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…
- Being a symptom of a larger problem
- 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.
