Recent content by SadKen

I’ve put some on the CDJ thread but to summarise: 1. Allow riders to talk to their horses if they want to. 2. Allow bitless bridles, minimal tack, no noseband if the rider doesn’t want one. 3. Look at collective mark standards. If the true aim of dressage is to help the horse’s fitness and...

Yours had a lot more brevity; I’ve always had a tendency to go on! Three cheers for small venues with happy riders on their fantastic ordinary horses (we all know no such thing really exists! I’ve never met an ordinary horse 😂) and for those asking the hard questions like whether dressage...

Perhaps because banning things is draconian, especially when dressage serves a useful purpose for horse fitness, suppleness etc via the scales of training and improving rider ability, which again in turn *should* help the horse. A ban also removes the opportunity to improve things, which would...

Yep I knew the origins, I just don’t think it’s a primary training focus these days, we have had 80 years to say ‘hey, y’know what, we just don’t need to worry about giving clues to enemy attackers any more, so it’s ok to talk to horses during a dressage test now’. A good illustrator of the...

Some basics as to how I think it could be improved. 1. Allow talking to your horse. I have NO idea why we aren’t allowed to talk. I talk to mine all the time. I want to use my voice. I want to tell her she’s doing a good job or give her encouragement. WHY can’t we? Voice instead of spurs and...

I’d just ignore it, and I’m a bit surprised that isn’t the general consensus. They would have to catch me. Just say no to stupid laws.

I think she will come back from this. She will need a fabulous PR team, and she will need to do a huge amount to restore trust. That will include a deeply felt public mea culpa and some time in the wilderness quietly showing that welfare comes first. It’s the only way back - and it’ll be a long...

This is a sad day for equestrianism. Look at the top comment on the daily mail and you’ll see that riding horses to ‘dance’ is being compared to circuses. Animals in circuses is beyond the pale these days and I think society is moving towards this view for riding horses. Dressage was the last...

I’m having trouble holding my peace on that post. The comments are frequently along the lines of ‘oh poor you, tried to do the right thing, and you, the second person who passed this injured horse on in moments, trying to do the right thing also’. No. Neither of them did the right thing by...

Apologies, to confirm, I absolutely agree, you CAN tell.

Looking at some of your posts, it seems you do have an understanding of behaviour in dog and or owner that would concern you, and avoid it. XLs will need to be muzzled soon. It would be interesting to see what numbers are reported for not being muzzled and how many false reports are made, ie...

You can’t tell from looking at a dog/it’s owner whether you should avoid it or not unless it is disobeying a law that is meaningless? 🤔 You’re within your rights to report any dogs which are out of control in public now. What do you think the police will do? TP, I’ve heard this a number of...

I see this time and time again in support of every dog muzzled and on lead everywhere arguments: ‘I support this if it means stopping dog attacks/deaths’. It won’t. The argument holds no water. Thoae who will obey muzzle and lead laws are likely to own dogs who are perfectly safe. Those whose...

Can see more ‘all on leads, all muzzled’ posts appearing. I hate to harp on but again, these two ideas are pointless, if your goal is to prevent dog attacks. They won’t apply in the home where many attacks occur. The people who actually need to muzzle and put on lead will not do so. Those who...

You could argue that and I’m open to debate but I think those with larger dogs (and I have 2) have a greater responsibility to ensure public safety because it’s those big dogs that can and do kill - adults, easily. I know JRTs have killed babies but it’s hard to argue that a JRT is a lethal...