Rolkur and screwing up the sport of dressage

Since we've had several dressage people stop by I'm going to take a poke at their sport first. I've never shown dressage, but my sister did and she had several awesome dressage horses. What I remember of her horses is the fact they were really light mouthed and moved away from leg pressure if you barely touched them. I don't recall them lugging on the bit, or getting all foamy mouthed or looking like they'd like to stomp their rider as soon as they got the chance.

To me the horse at the right looks miserable. WTF is wrong with a person that they are using those bits and pulling back like they're rowing a boat? If I had ever pulled that hard on my old gelding he would have flipped over.

When did dressage turn into a tug of war between the horse and rider? I thought dressage was supposed to be equine ballet? This looks more like equine abuse.

Do they really think this looks good? That it shows skill and training? I wouldn't let that dolt ride a fence post, much less a horse.

Here's my idea of dressage: Rugged Lark bridleless. If you can't do that then don't pretend you're a trainer of dressage horses.

Rugged Lark Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S06HMxA0iKI

Come on people, take back your sport and make it wonderful like it was before. Now it's just a high end spectrum of horse abuse and gimmick riders.

The biggest problem: DRUGS

Let's jump right in on an issue that pisses everyone off: Drugs in the show ring.

I'm not talking about bute and a little banamine to combat travel stiffness or the odd pulled muscle. I'm talking about using drugs that alter the performance of the horse, like acetazolimide, lasix, reserpine, and narcotics.

How can horse organizations keep approving drugs that alter a horse's performance?
How can trainers that have multiple drug suspensions continue to show and make big money?
Why do peope entrust their horses to trainers that have been busted?

When exactly did our horse organizations, which are supposed to police and protect the horse world, become drug enablers for shitty trainers and breeders that produce genetic defects?

Why write about the horse world and its dirty secrets? Probably because I can! Nothing like being a self proclaimed issue-bitch to free up the soul. I already run several yahoo lists that take stabs at the political aspects of different breed organizations. The thing is, I am finding these lists limiting. They keep the bitching within that breed, where the public doesn't know about it. This really doesn't serve a purpose, because the crooks keep hiding behind the skirts of their organization and committing their crimes with impunity. Their organizations ignore the poor behavior in the interest of getting money from the cheats. Cheating is well funded, and well regarded, in some sections of the horse industry. In fact, entire show systems are based on cheating and abuse.

This blog will hopefully shine the light on these abuses, and rain fury down on the organizations that allow it.

Bitch freely here. Bitch about judges, classes, training methods, breeding trends, horse dumping and anything else that pisses you off.

If anyone thinks that an organization needs to be added to the links let me know.

NEWSFLASH: For those of you that are going to get pissed off and ruthlessly try to search me out and threaten that I will *never* win in the ring again I'll save you the trouble. I don't currently own a horse right now. My gelding died a few years ago and I haven't replaced him. I'm also not a member of any horse organizations. Why? So I can bitch with impunity and not be threatened by some dickhead who wants to suspend me for telling the truth.
I have shown, and I have relatives that breed, raise, train and show their horses. I observe the horse industry daily and what I see sickens me. So threaten away, it's not going to faze me a bit.