Electric Spurs, Rapping, Smacking....Where does cruelty begin?

If I am holding a whip in my hand, I cant even get on my horse !! He is also headshy.
God know what happened to him in his previous life ( before I owned him) but I shudder to think.
Therefore I never even ride with a whip
 
I always find that when a horse is happy and balanced over small fences and gridwork, take him out and do some XC fences - go hunting - the horses learn to enjoy jumping and it teaches them to pick their feet up as their are no poles to fall down.

If they don't care about knocking their legs over solid fences, they never will over SJ's and are perhaps better suited to a different career.
 
I'm a fairly novice owner/rider and I'm still learning, but my boy is 16.3hh so quite big and would smack him once with whip if reqd, but I like to think that I have been to build a bond with my horse by being positive, like praising him when he's doing what I want him to do rather than punishing him when he's doing wrong, its worked for me, they would rather please their mummies.
 
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Cute?? Name us one cute sj'er, they're either overweight or rough as a badgers behind!

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OOh a challenge (Although as this is a serious post I will come back after work and reply properly)
Some fit SJers
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and.. (nice hands!)
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If I am holding a whip in my hand, I cant even get on my horse !!

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Antifaz is the same. I don't need a whip on him or PF and Former Instructor (who is not afraid to give a horse a hiding) agrees neither horse should EVER be hit.
Go figure, eh?
 
QR -

I had a well known eventer at Punchestown bragging to me very publicly about his new mare....who had 4-faultitis so they were "training" it over a 1.40m set of planks reinforced with "rebar" (steel bar)
 
That is a very good point DD. Whichever way you look at it it amounts to exactly the same thing regarding a "fixed fence"
I really do find these topics amazing, most of the showjumpers I know wouldnt bother wasting time with something that is not careful enough to 'want' to jump a fence of it's own accord. Are we sure we are not talking Dealers tricks here?
Because to me all this treatment will do is give a quick solution not a long term one. Also it's a hell of a risk to a valuable horse, not to mention a rider that relies on competing week in week out.
I think there are better ways to remind a horse of it's job without resorting to such tricks. Anyone who goes as far as electic spurs or anything similiar is on a very slippery slope with nowhere else to go. That one is the lowest of the low. If I ever caught anyone using them I think I would finish up on a life sentence for murder/manslaughter (if I got lucky)
 
There's a chap out here who is well known for rapping his horse (soundly) and he has alot of horses for sale, so in fact I would say yes, it IS a dealer's trick.
Even if a horse were not for sale, a professional rider will be wanting to win so his or her 'stock' doesn't plummet, so I can see WHY they do it. However I agree there are better (though perhaps not such quick) ways to get a horse to jump that little bit higher. Ultimately though, I think that a horse whose heart isn't in it is better suited to a different line of work.
 
But if you are a professional & want to keep your horses on the Rd then I do not see how rapping & the likes will work long term. A dealer may use this so that the horse gives a flash for a potential customer. But you can not do this week in & week out & get any kind of result. Eventually any horse with a brain will tell you to F*** Off. I agree wholeheartedly if a horse does not want to do a job, then let them go do something else.
It is madness to try & force a horse into something that it is not able to do willingly.
 
I'm as baffled as you are! Perhaps pros aren't all that interested in keeping a horse jumping long term? Perhaps the objective is to get results as quickly as possible for owners/sponsors, then to sell as soon as horse shows signs of waning. Or perhaps they only rap occasionally to keep a horse 'alert' (for want of a better word)? Riders here have told me that all their horses are for sale all the time; you never know when they could get hurt, so it's not really in their best interests to hang on to a horse indefinitely (still getting my head round that!)
What I want to know is why you would buy a horse from someone who is known to rap them????
 
You know what? The longer I am on this planet the less I tolerate horses who won't do the job I am looking for them to do......so if they don't like/enjoy/want/are incompetent in doing the job I wish them for, then I sell them!

I honestly don't know why some people bother with horses that seem to give them so much blooming grief and it's quite obvious with some people that they and their horse just do not get on.....and yet they plug away for, often, years and never really get anywhere fast.

I don't hit or smack or rap or use any types of spurs - I will give them a thump if they are badly behaved on the ground once in a while however generally I never hit them when they are being ridden because my lot don't need to be hit, they're all pretty compliant to be honest so I just have to show them things over again if they don't get it first or second time around.

I do think if you have to resort to all the things mentioned above then surely it is plain to see that the partnership is NOT working. Either you need to go back a step in their training so that they do figure out what is wanted of them or they are just not cut out for the job, so might as well get rid of them to someone who will appreciate them for what they are.

I have quite high standards though so if my lot weren't to get up to scratch then I won't bother with trying to convince them otherwise because there is always another horse out there who WILL do as asked.
 
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