Human Failings, Horses, And Judgment
A four-year-old video surfaced this week and a dressage rider deeply apologized for the overuse of a whip. She will not be in the Olympics. There’s blood in the water.
In lesser news, I was at the county fair watching 4-H kids showing miniature horses. Each child had a death grip on their halters and used their knees to push the tense, unhappy, and extremely well-groomed horses. The harsh technique was uniform. It’s clearly how they were instructed and judged. I am a fan of 4-H. And I wish they would modernize their methods.
I’ll state the obvious. I am against any level of cruelty to horses perpetrated by humans. Olympic riders or kids.
May I list my resume? I was a kid who showed sheep at the county fair. When I was older, I was in 4-H, but without means. After leaving home, I eventually began competing horses in Western Pleasure and Reining. I loved being out with my horse, but hated the unnatural biomechanical crippling I saw. If you are critical about the harsh use of bits or horses being ridden behind the vertical, please include some Western horses.
I found Dressage after my horse broke down in Reining. It was learning biomechanics and the fundamentals of dressage that healed and strengthened him. I had to fall in love with dressage. My horses became supple, strong, and calmly energetic. They pulled to go to the arena. Rules say horses must be both relaxed and forward. It is an honorable goal. Not everyone follows the rules, but it’s all right there.
Eventually, I turned pro and worked with young horses. I’d had decades of riding lessons and began giving lessons, always based on dressage fundamentals. I worked with all breeds, not defining the horse or rider by what type of saddle they used. My specialty was better communication with horses.
Call it divine intervention, I got buttonholed by a rescue. When working with rescue horses, they show you how they were trained by revealing where their fears lie. Again, all breeds but most with the memory of harsh handling. I got a front-row seat to see which training methods damaged horses. It was a sobering education. I’ve never seen a dressage horse in rescue.
Now I am approaching the twilight of my career. I’ve traveled internationally as a clinician and I’m incredibly grateful to have had a big sample of horses to learn from. I’d like to share some thoughts.
I am sad to say that we are harsher with horses in the US than I saw in other first-world countries. Our horses show the most extreme Calming Signals I’ve found. Most of the damage is being done to young horses started with fear-based methods. But we barely notice the abuse because it’s so ingrained in our cowboy culture. We think intimidation and anxiety are normal training.
Youth riders in New Zealand and Australia outshine our kids, who are stiff in comparison. Europe has a rich equestrian tradition and, naturally, some rotten apples. Scotland is a nation of trekkers. The US could do better. But couldn’t we all?
If the use of whips is the question, as it was this week, I am most bothered by the weighted racing whips. Research shows they don’t make racehorses go faster, but they are used full force leaving welts while the crowd cheers. In my locale, it seems the most common whip is orange. All whips intimidate, regardless of the name we give them.
Abusive professionals deserve to be criticized; we must set an example. However, I have to mention that the majority of abuse or harsh riding I see is carried out by amateurs who have been taught these behaviors. Like 4-H kids, they may be innocent of malice, but still harmful. I have had clients who, upon first meeting them, made me want to scream with rage at their treatment of their horses. But that kind of emotional reproach isn’t effective. So, I swallow my feelings and try to find a way to draw them to better methods. Yelling never wins converts.
It’s easy to make blanket generalizations about riding disciplines you don’t like, but there is cruelty and kindness in each. It takes no skill to see it. No one needs to be reminded that we love to tear successful women down.
I’m at a Wyoming clinic this week. The clinic organizer here shares her horses. Most of them arrived here as victims of harsh training. I’ve seen them change and grow over time, as the riders have. It’s a healing place for me, too.
The landscape is open, with low hills that somehow roll out to make the horizon even more distant from east to west. At the end of the day, Mister and I walk under an apricot sky. It’s impossible to feel anything but small and insignificant. I’m haunted by the current feeding frenzy. Horse people are famous for eating their own.
Do we abuse horses? Yes. We have all done it and regretted it. Is that why we are so quick to condemn?
Human perceptions are like the sky here. We focus on a detail, a varmint hole, rather than lifting our eyes to the long view. The infinite journey we’re all on with our horses. I hope we are not all judged by a moment in time, the horses or humans, but rather by the arc of our lives. None of us are throwaways.
As a clinician, I go where I’m invited. Sometimes I find myself at barns where all the horses are stressed and in pain. In other places, the horses seem relaxed and healthy. The locations might be therapeutic centers, gaited horse barns, dressage riders, or those who trail ride, but there is one thing they all have in common. People are all more aggressive with their hands than they think they are.
If you want to believe all trainers are cruel, that a bad past incident should kill a career, go ahead and lynch her. I won’t cheer. The horse world is complicated. Owners can punish trainers for going too slowly when they want fast results. I’ve been blamed for “training like a girl” by some but praised by others. We might do good work and the horse blooms, but the client still leaves without a nod.
Trainers are trying to negotiate how to make a living doing what’s best for horses while making clients happy. Most of us give more than we get back.
We want to trust our clients, but they are also our predators. They get frustrated or angry with their horse. If we cannot “fix” it in one session, they might blame us and bad-mouth us on social media. I’m proud of my training approach, but I understand that someone could misread a photo taken out of context or that nasty rumors can cause the same damage as abuse. And I believe accountability is necessary, as well as fairness.
Many of us don’t recognize everyday cruelty, but when we see it labeled online, we jump to condemn it. Every time I see this kind of blood frenzy, I worry. I am a tiny minnow in the ocean of trainers. When I speak to crowds or clinic participants, I know I am judged by each person, and open to being picked over by the same railbirds. It’s always easier to blame than show compassion. Hard to be perfect every moment, knowing a stumble could end a career. As much as I love my job, I also fear it. Seeing the sharks in the water now, I want to quit. The vitriol impacts all of us.
What is that thing they say about casting the first stone? This should be a time for some soul-searching of our own and perhaps follow her example and humbly apologize for the mistakes we have made.
I want to think I’m one of the good guys. When I was her age, there were days when my emotions got the best of me. When I was tired or dealing with real-life problems, and it impacted my horse. I wasn’t perfect every day, but I improved because of my shortcomings with him. Without deserving it, my horse forgave me when people might not have. And now, I do this work to impress that dead horse. I have a debt to pay.
We’re not perfect. It’s true of famous riders, clinicians, and each of us who blindly follow harsh outdated traditions. It’s important to stay humble and continue learning, doing our best to mitigate our mistakes along the way. Horses are forgiving, perhaps more than they should be, and that might be the trait we need to learn the most.
When I see people jump to name-call and judge, I remember that so many of them used harsh methods when we met. My challenge is how can I help their horse and articulate what must be said without blaming or intimidating them? When will we learn tantrums don’t work with horses or each other?
Too often, the abuse is passed from previous generations. Some are more heinous than others, but there is no excuse. It doesn’t matter who started it, we have to stop it. In rescue situations, some threaten the same violence aimed back at the perpetrators. It makes us no better if we lower ourselves to abusing each other.
If you are offended, then never pick up a whip again for any purpose. I did that twenty years ago. Give up the threatening and impatience with your own horse. Also, stop whining and nagging. Get off your sofa and put your words into action. Live by example, and share your training methods. If you want to improve the culture, please post that video so we can all see.
I think of the gladiators slaughtered in the Roman Colosseum. The crowd of railbirds, mostly good people, jeering and signaling with a thumbs down. I worry we have learned nothing from horses at all.
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