Horseman's calling, 5th/6th April

Have just watched the clips of this event on Epona , from the link mentioned on this thread - utterly horrified. Angel is definitely lame , trainer just forcing her into submission. Same with the loading clip - all I see is fear and forcing the horse to comply.
As someone whose other half is an N H trainer [but also a traditional trainer for 30 odd years], to me this event brings the worst of the N H world into plain sight. All I see is a philosophy of :
Put on a SHOW.
Make the horse comply because that makes ME look good
Dont bother to address underlying pain/health/mental issues, what the horse feels is immaterial.
I m the best,watch ME
I get results-and QUICKLY.
It is because of things like this that N H has become so poorly regarded in this country.There is just no merit in this type of event ,and I truly hope it is not repeated.
 
I think it's a shame that Epona have acted in this way. Anyone can edit a video to highlight the bits they want to highlight. As others who were there said, the competition element was extremely low key to the point where it wasn't really a competition at all. Some of trainers used more pressure than others, but there was always a release, not shown by Epona.

Guy loaded a horse which hadn't ever loaded in 19 years, and it took him a good while. He was very patient, he identified the problem the horse had and worked with it, and eventually the horse loaded calmy and repeatedly. It was one of the best pieces of "remedial" horsemanship I've ever seen, and it taught me a lot. Did Epona show that?
 
I want to see much more of the event before coming to any conclusions about whether it was a good or bad idea. I'm thinking I'll have to take out a subscription to H&C TV Everywhere to do that, once I know they have made large chunks of the event available through that.
 
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