For those who don't understand Rollkur - and why the fuss!

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It seems a few people on this forum (and more than a few riding at the highest levels!) do NOT understand what Rollkur actually DOES to their horse - if they did they would run a mile from using it!!

This is perhaps the best explanation I've come across.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0hyOmMULYA&feature=player_embedded#

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Well done Janet,there are a lot of people who genuinelydo not understand what a barbaric practice this is, and a few others that shall remain nameless just seem determined to 'not see' and continuallly offer stupid counter arguments.
 
this is a good one too, takes many of the arguments from sustainable dressage. Although excessive foam isn't exclusively from heavy hands, it's the compression of the saliva glands also.
 
God give us strength. The more we learn the crueler and stupider we seem to get
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Thank you for that link, Janet - an excellent explanation for someone like me who isn't really into dressage but instinctively doesn't like the whole rollkur thing.

Re foaming and drooling, I gather it can also be the case that the horse can't swallow its saliva when excessively overbent.
 
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Bit of a stupid question, but how do they get their necks / heads in like that? Is it the bit??

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Oh yes! And mainly the curb - although some horses will come well behind the vertical in a snaffle when trying to evade the bit! But they rarely come THAT far - unless a fair degree of force is exerted!
 
The sooner this obscenity is finished the better.I am beginning to think that the sooner all horse sport is finished the better.We don't deserve horses.
 
Now, that's interesting reading under that link.

It clearly outlines the potential damage with rolkur BUT it also discusses the negative effects of riding a horse "hollow" and "broken at the 3rd vertebrae". I am absolutely NOT defending rolkur (although there are explanations of the practice from some of the more moderate practitioners around if anyone cares to read them) and two wrongs do not ever make a right but I'm curious that this point doesn't seem to come up in these discussions of "correct" (really "situationally appropriate") neck position, contact etc. People are always asking how to get a horse is a "frame", which might not be as bad but is going in the same direction, implying stiffness and force and a set position of the neck.

Again, NOT defending. The horses look unhappy and that's enough for me. But I'm really starting to worry that the uprising against rolkur is making at least some people feel anything else is "humane" by default.
 
A good dressage judge can see straight away when the neck is "broken" the horse has a whole different outline. I once was a writer and my judge was very scathing about one (rather famous event rider of the time) and was point giving me a good lecture about it.

Strangley at the lunch discussion the other judge hadn't noticed and had given the said rider a good mark.
 
aw he is looking even more lovely than before sometimes i think he would like to come and live with me
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but im waiting til after xmas 2 get a baby pony
wink.gif
see what santa brings.................................................
 
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aw he is looking even more lovely than before sometimes i think he would like to come and live with me
wink.gif
but im waiting til after xmas 2 get a baby pony
wink.gif
see what santa brings.................................................

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I could deliver him gift-wrapped!
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But I'm really starting to worry that the uprising against rolkur is making at least some people feel anything else is "humane" by default.

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I disagree with that. Alongside the rollkur discussion yesterday, riding horses hollow and above the bit was discussed on the same thread. General consensus seemed to be that it was just as bad, though riding your horse above the bit tended to be something done out of ignorance (and subsequently you learn not to do it) rather than something deliberated inflicted by experienced horse people, which rollkur most definitely is.

All of the books and other resources that are mentioned in these threads don't just rant about the evills of rollkur; they all also talk about how and where a horse *should* be ridden, what you should be aiming for. Take a look at sustainable dressage, specifically the page on shoulder in volte. It's a how and why of how a horse should be ridden. I guess the problem is that it takes time to get a horse going well this way, and people don't want to take time, they want to look flashy and do it quickly.
 
I'm no dressage expert and when watching TV I've often thought 'blimey that horse is well behind the bit/overbent' and now I know what they're doing.

Can't say I'm an advocate.
 
Hi All

Just a quick note NEW ROLLKUR PETITION TO GOVERNMENT!

I cant see it on here but a lady in the Naturally Horses group has managed to set up a UK 10 downing street petition against rollkur.

The petition calls for the welfare act in the UK to be amended to BAN ROLLKUR /HYPERFLEXION in all riding in the uk.

I am not able to cut a paste - der! can someone else do that and set up a new thread - it is very important for all of us to sign, then with or without FEI - rollkur could be banned in the UK

I would also suggest writing to your local MP and ask for his support in banning rollkur - might as well get this ball rolling!

Plus maybe we should all email the various equine press and ask for pictures to be shown only of horses working in front of the verticle (best practice) and that you support the ban on rollkur/hyperflexion.

did you know that the word 'rollkur' was changed because it sounded inflammatory and had bad associations (pushed through by anky and sjef janssen and agreed by FEI) hence the more scientific name of hyperflexion.

dreadful...
 
thanks for posting that, its all terrible but the bit that affected me the most was the bit about the windpipe and breathing. I suffer from asthma and I can say that its the worst feeling in the world not being able to breathe.
I feel very fortunate that I have found a classical dressage instructor that has been teaching me on my horse since he was a 4 yr old. She attends all the training and demo's that prove rollkur is wrong and then teaches me accordingly. I hope my horse never has to feel like those poor horses in that video.
If that is modern dressage then I don't want to do it! I'd rather have a happy healthy horse than a rosette!
 
Can I just say, ok riding a horse hollow and against the bit is equally bad and harmful etc., but at least the horse CAN SEE... Physically speaking they might be equally bad, but surely psychologically speaking rollkur is much worse?
 
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