Perhaps I have been watching too many liberal documentaries… or maybe just maybe I’ve been stewing at these ideas for a while and they are finally coming to a boiling point. Yes, I think it is the later of those two which is the truth for me.

What kicked off my feelings today was in part some news about Sjef Janssen who is planning to sue yet another person over the matter of Rollkur, hyperflexion and questions over the true freedoms of the press. That wrapped up with the last few years of my watchful eye over the going ons of various clinicians, so-called educators, public forums and life in general. What has happened in the world when we are so gullible we hear a tidbit of information and begin spreading it as truthful wildfire? Nothing. We have been doing it for centuries, the human species seems genuinely slow to evolve in our natural habits, but it is the dreaded propaganda machine that has grabbed onto an idea and run with it.

It is one that has allowed natural horsemanship clinicians to take a great idea and run it into the ground with their money motivations. I recently posted a bit about Linda Parelli who was shown in desperate miscommunication with a ONE-EYED HORSE… and in July it came to the public’s attention once again as Pat Parelli himself proceeded to make a fool of himself with a less than obliging stallion. (Video Below) They are hardly the only ones though as my position on Clinton Anderson may be even lower and there are countless others who are reaching desperately for fame and fortune but have yet to be recognized in a widespread manner who are just as bad if not worse.

There is something at the heart of being misled that I truly want to address though. It might end up being a ‘shame on you’ to the professionals out there, something that few seem to want to do. Probably because they don’t want to be barred from horse society. I’m not really concerned with that anymore, I’ve reached a point where I would be happy simply enjoying the company of my horse and otherwise ignoring the goings on save for the fact that I truly hope some words I write give people pause and maybe steers them in a new direction of learning and discovery. Either way, here it comes.

I have experienced it first hand in my own learning curve, not just with horses but many other fields in my life which may make this post a bit more worldly than originally intended. Promises made for the positives, ignorance of the negatives, and a high price to pay in the process only to be left holding something of no value in the end… and a furthering of gullability.

It perturbs me time and again when I see postings of people defending Rollkur online. I can dismiss them at times with thoughts that they are coming from the young and impressionable youth that will one day take over the reins of dictatorship over the horse world. Sigh. And then I become all the more concerned that whoever is in charge of educating those young riders has not either been educated enough themselves to even *know* about Rollkur (yes, there are a LOT of people who still have no idea what it is) and warn the youths or that they use it themselves and promote it. I also wonder at how these young riders are a reflection of young people in general and their common confidence of knowledge with so little life experience period. I recall myself keeping my mouth buttoned shut on matters I knew nothing about, which meant for the most part I was a very quiet child. Talking was for the wise and experienced and I listened to every word they cared to share. Are equestrian instructors now leaving their young riders to run at the mouth on things that they have little practical awareness of?

Digressing… for a moment. Where I meant to go with this was not in the direction of Rollkur anyhow, but rather propaganda – what is being advertised to us! It is small and sinister, almost unnoticed and that is precisely the problem. It is so imbued into our culture that we no longer know where it came from but it becomes assumed fact.

I remember when I was learning how to trim hooves and began to really see through different eyes – educated eyes – and began to wonder that other people didn’t see what I was now seeing for the first time. Ads in horse catalogs where close-ups of the hooves were all showed hooves with severely contracted heels, bad angles, long toes and so on. But, for most they were ‘normal’ feet because that is what they saw all the time – in catalogs and in person. Unhealthy hooves.

So it begs to reason that as I became educated and learned to recognize hoof ailments based on the information I was learning rather than assumed ‘facts’ without foundation, I began veering away from proponents of products that showed these kinds of hooves. I was dismayed that a company could be so ill-educated and choose THOSE feet to promote their hoof boots or wraps or whatever kind of products with. Companies do not necessarily profit off of their customers’ intelligence.

Now, thinking about that let’s go back to Pat Parelli’s recent mishap. How many people sat in the seats with a smile on their face and in awe of Pat’s wonderful training methods as he twitched and made attempts to hobble a head shy stallion in order to bridle him? Did none of them wonder, “Why is bridling him so important right now? Why doesn’t Pat work on the foundation first?” Because foundations don’t sell. This is the same reason why Dressage was not as exciting a sport to watch as jumping or eventing until the Musical Freestyle became so popular with warmbloods bred to be leg movers. Audiences who pay money want entertainment – building trust with an animal is honestly boring to watch for someone uneducated. Even for the educated it would be a stretch to charge the kind of money that many clinicians do for auditing. Why do you think Pat Parelli’s demos which show bareback and bridle-less riding over jumps and through odd obstacles draw peoples’ attention?

And why don’t people speak up? They do, actually. This is exemplified by the thousands lending their signature and posting about Rollkur and that it must end. The problem is that unless there is no more money flowing to the Parelli’s or Janssen or Anky and so on they will continue to do what they do and sell their ‘product’ to the uneducated.

This is where I have a really big issue as well. It is not and should not be the job of the uneducated and newly imbued student to research and research and research to make sure that the instructor they are with will not guide them in the wrong direction for monetary purposes. But the truth is that it is done every single day and I feel a great deal of shame to be considered in the same category as an instructor with anyone who does this. Anyone selling a product for their method or a gimmick and so on is, imo, hard pressed to tell you their honest opinion if it differs with what will benefit their pocketbook.

Unfortunately it is easy to mislead the uneducated because for the most part they trust you. They have the belief that you will guide them in the right direction and are honestly cheering them on in their academic journey with horses. But this isn’t always the case as I’ve heard from one person after another and through my own experiences that the process of learning is often strewn with disappointment as you learn that the trusted instructor has misguided you for the sake of money or ego time and again.

Actually, and I laugh a little at this, I’ve often dreamed of starting a program that offers free riding instruction and horse training. Completely devoid of monetary gains and run through volunteers and so on. That education is truly free and accessible by anyone who truly wants it. That, imo, is my instructor’s euphoria.

Propaganda as a whole in the horse world has led us to believe many things though which may or may not be truth.

Horse propaganda has told us that horses are stubborn creatures by nature and need to be ‘broken’ and made to be submissive, need to be dominated and learn we are their master.

Horse propaganda has told us that if the horse is not responding you need a stronger bit, sharper whip, bigger spurs, a twitch, a pair of hobbles, a cowboy.

Horse propaganda has told us that if you question the motives or methods of those at the highest level of competition or professional success it is because you don’t have the talent yourself.

