Jørgen Olsen is a horseman from Denmark, and according to Eurodressage, Jørgen Olsen is the “Master of Piaffe”. I think they got confused and meant to say he's the “Master of Yanking on Horse's Mouths” instead.
“If there were a Piaffe World Championship, in which each participant had ten horses to work with, I am sure that I would win,” said a confident Jorgen Olsen says with a twinkle in his eye and a warm smile. A bold statement from a humble horseman who knows his worth. That's okay, when you know what you are talking about!
Heidi Moller, Eurodressage
Jørgen Olsen, A Mater in Piaffe from Denmark
Piaffe must be fun!
From the Eurodressage article, even Jørgen Olsen himself sounds confused about his own skills with Piaffe training.
Piaffe must be fun!
“For me there is nothing more beautiful than a happy horse in piaffe with the ears forward carrying the tail in a relaxed way. On the other hand there is nothing worse than an angry unhappy horse doing piaffe and it is sad when the horse is tense and anxious,” Olsen stated.
Heidi Moller, Eurodressage
Jørgen Olsen, A Mater in Piaffe from Denmark
Piaffe doesn't look fun…
I don't know about you, but there is absolutely nothing fun-looking about this Piaffe training.
Oh… maybe he doesn't mean the training is fun, only the end result should look like the process was fun. Hmm.
Light Contact and Ears Forward
A lot of riders think piaffe is hard on the horse but it is not if you teach the horse piaffe with a light contact on the reins and ears forward.
Heidi Moller, Eurodressage
Jørgen Olsen, A Mater in Piaffe from Denmark
Looks like the definition of light contact is no contact until correction, and then yanking on the reins. This is developing fear in the horse, fear of pain and fear of the trainer. It's a deplorable “training” technique and shows the trainer lacks the knowledge and skill to train otherwise.
Olsen and The Happy Athlete
Eurodressage's article chooses not to highlight any of the above videos, but instead this promotional video of “Olsen and The Happy Athlete”.
Despite their efforts to present the best picture, even this video gives away the deep-seated nervousness of the horses in Jørgen Olsen's care.
In real-life, that picture of “The Happy Athlete” quickly deteriorates as Olsen demonstrates his real training methods in front of a live audience. Sadly, nobody speaks up to stop him or say it's wrong. Fortunately, someone documented it with video to hold him accountable for his actions outside of that arena.
He's Just Teaching Them a Lesson
I'm absolutely positive that some readers will see absolutely nothing wrong with occasionally yanking on the reins to reprimand the horse. It's just one tool to make sure the horse remains light in the bridle, “respects” the rider, etc.
I call bullshit.
This is nothing more than pure punishment, and a very painful form of punishment at that.
Imagine if I wrapped you on shin-bone with a metal rod every time you did something I didn't want? You bet your chapped-cheeks that it would hurt like hell! You'd grow to hate and resent me. If I had you in the proper control you might still do what it is I want, but it wouldn't be because you respect me, or learned a valuable lesson. You'd do it because you were afraid of experiencing that level of pain again.
A Real Master
Let's close out this post with a video of a real Master, Philippe Karl working on developing Piaffe and Passage in a humane and intelligent way.
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Good heavens! Is this really what we call a master trainer??? Come on! It’s like watching a monkey play the piano with a mallet. I can’t handle ‘mainstream’ Dressage anymore. Seriously. Can’t watch it, can’t read about it. Ugh!!
I just have a real problem with dressage in general. You don’t see horses out in the pasture doing piaffe or passage for fun or ever when turned out. The hardware in their mouths, the spurs, the constant tightness (in many cases), of the reins just don’t make a good combination for the horse to be having any kind of fun. Just horses doing tricks. Poor animals. Then there is the issue of what all these “tricks” do to their bodies since they are not natural movements. In my experience of equine bodywork, the horses that needed the most bodywork were dressage horses.
Did you see any difference between horses being worked in true Classical Dressage, vs traditional or competitive Dressage? Though that can be hard too, because a lot of people say they practice Classical principles but are really doing bastard Dressage. :/
Right on hate to see this crap and see a herd animal so isolated.
The horse is one of the few animals that will allow their human to hurt them over and over without defending themselves. They try so hard to tell us when we do hurt them, or when they’re confused or frustrated or scared. People like this guy simply choose to ignore their tail, their eyes, their eats, even their feet. God forbid the poor horse tries to get his tongue out to evade the painful or uncomfortable bit or try to breathe, because he’s just going to have his mouth strapped shut by uncaring, egotistical humans.
