November 2007 • VOLUME 27 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

Warning! The pictures included with this article are of the actual autopsy of the parotid gland and may be quite graphic and disturbing to some readers.

A magazine like HfL which is dedicated to thinking outside the box, to challenging and questioning everything, sifting through to find what is cononant with a fresh outlook that tries to redress the balance of horse-rider (or trainer) wellbeing and safety, has to face its own challenges and be prepared to contemplate what is beyond its own box. New and shocking challenges which it does not necessarily embrace 100%, but of which it is not afraid, not even when the boat is rocked rather alarmingly with challenges also to its own revered masters. We all have our own saturation point, and need time to absorb challenges and make changes; we need to adjust our own horizons, see our own ideas and beliefs in fresh perspectives which can even change the whole face of our inner maps.

There will always be others in front of us, trail blazing in directions we either decide not to follow at all, or in directions that enable us to take something new and valuable to fit into our own 'credo'. Most of the trail blazers are thought extreme or even raving mad in their own day - that is the price for being a visionary and ahead of one's time.

The magazine is not afraid to give those people a voice and a chance to speak to people whose minds are already open and seeking to look outside the box, even if they then decide not to take up certain challenges, even if they simply disagree with what is being said, at least they have listened, contemplated, and come to a reasoned and informed decision rather than shouting, 'Oh no, go away,' and slamming the lid back on their own comfortable box.

Alexander Nevzorov and his wife Lydia challenge us with results that they and others have observed in various autopsies of the horse. They share the findings in this article which presents both Alexander's strong flair in his presentations and also at the same time present unique information backed by physical evidence in this article.

Does the horse really suffer? This is a serious matter, which requires fundamental proof. Let us examine it. But let’s complicate the task. We will not analyze show jumping, for example. Everything is obvious and too superficial in this kind of equestrian sport.

I would remind you we need to find out the truth about pain, about its power, degree and effect.

The type of people who practice the pastime known as “the equestrian sport” won’t tell the truth. Perhaps they don’t know, don’t feel, or… don’t see it as truth. They mask the truth with conspiratorial falsehoods and make themselves BLIND. Instead of the truth, they will tell us something about “unity with the horse”, “love of horses”, “happy athletes”…

Anatomic, physiological, postmortem, biomechanical examinations of consequences of the classical and sport dressage methods can be already summarized and produced as scientifically proven facts.

The works of professors of veterinary medicine and contributions of doctors of veterinary medicine have been summarized. They are: R.Cook, Professor of Veterinary Surgery Emeritus (USA); H. Strasser, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (Germany); S. Skinner, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (USA); E. De Buckeler, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (England); I. Colloredo-Mannfeld, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (Austria); Professor Zelenevskij, Director of Anatomy, Department of Veterinary Medicine Academy, and many others.

The Research department of Nevzorov Haute Ecole, together with experts of the Forensic Medical Examination Office in St. Petersburg: Professor V.D. Isakov, Doctor of Medicine, Deputy Chief of the forensic medical examination office for the expert department; Professor B.E. Sysoev, Doctor, Medical examiner of higher category, Candidate of medical science, and the Ballistic Examination Bureau: S.M. Logatkin, Candidate of medical science, Colonel of Medical Service, Deputy Chief of body armor facilities testing laboratory, have conducted studies of the effect of the bit on the horse’s head nerves.

All of the results obtained during examinations and experiments are verified and certified by numerous autopsies (by postmortem studies and dissections).

On the grounds of the expert findings in these studies, autopsies, and dissections, it may be safely said that the principle effect on a horse in equestrian “sport”, regarding the principle of constant pain shock, and methodical torture, leads to irreversible pathological changes in the horse’s vital organs. What follows is invalidity and a slow premature death.

No living creature in the world has with such strong and prolonged painful torture inflicted upon them apart from the horse in so-called equestrian “sport”.

Dressage, in its generally accepted methods, is based solely on the use of painful tools, and uses pain as the main and only lever, like all the rest of the disciplines of equestrian sport. Naturally, so long as this method of action is accepted as a constant, and the interaction “rider-horse” is impracticable without it, severe, abnormal changes will and do occur in the horse’s organism. These changes can be easily identified both by autopsies (dissections) after death and by clinical diagnostic techniques with live horses.

But we will consider the autopsy results as absolutely indisputable and unambiguous, striking out various treatments, arguments and discussions entirely. It is dissection that reveals all the “secrets” of equestrian sport. That’s why I’m saying: “Let us ask the carcasses of horses killed by dressage. They have nothing to hide but have something to say.”

The extent, severity and nature of internal injury of a horse according to autopsy or dissection findings make it possible to “decipher the pain code” of such a discipline of equestrian sport as dressage. Rummaging through the cold muscles, bared nerves, enormous stratified hematomas, and dissecting joints and membranes, the picture of “the most elegant sport” is becoming clearer in all its terrible explicitness on the dissecting table.

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