Dressage WTF

[OrkneyGirl]

I have just been watching Olympic dressage...a poor horse moving its hooves in time to 'Another one bites the dust'...surely this is done for human entertainment only. The horse wouldn't do this naturally. Commentator saying the horse 'clearly loves moving to the beat'. What a load of crap. Years of making the horse move unnaturally. Probably with a stick or whip. AIBU that this sport is about privileged humans dominating a beautiful animal. Makes me so sad...and angry!

Unless they are Whippets!
”This is a breed- not an instruction!”

The bast majority of horse owners in the UK aren't rich - they're on a normal income and cut other things out to afford the horses. I don't own now but when I did I was making 25k a year and really had to scrimp to afford him.

So sneering about rich people just sounds petty and like reverse snobbery.

And yes, trainers might use whips but used properly they're not abusive. They should be used to refine the aids, not to punish or hurt the horse.

Hilarious that the GB horse entered to the national anthem which quickly moved on to ‘Another One Bites the Dust’… YANBU

apparently horses do like music as long as not jazz or rock……..

It is natural for them to gallop and be with other horses galloping.
But every year without fail we have the annual threads about r=the Grand national and how cruel it is . There are many other races but the GN seems to get most of the attention.
Yes these horses are in a privileged position compares to some others but they are worked from young , yearlings some of them (all racehorses have their DOB as 01/01/ year so some could be much older )
They will keep racing without a jockey not because they love to run but because they need to be with the other horses. So even with an injury they will try until they're caught

I haven't done dressage but I know people could get the horses to canter at a walking speed

Laziness, frustration, poor sportsmanship - there could be all kinds of reasons for it. Why does anyone do anything cruel or abusive at the end of the day?

It's no different from a circus elephant or a dancing bear. Entertainment??? Grotesque.

I imagine they're kicking & frolicking to Gaga or AC/DC

@mrsdineen2 I’m suggesting watching a different Olympic sport, which is less upsetting to the OP. Dressage is bound to be televised since it’s part of the Olympic competition, but there are other sports.

I have not seen any video of the incident that caused the rider to leave the Olympic team, but clearly it was dreadful. I wouldn’t watch it, but I wouldn’t want to watch racing or three day eventing either.

It is becoming apparent that elite competition of many kinds, has the potential to use what many people would regard as unacceptable training methods. I imagine recent events will have thrown this into sharp relief and there will be difficult questions asked.

Yeah, true.

There are so many other ways to stimulate horses' natural intelligence and incredibly varied personalities.

Do you feel the same about dogs who do agility? Or obedience classes? Or dogs like collies who are trained to work all day?

I do think some movements in dressage are to some extent unnatural, but a pirouette is basically a spin on the back legs, which is a movement horses will genuinely do naturally in the field, just slowed down a bit.

Some horses do piaffe/passage out of excitement. Those who don't display at least some kind of this movement naturally probably don't make it to olympic dressage.

I am not saying all the training that goes on is okay, and some things involved with dressage are very aversive, but I don't think having a horse pirouette on its own is wrong (and it can be taught kindly/without a whip etc). The music is then added afterwards- the horse isn't actually taught to dance.

I agree it's for human entertainment, and I'm not suggesting there aren't aspects of it that are harmful, but I don't think the horses find it "undignified".

Arguably, showjumping and eventing are a lot more unnatural- a horse running in a field or in the "wild" will usually avoid large obstacles where possible.

I have never seen dd’s pony dance, but the extended trot with flicky toes he did this morning was without a rider and simply when frolicking around in the field. (He then came and overturned the wheelbarrow full of poo whilst my back was turned)
I have also seen him spin on the spot whilst playing with his field mate and do a ridiculous high stepping trot with his tail in the air to impress the new mare next door…. No rider for any of those 😊

The mistake the woman who was kicked off the team last week made, was to get caught. I’m sure her methods are commonplace. It’s wrong.

If the event isn’t a test of human endurance, ability etc, then it shouldn’t be in the Olympics. It’s only take seriously as a ‘sport’ because Princess Anne used to ponce about on a horse collecting adulation as an elite ‘sportswoman’. Even when I was a kid I could see it was a load of bollocks.

It's really simple - quite a lot of horses appear to have a natural sense of rhythm and will go along in time to the music, and they're not all advanced dressage horses.

The music chosen for these types of competitions is matched/altered to their usual pace in each of the gaits.
If you watched a lot of equestrian activities (and I get the impression that you don't so forgive me if I'm wrong) you would see many horses performing in time to music happily and of their own free will.

Can't we just fucking enjoy something without having to pull it to bits first? If you don't like it, don't watch.

This Olympics has been totally ruined by everyone sitting on their arses at home criticizing every bastard detail.

I suggest you learn a little bit more about horses and their training @OrkneyGirl

Your ignorance shows.

Horse sports absolutely test the rider's ability, fitness and training.

Totally agree. I've always thought it was ridiculous, even before the recent bad publicity. Nobody will ever convince me that the horses want to spend hours learning stupid moves. Those people on here praising it should be embarrassed.

Such a good comparison.

Taking naturally beautiful children and 'enhancing' their beauty. Why do people do this? They will say that they want to.

I'm not sure that a horse wants to alternate its feet to 'Deeply Dippy' by Right Said Fred.

The horse might be thinking "If I drop my shoulder at just the right time on that bend then the rider might bite the bloody dust"

The movement where they move crossing their legs over each other looks to be the most unnatural movement to me. Do horses do this naturally?

Elite-level horse sport is absolutely dripping with money, and the people involved are in a bubble. Yes, on some level they do love these animals, but not always in a way that overrides the huge monetary incentives of winning. Within the bubble, they can find all kinds of ways to justify what they do.

I've worked in Olympic-level show jumping, as a non-horse person, so I had an outsider's perspective on the sport. For all that the people involved say the horses enjoy it, they will also admit that no horse jumps a 1.65m vertical for its own pleasure, and will not do so spontaneously.

I saw riders fall off many times in competition, and their horses never jumped on their own. There was also a lot of talk among the riders about dodgy training methods (and not in a shocked way), as well as FEI boot checks - they're not doing routine checks on every single horse for nothing. I saw bleeding legs from stuff in the boots all the same.

It's the same with dog breeding - these people may well "love" dogs, but their worldview still allows them to create inbred mutants for their own amusement and financial gain.

Exactly, if I'm training my dogs, the ones not being trained will whine as they want to do it. To them it means treats and fun. I don't agree with negative training though in any animals. There's a line between what is fair and what is noy.

I'm not sure that a horse wants to alternate its feet to 'Deeply Dippy' by Right Said Fred.

But again, that's not what's happening - the rider just chooses the music that suits the horses natural gait. Yes, the movement is a bit more refined than what a horse would do naturally, but that doesn't make it cruel.