Rather than expecting riders to ride to the rulebook, the FEI systematically is changing the rulebook to fit the riders. What is wrong with this picture?

Don’t think this is true? Let us start by looking at the position of the head of the horse. In the beginning, the rules said the horse’s head was supposed to be ahead of the vertical, approaching the vertical at piaffe.

Let me repeat that “Approaching the Vertical at Piaffe”

I realize that may confuse many, that this is or was a rule, as it appears to be a rule that nobody has followed. When was the last time you saw a horse that was not on the vertical, truly ahead of the vertical throughout a Grand Prix test? How far back through the decades would we have to go to see this?

Well, the FEI, rather than enforce their own rule, decided in their wisdom that it would be better to change the rule than enforce it. So now they ask for the horse to be “on the bit”. Well, what the heck does that mean?

As obtuse as the FEI seems to be, is this new definition something that anyone can make to mean anything?

Might as well just ignore why the masters insisted on this rule. If everyone wants to break the rules and not follow the classical mandates of the past, it’s so much easier to just change the rules to fit those who are not following them.

The same logic could see us changing rules all around us. See that silly stop sign? Truly, we really don’t need to stop. A rolling stop will do. Silly police try to write a ticket for it. Just ask the judge to change the rules. Change the law. It is just so much easier. Think of how much money we would save on the police and the courts and the judges by not enforcing such a silly rule as stopping at a stop sign.

While dressage is not stagnant, and something that we continually should strive to improve, change is something that we should see. But there have to be safeguards in place to ensure that the changes that are made are for the benefit of the horse, not for the benefit of the rider.

Ignoring the rule of being on the vertical seems to help certain riders. Can we argue whether it ever actually helps the horse?