| Torchlight Personal Perspective |
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April 2008 • VOLUME 32 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine
Riding By Torchlight
April 2008 Perspective Every once in a while, I hear someone say “Perspective is everything.” It’s one of those old clichés that is based on a core truth. The thing that makes it very interesting in my estimation is that perspective is largely unreliable, as prone as it is to the subjectivity of the narrow viewfinder of our personal experience. Three people can attend the same event and you’ll hear three very different versions of the same story. Ask any trial lawyer, he’ll tell you. One friend of mine came back from World Cup and all I heard about was Salinero and Anky’s fantastic rides. Another told me only about Salinero's spectacular escapades during the medal ceremony and the ensuing chaos and screaming. Another was dismayed and appalled at his lengthy and head curling warm up, but amazed to see his recovery for the actual test. If I look up perspective in the dictionary, it uses words like ‘the appearance of objects as determined by their relative distance and positions’, ‘a sense of proportion’, ‘a specific point of view in understanding things or events’ and ‘the ability to see things in a true relationship.’ Seems to me that finding perspective in today's Equine ‘Gigantorama’ (not in the dictionary) is becomingly increasingly difficult and confusing. ‘Things and events’ easily become overstated or simply misunderstood and twisted in the endless warped chain of re-telling. Bias and personal interpretation adds it's own distinct shades and is regurgitated as honest to goodness fact and truth. The further the distance and the altered position of the viewer, the more the appearance is adapted to their position. As for a ‘sense of proportion’, anyone who has ever boarded at a horse care facility will know that no-one is better at losing a sense of proportion than a group of horseowners. Once upon a time, I could get quite incensed about the chunks missing from my horse's neck, to be found between his neighbour's teeth. Then we moved to a ranch and pasture herd living and I found a new perspective, shaped by new experience. No chunks missing today? Well, paint me yellow and call me happy. How many of us can honestly say that we speak with complete objectivity when it comes to our equine experience? How many of us can claim to have the ‘ability to see things in a true relationship’? And who defines the ‘true relationship’? My personal experience and perspective of my relationship with Torchlight has changed tremendously over the years. It has gone from ‘what a talent, can’t wait to show him’ to ‘what a teacher, but yikes, don’t think he’s a show horse’. Me looking out now is an understanding and acceptance that he is here to teach and to heal, and that I am here to learn – whatever he has to teach. Someone else looking in may simply see someone too scared to go show, and dismiss me as one of those ‘classical’ types – we don’t ask much of our horses, you know. (Torchlight might disagree.) When I first got my draftcross Banner, I spent several months just on groundwork. Other boarders at the barn laughed at me and accused me of being afraid of riding my own horse. Actually, I was afraid of being trampled by a 17 hh 3 year old with no ground manners. I figured it was more important to stay in one piece long enough to actually get to ride him. Perspective. My Thoroughbred colt Curly, who we didn’t start till he was 5 because he was so slow in maturing physically, has had some people congratulating me on my patience and foresight in preserving him for the future, and others shaking their heads at my overly cautious approach and waste of time. For some he is the dream Thoroughbred who wasn’t started too young, never raced and is without wear and tear. For others, he is over the hill with nothing to show for it. Either way he is for sale, since my perspective on where I am going and how I am getting there has changed. We host dressage clinician Eddo Hoekstra here once every few months and his approach gets different responses – it’s been very interesting to observe over time. Eddo's system is based on balance and gymnastics with little concern for head placement, other than the way in which it helps place the neck in alignment with the body to allow for relative engagement. In other words, the head is never forced but allowed to be well in front of the vertical if necessary, while exercises reorganize and rebalance the horse until he himself attempts to come into vertical flexion, roundness and on the aids. Those that stick with it find the horse coming into a softness and lightness they may have only hoped to be possible, with the horse seeking their hand in an exquisite and intimate conversation. The