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November 2007 • VOLUME 27 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine
“I don’t use hyperflexion, but I have enormous repect for top riders who do.” Many were shocked when they read these words from Richard Davison just recently published in Horses and Hound. “The current wave of emotion is confusing these issues.” It seems a common refrain that when people, especially women, respond that we are being emotional and hence somehow we are flawed, that we cannot be emotional, i.e. passionate and caring AND logical at the same time. That being emotional somehow impairs our judgement! It has been suggested to me for example by some that I will not be seen as believable if I don’t tone down my emotional response. Sorry, is it wrong to be horrified, to feel the pain that these horses are going through? Yes, I am passionate! And so should you. Emotion does not confuse the issues. Emotion is a reaction to the issues and shows that we care. We care deeply and that is not necessarily a bad thing. It is this level of caring that gave some very special people the strength to go on against unsurmountable odds. It is this level of caring that kept them going when they were threatened with lawsuits, told to shut up or else. It is what kept them going when others were silent, too intimidated to speak out. How easy it is obviously to dismiss the reality of that time. The forced silence, the fear, the lawsuits. Articles that were not written, magazines that refused to print, refused to cover the story. We’ve spoken before about how when we went to print our special double issue in June 2006, person after person suggested that we not go to print on this subject! “Don’t print,” we were told, concerned for the magazine and those of us who worked on it. Some refused to participate, literally afraid. “But the occasional spectator comes with his or her own agenda.” “I don’t get all this business about people taking videos and photographs, either. I’m not talking about media professionals doing their job. But if someone is genuinely troubled by a possible breach to welfare, why don’t they do something about it there and then and alert the steward?” This comment gravely offends me. It offends me as a total disrespect and disregard for the true situation that two very special women and others have faced in the silence imposed using the legal system of litigation. People, editors, riders, writers, were terrified to say anything. Lies were told
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