Blue Tongue Dressage: Hyperflexion Still a Welfare Issue

by Fran Jurga | 23 October 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog



This video clip was shot at an FEI World Cup Dressage qualifier in Europe last week. Luise and Julie from Epona TV were surprised that a rider at this level schooled this stallion for as long as two hours in a hyperflexion frame.

They grabbed the camera when they noticed that the horse's swollen tongue had turned blue. The horse's lips were curled and apparently even the rider could see it, as he stopped and put the horse's tongue back into its mouth.

Apparently the schooling ring steward did not see anything wrong with this rider's method.

Click here to read the full story about this videotape and about the effects of the curb rein and bit of a double bridle on the horse's tongue.

FEI rules discourage what is called hyperflexion, rollkur or "bite the chest"--riding with the horse in an overbent neck and head position for a prolonged period of time. The practice is the subject of last year's best-selling horse book, Tug of War: Classical vs Modern Dressage by German veterinarian Gerd Heuschmann.

Since last spring, Heuschmann's DVD If Horse's Could Speak has been on sale and goes even further than the book to tie overschooling, disconnected riding and especially overflexion/rollkur to unsoundness and musculoskeletal injuries in dressage horses. But it is very, very hard to prove the dots are connected.

Here's a clip from the If Horses Could Speak DVD (this is a German trailer, even though the actual DVD has an English soundtrack, not subtitles):



The DVD is 75 minutes long and is sold in North American format (NTSC) format. The cost is $60 per DVD plus postage. Click here to read more and order from our secure web page. You can order the book as well.

I thought that by the time the DVD was translated and available here in the USA the subject of rollkur would be forgotten but I guess that is not the case.

In a special interview with Olympics champion Anky Van Grunsven on Epona TV, Anky defends her use of hyperflexion as a training method, saying that she uses it for a few minutes at a time, then lets the horse relax, but that she only uses it on her advanced horses, and horses that are strong enough to do it, and for whom it is easy to go to that frame. She said she varies the time that she stays in the overbent frame from horse to horse, depending on how strong the horse is and how it reacts to being in that frame.

In a riding demonstration, Anky pointed out that her horse was pricking his ears while in the overbent frame.

Julie and Luise's Epona TV is a subscription-based library of equitation-science videos with interviews and demos by Gerd Heuschmann, Hilary Clayton, and many behavior and welfare experts. They are making a tremendous effort to provide a service that is a level above what you will find almost anywhere else on the Internet.


© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Sport Horse Biomechanics DVD Rollout: "If Horses Could Speak"--Would They Scream "Ouch"? German Vet Thinks So.

by Fran Jurga | 7 April 2009 | Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog

The trailer for our new "If Horses Could Speak" DVD is in German with subtitles but the DVD we are selling has been re-engineered with an English soundtrack.

Enjoy this trailer for the feature-length DVD now offered for sale by Hoofcare Publishing.

What are the potential ill effects of training methods used for "sport" dressage vs the "classical" way of riding and training? Known for his campaign against "rollkur" (hyperflexion), Dr Gerd Heuschmann's If Horses Could Speak DVD goes even further in this dvd and condemns "modern" training and riding methods that he feels are damaging to horses, even though they produce an upper level dressage horse in a shorter time and the judges seem to like what he considers incorrect movement.

Warning: this DVD is graphic and sometimes even violent; at other times it is beautiful and poetic and the special 3-d animated anatomy graphics are spectacular, if all too brief. The scenes of an anesthestized horse being prepped for surgery may be upsetting to someone who hasn't seen it before and the DVD is not specific about the nature of the leg tendon or suspensory ligament injury surgery and how it is related to improper training or movement.

For all of you who ever thought of dressage as being akin to "watching paint dry", here's your wake-up call.

Specifics: • 75 minute DVD format in English • USA DVD format (may not play on all Euro systems) • "Starring" Dr. Gerd Heuschmann with commentary by Oberberieter Johann Riegler of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna and Professor Heinz Meyer and Peter Kreinberg, riding by Grand Prix rider David de Wispelaere, with introduction and epilogue by the esteemed equestrian historian Hans-Heinrich Isenbart and so much more. • Special effects and animation by Pixomondo • Produced by Isabella Sonntag and Wu-Wei Verlag • Price $60US plus $6 post in USA, $12 post to the rest of the world. (Companion book, Tug of War, is $25 plus $6 post.)

Click here for more information on ordering the complete 75-minute dvd with new English narration and/or Dr Heuschmann's best-selling book Tug of War. Alternately, call 01 978 281 3222 or fax 01 978 283 8775 with Visa/Mastercard information, send checks to Hoofcare Books, 19 Harbor Loop, Gloucester MA 01930, or email our office.

