Rollkur - what do you think

Alibear

Alibear

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http://www.hippson.se/cldoc/18900.htm

Scroll a good half way down to the pictures under
Fredag 28 september, kl 14.42:

What do you think? Looks similar to the lunge photo's of the other week.

How do you think the horse is moving? Moveing well or not? I'm curious. Will stand up and say I don't like the look of it but I am a rubbish rider so perhaps I'm missing things and need to be more open minded.
 
oh god, where do i start. i think it's vile. Anky and Sjef have both said that it isn't for everyone, that other riders shouldn't do it, but the fact is that people will always copy whoever is winning. if she stood on her head in the saddle while singing the national anthem and juggling razors in the warm-up, everyone else would try to, too.
it is proven by vets and physios that it causes a lot of irreparable damage. if you've ever had the pleasure/pain of hearing Dr Gerd Hauschmann lecture on it, you won't forget it in a hurry.
ligaments can only stretch 4% before they are damaged, never to spring back to their previous state of elasticity. horses will occasionally scratch their chest like that, but just for an instant. hugely different to being cranked into that position and worked like that.
the trouble is, in one way it works - working the brachiocephalic muscle while it is shortened with the head/neck in that position makes it very short and strong, enabling the horse to do that huge goose-stepping elevated trot where the forelegs come waaay higher and at a bigger angle than the hindlegs. while judges continue to be wowed by that, people will do it.
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the FEI and the BHS are hugely to blame for their pathetic attitude to the entire subject, imho.
 
Personally i dont think the horse looks particularly happy
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However, this horse - unlike the other poor pony - is correctly muscled over its back from what you can see in the pictures. Its neck isnt over developed either (like Power Paints is).
 
Glad that I see similar to what you see then , rider bracing against the front end then ramming the rest of the horse up into it.

I have a championships freestyle video from not so very long ago with RD doing commentary explaining that the front end should match the back , something I can't seem to spot much anymore.
 
yes, the angles of front and hind legs should be the same in trot. Haufmann had pictures which he'd drawn lines on, showing the variation in angles. supposed to be incorrect, but if it wins, people will keep doing it.
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Personally I think the rider in these pictures looks to have a fairly weak seat and not great hands (although of course a picture in a moment in time). The back end of the horse is also going nowhere.
I have always sat on the fence as far as Rollkur goes, I have not done enough research or seen enough to make a judgement, but I cannot ever imagine seeing Anky in these poses, hauling at a horse, and it is certainly not what she demo-ed at the last convention. I also look at Bonfire who won gold medals in his late teens as a shining example of a sound, happy athlete.
Sadly trends will be copied, as some of our top showjumpers use draw reins correctly and to great effect and then you get people using them and riding horses back to front and creating animals that won't reach to the bit, with something like Rollkur, BTV/LDR you will get people copying and not knowing what they are doing and/or why, and more importantly they do not have the skill to use anything like this as a training tool.
 
Touchwood, it is Anky riding in those photo's.

As for moment in time, so thats three times in one training session she felt the need to put the horse there?
 
am inventing a winch and crank system to really get the head right betwenn the horses front legs. must be a market for it surely.......
 
Well the photos do not seem to be there any more......it certainly did not look like Anky - OR her riding, I am happy to be corrected though.

Can we have a little less of the dramatics re. draw reins though? People simply need to learn how to use them properly!
 
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