This week's guest column is by Saara Pokki, a Finnish dressage aficianado who is best know in the dressage world for her Instagram account "Blondedressage". She takes a critical but balanced approach to dressage training and international competition sport and analyses the problem points. Professionally she has worked as Policy Adviser for the Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament and as a Special Advisor to the Finnish Prime Minister in EU affairs. She is currently based in Belgium and holds a Master’s degree in European Studies from the University of Leuven.
"Are Equestrian Sports on the Brink of 'Adapt or Cease to Be'?"
Competitive equestrian sports have never been watched as closely as they are now.
In the last decades, we have already witnessed a lot of change in what is perceived as acceptable when it comes to the relationship between humans and animals. Zoos have had to adapt - no one finds it acceptable to keep wild animals solitary and in small cages anymore. Wild animals in circuses or dolphin shows are pretty much a thing of the past. There’s much discussion on what is acceptable when it comes to production animals.
Adapt or Cease to Be?
Given all this, I don’t see how anyone could think that the same questions of what is perceived as acceptable and ethical in this day and age wouldn’t apply to equestrian sports.
It is not quite as black and white: either adapt to the changing societal context or cease to exist. However it’s not far off.
And yet, there still seem to be a lot of people, especially at the higher levels of equestrian sport, who think that we can more or less carry on with the status quo. But is that really so surprising? Not really!
Status Quo
There are many people at the top of the sport who profit from the status quo - or at the very least, they have had to adapt to the status quo and their livelihood depends on it. I would argue that this means that people at the top of the sport will also be the most resistant to any change in the status quo.
And the “status quo” is not just a question of any individual issue. We are talking about how the whole system is built. Now, it’s easy to talk about and criticise individual actors within the system - and sometimes that, too, is necessary. But really, in my view what we need the most, is to talk about systematic issues. I’ll try to do this here - this is my take on “what is wrong with the system”. This is not intended as any kind of absolute truth, but rather a discussion opener.
What Is Wrong with the System?
When we think about dressage’s social license to operate, it is of course not only a question of what happens in the show ring, but I do want to start my take on this from the competitive arenas.
More precisely: what does it mean for the sport when the judges reward extravagant movers over more moderately moving, but correctly performing horses? It means that riders have to look for and produce big movers to succeed.
I really do believe that most riders genuinely love their horses, but at the same time, the riders surely are under pressure to produce what the judges reward high points for to win. I doubt that many people have the luxury of competing at the highest levels just for fun.
We all know that top level horses are incredibly expensive. And they have become tradable commodities. Of course horses have been sold in the past, too, and I’m sure that sometimes great matches can be found when a Grand Prix horse moves from one rider to another. However, dressage is supposed to be about partnership. Can a partnership be bought?
For the Olympics, the deadline for the horses’ ownership registration - meaning also for the sales - was 15 January this year. Horses could be traded up until fairly close to the Olympics. Now I’m not saying that selling horses is an issue in itself. I’m just bringing it up in the bigger context. Is it in the interest of the horses that they are worth millions? What about the riders who do not have unlimited resources? Who benefit that horses get sold for these extraordinary prices?
Training and Breeding Big Movers
At the same time, rewarding extravagant movers also means that clearly unethical methods, like Cesar Parra’s rubber tubing of the front legs and simultaneous whipping - as an extreme example - produce results. The end result being a big, expressive mover, a horse that does not seem to touch the ground, especially in an airy passage that is sure to get some “oohs” and “aahs” from the audience too. At what cost?
It also means that breeders want to produce these big, expressive movers, who then get sold off at a very early age, and no matter what stage of development these horses - or these foals - are in, they always have to move in a big expressive way. They are bred to give the optical illusion of balance, resulting in 3, 4, 5 year old horses that are being asked way too much, because they look like they are ready for it from day one - while they actually aren’t, because their skeletal, muscular and mental development still takes just as much time as any other horse’s.
It also means that young horse classes are popular and young horse class winners become popular breeding prospects. This puts pressure on the riders and owners who want to ensure that horses deliver results already at a young age. Is this in the horse's interest? Do young horse classes and their current requirements truly benefit the training of a happy athlete with longevity?
Consequently it creates pressure to bring these big, expressive movers up the levels quickly. It is no longer any surprise to see 8 year old horses debuting in Grand Prix - dare I even say that it seems to be what is expected? But again - at what cost?
Riding Those Big Movers
It also means that saddles and how people sit in them have changed. Saddles with a very deep seat, big knee rolls, and only one position for the rider to sit in seem to be extremely popular. This creates a seat where the rider appears entirely immobile - which many people now associate with being good and desirable - combined with a constant slight lean back and a strong grip on the reins to maintain balance. This has a direct impact on the horse's self carriage. When the rider sits like this with a braced seat and holds the horse in this position, how could the horse ever achieve truly independent balance and self carriage?
It’s not just the saddles. When you look at these extravagant horses, with bigger and bigger movements, often the picture is not all that harmonious. The horses are asked for too much - and some people will try to limit the horse's ways of expressing their discontent. Tight nosebands being a way too common example, as well as the use of marshmallow fluff, though at least it has now been banned by FEI. We’ve heard of even more outrageous cases - nerve blocks in the tail, amputations of the tongue.
And again, in my view this is because harmony and correctness is not what wins. It’s the extravagant movers. Again, at what cost?
Who is to Blame?
I do not want to place the blame blindly on “the judges”. The rules with which the FEI operates and how competitions are organised put individual judges also in a tough situation. According to the rules, the show organisers (“in agreement with the FEI”) determine which judges get invited to their event. So for judges who judge against the established “general opinion” or whatever you want to call it - I wonder if they get invited again?
Show organisers, on the other hand, are not charities. The equestrian sports, in this regard, are a business and they operate as such.
I know that this has not covered everything, but that’s my take on how I would begin to describe “what’s wrong with the system”. It all starts with the fundamentals: what gets rewarded in the show ring. What kind of performances win?
Identify the Problems
So then what? In order to fix anything, it’s necessary to first identify the problems. But identifying them in itself doesn’t lead to anywhere. The big question is of course “how to fix it” and I will come back to it in a second colum.
These are my personal views and are not intended against any person or actor specifically. In the meantime, I am looking forward to your views and engagement - or even disagreement. Let’s not be afraid of discussion.
-- by Blondedressage