Recently, the FEI have announced that they have completed an extensive review of Cesar Parra’s training methods covering many years. The tribunal evaluated large amounts of evidence showing Parra abusing numerous horses across countless training sessions. Parra has received a fine, a 15-year ban from FEI and national competitions, and is prohibited from training other FEI riders and horses for the duration of the ban. However, this does not stop Parra from continuing to own and train horses.

This rider has been at top level dressage since the mid 1990’s, including competing at the Athens Olympic games. Which raises a very important question.

Why have judges continually promoted this rider by awarding him high marks?

There is individual variation in how each trainer choses to progress the horse and rider. The movements used are the same, but the way that they are ridden, when and how they are used, and which gadgets are employed vary greatly.

A similarity between dressage and art can be made here. A group of artists can all paint the same thing at the same time. They will all apply paint to a canvas and at the end there will be a picture of what they saw. But each picture is different based on the artists interpretation of the view and how they have used the tools available to them.

The way in which a horse has been trained can be clearly seen in the way that the horse performs each movement. In the way that an art expert can look at a painting and see the techniques the painter used, dressage judges should have the knowledge and experience to see the type of training, based on how each movement is performed.

However, they still award high marks for poorly executed movements, champion horses moving with hollow backs and braced necks, and ignore signs of pain and distress that the horse shows.

For the world of dressage to survive, the judging needs to change radically and rapidly. Horses are not machines; movements vary depending on the horse’s conformation and its natural abilities. It is the trainer’s responsibility to recognise this and adapt the training to best suit the horse. It is the judge’s responsibility to recognise where training has been incorrectly used for the horse they are seeing, and mark this appropriately.

Please see previous blogs -
charlotte-dujardin-returns-to-competition.html and 
another-olympic-rider-abuses-a-horse5440859.html

Training Riders, Transforming Horses
© Diane Followell

Last week Charlotte Dujardin returned to competing after finishing her 1-year ban for abusing a horse that she was training. But what does her situation say about competitive dressage?

Dujardin’s is not an isolated case. Carina Cassøe Kruth was dropped from the Paris Olympic squad for whipping her horse in a training session with Andreas Helgstrand. Helgstrand himself had a 15-month ban for horse abuse and is now back on the Danish team. The list goes on.

The FEI are responsible for maintaining the correct standards of the sport and preventing horses from suffering physical or mental harm, yet the only riders or trainers who receive any kind of punishment are those who hit the headlines and receive public condemnation. Bans and fines are implemented, but once the ban is over, the rider starts competing again and everything continues as before.

In response to public concern, the Danish Equestrian Federation are bringing in new rules to ban double bridles below level 4 (advanced medium). They will seek to have this rule implemented globally. This misses the main problem, what is being trained and how it is being judged.

If the judges cannot see when a horse is moving incorrectly, riders and coaches will continue to train badly executed movements. Some years ago, I watched lessons given by a well-known senior judge where teeth grinding, tail swishing and a horse kicking up at the rider’s legs were dismissed as normal.

Listening to the commentary from the Olympic games last year, this blindness to the state of riding at the highest level persists. Lavish praise was given for uneven piaffes, hollow rein back steps, extended trot without lengthened strides etc. This riding has now become so normalised, that many aspiring riders are oblivious to the damage that this is doing to horses.

Dujardin’s experience will not prevent the abuse. Dressage riders will simply stop people from recording training sessions so that they don’t get caught out.
​
Dressage judges, and those who sit on the committees that govern the sport at national and international level. have a duty to fully understand correct movements and training of dressage horses. Until they have the courage to admit to the huge problems that they have allowed to be perpetuated in competitive dressage, nothing will change.

These blogs may also be pf interest to you - 
is-modern-dressage-classical.html
statement-on-the-situation-regarding-charlotte-dujardin.html

​Training Riders, Transforming Horses
© Diane Followell

​Yet another video emerges of an Olympic dressage rider beating a horse (Nico) into submission. (The BBC article can be read here https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/articles/c991zle4r0loAustralia Ryan Heath ).
 
Nico had been sent to Australian Ryan Heath as unrideable. With a history of being a difficult horse, things had culminated in an accident resulting in his rider being hospitalised. Heath's solution was to whip Nico repeatedly, claiming to have acted in the best interest of the horse, that this was the only solution, and his method has made Nico rideable again.
 
