Olympic medal-winning dressage rider Laura Tomlinson issues a plea to her fellow riders to hold themselves to new standards to ensure the sport’s future
My column this week is a bit of a plea. I know we’re all bored of hearing about social licence and the sport’s image, but after another recent barrage in the media, including the big newspapers, if we don’t change our ways, our children won’t have a sport to enjoy.
I never condone social media abuse of any sort, but putting our heads in the sand in response isn’t working. Many may argue that the critics simply don’t understand the nuances of our sport, but whether they are right or wrong in all the different scenarios is irrelevant because if members of the public don’t like what they see, they have the power to shut us down, starting with the Olympics.
Horses being squashed together with immense leg and hand pressure for minutes on end must be a thing of the past. We must hold ourselves to new standards.
The World Class Programme and our own federation have shown they’re there to protect their top riders, but should they now do more to protect the horses and the sport?
Strictness on horses’ soundness and how they are ridden needs to come from riders. When riding, we need to think of children watching and ride to inspire.
Horse welfare should come first. We hear this said all the time, but who really means it in the heat of the moment when fighting for that bit more expression for those extra marks? We need to show that we are riding and training a better way.
If a horse is being spooky or stressed in the warm-up, respond with sympathy. If a horse needs quickening, use lots of transitions rather than instantly resorting to pressure to get the result faster. Find ways to work at home that build strength to create more expression over time, rather than resorting to quick fixes.
Get those extra marks through accuracy; we need to shape the sport and the judges by offering them something better. Empty words on “harmony” are not good enough. I don’t wish to stick the knife in, and I know this column will be unpopular and risky for me as a rider who’s aspiring for a team place, but I cannot be silent on this matter any longer.
My father always said, “Horses cannot advocate for themselves; you must always stand up for them and admit when you get something wrong.” I don’t see enough of that at the moment, so here I am, not trying to act saintly but just wanting to shake everyone up.
Don’t push for those extra marks if they cost you in harmony; ride in a way that you can explain to a young aspiring kid or a complete layman. Ride with the values we all had when we started as children, in love with the idea of partnership with another animal.
The welfare rules are clear. If we get something wrong in the heat of the moment, we must acknowledge our error and pledge to do better. We need to be the sport that we are selling.
Doping tests
On another “horse welfare” note, at my last international competition, straight after the freestyle – and hours before Full Moon had to travel home – he was pulled into doping control. That’s no problem. But when they have to go into an isolated stable in a separate block, for many horses, that’s a huge stress.
Moony always goes straight back into his stable for a wee after work, here he had to go into a random stable with no horses anywhere near him, with a stranger holding a long stick with a cup attached.
He was very stressed, so of course he didn’t pee in the given time and then had his blood taken. By the time he was back in his stable, he had been holding his wee in for an hour since competing.
This wasn’t the way I wanted to reward him for his amazing efforts in his first grand prix freestyle. I wish we’d make rules like this more horse-friendly. Why can’t he pee in his own stable, that he has been in all show, next to his buddies? What difference would that make?
The doping agents don’t let them out of their sight anyway. Some rules seem so absurd and not at all in the interest of the horse.
● Do you agree that change needs to come from within – and what would you like to see riders do differently? We’d love to hear from you at hhletters@futurenet.com, including your name, nearest town and county, for the chance to have your views published in a future issue of Horse & Hound magazine
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You might also enjoy reading:
Dressage needs to answer harder questions than just ‘who did what in the warm-up’ to secure its future
Anna Ross: ‘Everyone’s watching now, and willingness to question ourselves has to be part of the deal’
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