• VOLUME 50 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

Good evening,

Well, what can I say. I am overwhelmed by your so eloquent article in the Enough is Enough Issue. We CAN make a change! I do hope that Americans will show some courage at the WEG in Kentucky.

Big Hugs to you for all your grand efforts.

Marie

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From: Marianne
Subject: Brilliant!

Finally, this evening, I could take my time and slowly begin at the beginning of Vol. 48.

Just brilliant!

I am so honored to be a part of this issue. And the layout! To show engagement with dignity in the first piece, by Carlos Tabernaberri, then move to mine, Susanna’s and yours. I can’t tell you how happy I am with the way you pulled this together.

Sending you a heartfelt and very big hug,

Marianne Spitzform

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Dear Editors:
I just wanted to thank your publication for taking a very vocal stand in opposing rolkur. This practice is a contaminant upon the sport of dressage and it needs to be seen and judged as such, and removed like an unwanted virus.

My disgust with the FEI's lack of action grows. How this forced manipulation can be regarded as a training technique is beyond reason.
Further infuriating is the argument that that only the professionals are competent to use this system and that the rest of us peons are too uneducated to realize the value of this alleged "technique". Why not just use electrified spurs, that can be a technique too.

There are many of like mind and the number of horsemen appalled at the direction of dressage is growing. We will be sure to spend our money with institutions who promote training in unabusive ways. We will be vocal and we will show our disdain, at shows and at international events. With the WEG in North America this year, the opportunity has truly presented itself for horse enthusiasts to make quite apparent their feelings for this training abomination.

And, it will be televised.

So keep up the good work and once more, thank you for your conscience.

Sincerely,
Chris

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Dear Editor,

When you sent the e-mail announcing the Enough is Enough issue of HFL you wrote this:

“At the same time I am worried too many, may like me, want to run away at what they see - hit exit, close, never to look again, not to read the words of truly incredible horsemen on this subject. But you know not to look, not to gaze into the faces of these horses is to protect yourself, it does not protect them. If you honour these horses, it is your duty to look, to be shocked, to get angry, to cry, and then do something with that anger, with that rage. You WILL do more if you look. It will be harder for you, but it is only fair to the horses to at least look and let them know that whether in sympathy or concern we will not ever look away.”

It hit me like a rock, especially this part:

it is your duty to look, to be shocked, to get angry, to cry, and then do something with that anger, with that rage.

Your words were like a wakeup call for me, you are simply right! So yes, you can quote me, for this poor horse on the photo’s and all those other horses that have no one to speak up for them.

I understand you feel like you do right now, and frankly I hope all the people that read the magazine feel the same! Publishing and reading these articles may be the only way to set things in motion. It seems people need to be confronted with these images again and again. One day enough people will feel like we do now, and things will change. I do believe that with my whole heart!

I wish you all the best,

Warm Regards,

Annemiek

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Regarding your Horses For LIFE article on perfect piaffe. I take it the horse is Balagur since some of his piaffes have been marked a 10. However, your article (IMO incorrectly) states that "One must assume that the piaffe that is marked a ten is perfect." This is absolutely Not the case. Reading the descriptors for each numeric mark, the descriptor for 10 is excellent, not perfect. So while I agree that his grounded foreleg is pedestaling (i.e. BTV) which is incorrect and that he is not poll high which is also incorrect it could still be that his piaffe is excellent. I never saw him perform but have heard good things about him. He certainly tucks at the L-S joint and sits and perhaps his rhythm was good and he was straight and had other features in his piaffe that still appropriately earned it at 10 for being excellent (not perfect, which is not the requirement for a 10).

Elizabeth

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Dear Editor:

Thanks God I was close to finishing a book on twenty century's irrational philosophy when I read the "answer" to Phillippe Karl (PK) by the German federation (GF).

For some irrational philosophy an answer is a text, and texts do not need to be read in context, but rather are autonomous things, for some re-created by the readers. For any modern person (to be contrasted to post-modern), an answer addresses the issues and is far more than a collection of words in response to a previously emitted collection of words. Not just a text prompted by a text.

Phillippe Karl, as modern (meaning rational) man, begins by indicating the observation of a changing context:

"Due to the increasing professionalisation of equestrian sports and the growing pressure of economic constraints, the official interpretation of good riding has changed dramatically in the past 30 years."