bit becomes merely one balance point amongst others, subordinate to the seat and the balance of the horse in movement, the cusp that outlines the margins of the horse. But to some people it appears we are all riding around singing Kumbaya and feeding our horses lollipops while they lumber along like cows chewing cud. Or do cows lie down for that? Well, you get my point. I can assure you we don’t go so far as to lumber them lying down. Though it would be an interesting trick. Anyway. A few have not recognized it when the change in their horse occurred – accustomed to a tight and heavy ‘feel’ in their hands labeled as ‘on the bit’, the lightness never registered as a positive change, but as a loss of control. There is yet another way to interpret our lessons. To someone who believes riding with a bit is inherently cruel, our lessons are all an exercise in abuse, no matter the relaxed and comfortable appearance of our horses that point to another possibility. But then, I watch an Olympic ride and want to weep with despair, but hundreds of thousands see poetry in motion, a happy and dancing horse keeping terrific time with its twisting tail. It’s a subjective filter we all look through. To someone who has never had a positive experience with riding in a bit, it is easy to see why it would become an ‘object non grata’. And unfortunately there are a great many people and horses with nothing but ‘Bad Bit Experiences’. Trainers like Eddo Hoekstra and Walter Zettl and Anja Beran who have the know-how, integrity and a ‘non-hand’ oriented gameplan are hard to come by. But simply because a person has not experienced it does not mean it is not possible. Of course, having said that, no doubt some people feel they have experienced it and still prefer bitless. More power to them. I find the controversy regarding bit versus bitless absolutely fascinating and educational. I have respect and regard for both sides of the fence and I practice both approaches. Some of you may already be chucking me over your shoulder because obviously I am an idiot and/or have not seen the light. This is always a possibility. I can only speak from my personal experience, which involves the reschooling of everything from abused horses through various breeds and many disciplines including old ropehorses ad nauseum (I know, ropehorses and dressage? It helped them be better athletes and it helped me pay the bills). I have many fond memories of that high headed giraffe with the muscular plasticity of a steroid popping heavy weight lifter finding relaxation, grace and connection through gymnastics. I achieved this not by drawreins, seesawing and pulling on the mouth, but through gentle placement in the horizontal plane and soft support for a mouth seeking the hand all the while reorganizing the rest of the horse. There is great sweetness and it requires artistry in such a connection, but if you’ve never felt it and haven’t seen it, it’s probably like believing in Unicorns. I haven’t seen one, but I know someone who has. No, really! I don’t dismiss the possibility, because who knows? They are discovering new species every day, and then there is the whole ‘other dimension’ hypothesis. Point is, there will never be a study to disprove the existence of Unicorns - why bother, have you seen one lately? - just like there will never be a study to disprove that bits harm horses. Because we have ample evidence that they do – every day, in the wrong hands. And oh boy there are a lot of wrong and/or ignorant hands. Not to mention just plain wrong bits, no matter what hands they are in. Which is one reason I consider bitless bridles to be a superb alternative. But does that mean I claim to know Unicorns cannot possibly exist or that bits are always bad, and bitless bridles always good? Uh-oh, I’m in hot water now. I’m an idiot and a monster. I know some feel that if it can cause harm, it should be banned, period. Studies prove they do harm, period. But how many horses were involved in those studies, and what kind of riding were they really subjected to? This is not explained, only that they were ridden in bits. The examples we see of bad bitted riding on the Nevzorovs' DVD, for example, are horrifying and deplorable – but is that the every day reality of every horse ridden in a bit? I would willingly eat rat poison, bathe in sulphuric acid and otherwise torture myself to death if I ever rode like that. Isn’t it kind of unfair that only really terrible examples are presented as partial evidence that all horses suffer in a mouthpiece? How about showing riders from the Spanish Riding School, Nuno Oliveira, Klaus Balkenhol, or Reiner Klimke – it’s a very different picture then? After all, I have seen various versions of bitless bridles rub noses raw, dent the fragile nasal cartilage, fitted tight enough to impede breathing and handled