Dressage ‘can be saved’ – if we acknowledge the issues and work to fix them
Dressage has a future – but we need to accept there are things that are not right, and there is a shared responsibility to see and change them.
This was a key message from an Intelligent Horsemanship (IH) webinar titled “Can dressage be saved”, last month.
Speakers Dr Sue Dyson, Dr James Cooling and Lisa White considered the situation, and the future.
Dr Dyson has developed the ridden horse pain ethogram (RHPE), a list of behaviours that, if eight or more are shown, indicate that the horse is in pain or discomfort.
She said she has watched more than 1,400 horses warming up for or competing in dressage, and many have shown open mouths, heads behind the vertical or repeated tail-swishing, all behaviours identified in the RHPE.
“When we compare upper-level grand prix horses in dressage compared with, for example, five-star event horses, frequency of mouth opening with separation of the teeth is far higher, 68% versus 44%,” she said.
“If we compare World Cup qualifiers and the championship with, for example, the British Dressage national championships, we see a worse statistic, mouth opening with separation of the teeth in 81% of horses.
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Why is this happening?
“We have to ask why this is happening, and how horses doing this can apparently be rewarded by judges. There was a study performed at Aachen, a fantastic level of competition, and horses that had their heads further behind the vertical did better than those with their heads in a vertical position. That seems wrong.”
Dr Dyson said we need to discover why horses are opening their mouths in this way; is it pain, and if so, what causes it. She pointed out that a major difference between top grand prix and eventing dressage is that until this year, double bridles were mandatory for the former.
“I question whether riders and trainers appreciate the biomechanical consequences of the horse’s head being behind a vertical position,” she said. “Often, shortening of the neck doesn’t allow the horse to appropriately move through its back, engage the muscles of the thoracic girdle, which enable it to elevate the forehand, which allows the horse to sit more behind, flex at the lumbosacral joint, engage the hind limbs and push appropriately from them.
“When any of these things go wrong, we’re compromising the potential athletic development of the horse, and also potentially predisposing to the development of injury. In young horse classes, we’ve got extravagantly moving horses, forced into a constricted frame which doesn’t allow them to develop the appropriate musculature, and it is going to compromise their longevity. We need to be discussing this future of dressage with respect to training, the equipment we put on the horse and what the riders are doing.”
Dr Dyson said she “questions the use of young horse classes” and the stallion grading systems.
Slowing young horses’ development
“There are commercial pressures from breeders producing these extravagantly moving horses, which are not necessarily suited to amateur riders,” she said. “There’s the pressure to produce them quickly, so stallions are graded, young horses sold for high prices.
“We must slow down with the development of young horses; that’s crucial for optimisation of longevity and quality of performance, and we need to have judges who don’t reward what’s not regarded as appropriate.”
Top dressage rider and coach Ms White said she believes horses must be developed for the long term.
“We have to all get better,” she said. “We’ve got to all understand that to fix the sport, or certainly make it more palatable.”
She said she believes riders need to think far more about how they use their bodies in riding; a steady, “immovable” contact is often held up as the ideal and it “becomes fixed”, which means horses going behind the vertical.
“My passion is helping people learn how to ride more with their bodies, so we can take the pressure off the horse’s mouth, ride better and more connected and balanced, and more happy with the horse.”
Conflict behaviour
Bit and bridle fitting consultant Dr Cooling said use and fit of bits and bridles and how they work with each horse can of course affect conflict behaviour.
“If you’re riding dressage, why would you want to restrict the horse in that way?” he said.
“The main thing is that the horse has to be comfortable with what’s on its head and in its mouth. How do you ensure that and make the horse comfortable? Standards need to be increased in terms of fitting across the board at all levels.
“I think the message is generally getting out, that bits and bridles should be fitted like saddles, and checked on a regular basis. They have physical and psychological effects on the horse as well. If they’re not comfortable, horses go into pressure; if they’re uncomfortable in their mouth or head, they’ll go forward, which can be seen as the horse being keen, and sometimes encourage poor riding or training, or use of more restrictive equipment to try to control that forwardness.
“Horses need to be able to find relief of pressure and if they have restrictive equipment, they can’t.”
Noseband tightness
Dr Cooling added that there is “no excuse” for over-tight nosebands, citing the FEI’s two-finger limit on tightness and measuring tool, but that “nosebands need to be looser than this” to avoid excess pressure and discomfort.
“If you’re having to tighten your noseband, or the horse is opening its mouth, it’s information to you as a rider or a trainer; what’s going on?” he said. “There is a problem, and whether that is a riding problem, training, contact, biomechanical, lameness, a problem with the fit or comfort – those things need addressing, rather than just trying to mask it or tighten it.”
Host Kelly Marks of IH also raised the issue of lameness in dressage horses, citing a study that found more stress on the suspensory ligaments in extended than collected paces.
Dr Dyson said she advises anyone whose horse is naturally willing to extend not to train or warm up in those paces, as the horse can do it anyway, to avoid repetitive strain that can result in injury.
“The panellists feel dressage can potentially be saved, but it requires the acceptance that currently there are lots of things that are not right,” Dr Dyson said. “It’s going to be the responsibility of the owners, riders, trainers, judges and rule-makers collectively to recognise what’s going wrong and change in accordance.”
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.