DRESSAGE: BRUTALITY OR FINESSE?

There is a strange paradox in the world of dressage — theoretically an art, with an emphasis on beauty of form and movement, but in practice an activity that often involves tension, force and harshness. One of the worst abuses is forcing the horse's head to stay behind the vertical.

A basic definition of dressage is "the training of the horse". Training is essentially a structured process that seeks to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes to achieve effective performance. However, the popular approach to dressage is more a method of coercion and blame, which gives sub-standard results and damages the horse in many and various ways.

Most riders are not aware that they are mis-treating their horses, and would probably be offended if this were to be suggested to them. It is hard to reconcile the idea that they love their horses, but will abuse them physically and mentally. This contradiction of theory and practice is seen more often in dressage than in any other equestrian discipline.

Dressage is mainly about collection. As most dressage riders are ignorant of what constitutes collection and how to achieve it, they pull their horse's head in to his chest. With his head in this position the horse is extremely vulnerable, and the rider therefore has more control over him.

In Article 401 of the international dressage guidelines, the FEI states:

The object of Dressage is the development of the horse into a happy athlete through harmonious education.

Harmonious education means training without using fear or force: without coercion, without mechanical devices, without domination. This kind of training requires a little more skill than the master-slave approach.

In the FEI description of “on the bit”, the following paragraph contains the essence of how the rider should manage the front of the horse:

The head should remain in a steady position, as a rule slightly in front of the vertical, with a supple poll as the highest point of the neck, and no resistance should be offered to the rider.

These days it is common to see, at the highest level, horses that are ridden behind the vertical, with their polls not the highest point. It is manifested in the way the horse moves — shortened strides, absence of impulsion, lack of brilliance. Whenever a rider puts the horse's head in a position where it is behind the vertical, this creates the potential to damage the horse in many ways.

For example:

1. The nuchal ligament is stretched and displaced:
The whole poll-to-3rd vertebrae area is overflexed and under strain, the vertebral column is trapped inside the nuchal ligament and the vertebral bodies of the neck are forced to meeet unevenly. This restricts the flow of energy and causes pain. When the nuchal and supraspinous ligaments are overstretched, pressure is placed on the bursae (small fluid sacs), inhibiting ease of movement of these ligaments across bony landmarks.

2. Engagement of the hind legs is restricted:
When the rider enforces a vertical or behind the vertical position of the head, he blocks the proper activity of the hind legs. This causes discomfort and the horse tries to avoid it by poking his nose (shortening the muscles of the topline of the neck) or by contracting the mandibular muscles to hold the mouth open or to lock the jaw. When riders do this they not only make engagement of the hindlegs difficult but also prevent movement of the head and neck . This problem usually has to be overcome by stronger leg and spur aids.

3. Pain and tension are created in the mouth:
Both the tongue and hyoid apparatus are pulled back and the whole jowl area is tense. The hyoid apparatus connects the tongue at the throat, and a pull on this muscle draws the tongue back and stiffens the neck at the jowl. For correct work and relaxation the tongue needs to relax, drop down and carry the bit properly. Additionally, if the horse has sharp hooks and/or ramps on his teeth, this can be quite painful to the cheeks, tongue and gums.

4. Breathing is obstructed:
A group of researchers at Michigan State University (1995) have shown that when a horse is made to go behind the vertical, inspiratory impedance is significantly increased and inspiratory flow is decreased. That means that when the head/neck position is flexed, upper airway obstruction is caused. When the neck is curled up, the air pipe is pressed against the spine at the base of the neck, and bent at the top of the neck. — the horse can't breathe properly.

5. Extension of the front legs is restricted:
The front feet will normally hit the ground in alignement with the face of the horse. Therefore, if the face of the horse is behind the vertical, the front feet will land much shorter than is desirable, unbalancing the horse and creating a jerky movement.

6. Vision is limited:
Because the horse can only see in a line with their nose, when he is ridden on or behind the vertical, he is unable to see where he is going. What he actually sees when his head is down low and behind the vertical, is the ground in front of his feet. He can’t see what’s directly in front of him. This means he has to put a lot of trust in the rider, giving the rider great control.

7. Teeth are damaged:
When the horse's head is behind the vertical, the action of the bit is upwards and backwards, operating primarily on the teeth. The patterns left by bits are remarkably distinctive and consistent — they tend to wear down the front edge of pre-molars leaving a beveled surface; they also tend to cause repeated microscopic chips in the same spot, resulting in a stair-step pattern of cracks, and they additionally cause small radiating fractures on the enamel surface of the tooth. The location of this damage is distinct from that caused by normal side-to-side grinding patterns produced by normal chewing.

8. The horse 'switches off' mentally:
He does this so he can cope with the physical pain created by the rider, who then has to become stronger and more demanding in order to get the required response from the horse.

Putting a horse behind the vertical results in disempowering the horse, depriving it physically and mentally of any ability to resist. It has been pointed out that where poor riding makes the horse unable to resist, good riding strives to give the horse no reason to resist.

Most people know that it is counter-productive to teach a child using punishment and force — it is just as foolish to ride a horse using the brutality of having his head behind the vertical. Riding a horse using finesse requires slightly more thought and knowledge, but the results are infinitely greater and much more rewarding.