• VOLUME 49 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

Riding By Torchlight


By Susannah Cord for Horses For Life

Rebel of Love

Everything happens for a reason – or so I am told. Right before my long awaited two week Caribbean island vacation, taken with my family in my mother's memory, my computer crashed and all those words I had toiled over for this very column went the way of mysterious cyberspace disasters, never to be seen or heard from again. Did I hear a “Good riddance”? Maybe so, maybe so. I managed to leave most of my hair attached to my scalp and decided to adapt the island attitude before I ever even got there – don’t worry, be happy. It’s alright, mon, we’re on island time. Bless my editor who never even cursed me to my face. I did not tell Torchlight, who would have worried himself thin, that being his forte. In any case, one thing he did escape in his life was modern dressage, and I have not been troubling him too much with this issue, since it could seriously damage his hard earned serenity…

Now I’m back with a tan and after two weeks of balmy fun in the sun, I find myself really not wanting to go there…where? You know – THERE. That whole dang Rollkur/Hyperflexion thing. Are we all sick of it yet? Oh yeah. Is it over? Oh no. Not unless we can all stick our heads in the sand and pretend it isn’t happening. But one look at my horses, two of whom barely survived training bordering - or well into – the Low, Deep and Round of modern dressage, and who are still paying a price, and I am back in the proverbial saddle. Fortified by more absurd and outrageous behavior from the FEI and I am ready to go. So Kittel did not exhibit riding with excessive force back there with Scandic's lolling tongue? OK. No big surprise there, toeing FEI lines and going by precedent. So now we have a meeting, which we barely advertise, we don’t even post it on our press release page, a closed meeting with no press but a bunch of experts, where we only invite one expert, Dr. Heuschmann, who is reliably speaking out against this modern day re-invention of dressage, and this will shut up all these annoying protesters? Oh-Kay.

Erh, no. Don’t think so. And neither does a whole lot of other people. It’s so obvious it hurts. This is not a meeting to clear up issues surrounding the practice of Rollkur, this is a meeting to try to come up with some scientific mumbojumbo and politically savvy patter to pacify the masses. Only I think we are past pacifying. The trust is gone, man, the trust is gone.

Dr. Heuschmann did a very clever thing. He told everybody and offered them a voice. And then a new petition was started, one independent of the blue tongue controversy. This petition shows once more, and overwhelmingly so, we still care even after they swept the complaints against Kittel off the table. Because it’s not about a blue or not blue tongue, it’s about Rollkur. It’s about Hyperflexion, or to use the ‘inventor’, Sjef Janssen's own terminology, LDR. And guess what? Where the other petitions slowly but surely grew, swelled to impressive numbers, this one – well, this one's a rocket. I couldn’t even sign right away because the website crashed thanks to traffic. It opened Sunday, January 31st and as I write this three days later, it is at 13,000 and counting – counting fast. The response is pouring in from all over the world. We do not want to see these overly rolled up, straight jacketed horses. Ever again. In ANYBODY'S hands.

Regardless of whether we and Dr. Heuschmann are heard on February 9th, we all have a decision to make. Regardless of what they decide to call it, or how they decide to handle it. What side are we on, and what do we do about it? Can any of us go back to sleep now that Scandic's message has woken us up? Not just physically, mentally, but spiritually, energetically, holistically - how are we to heal the rift, to successfully end the war that is now raging in our minds? At least, I can’t help but think this is the real challenge behind Scandic's message, the real gift and the blessing in disguise. The ability of adversity to bring out the best in us, to awaken slumbering compassion, courage and the personal definition of ethics and morals. Man, that sounds good.

Sometimes things happen that we cannot control, that we cannot stand, and that ultimately, we cannot abide. I believe we, as the collective Anti-Rollkur, we of the horseworld, are there now, at the end of that sentence, right before the period. At that place where we can no longer abide. We cannot abide the increasing waste, torture and destruction of horses, the belligerence of our ruling organization, and the ignorance, willful or no, that leads both. We cannot abide and so we must act.

Action can take many forms and each is not every man's cup of tea. Not everyone wants to stand in the rain of ridicule and hold a placard saying Ban Rollkur/Hyperflexion/LDR. Not everyone wants to put their name out there and be held accountable for their feelings and opinions. I sure don’t, but I do anyway because otherwise someone hits me over the head with a frying pan. Someone with my conscience on a leash. Someone who says you have a gift for one fingered typing for a reason. So take your finger and type.

So there I was, wondering about this dilemma, what can we all do, what is a common denominator we can all work on, something anyone can try to do? Like Molotov cocktails or stink bombs or something. And then a friend told me, and I really didn’t like her much anymore. Because she told me I needed to work on sending my enemies compassion. Oh. My. Gawd. Here we go with that whole Love Thy Enemy thing. Are you kidding me??? I am throwing a major roll on the floor tantrum right now, slamming my fists on the carpet, kicking my feet and straining against the ropes, veins popping out of my neck. You cannot be serious. COMPASSION!!? For like, PEOPLE!? Ugh.

I have never had trouble feeling compassion for any animal other than the human animal. When it comes to humans, I am no Mother Teresa. Don’t get me wrong, I feel for the suffering of the innocent, I feel for the children and the poor, the sick and the dying. I mean, I cry at commercials for Pete’s sake. But if some guy is just walking through life, being a dunce, and hurting others while he is at it, I am out, throw that guy a cyanide pill and call it candy. But show me an animal that looks hungry and is thinking I look like dinner, I want to offer him my throat.

So suggest sending compassion to people who I believe are abusing and/or endorsing the abuse of my favorite mammal and I am apt to swallow hard, and repeatedly. But I am open to suggestions. Ergh. Aaargh. No…really, I …am. I …want to ….be…a .. spiritually mature uhh, Avatar. Yes, that’s it, I’m gonna be a compassionate Avatar. Speaking of which, they have some really neat horses in that movie, Avatar. Forgive a moment's sarcasm and levity, but man, those beasts would make a great modern-day dressage horse. Spectacular head set, plug into their central nervous system for complete control and submission, then ride 6 legs, 4 of them up front. Just imagine the spectacle of those legs, two to carry the sagging forehand and two to fling about and look pretty.

So, compassion. For the RIDERS, not the horse? It’s a challenge.