The GF answers:

"The riding system in effect till today as it is described in the Richtlinien fur Reiten und Fahren is based on the 1912 Manual of the German cavalry ( Heeresdienstvorschrift ) and has essentially been subjected to an optical and linguistic overhaul. Its principles, which even at the time were geared to the wellbeing of the horse, remain unchanged to this day."

refers to the text suppressing the context. The GF opposes to PK "official interpretation" a there is no official interpretation: "For instance, the LPO does not contain any detailed specifications on the scoring, as you call for in some of your points" that opens the gate for the co-writing of the rules by the reader (in this case the judge).

The distance I perceive is far greater than classical dressage or competitive dressage. The "answer" is not an answer.

Hernan

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I have always been taught that the double bridle is used to add refinement. In these pictures of Rollkur it is apparent that it is being used as an instrument of torture! The pressure exerted on the poll and tongue is obviously causing the horses great pain. If someone can be banned for misuse of the whip, then why can't they be banned for misuse of the double bridle? This is an abuse of the horses trust! Perhaps everybody should be made to compete in a snaffle. Then we would see the results of correct training as opposed to force.

Sue

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Dear horses for life!!

First, I want to say that I truly love your magazine!!

Secondly, I want to tell you that I rarely get to read it completely, because I do not like to read on the computer and I want to bring the mag. with me and cuddle up in the couch...

Is there any way I can get a printed version?

Loving regards, Lene

[Editors Note: This is our most frequent request/complaint. We too would love to see the magazine in print. We worry that the cost that we would need to charge to cover the cost of printing and then shipping a non-adverised magazine would be so high that we just could not support a print option at a reasonable cost to you our subscibers, cost estimates to date range about the cost of a small book - probably between $25 and $35 per issue. We have thought long and hard re advertising and have decided that this is not the way to go for us and the standards we are trying to uphold. The other concern is the increased work load on an already overworked staff and volunteer support group. Yes volunteer group. Horses For LIFE survives and grows because of an incredible cadre of volunteers! Editors, writers, photographers, artists, trainers that are strained to the their limits to bring Horses For LIFE to life, issue after issue. We are blessed with the support of so many. We already have so many new projects that we are involved in, from the flip version of the magazine, to re-entering video back into our issues that we just can't keep up to those projects that we are involved with, let alone take one more on. But having said that, we keep looking and investigating this option, so don't think that it may not happen in one format or another at one time or another. Stay tuned.]

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Dear Nadja,
Thank you for your reply. I took exception to Klaus' article because at the outset he admitted to working with horses for only one year when he wrote his book. By writing any book, I believe one is claiming authority. I do not believe that one year grants authority of any kind. No matter ones gifts.

That being said, he went about attacking the school of natural horsemanship. He mentioned all the "broken" horses that he had been brought to retrain. would he care for this same attitude to be expressed towards all the broken dressage horses. Claiming that they were indeed "victims of dressage"? the same question could be applied to any discipline because all disciplines are suffering from the same malady, riders who elevate their own egos at the expense of the dignity of the horse.

I do not feel that all natural horsemanship principles should be placed in the same category as not all dressage should be placed in the same category. By offering this flaming rebuke to natural horsemanship, he grouped all natural horsemanship in the same category.

Recently, a "dressage" friend of mine told me about a horse that had its eye poked out by someone using the "carrot stick" or some other tool and was desensitizing the horse in the face. I was horrified to think that someone had done that and then blamed it on the Parelli method. My friend however ascribes herself to the "kick and pull" school of dressage and was happy to report this terrible injury inflicted by the "Parelli people" insisting that the poor hapless ownes was doing as they had been taught by a Parelli professional.

I feel that your magazine should be the springboard of truth and not the launching board for attacks on other methods. The same people that break the spirits of horses with natural horsemanship could break their horses spirits using any other method.

I think that people who are talented in what they do should not waste their time criticizing other methods that they do not have any real experience in or knowledge about.

It is probably sufficient to say that there are some people that can drive any horse crazy no matter what "discipline" they are practicing.

I am using natural horsemanship with a goal of dressage. I do not see these as mutually exclusive methods. I am on my own road here and there is not much to support me and certainly no trainers out in my area that are doing this.

I would certainly consider Walter Zettl to be a master of dressage and he believes his dressage and the Parelli school are compatible.

I have already renewed my subscription through paypal for the year and will continue to visit your site. I just thought you should know that this article did not bode well with me and I am sure my e-mail will not be the only one you receive.

Sincerely,
Lucinda

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