with such brutality it wouldn’t matter what was on the horse's head – it hurt and it terrified. But that doesn’t mean I judge all bitless bridles to be bad, just acknowledge that even they can be misused and abusive. Were the horses in the study ridden in a curb or a snaffle, twisted or blunt? With or without tight nosebands? In drawreins, german martingales, sidereins? Were they all ridden softly and kindly, in which case it does prove that bits however well used are instruments of torture; or were they all victims of the kind of riding we know as Rollkur? Were they yanked on every day or did it ‘only’ happen once or twice in their lifetime? So many questions to which only the horse knows the answer. What qualifies as a soft feel for one person may mean a hard pull to another - is it a pound of feathers or a pound of lead? We are swimming in very tricky and deceptive currents here. Other studies talk about the shapes, the breathing, the saliva, the chewing – all interesting but none conclusive as far as I can tell, yet. Maybe I am dumb as a rock, or maybe there are just too many buts, ifs and exceptions in my personal experience, like my observation that horses yawn, chew and even produce saliva when I work them at liberty, no tack whatsoever – as far as I can tell, a natural part of them processing information. Many of my horses have been ‘mouthy’, deliberately and consistently taking things in their mouth to chew, almost obsessively. How does that relate to the information that states, as I have understood it, that it is unnatural for them to do so when moving? I just don’t know, I am no scientist, I am just trying to make sense of all the new often subjective - information coming our way in the light of my own observations. I have never in my own practice had a blue tongue, a slack tongue, a bleeding mouth – I have only ever seen two bleeding mouths, and that’s two too many and I will never forget them. The first time I almost got myself in a fist fight when I brought it to the rider's attention. They were taking bets and doing the odds in the background as she and I duked it out verbally. The other horse we bought and gave a new lease on life. But I can barely imagine what it would take to make that happen. I have had plenty of horses that liked to suck on the bit long after I took the bridle off, leaving me standing there holding the bridle like a handmaiden. Does that mean they love the bit and to be ridden in it? I don’t know. It’s subjective and anecdotal evidence and certainly in no way scientific. But call it scientific and we are all agog. Sweeping statements and conclusions are made on narrow slats of often biased evidence, fuelled by torrid emotion – guilty as charged, right here in the writer's chair. But for once I am trying to be objective. So what made sense and seemed reasonable is under renewed attack. Studies throw more black ink in the embryonic fluid of a fledgling world of dressage and horsemanship struggling to be reborn in the 21st century, and in the process, riding with a bit could well become the baby thrown out with the murky bathwater of any abusive and/or Rollkur-type riding. Am I arguing against bitless riding, or the evidence of the studies, or out and out for bitted riding? No, I guess I am arguing for inclusion and temperance. Because when it comes to riding horses, we all live in glass houses. Wherever we look we can find bad examples of horsemanship, even terrible and awful. Riding in bits can be harmful. It can also be harmful to a horse simply to have a human in their life or on their back, period. I watch many a ‘natural horseman’ ride their horse in kindly halters, bozals or bitless bridles but have no clue whatsoever about how to post the trot, how to engage their horse to protect his spine – the center of the horse's nervous system - and around the arena or down the trail they go for hours at a time, bumping along in a 40-50 lb western saddle. (But bumping naturally.) All I see is a dead weight pounding a fragile concave back, retracted neck, high, pressure-laden croup, joints wearing down, internal organs compressed, the likelihood of ‘kissing spine’ dizzying my dressage- and biomechanics-infused and conditioned brain. But hey, they are not hurting their mouth. There is much to be said for that. You can be as natural as you like and still cause harm. You can be barefoot but have the wrong trim and you’ll cripple your horse for months, possibly for life. Being a proponent of natural horsemanship does not immunize you against bad horsemanship, just as being a dressage rider does not automatically mean you have great hands or know what you are doing - or why. There is a propensity for starting horses around 18 months-2 years old and though I find it horrifying, the majority of western riders, and more and more English as well as Natural