To think dressage is cruel and also ludicrous?

[itstheendoftheworldasweknowitnow]

Prompted by Charlotte DuJardin’s suspension today. What a ridiculous sport dressage is - and how cruel to the poor horse who doesn’t want to mince around anyway. They always look so uncomfortable doing it. At least jumping and racing seem like something a horse would enjoy or do naturally.

Dressage is supposed to be an extension of natural movements - you can see horses doing many of them alone in the field. It should be developed slowly over many years and was conceived as a training foundation that would give you a strong, sensitive, supple horse for anything else you wanted to do. Think of it like yoga or callisthenics for horses.

Like anything humans do, those fundamentals can be taken to extremes and abused and short-cuts used. The best and (what should be) the highest scoring horses in competition should look relaxed and focussed. It's often hard to tell the difference to the untrained eye. Many of those highly trained horses will carry out the same moves without a bridle - you don't need to force it, unless you don't have the right training foundations.

Making dogs 'dance' for Saturday night entertainment is also cruel
Putting dogs in stupid costumes/prams/wheeled back legs is cruel
Keeping birds/mice/guinea pigs in cages is cruel
Racing is cruel at the end of the horse's racing life. They are v difficult to rehome without specialist help
Ditto racing greyhounds, ofen just dumped
Inbreeding of dogs so they are the size of teacups and/or brachycephalic is cruel
Horses do not dance. The history of dressage is in war; perhaps read a bit about it

The horse racing industry is a billion times more cruel than dressage.

You're showing that you don't know a lot about either, OP.

"Dressage" just means "training", and horses with the right conformation and temperament can be trained to incredibly high technical standards, just like an athlete or a gymnast.

Those horses that do not have the scope or cadence for the moves don't get up to those levels, just like an athlete or a gymnast.

I will admit that it's not much of a spectator sport for the untrained eye or if you like to see daredevil risk taking (you still wouldn't want to sit on a fit dressage horse feeling a bit fresh with the wind up it's arse let me tell ya), but for anyone with an interest in sensitive, skilled riding the movements are breathtaking. Just like any of us sitting on the couch at home may be impressed by the movements of an athlete or gymnast...

Dressage is supposed to be an extension of natural movements - you can see horses doing many of them alone in the field. It should be developed slowly over many years and was conceived as a training foundation that would give you a strong, sensitive, supple horse for anything else you wanted to do. Think of it like yoga or callisthenics for horses.

But humans choose to do yoga or calisthenics for themselves. Horses don't choose to get someone to train them to do dressage.

I think most things humans do with animals is utterly fucked - selectively breeding for companionship or consumption. Dressage is pretty much the least of it. Have you ever tried making a horse do something they don’t want?

It’s a lot less likely to result in the horse’s death than anything involving jumping.

A question for those in the know: Is jumping actually something that horses do "naturally"? I have somehow always thought that they avoid it if possible because of the risk of injury.

Yes they jump naturally! They also race one another for fun.

I hate anything where animals have to perform. All that guff about the relationship between the human and the animals 🙄

It's a bit of a pointless animal the poor horse. Used solely for the entertainment of others in our country at least. Quite a sad life.

Yes they do jump naturally - straight out of paddock for better grass or to be in company of other horses, out of stables and arenas because they are rogue little ninjas.

People obviously have their own opinions on whether we should interact with animals at all. Horses (and other domestic animals) have been selectively bred for thousands of years to fulfil a purpose and those we ride today are a world apart from their wild ancestors.
You may think we should not keep or interact with any animals - and many people do. But others gain a huge benefit from a considerate and mutually beneficial relationship with animals. Many of these animals are effectively hard-wired to need a job and interaction with humans - e.g. like some of the high-energy working dog breeds.
Many riders of competition horses describe a similar situation where their horse seems to get a buzz from work and competition and being given a job to do. These are smart creatures who often enjoy human interaction - I don't think we should think of it as all one-way.

I had one for a few years who was dressage trained to a high level before he came to us. I am emphatically not a dressage rider but he did his mincy thing in the field, in the stable, out on hacks, in the yard while I was attempting to groom him and could have done without the fancy legwork, pretty much anywhere, with no encouragement from me. I concluded he enjoyed it and/or missed the more advanced work that I didn't do with him.

But yeah, getting a horse to do something it doesn't want to is near impossible - they're bigger and stronger than you!

(Caveat - have been out of horse world for over a decade and haven't read about suspension mentioned in OP)

Edit for typo

Haha can't really argue with that! 🤣

Luckily for the noble horse, the vast majority of day-to-day horse owners spoil them rotten.

Yes horses do jump naturally. Not often as they look to preserve energy whenever possible but some horses will jump with no tack on at all, at liberty.

Believe me, a horse that doesn't want to be trained for dressage won't be anywhere near a dressage competition. Most horses aren't really suited to it in build or temperament and will let you know in a multitude of ways that they can't be fucked with it. The ones that are competing at that level have an aptitude for it and remain calm, focused and relaxed.

Racing I do genuinely think is cruel, as you can see the horses are operating from a place of fear (it's what makes them run) and so many of them have accidents, injuries or are killed and those that survive a very short racing career have very bleak prospects afterwards.

Horses are prey animals and they are on their feet within minutes of being born. They have to run fast and jump obstacles to survive in case a megalodon or a butterfly or an umbrella is after them.

It's just movements. Good luck making a horse do anything it doesn't want to do
My old dressage horse would just refuse to move if she didn't want to. When she was done she would walk to the gate and stop, turn her head as if to say "enough now"
They can put you on the floor in a second

Done correctly dressage is not in the least bit cruel.

I don’t like anything involving animals and money, but if all disciplines dressage is the least problematic.

Racing is problematic but thanks to the industry’s investment in veterinary medicine horses everywhere are surviving accidents and illnesses that would have been fatal not so long ago, and enjoying a better quality of life in general.

The point of dressage? Ask

No it's not cruel. Its subtle use of your body movements and a lot of training for both rider and horse

You don't know a lot about horses, do you OP?

Umbrellas are a menace.

I laughed out loud at this 😆