Click here to watch an interview with Dr. Heuschmann posted previously on The Hoof Blog.

Disclaimer: Opinions stated in the DVD are open to interpretation according to some anatomists and biomechanics experts. Trainers and riders and veterinarians and farriers and anyone who works around these horses shares their moments of pain and knows their athletic prowess. There are no easy answers and anyone interested in this area should follow the research of biomechancs leaders like Drs. Hilary Clayton and Jean-Marie Denoix as well as the equine spinal research of Drs. Rachel Murray, Sue Dyson or Kevin Haussler (to name but a few).

The Hoof Blog tries to keep readers abreast of new developments in this area and they are coming along at a fast clip, which must be very encouraging for Dr. Heuschmann and others who have rattled a stick on the fence to get attention for the welfare of competition horses.

Please let me know what you think of this DVD after you have watched it. Whether you agree with this DVD or not, you will have to agree that the window is open to a new world of science and research and that Heuschmann's passionate work legitimizes and demands more of the new field of equine sport science. Thank you, Dr. Heuschmann.

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing. No use without permission. You only need to ask.

Fran Jurga's Hoof Blog is a between-issues news service for subscribers to Hoofcare and Lameness Journal. This blog may be read online at the blog page, checked via RSS feed, or received via a digest-type email (requires signup in box at top right of blog page).

To subscribe to Hoofcare and Lameness (the journal), please visit the main site, www.hoofcare.com, where many educational products and media related to equine lameness and hoof science can be found.

Questions or problems with this blog? Send email to blog@hoofcare.com.

Dressage: The Debate Over Biomechanics Goes Live in the USA This Week

 

In the last year, a new word has crept into the dictionary of dressage around the world. "Rollkur" refers to the hyperflexion of the horse's neck as a training procedure and it has rattled dressage cages around the world. 

The man with a stick who rat-a-tats the bars of those cages is German dressage-specialist veterinarian Gerd Heuschmann. And to him, rollkur is just the tip of a huge iceberg. His book Tug of War: Modern vs. Classical Dressage has been a lightning rod for dressage purists, and has enjoyed a perch atop the bestselling horse books list for most of the past year. 

This month, Heuschmann is speaking in the United States and his lectures are sure to re-open the debate. I will hope to catch his biomechanics lecture next weekend at the International Dressage Symposium at Maplewood Warmbloods in Middletown, New York. 

Another clinic with Dr.Heuschmann is planned for February 12-14, 2009 by the Utah Dressage Society. 

If you have a chance to hear him speak, in any language, make the effort but be sure to keep an open mind. It is his mantra that modern "sport" dressage as practiced by some trainers and riders is cruel and he provides compelling, dramatic, and emotional evidence that sport-type dressage is causing damage to horses' musculoskeletal systems. He, and many other proponents of the classical ways of training, believe that dressage training is a long process that can't be rushed. He is not condemning dressage itself, only the practices of certain trainers and the rewards of the current judging system. 

Sample image from the upcoming Gerd Heuschmann DVD; this is a 3D model of the horse used to explain the effects of tension and improper movement in dressage.

Heuschmann's upcoming 60-minute DVD, "Stimmen der Pferd" ("If Horses Could Speak") on the biomechanical exploitation of horses in sport dressage is said by its producer to be the most expensive production ever attempted on the subject of horses. 

As riveting as Dr Heuschmann's arguments may be, and as lavish as his filmmaker's portrayal of the horse, the debate over rollkur lost some of its teeth following the technical and scientific forum by the FEI on the subject, which included Hoofcare and Lameness consulting editors Drs. Jean-Marie Denoix of France and Hilary Clayton of the USA, among others. 

The researchers and the FEI stopped short of condemning the practice, partly because of a lack of biomechanical evidence. Instead, that forum issued stern warnings about possible misuse of the practice and stressed that it should only be used as a training method by experienced riders and trainers. 

The sport of dressage suffered another blow last week when a German television news broadcast showed a hidden camera's' video of a well-known rider/trainer repeatedly whipping a horse while lunging on a small circle. With this post, Hoofcare and Lameness and The Hoof Blog begin sharing with you some exciting original video about equine sport, and especially sport science and biomechanics, produced by Epona TV. 

Epona TV is a subscription-based video library that includes content from Dr. Hilary Clayton and Dr. Gerd Heuschmann, among others.  

Dr. Heuschmann's book, Tug of War: Modern vs Classical Dressage is available from Hoofcare and Lameness. 

© Fran Jurga and Hoofcare Publishing, also representing Epona TV and Wu Wei Verlag.  This post was originally published on Sunday, October 12, 2008 at http://www.hoofcare.blogspot.com.