Horse propaganda has told us that we need to send horses to slaughter because backyard breeders can never be stopped and it is needed to keep horse numbers down and sales viable.

Horse propaganda has told us that LDR (Low, Deep, Round) is non abusive and therefore superiod to Rollkur or Hyperflexion.

Horse propaganda has told us that there is an inequitable difference between the disciplines.

World propaganda has told us that those who are most outspoken are the most intelligent…

World propaganda has told us that to be the best we must pay for the most expensive.

World propaganda has told us never to question those with a degree or certification or position higher than ourselves, as though that negates the possibility of that person being human and imperfect.

I could go on… but really I just wanted to put some words down on what I was thinking today. Cheers!

Lunging, lunging, lunging! It is spelled so many ways and has so many meanings for people.

I’ve watched people lunge horses with a purpose, others with a crazed look in their eye (the person, although the horse too…), even those who are completely bored and not really doing anything except holding the line as the horse circles madly around them – only taking enough notice to know when to pass the line over their head for their feet have grown into the ground and are now incapable of turning their own body around to follow the horse with their eyes.

My early impression of lunging was somewhat mixed. I didn’t see any relationship between round penning a horse, free lunging a horse, and that thing that english riders liked to do so their horse was tired enough to be ridable.

Eventually my impression of lunging as a tool for tiring the horse used by english riders was righted and I realized that it was used by western riders for the same purpose and even taken a step further – they created a class to win ribbons for what they would happily do before their normal classes without accolades.

I was brought up in the round penning camp, the John Lyons natural horsemanship realm. A place which looked up moving the horse in a circle and wearing him out was a tool to bridge the gap between the horse’s physical resistance and interest in communicating with the beast in the center of the pen. Once you exhausted or motivated they physical aspect of the horse to a sufficient level you could then access the brain and begin talking to the horse in a more civilized and committed manner.

I wonder if natural horsemanship ruled the education of our children, they would be run around in round pens until they were tired before being sorted into their classrooms for education. Would that eliminate ADD and ADHD?

Free lunging, it was impressed upon me at an early stage, was something that overly sympathetic women liked to do with their horses because they lacked the guts to reprimand, punish, or have a firm hand with their horse during the training process. I am glad my mind did not become cemented to this misjudgement.

Lunging is nothing new. It has been used for centuries for various purposes. In the stables of kings and conquerors, at the hand of the military’s cavalry, still in use at the Spanish Riding School for the education of both horse and rider. In a more widespread context however lunging is used primarily for the benefit of tiring the horse out and as something to do when the horse is too old to sit in the pasture and too young to start riding.

I’ve used lunging for a long time, and began into it with wayward pause and the mild guidance of a Dressage instructor. Her helping hand still left many holes in my understanding of lunging, mostly because of the widespread phenomenon of “because” as a reason for doing something. I got no explanation of why I should make sure the horse’s hind feet were stepping into the front hoof prints. Or why I should make sure the horse halted square even at a distance.

It wasn’t until I worked formally with a Classical Dressage instructor that I began to get some of the why questions answered more thoroughly, and even still there were some open holes that had to be filled with lots of observation, practice and patience. I didn’t find them in books, or they were answered in such a complex and complicated way that even knowing the why I was still confused at the author’s description.

So, with that… I will be launching into a series of blog posts addressing lunging the horse from what to do BEFORE lunging, starting young horses or first timers on the lunge, using lunging for retraining or rehabbing horses, advanced things you can do with lunging and even addressing some issues that may show up in the process of learning how to lunge and what to do with them.

I really enjoy lunging horses and have spent countless hours, days, weeks, months on end of working horses daily on the lunge to develop them… and also in using lunging to teach riders a more balanced seat and how to use their aids more effectively. It is such a valuable resource to have and know, and I look forward to exploring it more with my readers.

Keep an eye out for the next installment!

Update 01.21.2010 — I was written requesting one of the images I displayed below be removed from being displayed on my blog, and have replaced it with a ‘censored’ image in it’s place. The link will direct you to the page where the photo I linked to can be viewed. Please note that I do not represent images to be mine which are not and try to give credit where I can and link direct to the image’s source. I am also not making money off any images displayed. Cheers!

Why not work towards something more… meaningful?

It is true we have a long history with the horse as a means for travel, labor and the everyday functioning of our society. The horse is how conquistadors came to roam the America’s when first landing. They enabled Gengis Khan to overtake Mongolia and much of Asia. Horses carried Attila the Hun.

The horse has stood as a symbol for our country through the Mustang, as herds are being depleted once again by the government in order to benefit ranchers and other commercial interests. The mustang was made a symbol of a favored car by many. The horse is used as a draw for crowds to buy a ticket to rodeos, international competitions, Arabian Knights style shows across the country, and even circuses. Miniature horses are now lending their talents to help guide the blind in place of dogs even.

And in all of this, the horse is still used for our purposes and all too often with disregard to him as a creature of equal standing to humans. If images could give a summary of the esteem and regard we hold our horses in as a society I could nearly walk away now for fear that there is little hope. At times it would seem that the images assume the onlooker to miss the fear, anxiety, distress and melancholy in the horse’s eyes.

That is not all there is in horsemanship however, and I am happy that this is not the whole picture.

I was privy to participate in a great healing ceremony this week, taking part of many Native American traditions. During which I was reminded of the art of honoring and thanking. Today I feel more connected to everything, the earth, the people in my life – both close and new. Even the plants and particularly the animals. Maybe today is a good time to look towards our horses and say thank you, and give them honor for all that they give us in return.

What is it to be a real horseman? Can you be a horseman even if you’ve never before been involved with horses? Can you be involved with horses every day and still fail to be a horseman?

That is a question that came up with a recent posting to an email group, Classical Dressage, that I am a member of which was also accompanied with the link to a great video of a number of people working to help with a large number of starved horses in bringing them back to life.

What has touched me so much in this video, outside of the immense amount of dedication on everyone’s part, is that many of them showed up to help who have had no previous experience with horses.

Then on the other side of the coin there are those who have caused this great amount of suffering to the horses involved, which I would suspect have many years of experience with horses. I see it other places as well, being so involved that we become blind and end up causing more harm than good. You can go to any show and see that multiple times over of riders hurting their horses for the sake of a $10 ribbon. The price of the prize may vary, but the symptoms still remain the same.

