I’ve had a lot of conversations with my friends over the last week, not about “the video” as such because we didn’t find it particularly shocking, more about the reaction to it and the state of the horse industry as a whole.
I’ll tell you why I didn’t find “the video” shocking, someone in elite equestrian sport is using harsh, unethical training methods? Well yeh, and the sky is blue…. I’m so uncomfortable with the stuff that happens in the public eye, that many, including the governing bodies, seem to be okay with, that the video just fit right in with that for me. Also anyone who has worked with these horses at that level knows what goes on behind the scenes. It is common knowledge. To condemn one person and continue to praise and cheer on others who are known to be just as bad behind the scenes is tiresome, it’s just theatre.
This isn’t a case of one bad apple, and we get rid of them and everything is fine. When you have a sport that involves an animal unable to consent and a judging system that rewards compliance above all else, that could’ve been any rider, in any yard, anywhere. I don’t really care who it is, the system is sick from the top down and the bottom up.
We are sold this fairytale of partnership and horses who just love their jobs so much, all smiles and big pats and feel-good stories. Brush aside anything that doesn’t fit the narrative, we’re really good at doing this as humans, we don’t want to acknowledge uncomfortable truths so its our brain’s way of protecting us. But if we can start to acknowledge that we have all been indoctrinated and conditioned to some degree, maybe, just maybe, we can allow ourselves to sit with that discomfort a little bit and really look at what we’re doing.
Equine behavioural science is really inconvenient when it doesn’t match up with the story we want to be true. Instead of making real change there is a lot of welfare-washing going on and we eat it up because it makes us feel good. Don’t worry about those blue tongues or that blood, look at this woman kissing her horse on the nose after she falls off! That’s true horsemanship right there!
We need to move away from the idea that abuse is just whips and blood. I have seen several professionals condemning “the video” while their own pages are filled with videos causing extremely high-stress with flags or schooling their over-bent, atrophied horses in tight flash nosebands. But these people genuinely think what they’re doing is kind and good horsemanship, we’re really good at telling ourselves these stories, this isn’t about evil people secretly getting a kick out of harming horses, this is a systemic issue within the industry.
Where is your line? We seem to look at tools and equipment as our measure rather than what the horse is actually experiencing. We will condemn someone lashing a horse with a lunge whip but we’re fine with someone frightening a horse with a plastic bag on a stick in the name of training because they tell stories that make us feel good? Or the kids at the local clear round being encouraged to “pony-club kick”, growl and slap their ponies down the neck and calling it great, effective riding? Or the “problem-horse” trainers who “save horses lives” by continuing to get on them while they show extremely high-stress until they just give in and get used to it, but its kind because they pat them the whole time?
How often do we hear “you can’t make a horse do anything he doesn’t want to do” and yet most of the training industry is selling you methods to get your horse to do stuff he doesn’t want to do. We have been indoctrinated into a world where highly-stressed behaviour is normalised, horses are kept in inappropriate environments and we are setting them and ourselves up to fail.
We cannot expect people to be reliable advocates for the horse when their whole career and identity is wrapped up in getting horses to do stuff. Its a really tricky road to navigate and I would be much better off financially if I just dropped my ethics and behavioural knowledge and went back to “getting horses to do the thing”. Its so easy to spin yourself a justifiable narrative, I used to do it all the time.
This isn’t about “us and them”, this is about them, and me, and you, and if we can sit with the uncomfortable realisation that we have all been indoctrinated and somewhat conditioned to accept and justify poor treatment because its convenient, we can all do our part to create a better world for our horses. I can’t force anyone to change their mind, but if you’re still reading this and you’ve found yourself even slightly questioning things, I encourage you to sit with those thoughts and do some further reading. 🐴
A book I think everyone involved with horses should read is “Language Signs and Calming Signals of Horses” by Rachael Draaisma.
If you’d like to read more about the welfare issues within elite-level horse sport check out the book “I Can’t Watch Anymore” by Julie Taylor.
The following Facebook pages are also sharing plenty of information during the Olympics and beyond EPONA.tv and Milestone Equestrian
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