This is an article of a conversation between B.H.S. horse trainer, Alexander teacher and NLP life coach, Joni Bentley, and the well-known German veterinarian Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, who’s also the author of Tug of War: Classical versus “Modern” Dressage.
Joni Bentley is the originator of The Bentley Technique. The Bentley Technique is a simple way to realign your own and your horse’s spine – which naturally awakens your innate capacity for comfort and grace in riding. Heuschmann has a passion for helping the dressage world become aware of the terrible damage being done to horses in today’s competitive riding circuit. He is a Grand Prix rider and an international speaker and teacher. His workshops and talks highlight the injuries he sees as a veterinarian to other Grand Prix horses. He teaches a natural, biomechanical approach to training.
Joni: What you say about good functional connections between the head, neck, and back in the horse was discovered 100 years ago in people by F.M. Alexander – the originator of the Alexander Technique. It’s very exciting for me as an Alexander teacher and horse trainer to see how your teachings on the biomechanics of the horse support what I’ve been saying – and doing – for 20 years.
I’m particularly interested in your theory that good training encourages the base of the horse’s neck to lift and move forwards up and out of the shoulders. That takes on the responsibility of supporting the rider’s weight, leaving the locomotion muscles in the horse’s back and abdomen free to do their work. Would you elaborate on that?
Gerd: This question is key! Good riding creates a balanced horse. Balance means you keep the whole body working well as a unit. In this, there’s no difference between a warmblood or a quarter horse, or between an American, French, or German trainer.
The centre of movement in a horse is the back – the long back muscles are made to move the horse, not carry a rider. Yet the rider sits on the horse’s back. So we need to use different parts of the horse’s body to bring his back up into balance.
Another key, as Philippe Karl (author of Twisted Truths of Modern Dressage) says, is the rider’s contact with the mouth. The back can’t be supple and the hind legs can’t step under if the mouth, poll, and neck aren’t supple and relaxed. If the mouth isn’t soft, if the nose isn’t on the vertical and the jaw relaxed, then the neck can’t flex laterally, and the horse won’t open his throatlatch and search for the bit. So the key is for the poll to be supple, flexible, and soft. Then you get the rest.
Joni: I think a serious problem in today’s dressage world is the role models for young, ambitious riders.
Look at these photos of the 2008 World Cup Final.
Modern dressage - example A
Even though the horse can’t bend any more, the rider is still pulling, completely wrapped up in her success.
Modern dressage - example B
Take a look inside the horse’s mouth.The poor horse’s tongue is purple from being constricted by the bits. The horse is trying to suck his tongue up away from the bits, and the jaw and poll are locked in defence. Surely this goes against all the rules of training? Yet she wins! Purple tongues seem to be accepted nowadays as normal – I just don’t understand it.
Gerd: Yes. We see so many injuries to the mouth and jaw in our clinics.
I say it time and time again: It’s your pulling that pays to build our fine expensive clinics!
As a veterinarian specializing in orthopaedics, I see the results. Suspensory ligaments destroyed, sore backs, sore polls, wounds in the tongue, and even broken jaws. Worst of all are the tight dropped nosebands. When the rider pulls, the noseband presses the horse’s lips against the teeth. This is a very common injury.
What are we doing, we veterinarians – what’s our role in this?
It’s like being a doctor working in the torture chambers of Saddam Hussein. They nearly kill the guys, you repair them, and when they’re healthy you send them back. This is our world, this is what we do. I don’t want to be part of this circus that’s producing poor animals, making a big show, and killing them. This is not the aim of dressage.
It’s a bad thing. And that’s why I refuse to do it.
It’s hard for us Germans, with our classical tradition of training horses, to look at the development of modern dressage. When you look at the rules of dressage written by the FEI, you think you’re in heaven. Then we look at what’s actually happening, and it’s unbelievable. What they’re doing is the exact opposite of the rules.
I love the philosophy behind classical dressage. Our judges have to change. The time has come!
Classical dressage
Compare this example of classical dressage to the following photos of today’s dressage.