• Cleve Well, a prominent AQHA trainer and clinician, has been accused of abuse on several occasions.
• WalkingHorseChat.com posts videos of ‘Freak of the Week’ gaited horses in action.
• A blog devoted to exposing the abuses behind showing and competition, Shame In The Showring, gives you an inside look.

As much as we continue to expose the abuses that are going on to horses in every sport, discipline and level of involvement (from day one beginners to the creme de la creme of horse ‘celebrity’), little is being prevented.

It is my opinion that without increasing overall education (not just in the horse industry but on the whole) we are only kicking dirt on the forest fire. There has to be more. Our culture has moved towards zero responsibility, we have morphed into a corporate mindset on the personal level. No one is taking responsibility to earn an education about horses before riding or owning one… or rather instead of nobody, very few.

Those who are highly educated that I encounter who are looking to learn to ride horses – do so with the same adept skill in which they undertake other areas they have no education in. They ask questions. How many experienced riders do we know that still ask questions? Less and less. Then there are others who I encounter who feel they know all the answers (even if those answers aren’t enough to enable them to do all that they want, which is exactly why they are contacting me), and because of that there isn’t a question in the world they would like to ask.

Do you still ask questions? I do, every day. Every second it seems when I’m working with my horse. Not necessarily questions about what I’m doing, but often now it is why I am doing it. How it is going to impact my horse, what the motivations are, etc. I don’t, however, ask myself questions about how much money I can make with my horse, or if I place in a certain class it will increase my perceived value and skill by my peers. Admittedly there was a time when I asked questions like how I could turn my hobby into something that profited me (and I did so with breeding horses for a time).

Now, however, I do offer services that bring money.. but they aren’t the source of my survival and I’ve given up on achieving ‘fortune’ through my horses. It takes me to a place in my mind, to think about using my horses in such a way, that seems akin to prostituting them out. As it stands right now they help me teach people and in that I am always grateful for all that they give and settles in my heart much better than the thought of them as being ‘money makers’. That is probably much of why I gave up competition, too much in it for the money and accolades to let me sleep sound at night.

In a perfect world the horse is connected to us through the reins, meaning that the contact we’ve established on the reins serves as the ultimate communication tool. There is no tension, simply touch and with it the power to execute energy through the horse at a moments notice.

What this means for us as riders is that the legs become quiet and are used primarily as a balance point, but please don’t misunderstand and think I mean balance through squeezing or holding on with the legs. There is a large issue of overusing the legs as it compromises your balance, creates tension upwards into your seat, can radiate into your hands and promote pulling on the reins not to mention add confusion and complication to your communication with the horse. The less that we have to use in order to let the horse know what we want, the better.

Contact on the reins can only be appropriate if the horse is pushing/propelling himself forward from the hind legs calmly, while also maintaining the proper bend. Without these our ability to communicate through the reins is compromised at best, though often worse – disconnected.

The magic happens quite brilliantly however when these elements are all in concert with one another, as you can orchestrate collection in the horse, gait transitions and spectacular lateral work that is forward, light and graceful primarily through the reins. The legs working secondary to the hand in providing support. On the other hand, to rely upon the legs primarily the hands are left to working in excess to either contain the anxious energy created by the overuse of the legs and force position to create second rate lateral work and dull transitions.

When we think of training a horse, it may or may not be apparent that without relaxation everything else is a compromise. The horse can never fully give himself to your requests if he is tense or nervous. And, interestingly enough, tension is often what many methods of horsemanship are built upon. Perhaps that is why so many of them work with only so many horses and riders, or with a limited amount of success in the right hands.

Relaxation is not a trait that you can train into the horse either, it is not a conditioned response. Relaxation is an attribute that accompanies trust, another trait that cannot be forced but instead earned.

I am going through this very process with one of my own horses at the moment. He is trained to a certain degree but everything is a compromise because relaxation is a question, not a given. I am fortune to be able to work with a wonderful ground person (who also happens to be the Equestrian Life Coach for Awareness In Riding…) on a regular basis and I cannot stress how valuable a tool this can be for every rider. It also helps to open dialogue and make the ride more of a journey and discovery, rather than the same old habits and rituals. Having a ground person helps you get out of your head and begin to speak the thoughts that are coming up so they can be formed into logic.

Together we’ve been working under saddle with this particular horse, and I noticed a significant difference following just the first ride. The walk is a give-away gait, meaning that it will give away the holes in the horse’s training. For this particular horse it gives away tension – marked by a lack of tracking up. Under saddle this feels (and from ground observation is confirmed to be something you can see as well) as if he is pounding the ground a bit with his hind feet, like they are short striding and hitting upon a restriction when they stride forward. What they do to my seat is interesting as well, making me feel like we are moving laterally in the hips – side to side, rather than a smooth roll like you would feel in your hips when walking on your own.

So for three rides in a row we worked purely on moving forward calmly and reestablishing the bend in order to connect on the reins. Picking up the reins is often a trigger as well for tension in this horse, where he will start chomping at the bit, oversalivating and moving between hanging on the bit and coming behind it. He is also tricky in that he can position his head and neck to make you believe that he is not only on the bit but also has the correct bend, and is light in the bridle, but the tell of incorrectness is that his indirect rein causes him to slow down or even stop without the addition of a half halt. His direct rein is also missing continuity and would require the use of the outside rein – signs that he is simply holding a false frame of tension.

So the game was to allow him slack reins to the buckle on the rail to establish a steady walk rhythm without interference with the reins. Following that I picked up the reins, working off the inside rein and allowing looping slack in the outside rein, I waited for him to follow the rein – to move straight. In order for him to move straight he has to be calm and forward. Before picking up the reins we established calm and forward by allowing him to step into a walk that was correctly tracking up and had a 1-2-3-4 rhythm (vs 1-2–3-4 or 1–2-3–4). Immediately he was attempting to change the bend, to which I simply kept the inside rein steady, or at some moments would shorten it slightly when he allowed slack in order to help guide him to the bend.

What is the bend? The bend is from the horse’s tail to his poll, it is not superficially shown in the neck. I can get neck flexion and have a horse who does not bend, is not supple.

In this horse he would offer simple neck flexion, and keep the rest of his body stiff as a board, so while maintaining the rein steady I made sure all of my body supported what I was looking for in his. It is really easy as riders to get so intuned to what we want from the horse that we then forget ourselves completely. I focused most of my energy on keeping my eyes up and forward, breathing deeply and calmly, keeping my toes pointed upwards (helps relieve other areas of tension that can be held in the legs and settles your seat for better balance), and my hands correct with thumbs pointing up (tension can also show up in the hands if you tend to curl at the wrists or turn the fingers down).