Horsemanship, have no trouble with that – how ‘natural’ is it for an unfinished back and joints to carry such weight, and carry it badly? The above scenario now plays out on a spine unfinished and terribly vulnerable. Speaking of Natural Horsemanship and perspective, Linda Parelli was known to trash dressage - in which she had once partaken, apparently not under very good instruction, to judge by her description of it – until she was introduced to the dressage of Walter Zettl by yours truly. Now Walter Zettl is helping define Parelli Horsemanship for the future, the Parellis’ ‘refinement’ being based on real dressage. Perspective. It changes with - open minded - experience. Western riders have jeered at me about bridle dependence and hanging on the dressage horse's mouth, yet tie-downs, martingales and ‘running reins’ are perfectly acceptable forms of tools to them. I have observed some (please note I say SOME!) yanking and snatching at their horse's mouth filled with a thin twisted wire, shanked snaffle in order to create ‘lightness and non dependency’. Self-professed trail riders, endurance riders and ‘backyard riders’ scoff at dressage but go for long distance rides on a horse that couldn’t be carrying their rider any more terribly should they try to make it so, bitless bridle or not. Jumpers can’t be bothered with boring dressage so they tear around the course, ensconced in martingales and fast and furious bits and complain their horse won’t turn on a dime, costing them precious time. I’m not trying to pick on anyone in particular but rather on everybody. Every discipline, philosophy and conviction has one fatal and permanent flaw that leaves it open to failure, delusion and attack – the human element. Even bitless has to have a human there to make it bitless riding, and humans make all kinds of mistakes, no matter how good their intentions. So if we are going to point fingers, let’s point them all around, shall we? I like to think everybody is doing their best, except from my PERSPECTIVE it’s often not enough. But then I am a Perfectionist Dressage Queen. My overall perspective on all of this (should you care at this point)? A little 24 year old Arab gelding who we’ll call Pluto, recently helped shape my perspective on that. For now anyway. Pluto is the much beloved steed of a very lovely and sweet young woman who started out with him just a few short years ago. To her credit she is very well versed and proficient in various natural horsemanship methods and has great command of her horse on the ground, and under saddle for that matter. There is clearly a great deal of love and regard on both sides of this relationship. But when she came to me for lessons a little over a year ago, Pluto’s topline was upside down and at 24 seemed doomed and calcified in this state. His croup was as high as the cantle of her saddle, his tail stuck out and his back was horribly sunken, her view from his back the flat of his forehead. I really wasn’t sure what I could do for them. He was defensive about contact of any kind, and not surprisingly given his physical condition, would kick out as soon as canter. We started out with very basic exercises at the walk with only very slow and short trot and canter breaks, since his owner was unable to post or two-point in her saddle. Despite this shortcoming, little by little, on a very soft to loose rein, Pluto began to give, to reach and to relax his topline. Eventually, Pluto’s owner acquired a new and better fitting saddle that allowed me to teach her to two-point the canter and post the trot. Pluto improved exponentially. His stride doubled, his frame lengthened and magically, the years have melted away. Today, Plutos frame and face is that of a much younger horse. His back rising, his croup lowering, his tail now drops gracefully, and his rider can no longer observe the whorls on his forehead from the saddle because he is choosing roundness and vertical flexion. He is seeking a light contact with the hand, using it to leverage the stretch of his once frozen topline as best he can, when he can. Pluto and others like him have convinced me so far that the bit is not necessarily the pure evil we are now told it is. If any horse could have convinced me he could never find peace with it, he is that horse. But he chooses to use it to his advantage, as the answer to the multiple choice questions we ask of him. At the end of their last lesson, Pluto welcomed me to his side with a repetitive soft, throaty nicker - I’m a sucker for a nicker. I have never given him treats. It felt like the greatest compliment I could ever receive. I like to think he thanked me for helping them find a better way to be together, or maybe he was just saying, “Don’t you think it’s high time I got a treat?” or “Don’t you think I look ten years younger?" or “Does this saddle make