Posts and Articles related to the use and presence of Rollkur, LDR (low, deep, round) and Hyperflexion in all disciplines.
Wait, what?! Because they’re so popular, many people assume that the abusive training method of Rollkur began with Anky van Grunsven and her coach-turned-husband Sjef Janssen. Nope, not true. Before Sjef & Anky, there was…
*Warning: post contains sarcasm, name calling and I’m pretty sure I cursed once or twice. Now that you’ve been adequately warned, proceed. It’s happened again. Andreas Helgestrand, being outed for horse abuse. This time our…
I might think Clinton Anderson was just the bees knees.. if I were into men who like to yank, crank and spank on young horses. Alas, I’m not. It seems a lot of women are…
I know, you either love or hate Carl Hester. Chances are pretty good you’re in the “love him” camp. I’d love to be there too, but I’m not. When he started talking about the benefits…
If you were at one of my clinics the very first thing I would say to you would be: “All that we ask our horses to do for us is based on our human goals and desires. I will go further and suggest that many of those goals are at the expense of our horse’s safety and well being.”
The first Rollkur ban went into effect January 1st, 2014 in Switzerland, and it looks like it may put pressure on other Countries to follow suit. Denmark is now in more serious talks about applying a similar ban.
Finally, a step in the right direction! Switzerland officials enacted a law prohibiting the use of hyperflexion (aka Rollkur) in their country. While this doesn’t solve the big picture of horse abuse created by extreme flexion of the horse’s neck, it is an improvement over the fictitious ban created by the FEI.
“My father was a harness racing jockey and he went into horse breeding and training. I know for a fact that he wasn’t always above board, and he’s the reason why it means nothing to me when I’m told some person’s been in the business for fifty years and therefore they can’t be doing it wrong. I grew up around very successful people who made a lot of money and I know that’s no guarantee of admirable ethics.”
I’d have a hard time deciding too, which is why I can’t accept the claim that LDR is different from Rollkur. When you do some digging into the past the truth starts to reveal itself. Sustainable Dressage, a blog which covered Rollkur and the damaging effects of it (to the extent that Sjef and Anky tried to sue her) documents the evolution of Rollkur, LDR and what those two terms really mean.
Since Sjef and Anky, Rollkur has woven its way down the levels of Dressage and crept past the discipline to find common ground with reining. And in all the time we’ve watched the Rollkur/hyperflexion/LDR debate unfold I’ve been writing about how detrimental it is. With that being said, I’M NOW READY TO ADMIT THAT I WAS WRONG. All my criticisms were actually evidence of my jealousy and it’s time I come clean.
Yesterday the EquiSearch blog reported that Dutch rider Adelinde Cornellisen’s horse Parzival was hospitalized for cardiac arrhythmia. Adelinde and Parzival stood out on the international scene when they were disqualified at the 2010 WEG. Well,…
There has been much news recently about Moorland’s Totilas who is now being ridden by Matthias Alexander Rath, facing a future subjected to the training “guidance” of Sjef Janssen – the strong proponent of Rollkur,…
My neck gets sore just watching. It is only during a poorly developed (read spoiled) walk that Edward Gal allows any freedom of the neck to his horse, and during the rest of the ride he keeps him round, round, round. Keep in mind that not only FEI rules but also Classical Dressage Masters have noted that the position of the horse’s face should be anywhere between 45 and 90 degrees depending on the horse’s individual conformation, this horse is well beyond 90 degrees.
Once upon a time ago, the difference between Classical and Competitive Dressage seemed synonymous with the distance between the walls of the Grand Canyon (which happens to be up to 18 miles wide!). Whether it is merely my perception, or the reality, which has changed I have yet to determine. Nonetheless there is still a measure of awe inspired in people when they hear that “so and so” does Classical Dressage. It has a note of magic attached to it, even if it is a tradition based on a bunch of dead guys; or maybe it is because of those dead guys.
They do not seem to care that they are yanking on the horse’s most sensitive mouth with a leverage bit. They do not seem to care that they are spurring the horse carelessly and excessively. They do not seem to care that the horse is willing to accept these abuses without striking out violently.
This question is raised frequently – how to soften and flex a horse who is stiff in the neck. There is a problem with the question however, because it assumes that addressing the horse’s stiff neck will actually correct the stiffness. In reality, flexing the horse’s neck alone only causes a disconnection between the neck and the hind legs. If you do not understand the implications of this disconnection you can create more problems later on – making it difficult or impossible to get true collection from the horse.