We circled about the arena just focusing on these small features, when I felt for a moment that he may be maintaining the proper bend for a few strides I would test it simply by applying a small indirect rein to see if he would transition smoothly from a direct to indirect rein (moving towards the rein then moving away from the rein into a demi-leg yield). Sometimes he would, other times he wouldn’t. When he transitioned smoothly and proved the correct bend I would give him the reins and allow a lap or two of free walk. This gave us the opportunity to practice moving from slack reins to holding them, an action that proved or disproved remaining tension in this horse.

What happened is interesting, because in just the first ride his mouth quieted. He went from knawing at the bit to a completely quiet yet soft mouth. There was moisture on his lips but no foam, no oversalivation. His gait was calm and forward when we ended, and he was moving through his bend in both directions.

Straightness? No, but straightness comes only after you have developed the horse’s suppleness to each bend, so we are on the road to success!

The next ride was the same and the one afterwards. There were differences in both sides as far as what he would attempt to offer as incorrect bend or how he would try to straighten the bend. To the right he simply tried to straighten the bend or move against the rein, often poking his nose up and outwards in an attempt to evade that way. To the left, however, he would fall into the inside rein with his shoulder, come behind the bit, give a false head set, do a lot of head tilting, etc.

Yesterday’s ride I introduced some trot work applying this same principle. He came to the work undersaddle brilliantly in the walk right away, very forward, calm and relaxed. He was immediately responsive to both direct and indirect rein aids as well as half halt. He was ‘on point’ so to speak. At the trot he was tense immediately. What I did here was instead of setting forward on a slack line as I had done at the walk previously, was to begin bringing him to the bend right away. His tension was so great and only built on a slack line while he trotted around bent in the opposite direction of travel, strung out and hollow backed. We worked a few times on both sides coming to the bend, to which it didn’t take him very long. His right side took more time than the left this time. After he would come to the bend on each side I brought him back to walk, reestablished calm and forward at the walk before asking for the trot work again.

Why put so much effort into something so small? The brilliance of this is that once the horse is calm and forward, on the correct bend, and the rider has achieved an educated seat that allows their aids to be acted upon independently, the horse simply does the action requested, it becomes a real dance without force. Lightness isn’t something that is achieved, it simply exists when all of these things are present and the horse works without tension. It is when there is tension in the horse that we have to rely upon force and heavy aids to inspire them.

The hard-mouthed horse is a topic that is common, and very relevant, in training or retraining horses. It is something that has been claimed to be fixable through countless flexions of the neck and jaw, a change of bits, nosebands, and various techniques.

What is a hard-mouthed horse exactly?

To be honest, I believe there are several different ways to reference a hard-mouthed horse. Some are defined by the inability to flex the horse in whatever direction is desired, others self-diagnosed as such while they are running away with their rider – refusing to stop or slow down.

Are hard-mouthed horses created by the rider and training, or is it natural to some horses and not others? Both. Horses can learn to use it as a method of self-defense, others it is their natural reaction to communication with the reins that has never been worked through properly. Just like some people enjoy having their feet massaged, others it drives them crazy because they are ticklish and so they tense up the moment they believe you are going to touch their feet… same principle.

So what, then, is the key to solving the hard-mouthed horse?

It is a combination… none of which involve directly flexions or any auxillary hardware (so you can just set those draw reins down and step away slowly…). The first is fixing ourselves – always the first step. Chances are more than great (probably close to 900% probability) that any rider having issues with a hard mouthed horse is pulling in some way shape or form on the reins – either to direct and/or control the horse, or (and maybe coupled with) using the reins for supporting their balance in the saddle. The vast majority of riders struggle with both of these issues because a) pulling is a natural response for our body when we are in a state of anything but complete and total relaxation and self-awareness; b) having an independently secure and balanced seat in the saddle is not standardly taught in a fully functional fashion for most riders.

Pulling on the reins will elicit resistance from the horse. Even if the horse is soft in the mouth, the resistance will form in some other area of the body in order to accomodate the pulling of the reins by the rider. Pulling on the rein as well is a hard thing to describe in it’s entirety, because pulling doesn’t have to be forceful, which is what most of us picture when we think pulling, but any backward action of the rider’s hand can be interpreted as pulling by the horse.

And in regards to a rider’s seat, without having independence of the seat (not relying upon the reins, legs or stirrups to maintain security and being able to act separately from the legs and hands both unilaterally and bilaterally), everything we do with the rest of our aids is compromised because it may be conflicting due to the mixed use of balance and aids. This is why I put such strong emphasis on the importance of seat training early on for all riders, because with a secure seat the rest of the aids come easily, and it often resolves many other issues that riders are currently or may potentially face with the horse.

Back to resolving a hard-mouthed horse…

Once our own issues have been resolved to avoid conflicts and mixed signals to the horse, we can move on to addressing the issue straight on if it is still present. We usually interact with the horse in a sort of monologue – we tell the horse what we want and he either does it or doesn’t do it, which may or may not result in more or less telling. Rarely do we listen to the horse as thoroughly as we expect him to listen to us, not even a fraction of such. So the second part is learning how to tap into a conversation with the horse that is equal rather than unilateral… which I will go deeper into in another post.

What is the importance of the seat, hands, legs in the aiding of the horse? I am often sent information (in the form of articles), read online discussions, have pilfered through countless books, listened to other clinicians, speakers, trainers, etc as they describe and indicate the use of the aids. If you are like me, the path to understanding, implementing and succeeding (not to mention perfecting) these aids might seem like a lost cause, or time to get into collecting automobiles instead!

Simplicity, it is something I keep drumming on about. The more complicated, complex and difficult something becomes, the further from attaining it we get. I just wanted to write a quick ditty to inspire my readers to get back to basics, back to the simple. So here are some quotes I found just for you…

Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.”
Isaac Newton

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Leonardo da Vinci

Simplicity and repose are the qualities that measure the true value of any work of art.
Frank Lloyd Wright

Simplicity is the key to brilliance.
Bruce Lee

and

In building a statue, a sculptor doesn’t keep adding clay to his subject. Actually, he keeps chiseling away at the inessentials until the truth of its creation is revealed without obstructions.
Bruce Lee

Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity – I mean the true simplicity of a rightly and nobly ordered mind and character, not that other simplicity which is only a euphemism for folly.
Plato

Simplicity of life, even the barest, is not a misery, but the very foundation of refinement; a sanded floor and whitewashed walls and the green trees, and flowery meads, and living waters outside.
William Morris

Simplicity is the glory of expression.
Walt Whitman

The evolution of knowledge is toward simplicity, not complexity.
L. Ron Hubbard

All of these just give me goosebumps, how true they are… but also makes me think of another quote.

