The world, European and Olympic medallist, who won team gold at London 2012, shares her thoughts on snaffles at grand prix and the impact of social licence on rule changes
The summer competition season is now in full swing, and last week I had the privilege of competing with three lovely horses at the wonderful CDI show at Wellington Riding in Hampshire. The team there do such a marvellous job of creating a friendly yet professional atmosphere at their showground.
Having had a very muddy Royal Windsor and Hickstead CDIs in the weeks before, at Wellington we found ourselves at the other end of the extreme, with the heat making for a rather sticky mess of suncream, sweat and dust.
I was riding Full Moon, our home-bred seven-year-old, on the first day of the show, when his shoe went flying past me and ended our warm-up before we’d even got going. I can honestly say this is something that has never happened to me at a competition.
Luckily, the local farrier came and stuck it back on, and the following day “Moony” went into the seven-year-old World Breeding Championships selection class. Though a little hot, he strutted his stuff into first place, which was a great start to the show for me. Things got even better for our team when Sarah Rogers took second on another of our home-breds, Forest Hill. The third of our home-bred seven-year-olds, First Light, was ridden to fourth place in the junior CDI class by Sophie Wallace, so my mother, the breeder of our operation, was brimming with pride.
“Riding publicly is a risky business”
I was very interested to see four riders in the national grand prix class opting to compete in the snaffle bridle at Wellington, including Katrina Cantrell and Woodlander Donna Summer who finished fifth. It followed Patrik Kittel (Forever Young HRH) being recently crowned Swedish national champion, riding in a snaffle, which is allowed at national grand prix level in Sweden as it is in Britain.
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I know the topic has been discussed a fair bit already, but I believe that this rule will be the focus of much more debate until it is eventually changed and snaffles are allowed at international grand prix level. This is not because I believe the snaffle automatically equals better welfare than the double bridle, but is because of the perception of it as such.
Having read Richard Davison’s thoughts on the subject of social licence, I think that any decisions seen to promote the welfare of the horse must be considered positive.
Also, with the variety of horse types, shapes and sizes we see in dressage nowadays, the more options we have when it comes to bits, bridles and the fitting of these, the more we can improve the comfort of our horses.
It is especially difficult to navigate all the complexities of competing as we are no longer only judged by the elected judges in the boxes around the arena, but by thousands of other people, who can take one snapshot photo or a 20-second video and immediately form a judgement on how a person rides. Often this comes with extremely harsh and unjustified comments.
Riding publicly has become risky business; a top rider in the limelight need only have one bad ride, or a horse who is having a difficult day, and the consequences can be quite damning. These “keyboard warriors” will judge immediately that a rider competing in a snaffle is softer than one using a double and so, sadly, I believe that one day the double bridle could become a thing of history.
● Do you agree that allowing snaffles in international grand prix will help with the sport’s social licence? Let us know at hhletters@futurenet.com, including your name, nearest town and county, for the chance to have your views published in a future edition of Horse & Hound magazine
This exclusive column will also be available to read in Horse & Hound magazine, on sale Thursday 22 June, 2023
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