at both Cambridge University and the University of Sydney, Professor Jeffcott, a member of the FEI Bureau, also criticised his organisation for abolishing its horse welfare subcommittee: “As a scientist, I believe we need more substantial evidence to evaluate training techniques and any abuse from aggressive riding,” Professor Jeffcott said. “The emerging discipline of equitation science is ideally suited to assist.”
So great are his concerns, Professor Jeffcott outlined them in a letter to FEI president, Princess Haya, wife of Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, and a keen horsewoman.
Vets are now lobbying the FEI to introduce a standard vet-designed taper gauge test to ensure crank nosebands are not excessively tight at competitions.
About half the size of a ruler tapering to a rounded end, the taper gauge is based on the age-old horseman’s rule of thumb that a noseband should always be fitted loosely enough to allow two adult fingers to pass between the bridge of the horse’s nose and the noseband, to allow the horse to move its jaw without pain or injury. Vets have designed an easy to use standard taper gauge - measuring two fingers’ width - to ensure the process is scientific and internationally consistent.
In January, the RSPCA (United Kingdom and Australian branches), the UK’s Associate Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare, the International Society for Equitation Science (ISES), plus Australia’s Veterinary Institute for Animal Ethics, sent the FEI a signed position statement recommending the introduction of the taper gauge, and the immediate ban of “the use of any noseband that constricts to the degree that it may cause injury”.
ISES even sent officials at the FEI’s Swiss headquarters a prototype of the taper gauge, but ISES president and equine vet specialist with the University of Sydney, Professor Paul McGreevy, is yet to get a response.
At present, the FEI’s Dressage Rule Article 428.1 states: “A cavesson noseband may never be as tightly fixed so as to harm the horse”.
Vets are perplexed as to why, if this is the case, the FEI would not respond promptly and positively to their request for a standard, definitive test.
The tragic irony in this saga is that points are deducted by judges when horses open their mouths during a dressage test – a sign the horse could be uncomfortable or resisting its rider. Now, many horses are powerless to express anything as their mouths are clamped shut.
But that’s not the way top level riders see it. In a recent column in a British horse magazine, leading British dressage rider Carl Hester – the individual and team medallist from the 2011 FEI European Dressage Championships – argued the fitting of a noseband should be left up to riders and trainers. “Every horse is different,” Hester wrote. “A noseband is not a fashion accessory.”
Dressage is not the only horse sport feeling the heat lately. In March, Pepsi made international headlines after revoking its sponsorship of the annual Tennessee Walking Horse championship, only hours after the American ABC News channel ran a damning undercover video showing footage from the stables of one of the top trainers in the industry, Jackie McConnell. The video depicts stable hands beating horses with wooden sticks, and using electric cattle prods and caustic chemicals to ensure the horses lift their feet to produce the pronounced gait judges’ reward.
It sent a warning shot over the bows of many a popular horse sport battling welfare issues. When the dressage kicks off at Greenwich Park on August 2, many expert eyes will be not so much on the horses’ exquisite movements as on their nosebands, degree of neck flexion, and general countenance.
At London, Grunsven will be riding for Holland and going for her fourth gold medal - possibly even riding Salinero - while Kittel will also be there for Sweden aboard Scandic.
“We hope after London the taper gauge will be introduced before the next Olympics, so the competition can be guaranteed as safe and comfortable for all horses, and a true test of rider ability, not some riders relying too heavily on their equipment,” says Dr Lundström.
- Caira
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Re: Cruel twist to the elite sport of dressage
Geplaatst door de TopicStarter : 18-07-12 10:47
- FriesWytske
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Re: Cruel twist to the elite sport of dressage
Geplaatst: 18-07-12 10:56
- EvelijnS
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Re: Cruel twist to the elite sport of dressage
Geplaatst: 18-07-12 11:15
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