There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.
Leonardo da Vinci

I believe that as equestrians, if we are always told that things are done a certain way it is naturally difficult to believe that there is something simpler, even easier, than what we have become accustomed to. Especially given all the gadgets, gimmicks, quick fixes and so on that we are being sold every day. For that reason, often we have to start by first being shown before we can move forward into “those who see.”

I’ve posted quite a bit on the whole Rollkur issue… this post will not delve into it in just the same way, nor is it focused solely on the Rollkur / hyperflexion problem. To be entirely honest, Rollkur / hyperflexion isn’t even *the* issue, rather we’ve again missed the whole problem that is being superficially represented by Rollkur and those who are being allowed to utilize it in order to gain success.

I want to address Rollkur from two perspectives…

1. Being a symptom of a larger problem
2. It is one more ‘quick fix’ method just like many others that are “acceptable”

I got started thinking about this topic yesterday, while lunging one of my ‘young’ horses. He is a coming 5 year old who has had very little in the way of formal training. A bit of leading training when he was a weanling, he does a decent job in the cross-ties while still learning the art of giving space on the right side, picks up his feet and what have you. He isn’t shy about being touched all over, but yesterday was only his second time being lunged, ever. The last time was a year ago for a lunging demonstration that I video-taped. I have not be in any great rush to get him started under saddle.

I was contemplating the path that is taken by many when starting horses under saddle. I was envisioning many of the round-penning techniques that I have not only witnessed, but at some point in my horse experience have practiced myself. I remember being amazed at how quickly someone could start a horse under saddle with little or no dangerous reaction from the horse. The thought quickly crossed my mind, reminding me of a gadget I had seen not long ago – The Barnes Trainer – which guarantees to take the buck out of any horse young or old.

As all of these thoughts were crossing my mind, my young guy decided that the distractions I was taking part in mentally were warrant enough to bring my attention back to him. He opted to get my attention by getting more and more nervous about the arena, the scary wind blowing things around outside, and now whinnying to the other horses…

Certainly he could have continued to escalate – something all too common – to a place of throwing a temper tantrum, spooking repeatedly, continuing to become more and more distracted and distraught, perhaps showing signs of being herd-bound, rearing, bucking, kicking, striking, trying to rub himself all over me, running through my attempts to stop him, etc. He does, afterall, have the perfect excuse of having very little handling, right?

Instead I took my focus back to the one thing which can be reliably concentrated on – his feet. It is something that takes the mind back to doing, rather than reacting. Soon he is down to a level calm, he’s sighing and letting out little sneezy snorts, head is lowering, his tail is swinging and he is perfect tune to my every whim.

I never take these things for granted, that is the ad caveat I want to leave. Sometimes when I read my posts I can’t help but think, “my gosh, I sound like someone who has ridden for only a few weeks and is excited because she was able to pick up her horse’s feet!” But the truth is that I am constantly excited! I have been working with horses for 14+ years, day in and day out. I can’t help but think that if I’m not excited about it like a little kid, then there is no point in doing it anymore. I can just as easily have problems which are incurable by the best of trainers as I could have no problems with my horses, and my excitement isn’t so much at the lack of problems as it is about the level of communication and the depth of my relationship with my horses, something which I hope brings back some inspiration to everyone who reads my blog or listens to my radio show, read my book, works with me, etc…

How does this whole mess relate to Rollkur / hyperflexion? Just as easily as I was able to bring myself back to focusing on something I could initiate rather than reacting to my own horse’s actions (thereby exasperating them..), I could have decided to cover up what he was telling me with some sort of gadget. Rollkur advocates create rollkur on the lunge even… ! I could shut down what O Man (yes, that is his nickname ) was trying to tell me – that he was nervous, that I wasn’t paying attention to him, that he needed someone to guide him because he isn’t mature enough to lead the way or go on autopilot, that he isn’t sure what it is that I want, that the big bad wind is scary, so on and so forth. Whatever the exactness of his words were, I listened instead of putting duct tape over his mouth.

Rollkur is that duct tape, but it isn’t the only method we use to shut the horse’s communication down with us. How many ride with tie-downs to hide a horse who tosses it’s head because of a rider’s poor hands, rough bit, insecurity in the saddle, or lack of forward movement? How many ride with martingales, use spurs, are constantly batting with their whip or the length of their reins, resort to harsher bits to get the job done, tie their horse’s mouth shut with crank cavesons and flash nosebands?

It isn’t even because we know that is what we are doing. There might initially be some gut feeling of ickiness about the whole concept of these gadgets or methods, but eventually we dull our gut feelings out with the reassurances of other riders, trainers, people we look up to or are seeking approval from. Whatever the reason, eventually we dull ourselves out as much as we are attempting to dull our horse out. And it works, until it doesn’t. It will work on lots of horses, until one of them protests so much as to hurt someone or themselves. But… we still write it off as being a personal problem with that individual horse.

Rollkur is simply a method which disgusts us more than other gadgets – there are even people outside of those winning gold medals and trophies, who support Rollkur! How is it any different from the soring of Tennessee Walking Horses? It isn’t, both are used in a way to win some recognition at the expense of the horse. Rollkur is a double blind though, because it is also used as a method to control the horse, to keep the horse from bolting across the arena rather than halting at x ‘and salute’.

What all of these gadgets and gimmicks (including Rollkur) have in common is the fact that they are band-aids for a bigger wound. It is similar to our healthcare system even – we simply medicate, medicate, medicate… and ignore what is going on underneath. Why? Usually because it is less frightening to simply dull out, shut down, hide and ignore than it is to face, confront, chase after, discover the truths hiding underneath. But, that is our perception, and the mind does not equal reality.

Rollkur is really a sign of the times. We medicate and bandage as a society on the whole. The issues facing us with our horse is only a mirror of what is facing us in other aspects of our life.

