When you were a little kid and rode your pony about the countryside, you more likely caused him no discomfort (or very little of it) and had a lot of fun!

...Then you got your first riding lesson and your brains "swelled" up...

...The fun is gone for you and the horse alike, while the stress is up, driven by your vanity and desire for empty "success". You are on the go now!

Just how bad is it going to get in the dressage world? Talk about being on the forehand. [enlarge]

Cowboys?.. 
...or "men" that are wearing just too much cologne?

What words come to your mind from this picture? 

The "food" for the veterinary hospitals is the horse abuse. Why should they really care?... but they tell you that they do, don't they? Most VI vets will not dare to alienate any of the large equine organizations, will they?

    We as human beings are obsessed with the concept of law to the extent that we even enforce it on the free creature that has served us usefully for over five millennia, i.e. the horse. 
    Our social laws determine the fate of our lives and also influence the well being of horses. Currently, the laws in most advanced countries provide very little protection to horses and when poorly written, they actually contribute to wide spread horse abuse.  At one time there were laws, especially in some countries in Europe that protected horses.
    In the Czech Republic for example, there were “inspection” regulations for horses similar to those that apply to cars in the United States. One law stated that if a working horse wearing shoes, was not shod within the last 8 weeks, the owner had to pay a fine.
   Although in the modern world the law does very little to protect horses, it gives immense power to various organizations that appoint their own judges.  In other words, social laws have abandoned the horse and subjected him to the mercy of fame and money oriented people or to the “I want a horse mommy” public.

    In the advanced countries it is the various equine organizations and predominantly the judges that are responsible for the suffering of the equine species. The requirements of each riding discipline are contrived to only support the interests of a particular equine organization. The people who are appointed as judges exclusively promote the interests of their organization. The obvious objective of these equine organizations is self-promotion and has nothing to do with the interest of horses or the disciplines that they represent.

    Over all, the equine industry opened the doors to great marketing potentials. More and more lies and misinformation are published and propagated by equine organizations to attract more people and to become bigger, richer and more powerful. This can be seen for example in the American Quarter Horse Association, who prides itself in being the largest equine registry (separate subject). 

    Many of good horse breeds have disappeared from the earth as the use for them has diminished, yet at the present time there are more horse breed's registries than ever before. The "breed preservation" hysteria seems to be popping up everywhere in the last decade and so do various new equine organizations.
   Simply said, the horse world today is a huge chaos, producing a junkyard of horse 'breeds' that are unsuitable for anything useful. The result of course, is the suffering and pain of these creatures and the majority of horse public remains ignorant to this fact. 

    The influence of judges carries great weight in what we do with horses today and is responsible for most of the horse abuse and misuse.

    I observed one of the European dressage shows; where by some miracle there were a couple of descent riders (which made me believe that there is still some hope). These two riders were by far the best in that show and the performance of their horses was almost unique. Unbelievably, neither rider had placed! One may ask why, but the answer is obvious and stares us in the eyes.
    The judges want the less talented riders to win because if only competent riders win, then the "draft" into the dressage business will be discouraged since the number of genuine horsemen is decreasing every day. Competent riding requires not only talent and experience but also hard work; characteristics not consistent with entertainment.
    The object of various disciplines and shows is to make winning more achievable. Lowering the standards encourages membership of new comers and it is their numbers that will determine the fate of the particular organization.

    The truth is self-evident and it is clear that the people taking part in these activities, particularly the judges, are no horsemen. Unfortunately, they mislead the trusting and unsuspecting people who enjoy horses and like to do something with them. Many of the famous riders and teachers (hustlers) are leading the way, as their main concern is their image in the eyes of the horse public that will later on buy various equine (mostly silly) products named after them.
    Of course most of these famous riders and teachers are the VIPs of these organizations, representing naturally their own interests rather then the well being of horses. Although they say otherwise to please the public, they care more about their own image rather than the horses.

    Another promotional gimmick utilized by equine organizations to justify their existence and increase profits is the practice of certifying people or horses.  One should take to heart that any type of certificates, whether of horses or services (education) are quite useless pieces of paper and only a fool pays attention to them. The paper does not guarantee the horse's ability to perform, his suitability for a particular type of work or breeding purposes. The certificates issued by organization’s judges, teachers, farriers or veterinarians are useless as well since most of these people are loyal only to their chosen organization. It is never about the horses. The certificates issued to a particular breed of horse are serving mostly for the preservation of numbers, rather than the inbred values of the particular breed e.g. the Trakehner etc.

    We have taken the horses and altered their nature to serve our purposes and then… we left them to the mercy of the clueless public of this world.

The ultimate judge of a rider is his horse whose pain and discomfort bears witness to the rider's incompetence!   

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