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!

It’s a pointless and stupid ‘sport’. Waste of time. Leave the horses alone and go and ponce about somewhere else.

Has it? I’ve followed it intensely and all I’ve picked up on is the women’s boxing and the Dutch volleyball player.

If you seriously think event riders like Princess Ann just "ponce about", I suggest you try it. I'd love to hear from you afterwards, but I doubt you'd live to tell the tale.

Yes, they do - if a horse is walking along a narrow track, they will do it as the norm - it's also something you seen in working heavy horses who pull ploughs as it means they stay in the "furrow" and cause less damage to the fields.

I watched a few minutes and thought the same. Their poor joints!

Surely only the horse should win the medal and someone should sign a contract to say that it won't be put to sleep early for arthritis.

Tell me you know fuck all about horses or dressage 🙄

Every single movement that they do is a NATURAL movement that has been refined and put to aids.
Horses pirouette in the fields freely. Often used to get away from one another quickly! They are nimble agile creatures. Horses scrap and squabble a lot they have a very clearly defined pecking order and herd structure. They need to be able to move quickly and easily away from one another and from predators.

Video of horse loosely pirouetting freely in field. Yes it's rough. But the footfalls are all there

https://youtube.com/shorts/3IDhWZ2LN7A?si=rGvMz6fAtvfhCB49

No. It can be taught from the ground and they also can and do do it freely

Can you imagine what is done to the horse to make them do that? Give them a sugar lump? I don't think so.

You should violently assault the posters not responding as you want them to, that'll prove your dressage expertise.

Every single movement that they do is a NATURAL movement that has been refined and put to aids.

Exactly. Horses might be big, but they are agile, fast and athletic by nature.

It's a natural movement in horses. It's called plaiting.

But I get the feeling you're not actually interested, you just want to bash.

Yes. It is an efficient way for them to sidestep something (in dd’s pony’s case he uses this technique efficiently when we arrive with his rug). He also uses it to move himself sideways to get out of the gate to our field - we go through it, turn and then close it, if he hasn’t positioned himself properly he will sidestep to get out of the way.
My sister ploughs with a heavy horse - the horse uses this sidestep when turning the plough at the end of a furrow.

I think the music issue which some people seem fixated on is a complete red herring and with a possible few exceptions makes no difference to the horse. Horse paces are specific tempos. So a walk is 4 time, a trot 2 time, canter 3 time and a rider will know the horse's pace depending on the degree of collection. So it really isn't hard to choose music to fit the horse's tempo. How music makes the sport more or less good/bad I really don't see,
Crossing the legs and flicking the from legs out in extension are both completely normal and can be seen "in the wild".
There is so much ignorance on this thread, including the idea that eventers "ponce". Agree or disagree with dressage but ideas like this are just ridiculous.

Yes horses do cross their legs naturally.

I could touch my horse on his side and he'd sidestep.

Why are you so utterly convinced that everything is trained abusively?

Horses can be trained a bit like dogs, with clickers and treats.
All the movements are natural.

Very often riders/teams will hire composers to develop the music specifically to each horse and takes hours and hours of observations and fine tuning the music to fit the horses natural rhythm.

Yes but do they really want to be doing that hour after hour, day after day?

@mrsdineen2 WFAT??!!! Why the hell are you accusing me of wanting to assault people???

Exactly what is your problem her OP as you are not being clear - is it potential animal abuse, or people with money called Ophelia and Sebastian?

I am not a horsey person but this whole idea that it's only posh people who have more money than they know what to do with and beat animals for fun is so tired and lazy.

By sidestep I mean the crossing legs movement a poster referred to.

As with all animals, the way they are treated is vitally important. No 'pets' should be mistreated.

Horses DO manage to perform all sorts of 'dressage' movements by themselves in the field. Just not generally for as long as is required in dressage!

I watched my pony do some lovely moves in the field when playing - that I couldn't get him to do for me, wee bugger. It's really really difficult to train them to the levels we see in the Olympics.

Some people do whip horses. Some people do kick dogs. That's the truth. But should we stop using guide dogs, bomb dogs or the likes because a drunken prick in the street kicked his pet dog? No. He should be charged and the animal rehomed , as should all who are cruel to animals.

They're not the only ones who do it, but they are only ones who are lauded for it at the Olympics.

There seems to be this idea that because a horse does something naturally - pirouette, plait, flick etc - that it gives us the green light to say ' Oh goody, let's just make them do that for another 30 seconds' but not just that...let's add a random 80s pop song and keep making them do it until they are good enough for the human to be awarded a gold medal. Have a golden carrot, Dipthong Almighty...insert any other pretentious name.