It think I’ve managed to cover both positions that I was aiming for. This morning in my mailbox I got an email with another rollkur based video in it on youtube. In it’s description area, there was mention of the study I posted about earlier, in which the horses choose either rollkur position or a natural neck position based on which direction they choose in a maze. I can’t help but wonder why it is, that we know this to be wrong, even the FEI has declared it a form of abuse… and still we continue trying to prove it is wrong through other means. Why is it not enough that the horse’s mental faculties – not to mention his now perverted sense of relationship with humans – is being abused in order to say enough is enough? Is it a greater sign of how much we are willing to let ourselves be abused while making excuses or searching for a good enough sign of proof that we are being abused before putting an end to it?

I can’t help but link our relationship building with the horse to our relationship building with other people. We are perfectly happy letting a boyfriend/girlfriend treat us like dirt, and still wonder why our horse is walking all over us? Or vice versa and cannot understand why our horse has no confidence? Everything is connected, no matter how we might like to say that our arm is not connected to our leg, it is via the center of our body. It is all an intrisically connected network.

I propose that no horseman is perfect. Rather, the whole idea of exemplifying one individual over another is rather preposterous. Instead, are we at risk, with such a statement, of confusing a horseman’s skill at riding with his personality and social popularity?

Popular horsemen have existed throughout the ages while still openly abusing their horses. And, despite the conceived notion of their superior riding skills in spite of the abuses, they make the same fatal mistakes of average riders – suffering from falls and other injuries at the mercy of the horses they so “expertly” ride and abuse…

Francois de la Gueriniere wrote about horsemen in his time who placed their own ego above the welfare of the horse, pretending to have skills that they were devoid of, as well as criticizing outlets of schooling the horse which were supported by other horsemen. How much has changed since his time?

Horsemanship is much like an art, with a brave exception. Art is not normally at risk of being abused by the artist – at least not in the literal sense. Horsemanship is at its very core, the art of building a relationship between two creatures wholly opposite in nature, tendencies, habits, reactions, actions, motivations, languages, thought processes, and social heirarchy. While many art forms, martial arts for example, are best mastered by mastering oneself, still many do not require this component to be successful. Horsemanship relies upon the equestrians’ ability to know themselves, and therefore come to know the horse.

This may sound contradictory given the opposite nature of the equestrian to the horse, but quite to the contrary. To know one extreme well enough, you begin to understand the opposite extreme as well. That is how we come closest to understanding the mind of the horse. When we intentionally work towards knowing an extreme foreign to ourselves we tend to move closer to knowing only ourselves and mistaking it for who and what the horse is. Our perception becomes filled with assumptions, ego, and false confidences. The horse loses the ability to be seen for who he is because it is as though we are looking at a mirror with the outline of a horse painted on, thinking the horse outline is really the horse, when truly we are seeing only our own pros, cons, habits, actions, fears, beliefs, etc.

Have you been caught up in the whirlwind of thinking that much of riding is about impressing your fellow riders, your instructor, trainer, the judges at the show, all the other competitors, your students and clients, and perhaps non-horsey spectators?

What about impressing your horse?

I am reminded of a time in my own life when it seems that I took on the duty of trying to be something to everyone, trying to impress them with some feat, talent, quality that I possessed with riding and training horses. And with it I began failing even the basic talents that I once held. My horses’ training deteriorated, I found myself frustrated and my horses equally or more-so.

It seemed like every day was a challenge not to overcome, but a challenge to fail at every turn. But the days that I went out and explored, that I was curious and inquisitive. The days that I listened to my horses instead of what I thought everyone else wanted… those were the days that I flew high with my horses. Those were the days that new things were created. Our relationship expanded and my horses offered freely new talents of their own, and in turn supported the development of my own unique gifts.

Ever wonder why they say that horses are the greatest teachers? It is because they listen without criticism. They encourage your questioning mind. If you make an honest mistake they are freely forgiving. Like the best of mentors they will let you go on and on doing the wrong thing without beating you over the head until you are ready to listen, and then their silent words resonate so deep that you are amazed at the lesson you learn.

Today, I challenge you to strip away all the outside motivators from your relationship with the horse. Go ride, go interact, go listen, go whisper in your horse’s ears. Be a child again, get curious, ask questions, discover new worlds. Leave the critics and judges outside for today.

Happy Monday! I hope your weekend was as beautiful as ours was here in southern Wisconsin. Sunny days and glorious temperatures…

I happened upon this in my travels online today while looking something else up, thought I would share. The Horse Diary Movie.

You may be wondering what the piano tuning is all about? If you are like me, you share the common grounds of riding horses, and loving the piano. But perhaps your is out of tune, or yours is in disrepair? That too we share in common. I’m getting charged up at the thought of restoring my old M. Schulz upright piano, and found this great book online that talks about how to repair and restore your piano.

The Piano Owner’s Survival Guide : How to Repair and Care For Your Piano. Written by Steve van Nattan. He also sells piano parts, kits, tools, covers and so on, oh, and a CD showing professional techniques!

As I was suturing up my horse’s leg, it dawned on me… how many of us are either unprepared or unsure of how to handle an emergency situation? Are we paying enough attention to spot the signs of colic before it is too late to effectively treat it? Do we have the relationship with our horse that allows us to perform emergency medical care without relying upon a sedative? Is our emergency kit packed with the right tools for the right job?

These are all vital and important questions, and nothing to be overlooked lightly. It is very easy for us to fall back on the reliance upon a vet being able to care for every ailment our horse might face, but the vet won’t be the one to spot the problem in the first place, and because of that it is necessary to have the knowledge to know when your horse is just kicking at flies, or when your horse is kicking at a colicy belly. And, there is always that time when your horse gets a serious injury and the vet has left for a 3 day weekend with no one reachable last minute.

All magical thoughts that came to my mind, as I was pushing with all my strength while trying to reserve some sense of tact and gentile with the suture needle. Horse skin is thick! As my horse was occasionally moving his leg, just enough to deter me in the beginning to *just do it* but not enough to frustrate me or keep me from getting the job done.

And in the end, once the last stich was in, the knot tied and the string cut, as I was putting the finishing touches on a job made in hopes to avoid scar tissue and nasty proud flesh, I reflected on the curiosity of the situation. It might help for you to understand, this was one of my four year old geldings, one of the horses who had the fortunate and not-so-fortunate luck to have been growing up while I was living 2000 miles away from home. They got to enjoy as wild a life as a horse can enjoy on 15 acres in Wisconsin. One of the horses who gets daily pasture attention but has yet to live up to any full time occupation or even part time formal schooling. And here he was, standing quite modestly with his nose to the ground waiting for me to finish stitching up his leg. Like I mentioned before, do you have the relationship with your horse that allows you to treat him without tranquilizers?