Sorry, I meant their ears.
This person should be banned immediately from participating in any competition.
Furthermore, he should be sentenced for cruelty to animals.
In any case, this person has not understood anything in proper horsemanship – he is an ignorant.
I recommend everyone has a look at Heath Ryan’s piaffe videos on YouTube. One of the things he says is that the horse should never kick. Not to say his horses don’t occasionally obect to the pressure! But he just keeps gently asking and rewards them, releases their tension and only works in small amounts.
That “day 1” video of in-hand work, I call BS. No horse piaffes like that on first try.
The videos of him working in hand were horrible.
I rarely criticize anyone’s work…but when there is ignorance being displayed and people who are being abusive towards horses I have to speak up.
This guy is horrible at training Piaffe.
It really boggles my mind that he’s referred to as the Master of Piaffe in some circles too. I can only guess the people who refer to him in that way have never seen quality piaffe before. 🙁
Yank/swat, yank/swat, yank/swat, yank/swat. Master of terrorizing and yanking/swatting…
That poor horse.
The man’s a bully. Why would any thinking or feeling person(s) deem this acceptable/right/correct/beautiful? Put the hardware on the “trainer” and yank at his mouth on every whim please!
I quite agree. The so called master at work has an extremely overbent horse and what appears to be a double bridle, so not much of a light touch thee I don’t think. Most horses doing dressage these days seem to be severely overbent and again the judges don’t seem to comment on that when giving points and placings. Very sad to see.
I´m from Denmark, and this man is NOT a piaffe master! The videos you show also went viral in Denmark, and we were just as horrified as you are! He is what we would call “an old school trainer”, using old school methods that hardly any one uses anymore, some sadly still do 🙁
I don´t think he has many students in Denmark, I think he mostly teaches in Germany or Polen, the language the people in the background is speaking, is not danish.
BTW love your blog!
That comes as something of a relief to hear, but rather sad he has moved into another country to continue his brutal treatment of horses there.
It’s still rather profoundly odd that EuroDressage presents him in a completely different light!
Yes a lot of this still goes on in Europe so no door or avenue should be left unopened to expose this where ever it is happening. All those international student glorified “grooms” should be wide awake and ready with their phones and open minds willing to to do just that.
Thats was too ghastly, pure abuse. I do hope you brought this to the attention of Eurodressage and got a response! These fucktards just don’t feel the pain they inflict I would like to box him on the face through his cheeks onto his teeth with a piece of metal, hard and repeatedly see how he likes it! Never mind the pain on the jaw. Just horrible.
Those poor horses. You can literally see the pain and shock on this highly sensitive trusting horses face. Why would it ever ever trust someone on the ground ever again. You can see why they like to breed submissive horses, ones that don’t fight back. So they can torture train them, thats why!!!
People like this must be stopped.
Beyond revolting. Just found your site; please keep on shining an educative light on this and all the other abuses in the name of “horsemanship.” Who was it that said, “Nothing forced is beautiful”? Real horsemanship is about building trust , and building a correct foundation slowly over time through working in a biomechanically correct way. My lord, I love horses but I hate the horseworld……
I am completely shocked by this video. What is wrong with people today, this guy should be arrested. He knows nothing about horse training. The horse training world makes me sad sometimes.
This is the stupidest video I have ever seen. The piaffe is obtained from the passage by reduce the foot falls from a normal gait to trotting in place. It best taught under saddle very gradually because you do not want to lose the impulsion from the hindquarters, which much be fully engaged to achieve the desired balance, cadence, and freedom.
Teaching in hand is done at the Spanish Riding School between the pillars, but these are expert horsemen and each rider has one horse. Since winning gold medals is not their objective, they invest the time and patience because to get good results, time and patience are the key ingredients.
To make a horse stand still, then beat him with a whip to induce motion, held back by yanking on the bit does nothing. It frustrates the horse, who is clearly confused by the aids, and even more so when slapped on the neck. I found it highly amusing that several times the horse tried to cowkick the handler.
It’s a good thing that these abusive people train warmbloods, because if they attempted such terrorist training methods on a purebred Arabian, they would find themselves laying facedown in the arena. Egyptian Arabians are particularly intelligent and sensitive. They do not take discipline unless they understand they have been naughty. If you abuse such a horse, the revenge will come one day when you least expect it. And when it does come, it won’t be nice!
I just found your blog, and I am so glad I did. How do people get away with this kind of stuff? I am purely disgusted. I am pretty young, and have not been riding for a long time, but even I can recognize this is wrong.