I'm warning you though, you've got to take all this stuff with a grain of salt--both sides of it.
I mostly wanted to post this not to say (by ANY means) "Look at this guy! Bits are unnecessary! Riding horses is cruel!" (which, of course, if you've been reading the blog you'll know I don't agree with), but it does a pretty good job of showing clips of horseback riding at it's absolute worst.
I mean, there are a lot of people out there riding who just don't know better. They're riding in Tom Thumb "snaffles" or whathaveyou, in tack that doesn't remotely fit the horse or them, not releasing, cuing wrong, and a whole myriad of other issues. These are not the people I'm talking about today. There is still hope for those people. Many of us even started out that way.
I know I just said the other day that I don't see too much stuff that really shocks me anymore. But there is still something that shocks me, and that's seeing professional riders, at the top of the sport, behaving this way.
It sickens me.
And it really pours fuel on the fire of this whole "natural horsemanship" freakout debate.
As y'all have probably gathered, I am not a follower of "Natural Horsemanship" (with capital letters, no less!). I can't, won't and don't agree that ANYTHING about riding horses is "natural".
But just because it isn't natural doesn't mean it is cruel or wrong. It's also unnatural to wear shoes with comfy support in them. It's unnatural to live to a ripe old age. And it's unnatural to drive a car. Or fly in a plane. Or even walk on cement. Or have a dog. Having a root canal done to save you from terrible pain is unnatural.
But I'm willing to bet most of us have done a few of these things.
It's unnatural to breed kitties down to the adorably cute and manageable size of the ones I have living with me.
You tell this cat that he isn't wanted because he isn't natural. Go on. Say it to this face. I dare you.
And sometimes, natural things can be really bad.
It is natural for a horse to starve to death if he has bad teeth. It is natural for him to get a belly full of parasites and die a painful, colicy death. It's perfectly natural for him to injure himself out on the vast frontier and perish because he couldn't get to water. Heck, all modern medicine is opposing the natural--veterinary and human. Cancer is "natural", and so is blindness, cataracts, arthritis, infection, dysentery and a whole bunch of other nasty things. Dying from all sorts of things we can cure easily these days was, at one time, perfectly natural.
As you can probably tell, "natural" has become a bit of a buzzword for me. My favorite is when a product says it's "natural", and therefore (implied), "awesome" or "better". As in, "all natural drugs."
You know what else is natural?
Foxglove. Digitalis purpurea, if you're a plant nerd like me.
But that doesn't mean you should go around eating it for fun.
Anyway--life is complicated. Nothing is really all that clear cut, is it?
So back to the video.
I don't know a ton about this guy aside from the fact that he isn't riding anymore (I guess he decided it was inhumane). But I wanted you to watch it as an example of what you can do without a bit, spurs, various gadgetry. Supposedly. I can't vouch for how he trained these things. But in the video, at least, the closest he gets to a gadget is a neck rope and a cuing whip, which he doesn't appear to touch the horses with.
His horses actually remind me a lot of Arabian halter horses. They seem to switch on and off much like those horses do. As a side note, I certainly wouldn't tolerate that level of fooling around and frankly his horses kind of terrify me--but I guess it works for him.
Although watching his videos reminds me of The Crocodile Hunter for some reason.
And we all know how that ended.
Anyway.
Personally I felt guilty for even riding a horse with a bit after watching this video, which I suspect was some of the point. Then after a few minutes my rationality starts seeping back in. I understand the bit as a communication tool. I also understand I fear too much for my life to just throw it ALL away.
But part of me understands that the bit is sort of a psychological safety net.
I really freaked out the first time Chev and I had a canter in the hackamore.
I had all these terrifying thoughts like, "What if I can't get her to stop? What if we can't steer? WHAT IF WE BOTH DIE??"
In retrospect, and basking in the glow that always accompanies doing something that was scary and NOT dying--not even having anything WRONG happen--I realized that I was being pretty dumb about it. I know rationally that the training I've done with Chev so far has not relied heavily on the bit. She knows seat, weight and voice cues. So of course she turned, moved and stopped when I asked. Why can't I just put some faith in her? Why do I freak out a little (or a lot) when I don't have a bit in her mouth?
I think it all comes down to this idea of control that I struggle with constantly.
I know that rationally I can't "control" her, and I don't want to--but I still have a hard time relinquishing all mouth control.
The people riding in this video are riding with the kind of contact that produces bone spurs in the mouth.
I suffer from TMJ and various other jaw disorders, and I can only imagine the kind of pain something like that would produce.
This is a pretty interesting conversation on the topic of mandibular bone spurs in horses: http://www.ultimatedressage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=57741
Of course it's specifically about Dressage, because it's authored by the lovely people over at the Ultimate Dressage forums--but my usual caveat applies--this could be ANY horse discipline. I think we see it less over on the western side of things because strong contact is so discouraged (in the open air, at least). Still, that's not to say horses don't suffer in other ways.
I'm tempted to once again quote that excellent article from Sustainable Dressage on bits, bitting and the action of the bit, but seeing as I've already posted it--two times I think?--it's time to give it a rest. No sense in beating ya'll over the head with it.
I keep meaning to do an entry on various gadgets, what they're supposed to, what they actually do, and how there's nothing new under the sun. Dressage borrows from western, and vice versa, and all over the board. But I guess that's a topic for another day.
She has been schooled in the snaffle for 3, almost 4 years now though. So she does know it very well. We both feel comfortable there. So maybe some of this has to do with me just not being all that willing to toss the comfort zone aside and start over with something new.
I'll tell you though, loping around in a hackamore does feel pretty cool.
Chevy gets her feet done tomorrow and I'll be taking out the HDR to see how it sits on her, and maybe doing some walking around. We'll see how that goes!
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