So, I hope this post inspires you to go out and check your emergency kit. Make sure it is well stocked and has the important essentials. This goes beyond vet-wrap and wonder dust. Do you have things that will be needed in an absolute emergency? Talk with your vet and create a really sound emergency kit! And learn how to be effective in an emergency situation! Ask your vet if you can help assist on calls and learn some hands on skills. Read medical books, many are put in layman’s terms to help make it easier to study.

And last, but not least, build a relationship with your horse. Does he trust you implicitly? Or only when you have enough arm-power to push him around? Draw reins will be of no help to calm and control if your horse gets caught in the fence…

For those in the know, Philippe Karl is one of the modern Masters of Classical Dressage. For those who do not know, he will just seem a foreign concept. Perhaps it is time you learned more about this modern Master of the Equestrian Arts…  Now you can read his article “Taking Over Equestrian Culture” online.

Perhaps fitting, yesterday was my birthday, and I was born in the year 1984… the same year that Reiner Klimke scored the Olympic Gold Medal aboard his Westfalian gelding, Ahlerich. Here is a tempting video, highlighting their victory lap at the Olympic Games.

And, in case you weren’t privy to the show live or watched it previously, or maybe you just want to watch it again… here is the winning video of Reiner Klimke riding Ahlerich to Gold at the 1984 Olympic Equestrian Games.

Ever have the curiosity about someone who not only pursues academically, but artistically, that of Classical Dressage? The haute ecole, equestrian art, etc? Bettina Drummond, an American, student of Nuno Oliveira… Here it is for you, hope you can understand French. Cest la vie!

I got this question posted and wanted to address it directly. Perhaps this will help anyone else with the same problem!

Dani Writes :

“I am currently exercising a very difficult horse. He is not vicious, but is very difficult to catch.
When i go into the field, I approach him quietly, give him a pat and slip the head collar on. He NEVER moves away from me when I do this. I can then calmly lead him towards the gate of the field. However, sometime before i get there he stops. He plants his feet and will not move forwards, or to either side. The more i pull on the lead rope, the more he walks backwards. If I stop, he stops. If I try to walk close to his side in order to flick his hindquarters with the end of the lead rope, he turns them away from me. He never appears scared, in fact he normally sighs a lot during this encounter, as if bored with my attempts! From that moment on, it is almost impossible to get him to move on, even with food. Eventually, if I persist, he turns and trots away. I can then walk up to him again, without him moving away, and can do the same as before, but he always stops again. The article above did not help my problem, but after reading the one about resistance, I believe he is demonstrating weight resistance. I can only go to him once a week, so can’t even lead him in and out a few times a day without riding him, so that he doesn’t link my catching him to him doing work. Any ideas how I can get him to walk all the way out? Any tips would be very helpful!”

Hi Dani,

I hope that I am understanding the question correctly, I got a little confused when you mention that if you persist at asking him to move, he eventually turns and trots away from you. I am wondering if you mean that you do not have him on a lead, but simply by the halter? Or perhaps he protests strongly enough to get out of your hands?

Horses are very patient creatures, they don’t live on the same kind of ­time clock that we do. They do not wear watches, but instead simply live in the moment rather than being caught up in the concerns of commitments, appointments, work and so on. Lucky them! We are a mismatched pair in comparison, when often our lives run by the time clock. We rush from one thing to the other based on the consequence of a minute’s passing. If we are two minutes late it were as if the world were coming to an end, there is no room for give. Many people live on a much more relaxed schedule, but it is rare when we live the same as the horse does, with no regard to time keeping track of the progress of our lives.

Because of this, it is very easy for the horse to take advantage of our time commitments to simply protest long enough that we either get too frustrated, get too late, are too tired, etc. If I were to tell you it will take 20 hours straight to fix the problem, you would probably throw your hands up in the air and consider it too great a task to be achieved, but if I were to say the same to the horse he would likely ask me what an hour was and why it mattered.

Weight resistance can play a part, but you have to keep in mind that anything that is expressed in the horse’s body first began in the mind. Weight resistance is easily overcome if you are able to find the original cause, which is the horse’s mind. Sometimes we are given horses to work with that we do not know their history, and not that it is any great help because we cannot change what has happened but only move forward from where we are now. Without understanding where the horse came from we get to wander through the dark at times guessing where the issue is, how it is related to the hurdles we are presently faced with and so on. At least with a history we get a small flashlight to probe around with possibilities and rule them out first.

Weight resistance is only a symptom and not the cause. Because of that we still have to address the cause before we can solve the symptom…

I’ve had a similar encounter with one of my horses, fully dedicated to the art of postponing work, leaving the pasture, going anywhere that I had determined, or otherwise complying with being led in any direction. First he would feign that he had to pee, so there he would stand all spread eagle, as I waited patiently for the inevitable.. only, it never arrived. He would have stood there for hours. Just dallying the day away. Initially it was quite unnerving and I was convinced something was wrong with him, and that he did in fact have to urinate but was somehow unable. After several vet checks, he was all clear, not one thing wrong with him. In fact he could have been the epitome of health at that point. Go figure. Back to square one. I could get him out of the stance if I asked him to step to the side in either direction, but then he would immediately resume it just one step later.

Jerry seemed to understand perfectly what he was doing. He never looked upset, and like you describe, almost gave an impression of being bored. Great, so now I have a horse who not only will not move, but he is consumed with boredom as a result of my efforts to alleviate the problem!

You have to remember, we tend to create areas of habit for our animals. The pasture is for eating, sleeping and otherwise relaxing. The barn is for grooming, graining, farrier and vet interaction. The arena or trail is for work (or play…). All the in-between areas tend to have little or no distinct meaning. Our own life is laid out like this. Home is where we eat, sleep, relax. Work is, well, where we work. The car is what transports us between the two, but the road we drive on doesn’t have much personal meaning to us. We haven’t interacted at every place along it and so we don’t have a negative or positive opinion of it. The same goes for the horse, he understands perfectly well where he is headed, and can choose to resist that, but the road to his work hasn’t been defined as work, play, rest, food, etc yet. For some horses it is very well defined as food, as demonstrated by the horse dragging his owner down for a bite of grass along the way.