These actions are inexcusable. There is absolutely no reason for beating a horse. Many riders and trainers believe that the horse should do exactly as they demand. Any behaviours that deviate from this are seen as the horse being difficult or wilful. This view is far from the truth. Unrideable and difficult horses are created by riders and trainers who lack the skills and knowledge needed to train horses correctly.
 
In my equestrian life I have met many horses labelled difficult. Taking time to find out about the horse invariably reveals an earlier training issue that was resolved by force. When this continues through the training, the horse becomes more difficult and the solutions more brutal until you arrive in the situation that Nico found himself in.
 
Correct training does not create problem horses and transforms those that have been made difficult to ride. With methods that do not need horses to be forced or beaten into submission, they become calm and a pleasure to ride, horses who look forward to coming into the school and to working with the rider. Surely this is what we all aspire to achieve with our horses?
 
I sincerely hope that the riders and trainers who abuse their horses will continue to be called out and that the ruling bodies will finally take responsible action to prevent this abuse from continuing.

For some of my thoughs on why horses may refuse to perform a movement see my previous blog - No is a Perfectly Acceptable Answer

​​© Diane Followell
© Training Riders, Transforming Horses

Over my years (OK, decades) of riding and teaching dressage, I have often seen riders and trainers demanding absolute obedience from their horses. If the horse does not give an immediate response to an aid, they are instantly reprimanded, particularly if they performed the exercise before with no problems. There is an idea in dressage that the rider is always right, and the horse must do exactly as the rider demands the instant it is requested.

Counter to many views, I believe that the horse always gives us the right answer, and if the answer is no we have asked the wrong question. This gives me an insight into how the horse is feeling, and why they may have refused the aid.

Did the horse understand the aid?
Was the aid exactly the same as the previous one?
Was the horse in the best position to respond?
Did the rider block the horse?
Had the preparatory work been done correctly?
Was the horse expecting the aid or was he surprised by it?
​
Each aid and movement in training is a small part that builds on the previous work and is a stepping stone to the next level. If a horse refuses an aid, we must look at the reason behind it and not assume that we are right and they are wrong.
 

This year has been quite tumultuous and I though it would be good to have a light hearted blog this Christmas. The following is a horse’s Christmas song to its rider, sing to the tune of the 12 Days of Christmas, as loudly and as out of tune as you wish!
 
On the first day of Christmas my rider gave to me

a much loosened off curb chain
2 soft reins and
3 canter beats
4 beats in walk
5 tasty treats
6 winter rugs
7 softer neck joints
8 daily hugs
9 turnout friends
10 seconds thinking
11 spooky places
12 hours turnout

Wishing you all a happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

​​© Diane Followell
© Training Riders, Transforming Horses

​Watching the Olympic dressage this weekend, it was noticeable how little has changed over the last decades despite the rise in voices that recognise that this is not classical dressage. However, there were a couple of glimmers of hope. The flying changes were less leaps off the ground and horses showed smoother flatter changes of lead. This is a move in the right direction for change.
 
The second was in the extended paces. The excessive front leg movement that has been presented in competitions has gone and they showed a less exaggerated stride. But the horses were unable to lengthen their frame and the extended trots on display still retained the flicking feet and blocked top line of old. The judges seemed to think that this constituted a correct extension with 5 of them each giving 10 marks to the same competitor. The commentators also spoke about the lovely lengthening of the top line when there was clearly none.
 
All the horses shown were being ridden with a very tight rein contact. Curb bits should give an increased level of subtly and refinement to the rider’s aids and require the most delicate and light action from the rider. None of this was on display at the weekend.
 
The riders were in a position that was braced against the reins, legs tight in the knee rolls and their backs stiff. The excessive foaming in the horse’s mouth did not disguise the overuse of the curb bit and chain. The sides of the curb bit should hang almost straight down. Riders applied continuous bit pressure showing with the sides of the curb at roughly a 45-degree angle.
 
Pulled in by the rider’s hands, the horses had contracted neck and head position. This forces the horse to drop its back and disengage its haunches. Regardless of what the legs are doing, the horse is not correct. In this compressed frame, the horses make flawed movements to accommodate the rider’s demands. Some of the common faults that I could see across horses were,
 
Swinging of haunches in passage.
Swinging haunches in collected trot.
Tight, restrictive shoulder movement.
Tight reins, horse flapping its bottom lip.
Unbalanced corners.
Overuse of the leg to keep the horse moving, in an effort to counter the tight rein contact.
Uneven steps in piaffe, hopping and loss of rhythm.
One horse kicked out in the canter transition.
Breaking of the diagonal leg paring at various times in the trot work.
Tail swishing.
Forelegs behind the shoulder in piaffe.
Flying changes not straight, haunches swinging.
Bouncing of haunches in piaffe, horses show different lowering of the haunches depending on their conformation and level, but bouncing haunches show disengagement.
Uneven steps in the hind legs in passage.