Modern dressage - example C
Modern dressage - example D
Joni: Yes – it’s as if the judges are blind. The pictures in the books on classical training show how beautifully the FEI rules can be expressed – how did we get from there to where we are today?
I mentioned F.M. Alexander earlier. He discovered that for a human to achieve good posture, the neck must be free and allowed to lengthen up out of the shoulders. Then the head can move forwards and up while the back lengthens and widens in an opposing stretch down to the ground. Francois de la Gueriniere found the same thing applies in the horse, as have you.
In developing my training techniques, I took Alexander’s approach and applied it to horses and riders together. It’s been a powerful way of re-educating riders to work with the way their bodies and their horses’ bodies naturally move.
Gerd: That’s right. Like you, I work with many damaged horses that have mostly draw rein experiences. They’re compressed even further by riders with stiff seats and ridged hands. I’ve learned that if you offer a very soft contact, without worrying about the head and neck position, and you feel for the hind leg with a listening seat, the horse engages behind release his poll and jaw and starts to chew.
Joni: Many riders come to my workshops trying to use Philippe Karl’s technique of relaxing the jaw, as he describes in his book. They’ve often badly misunderstood how it works. They have no awareness of how they’re using their hands or how the horse is reacting in his mouth. Without this awareness, riders feel like nothing is happening, and start trying to force the horse. Then, as Philippe said to me,
“The horse defends in the mouth. His whole body goes into contraction and it’s all over, you may as well put him back in the stable.”
That’s why this is the first lesson I teach in my workshops. I start with what you refer to as the first grade of bending, using voltes. When you bend the horse with the outside rein, the voltes stretch the outside of the horse and work the inside hind. That relaxes tightness and one-sidedness. As a natural consequence, the horse starts to seek the contact, softening his jaw and chewing. Then you can go on to the second-grade bending, flexing the poll.
The best thing about starting with first-grade bending is that riders don’t have to be very experienced. That’s important, because we need to work this way from the beginning. Philippe says it’s ridiculous how trainers ignore the mobility and softness of the jaw and tongue. Many trainers get it more at the level of piaffe, but it should be at the beginning, not the end of training!
I think this is a serious shortfall in our riding education. Riders need, as we agree, to do less and feel more. To think and give the horse time and space to react.
Gerd: Yes! This is very similar to my training, and it’s key. And this misunderstanding you mention – it’s a big problem. When these concepts we’re describing are misinterpreted, the training doesn’t work. Then the trainers get frustrated and start forcing the horse. Many people want to work on the horse actively, and there I see a problem. In reality, the more you come forward in your own education, as you are suggesting, the less you need to do, not more.
Joni: It’s so difficult for me when students have role models such as this Olympics winner, where the horse has yielded as much as he can, the rider is still pulling, and nobody even notices that his tongue is purple. It’s been wonderful to have you on my side, with the authority you have as a veterinarian and an international speaker
Gerd: You’re right. We have to create more understanding. We have to educate people and make them aware how important this is. It’s difficult, because in our society the emphasis is on showmanship. But the rider has to start to feel, to wait, and to think, and not to do.
Joni: And to enjoy and love what they are doing, and that precious relationship with the horse.
Gerd: That’s it! Do you remember the quote from Xenophon? The horse should be your friend, not your slave. He needs to be your friend, and then he does everything happily for you.
Article taken from Joni Bently’s site http://www.jonibentley.co.uk.
I have Gerd’s book, it s horrific to see the damage inflicted on these poor horses, they try so hard for us & its terrible cruelty to force these un-natural outlines.
We recently visited Spain and purchased 2 young spanish horses, the 3 year old had been broken and ridden in the most lovely way & he has the most fantastic mouth and attitude of any horse we have owned. It was lovely to see the classical masters at work with their animals and not a draw rein or gadget in site !!!
More articles, more people riding and learning in a more natural way – I am sure it will turn around soon.
Keep up the good work
Unfortunately time and money seem to still be the issue for competition. I am not so sure that will change quickly, which is sad for the horses and for our sport (or passion). The less time it takes to get a horse to GP and competing and winning the better. It’s become more of a business and the horses are just tools way too often.