The key to solving an issue such as this, is to break the line between where you work and where you play. Your ultimate destination, and the need to achieve it, has gotten in the way of a perfect opportunity. Remember, every interaction you have with the horse is a training session of some sort. It applies the same way with people, every interaction they learn what they can or cannot do. Your horse has at some point learned that he can get away with this, and you haven’t paid enough attention to the small signs leading up to it until they have finally planted their hooves in the dirt and refused to move! That is okay, let it be a lesson in paying closer attention to the small details. But now what does one do to correct it? That is very simple!

Take the chance to play with him. Don’t make it about getting him up from the field, that is already a battle he knows he can win, by doing absolutely nothing. Make your interaction about something much smaller that you can accomplish. For example, make it about getting him to shift his weight from side to side without moving a foot and on a light connection. That can then evolve into getting him to take a step to the side with one foot in one direction and then back into the other direction. Again, make sure you keep your connection light. You want to think of the connection like a phone, you want to be able to hear your horse as well as talk to him through it, and if you yell (use a lot of force or effort) he will be less inclined to listen and you won’t be able to hear what he is saying over the tone of your voice.

The key here is to make it a fun game, think about discovering something new in this. Be observant! What else can you learn from the exercise? All too often we get caught up in training the horse and we forget that he has a lot of wisdom to impart on us as well, if we only listen, if we allow ourselves to be curious. What would you do with him if you were only a kid still? When we become adults we understand the idea of work all too well and forget about playing.

Don’t make it about getting him to leave the pasture. Make it about the interaction between you two. When the relationship is solid between you two, in that you are listening to him and he is listening to you (the first part of that is the most important, we can focus on getting the horse to listen to us but it is a moot point if we aren’t listening ourselves, that has to come first!), everything comes easy. You don’t even have to think about working for it, you just think about it and it happens. Whether it is catching him or doing flying lead changes. That is the one trick that most instructors cannot teach, which is how to build a solid relationship with the horse, how to listen to the horse, and that is why instead they sell methods to training the horse. If you can listen to the horse everything comes as easy as breathing.

I hope this helps, would love to hear back about your progress!

Erica K. Frei
Author “Centered Self, Centered Horse : A Simple Guide To Horsemanship“

Wondering if you have good timing, good rhythm? Wondering why I am writing something that perhaps has more in common with music than riding a horse? Good question! Riding is so well connected to music and dance, but that connection is so easily forgotten. The way in which we move our body, the timing of our actions, their direction and the energy behind them all influence the horse on a level that is beyond that of mathematic figures or scientific theory.

So, I found this handy little online test to see what kind of rhythm we have. This Free Online Rhythm Test should be done in Internet Explorer browsers, or with an external metronome if you don’t have sound on your computer.

What were your results? My Rhythmicity Index (RI) = 68.5 < < < <

What was yours?

Oh, and they even have an online video demonstrating how to do the test.

Are you a Negaholic? Even in disguise? Negativity is addictive, and can present itself in so many ways. Perhaps you are already aware of it, the first step, and now you are looking for a way to release those negative thoughts. Whatever the case, we came here for Change.. so how are the two linked together?

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
~Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy

Why such a quote? I see so often the want for change to come through negativity, we point fingers, we criticize, complain and so on. This certainly can work, if it is on a large-scale basis, I think here of the protests surrounding Vietnam. But what about on the local level, on the scale that does not involve the entire country, but parts of it spread throughout every community? i.e. Horses.

We are afterall, struggling with a surplus of horses that are filling and overfilling rescues, being turned out loose when the owners give up caring for them, or starve to death at their owner’s hands. It used to be that we heard of the struggle to save horses from the meat buyers at auctions, but with the recent outlaw of horse slaughter in the US, that is mostly a distant echo in our not so distant past. We still hear stories of horses being trucked to Canada or Mexico for the same slaughter fate, but less and less as it has become more expensive to haul horses thanks to fuel prices.

How do we create change to affect horse owners and breeders, to impact them on a level that brings about responsible ownership, care, training, retirement of older horses, as well as the knowledgeable insight to breed quality horses vs. large quantities of horses. Can this be a change by only a handful of people?

What if that kind of change were to become a national expectation? What happens when we go to a fancy restaurant? Do we eat with our hands, talk loudly or argue over our meal, wear our pajamas in and bring a child who is not only out of control but has a cold on top of it, evidenced by the green snot half-dried running out of their nose. No. We do what is expected at a fancy/expensive restaurant. We get dressed up and prepare for the evening out, we do our hair, put on make-up, we use formal table manners, and leave the kids with a baby-sitter.

How have we come to the place that our expectations of the kind of care involved with horses, and responsibility, is of such low or non-existent expectation? And how do we change it?

I cannot agree with the means, but one person has taken it upon themselves to bring embarrassing (or abrasive) awareness to people who in her opinion are making dire mistakes. The Fugly Horse Blog has brought about a lot of attention, I think perhaps the most common remark I hear about it is that it is entertaining and funny. Where did I miss the comedy? I can’t help but feel that it is a bit like a school teacher who yells at you for getting it wrong and slaps you on the wrists, but never explains how to get it right.. Do you think you are safe from her judgment? Probably not, at least not if you appear online in any way, shape or form. Is it the best way to exact change, or is it simply a compass that point due north? Do we really feel motivated to help make changes after reading all the negative remarks? I certainly don’t, I feel like throwing in the towel and walking away.

But how do we bring about change in our own individual ways? Maybe we can learn something from other people who are trying to do just that…

Making A Difference : With Hanna Cooper

Twenty Five Days To Make A Difference

Top 10 Ways To Make A Difference In The World

iEARN : International Education and Resource Network

Strive 4 Impact : Jonathan Kraft

“Being good is commendable, but only when it is combined with doing good is it useful.”
~Author Unknown

For anyone not familiar with the french mastery of equestrian theater, The Theatre Equestre Zingaro is perhaps the epitome of horsemanship made into art and displayed in a public theater. It’s latest production, Battuta, appears to leave one wanting only for more horse theater!

And for those wanting still more, you can attend the Académie du Spectacle Equestre in France and learn the many arts of horsemanship and beyond.

Battuta seems full of life and full of the oddities that fill it… (don’t forget to scroll the pictures by putting your mouse to the far left or right of the screen)