me look fat?" Whatever it was, it wasn’t the sound of a horse just tortured by the object in his mouth. So I have to question the righteous conclusions and passionate pleas – I have experienced the gentle stretching into, and voluntary quiet mouthing of, the bit by too many and very different horses. I have felt them seek my hand and look for me if I ‘go away’. I have known horses that sometimes reach out and take the bit themselves when the bridle is still hanging on the wall. Does all this prove anything? Not in scientific terms it doesn’t. But it does suggest it’s not all black and white. It can be argued that they are stoic – they are – and don’t let on just how much pain they are in, but wouldn’t you see it in their eyes, in their bodies, their tail? As important as the TMJ is to their overall relaxation how can they perform as beautifully and comfortably as they do if their mouth is so very impeded by even a well handled bit? The eyes are the windows to a horse's soul, and what my students and I have seen over the years is how their eyes become softer and clearer and more present with the work we do. I have seen a horse'’ face change so much in one session people have questioned if it’s the same horse. Could this really take place if they were in constant pain? I don’t know, I just know that for now I leave the options open and try to give it all a fair shake. I will let each individual horse tell me what is right and what is wrong. Torchlight did not care for the bitless bridle we tried, supposed to be the best and most researched, maybe because he is hyper-claustrophobic. On the other hand he is great in a rope halter. He likes some bits but not others, and is very particular about saddle fit. I don’t have all the answers. But one thing I think is pretty true for now – horsemanship is an open book of which many pages are still unwritten, and no one person has the complete picture and authority. Every time something is called an absolute truth, someone else has an experience to put a crack in the perfect picture. I guess what I am wishing for, is for the believers of ‘no bit under any circumstances’ to be a little less aggressive about their ‘absolute truth’. They define us by its use, accuse us of idiocy and mindless abuse and deny the great accomplishments in horsemanship by masters who have only the horse's wellbeing at heart. Look at the horses in a Reiner Klimke book, or Anja Beran's DVD, and tell me how those horses suffer as they move calmly, gymnastically, gracefully, beautifully, tails swinging quietly, eyes soft as they go through some of the most difficult exercises possible on the softest of contacts. Any abuse is deplorable. But it is also present in many different guises in our equestrian world. I would leave you with these questions: is the abuse of a horse's mouth less bad, equal to or worse than: • the abuse of his back by bad riding and bad saddle fit (as common and pervasive as that of his mouth, and just as often a result of laziness and ignorance, not ill will), • • the physical and mental suffering of a horse started too young, and shown too hard • • the boredom and pain of separation of a horse by keeping him in a stall 24/7 with a 20 by 20 foot dirt turnout for 20 minutes a day? • • Is it as bad as a horse that never works outside of the arena, whose life can equal that of a factory worker • • or is shod instead of barefoot? • • Is barefoot but never sound, always in pain, but is kept this way because of his owner's stout belief in barefooting although his feet are too far gone to self-heal, his life is not conducive to developing a strong foot, and shoeing just might leave him pain free, if numb in some ways? • • Is it as bad as a horse that is kept alive for his owner's sake long after his desire to live has left him, due to the interminable pain of severe founder? • • Is it as bad as a horse that is longed ceaselessly, too fast and on too small a circle (this last is a NH pitfall, ironic because of their harsh criticism of longing – they don’t allow for the word longe but they will ‘circle’ their horse for sometimes long periods of time on a 12 foot rope at trot and canter, with a horse with no balance)? • • A horse that never gets to graze? • • Is fed big meals of concentrated feed twice a day when his entire system is geared towards endless small meals? • I could go on and on. The pitfalls of modern horsekeeping are countless and manifold. These are scenarios we see every day, regardless of the owners’ beliefs and faith in their own moral high ground. Point a finger and one will point right back at you. Horses are forgiving and make room for our mistakes and differences. Can’t we do the same? And I am looking in the mirror as I speak. --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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