When I first saw the video, I felt a stiffening through my body as most viewers did. But then asked myself, “in the world of Charlotte Dujardin was this behaviour cruel or normal?”.
In 2015 I had (regrettably) loaned my horse to a friend in order that her young daughter might attend a so called “Clinton Anderson horsemanship clinic”. At the clinic the theme was very clearly how to use a golf club handle to smack a horse into submission.
I still have videos, that may at some point, again, see the light of day. In one video over a period of 1:21 minutes a participant’s horse was smacked with one of the Clinton Anderson brand “carrot sticks” (there are called that to make them sound more friendly – in fact that are metal golf club shafts, absent the head) around the head, face, neck and chest over 70 times.
While the fifteen year old girl was smacking the horse, egged on by the so called coach, clinic participants were easily heard to be laughing in the background. Disappointingly the cackles even came from people I had considered friends.
After the video was posted on YouTube it garnered 54,000 views in a span of about 24 hours. My intention was to expose what I perceived as cruelty and a sham coach with no experience beyond watching a Clinton Anderson DVD boxset. This was confirmed by Clinton’s team, as he disavowed any knowledge of the individual.
The video was hidden because of the unintended consequences, the so called coach received threats of violence and more importantly so did the 15 year old girl following her directions. As a student of psychology I was very aware of the Milgram experiments, which have been replicated and clearly demonstrate that people relying on a higher authority may not be responsible for their actions.
In the world of equestrian sports, cruelty or bad behaviour (depending on your view point) is often hidden from view and public scrutiny, but occasionally see the light of day, more often accidentally, as n the Charlotte Dujardin case. Sports can be financially rewarding not only for participants but for many others in the food chain. Organizers and organizations also benefit from sponsorship.
The fact is there is probably not a single barn in the land that has not seen some form of unethical or at the very least questionable treatment of equines. The problem is that our mentors, our main reference points, are usually just passing along what they have either learned or found effective to obtain a “result” in the shortest time possible.
A local horse trainer has a YouTube blog discussing the use of a cavison in union with a twisted wire snaffle bit – a wicked combination of forceful equipment, that he will use (according to him) on young horses with very little training. There is no debt that most equipment in the tack shop was designed fr a reason, to serve a purpose, but the end result is usually a shortcut to make the horse compliant.
None of this can rightfully be called “horsemanship” it is very simply “forcemanship”. In the equestrian arena the most important thing is to appease judges to win awards. Even experienced equestrians have no idea what they are talking about – collection is the most obvious and common sight in any arena. But in the world of Western Pleasure and Reigning events they honestly believe that dragging the horses’ noses along the ground is collection.
Until we see a cleansing a purge of the lunacy that pervades equine events of all stripes, this kind of behaviour, which has been normalized (as we see from the last example) will undoubtedly continue. However, if you can sympathize with my point of view I encourage you to keep looking, keep searching, get beyond harsh treatments and harsh equipment and remember “the only person who really counts is the one in the mirror” be guided by your conscience.