Truly sickening. I am beginning to think that there should be horse shows only once a decade. Just think, that would cut some of the abuse by 80-90%! People would have a chance to learn to ride WELL before they show, horses would have a much bigger training window (you can teach a horse A LOT in a decade), judges would have a chance to educate themselves about proper horsemanship and conformation, etc., etc., etc.. Yep, just one year of showing horses in a decade. Yeah, I know, that would be bad for professional riders, trainers and coaches but if they did not do the abuse we would not be having this conversation.
Yes we definately have to speak up, look at that horse that the trainer beat while tied up, I think the owner ended up on Judge Judy. I heard Judy wasn't very complimentary to either the trainer nor the owner who watched the trainer beat her horse, she was seeking damages for the surgery necessary to sew up all the wounds to the horses tongue. It is horrible the things a trainer will do in the name of training. I am also appauled at the things people do to cheat at shows. I heard of one horse that almost died when they injected the tail to stop the swishing at a national reining competition. The horse had to have a bunch of muscle removed because of a bad reaction to the drugs. This horse was eventually sold as a stud for $40,000 so I heard. So I guess cheaters do prosper. I bet some people here have bred to it. People will do almost anything to win.
I've just been reading the comments. Sorry folks but from the comments it seems like this is one video maybe I shouldn't watch. I can't take much more stress this week.
Don't click on it, Marlene. The horse's head is being hyperflexed for hours in some sort of barbaric contraption, that's all I'll say.
Barnfrog, re the chestnut, how can you tell which horse it is? It looks too close or me to tell, but if that horse is going around the warmup ring like that no one is saying anything, then whoever sees it and says nothing is complicit. I'm sick of people rationalizing and coming up with reasons why certain types of riding aren't so bad - or people who see something horrid and assume someone "official" will address the problem.
Okay I was doing better this week, so I thought I should address this. Now I'm just pissed. I want to head over there and tie up those responsible in just the same way. I have no problem with abuse as long as it's applied to abusers, not innocent animals. How can any human being do such a thing and not feel their own soul rotting to the core. How do they sleep at night? There are some really sick sob's in this world but surely someone would put a stop to it at the very least.