Have you ever had\u00a0an idea\u00a0that you held onto so dearly that it was physically distressing to let it go?<\/p>\n
For me it was this beautiful, legendary myth called “collection.”\u00a0 Perhaps if I hadn’t bought a high-spirited, untrained horse I might still believe in this myth.\u00a0 Maybe if instead I’d purchased a horse that had already been tortured into submission, I’d still have the wool pulled over my eyes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Collection is described everywhere as the wonderful ideal that is the stamp of a well-trained horse that has been molded by a skilled trainer.\u00a0 Yet if you go enough places in the horse world, talk to enough people, and honestly dissect exactly how one goes about making a horse travel in this manner, all there is to find is disillusionment and disappointment.<\/p>\n
How do you get a horse to travel in a “collected” frame?\u00a0 There is only one answer: pain.\u00a0 I arrived at this conclusion after many years of frustration, believing that somehow, some key piece was eluding me and that was the reason why I couldn’t train horses to travel properly.\u00a0 I went to clinics and watched videos, took lessons from experts, and I saw\u00a0horses that were not collected and the trainer would explain how these steps were putting them on their way down that road, and that this was a slow process that happened over time.\u00a0 Yet somehow, that road never seemed to lead my horses or other non-pro type trainers’ horses I knew any closer to collection.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The other horses I saw at these clinics and exhibitions were brought out to demonstrate the end\u00a0results of the training.\u00a0 Wow, those horses looked so beautiful as they danced around with their hind ends well engaged and their necks arched over.\u00a0 Yet somehow I could never discover the way through that chasm separating the horse that was beginning to learn collection and the horse that was the finished product.<\/p>\n
Eventually, I did discover that middle piece of the puzzle.\u00a0 I saw the warm up rings and the videos of the real “training” that was going on.\u00a0 I saw how the trainers that emphasized these baby, slow steps to collection were using draw reins, harsh bits and tying the horses down to get horses\u00a0to travel that way.\u00a0 I saw that the horses were being forced into carrying themselves in ways they never would naturally travel, and I saw through the lies that said horses must “round and lift their back” in order to carry a rider, and that the way horses naturally move is only for when they are running free.\u00a0 I learned that hock issues and back issues are common among dressage horses, and heard the excuses made for why horses that are supposedly carrying themselves in an ideal manner\u00a0were breaking down far too young.\u00a0 I observed that horses on their own will only adopt a truly collected frame for a short period of time, and that it requires a lot of energy that would cause muscle soreness if kept up for too long.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The reason I was unsuccessful with training horses to travel in a collected frame was because when the horses objected to the pain, I would stop hurting them.\u00a0 If you want a horse to collect, you must instead do whatever it takes to get the horse to accept that they need to move strongly forward into pain.\u00a0 This can only be accomplished by causing stronger pain if they don’t comply, so eventually they find the place that is least painful, even if it is tearing up their joints and causing muscle spasms.\u00a0 The benefit of training reactive type horses is that they usually react to pain with some sort of hysteria or dangerous, over the top maneuver that causes you to re-think what you are doing.\u00a0 This obviously puts a damper on dressage training so the horses are either discarded or else subjected to extreme measures that keep their hysteria\u00a0channeled into\u00a0the desired outlets.\u00a0 This is termed “expression” or “lofty” movement and due to the forgiving nature of horses, some can be coerced in this way without becoming dangerous enough to kill themselves or others.\u00a0 Some cannot.<\/p>\n
Watch horses traveling on their own, look at lots of pictures of them and see if you ever spot them traveling in a “dressage frame” for an extended period of time.\u00a0 If you observe horses, you will see that they walk, trot and run with their noses pointed outward.\u00a0 This is their position of comfort and it is how they are anatomically made to travel.\u00a0 This is what we should acknowledge is beautiful and useful to the horse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If a horse can travel well-balanced on a loose rein, that is a wonderful thing.\u00a0 That should be praised much more than “contact” or “collection.”\u00a0 Contrary to popular myth, horses do not develop the wrong muscling if allowed to travel in a manner that is comfortable to them.\u00a0 Poor muscling is due to ill-fitting tack or gadgets that should not be used on horses, and poor riding.\u00a0 It is also often due to hoof issues or musculoskeletal issues.\u00a0 Which brings up another point: Dressage often emphasizes getting a horse to travel “straight.”\u00a0 Yet so many horses are not straight due to issues such as a low shoulder from a high-low hoof syndrome or from muscle damage from old injuries, even from\u00a0being kicked in a pasture.\u00a0 Sometimes these horses compensate well\u00a0by traveling slightly crooked and have been known to stay sound for many years this way.\u00a0 Yet these same horses can have lameness issues when an attempt is made to get them to travel perfectly round in both directions and to bend equally on both sides of their body.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yes, for me the dream of dressage has finally died.\u00a0 I won’t subject any more horses to training where I push them forward into pressure and create some imaginary “circle of muscles” that has intelligent non-horsey people scratching their heads when you try to describe it to them.\u00a0 I will acknowledge that the nuchal ligament that supposedly lifts the horse’s withers from the poll is in reality a\u00a0bit of thin tissue\u00a0that doesn’t reach halfway down most horses’ necks.\u00a0 I now understand that for\u00a0me to ask a\u00a0horse to “accept the bit” is the same as me asking you to wrap a chain around your arm and pull me on a sled.\u00a0 It’s not going to injure you but it won’t feel good.\u00a0 It won’t take long before you’re ready to stop.<\/p>\n
I am going to stop perpetuating the myth that collection is an ideal state to strive for and instead\u00a0ride horses in\u00a0a more ethical manner.\u00a0 If you want to achieve success in\u00a0most disciplines\u00a0in the\u00a0show ring, unfortunately you will have to abandon ethics and join in\u00a0with the people who put their own pride and success above the comfort of their horses.\u00a0 It always helped me to ignore things I saw and not think too much, because when I did it turned out that I could no longer dream those dreams of show ring success or pretend that what I was doing was good for horses instead of detrimental.\u00a0 Yet that type of success is fleeting, those dreams were merely vapor wafting in the wind, and it is a much better feeling to know deep down that your horses trust and appreciate your kind and gentle treatment of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have you ever had\u00a0an idea\u00a0that you held onto so dearly that it was physically distressing to let it go? For me it was this beautiful, legendary myth called “collection.”\u00a0 Perhaps if I hadn’t bought a high-spirited, untrained horse I might … Continue reading