​Training Riders, Transforming Horses
© Diane Followell

​Along with many other equestrians, I have watched the first day of dressage competition at the Paris Olympics. I have been interested in the opportunity to see the scores as the test progress, and to compare them to the expected movements according to the FEI rules.
 
Here are some of my thoughts on a few of the piaffe movements ridden and the scores allocated. Whilst I have only commented on three horse and rider pairings, these types of piaffe are being shown by many other combinations.
 
The timings given are from the Discovery+ coverage of the full days event.
 
For reference the judging criteria as described in “The FEI DRESSAGE JUDGING MANUAL Effective from 1 January 2024” is below;

Table below sets out the faults in piaffe and the scores that should be allocated.

Taken from “The FEI DRESSAGE JUDGING MANUAL To be considered in connection with the FEI Dressage Rules and the FEI Dressage Handbook Guidelines for Judging. Effective from 1 January 2024”.
  
Nanna Skodborg-Merrald riding Zepter.
 
Piaffe at 16 minutes and 54 seconds.

- The horse’s forehand is swinging from side to side.
- Loss of rhythm.
- Horse’s nose swinging from side to side.
- Horse bracing through the neck and jaw.
Score 7.6
 
Piaffe at 18 minutes 9 seconds.
- Swinging haunches.
- Loss of rhythm.
Score 7.8
 
Emma Kanerva riding Greek Air.
 
Piaffe starts at 3 hours 13 minutes and 50 seconds.
 
- Horse is on its forehand.
- Horse’s neck blocked and contracted. The muscle on the underside of the horse’s neck is braced.
- Haunches swinging.
- Tail swishing.
 Score 7.7
 
Piaffe starting at 3 hours 15 minutes and 5 seconds
 
- Horse’s neck blocked and contracted. The muscle on the underside of the horse’s neck is braced.
- Haunches swinging.
- Uneven steps in hind legs.
- Tail swishing
 Score 7.4
 
Marcus Orlob riding Jane
 
Piaffe starting at 3 hours 5 minutes and 49 seconds.
- Horse’s neck blocked and contracted.
- From the front view the left hind leg is seen swinging out.
- Uneven steps behind with the left hind leg making a backward movement and the right hind leg stepping up and down.
- Loss of diagonal steps.
- Horse bracing through the neck and jaw.
 Score 7.4

​​Training Riders, Transforming Horses
© Diane Followell
 

​It is sad to see that competition dressage is in the spotlight yet again for all the wrong reasons. The footage of Charlotte Dujardin shows her whipping a horse with a lunge whip multiple times to improve its canter. This is totally unacceptable and unnecessary. Horses will willingly do what they are physically able to do and what they understand through training.

This latest scandal is not the first video showing a professional, world renowned trainer or rider maltreating their horses, and yet nothing has changed. Over decades, the FEI and British Dressage have consistently failed to respond to the mounting evidence of abusive training. They continue to reward riders showing horses that are blocked through their necks and back, disengaged in their haunches, producing paces that are uneven and incorrect. Spurs are used to force the horse forward, bits are used to pull horses in from the riders hands and nosebands are tightened to prevent the horse from showing any sign of pain.

Rather than tackling the issue head on and changing the judging and scoring, the FEI brought in rules to show that they are serious about tackling animal cruelty. The recent blood rule, where a horse is eliminated for having blood in its mouth or on its sides, fails to acknowledge the simple fact that no horse should ever have blood anywhere on its body as a result of being ridden. 

Current competition training methods circumvent correct dressage principles. The rapid training used by many competitive riders today takes little account of the original dressage training goals on which the competition was based. The horses are pushed to perform and become mere vehicles for the rider's ambition.

Charlotte Dujardin now joins an ever increasing list of international riders who have been seen to be abusing horses and she will not be the last. Some of these riders are still competing despite being investigated on more than one occasion. When will the judges start to penalise riders showing horses in distress through incorrect movement and training?  When will the FEI and British Dressage  step up and make the huge changes necessary for competitive dressage to be once again focused on the horse and correct training principles? 

©Diane Followell, Classical Dressage Trainer.
Training Riders Transforming Horses