For those of us that have carefully followed classical principle in training our beloved horses, sitting on the sidelines and not showing because we know we’ll not stand a chance of winning, having this now come out into the open is highly refreshing.
I often wondered, and once asked my trainer, if the judges would even recognize good and correct riding if they saw it in a test, let alone be brave enough to reward it? I won’t comment on his answer.
When all this hoopla over rollkur began I made a decision to start showing even though I actually hate competitions. I honestly feel it’s high time classical riding be shown for all to watch, especially at the smaller local shows.
We have to give back to our love of the horse by inspiring our young riders to follow a better way, don’t we?
Yes, thank you to Gerd and Joni!!
What an excellent and valuable contribution. I wonder how we can join together more effectively, it sometimes feels as though the barriers to change are insurmountable. I am sorry to hear you have been negatively challenged Joni, the negative energy holding certain idea’s and principles in place is a powerful force field indeed, however, it is not as powerful as the truth and spirit of the horse, which carries with it centuries of historical humility and grace. I feel something remarkable is taking place. We are in the process of bringing light and life to a new way of thinking, this will temporarily magnify resistance before change takes place, if you consider that this change is not happening quickly enough for you, go and stand next to a horse for ten minutes and resonate with their authentic presence in the huge scheme of things, the world is always turning.
how about if everyone in the UK makes a commitment (New Year’s resolution!) to find and support a CRC competition or other event? this would give the Club real momentum, Please support those who are working towards a real alternative!
The Classical Riding Club has been working against the hyperflexion of the horse in all riding disciplines (but particularly in dressage) for the past 14 years. It was why we started the Club – with an initial Petition agains the use of drawreins… it wasn’t called rollkur then. There is all the difference between hyperflexion as shown in Joni’s excellent article and working the horse soft, low and deep with the nose not pulled back.
I am not trying to sell my books on here but my Dressage In Lightness published in 2000 addresses all this and more.
As regards our system of judging dressage and using marksheets that make it almost impossible to ride as some of these competitors are doing (if they did they would come bottom!)yes, we are working hard towards this end.
I would welcome a public debate with Joni and Gerd so that we can all be seen to be united on this front. It worries me that too many classical trainers seem to claim ‘classical and correct’ as their own. Good, light riding has been around for centuries. We must get together to show this before we can condemn the bad. Sylvia Loch
Kris, there is an organisation in the UK which does just what you suggest, it is Sylvia Loch’s Classical Riding Club, which puts on competitions in which you can ride bitless or any bit of your choice (excepting gags) and you get bonus points for riding in a simple snaffle with a cavesson noseband and no whip or spurs! Horses are judged on their way of going relevant to their breed and type, and more emphasis is put on rider effectiveness.
The sadness is that it is poorly supported, and competitions are few and far between – I tried really hard to get these tests run by my local dressage group, and had virtually no entries.
I think there are a lot of riders and trainers out there who are going to be very, very ashamed of what they did to their horses, if/when they ever discover how easy it is to get a horse to cooperate without using so much pressure.
Maybe one of the first steps should be to revise FEI rules to better reflect current advances in training, or better yet, start new organizations that would offer plain snaffle or bitless/whipless/spurless competitions?
It’s always possible that once people noticed how much fun it is to ride and train horses in the abscence of severe aversives, and how calm and happy the horses are, that more would be willing to give up the grandstanding to participate in horse friendly competitions?
The time may be right….
Kris
Keep talking, keep making noise. You are reaching more people who care than you can know.
Thanks you for your support I will let Gerd know. I have horrible attacks from forums like Horse and hound and Chronicle of the horse, so I am very grateful for your comment. Thanks Joni
omg i just cant stand looking at the pictures, especially the first one, she is all proud and smiling, and her horse is in such obvious pain they should all be “fired” everyone of them
These judges need to be fired.
The more “big names” that speak out on this issue, the better! The equestrian community is blessed with many people from all levels of horsemanship, all doing their part to restore decency to the training of their beloved horses. But it seems to me that the most important change can only come from the judging — reward correct training and the abuse will fall away.
Judges, please do your part!
thank you Gerd and Joni, for making your points so clearly!