The effects of bit

This is an extra blog posting is directly taken from Kerstin Kemlén. Having horses is keeping an animal in captivity. Our decisions forms the captivity, we need to constantly think about how we treat our friends mounted as well as dismounted. We need to be aware of that the horse's life is a matter of compromising with the nature of the horse and our desire to use this magnificent animal's adaptability and ability to cooperate.
------------------------
This summer - at the ninth International Equitation Science Conference - a new research entitled: "A Method of diagnosing and Measuring Pain in The Ridden Horse" is presented .

The experiment shows that the aversion against bit are very common and signs of aversion to bit is much larger in number than previously thought. In other words:
Many bit-related behavior problems disappear when the bit is removed and this includes those behavior that frequently is included in accidents with horse and rider.

The research results support the fact that

the committees that control the contest rules,

need to review the rules about bit being

demanded in competition!

How did they come to this result - what the scientific method was used?

58 riders were part of a controlled experiment group where they were asked to change from a bridle with bit to the bitless "whole head hug" concept. The experiment lasted from 2002-2008.

The survey included in the experiment was designed based on three years of feedback from riders who switched to bitless and the questionnaire listed 86 behaviors related to bit.

Experiments riders were asked to answer the questionnaire which was divided into two columns - one for the horse's behavior ridden with bit during the time the rider have had the horse in his possession - and another column for the horse's behavior when carrying out similar work when the bit has been replaced with a bitless"whole head hug".

Experiments riders had owned their horses between 9 months to 21 years, median 2 years.
The horses were 3.5 years to 24 years of age, median 8.5 years.
The horses had been testing bitless 1 day to 2 years, median 3 month.
The horses belonged in the disciplines of dressage, jumping, trail, pleasure, distance, eventing

EVERY horse showed fewer signs of pain when ridden bitless.
NUMBER of signals of painful symptoms showed by every horse when being ridden with bit were between 5-55, median 24 pain signals.
NUMBER of painful symptoms showed by every horse when being ridden bitless was 0-17, median 1 painful symptom.
OUTCOME  out of these 58 horses 90% of the signs horse showed of pain vanished when the bit was removed .

What can a horse carry?

The last blog post this year will be about the horse's back. The purpose of the blog entries on hoof, mouth and back is to make us, who spend part of our time with horses and make use of their abilities, more aware that we are asking for something that the horse certainly can perform (and with honor!) but at the same time is contrary to its nature as an animal called horse.

When one gets involved in a thoughts it often happens several things simultaneously that really sets the own thoughts on spin. One student told me the following. During a visit to a friend in a barn, a horse was standing in the aisle. My student stroked the horse over the back and the horse lowerd its back - Don't tuch him over the back, the owner said, he is in pain. And that was obvious, but when the box was cleaned out the owner saddled the sore horse and took it for a ride. Where is the logic in this? One would expect a back that touchy would hurt bad when ridden.

Later that week I got a tip on an article written by Stormy May that added a few more sticks on the fire light going on in my head. The article is about what happens to the horse when we place our weight on its back. My post is a mixture of extracts from the article and my own words.

In "Journal of Veterinary Science" Volume (Vol14 (11), 1994)  the well-known veterinarian and saddle fitter Dr. Joyce Harman published an outcome of a study.

"For the purposes of this study, saddles with pressure up to 1.93 psi (pound force per square inch)  were assessed to have good fit, between 2.0 and 3.38 psi, but persistent pressure points, to have moderate fit and saddles that exceeded 3,4 psi or had persistent pressure points throughout the session was considered poor fit. These figures come from preliminary data showing that it was difficult to find an English saddle with a lower pressure than 0.75 psi, which is the highest pressure in the capillary bed, pressure exceeding 0.75 psi shuts off the blood flow in the arterial capillary bed. "

It is important to note that Saddle Tech preassure measuring tool, used in these studies, had sensors that have been developed to evaluate the risks of pressure sores in bedridden people and only measures pressure up to 4 psi. Modern sensors, such as the FSA (Force Sensing Array) developed by Vision Engineering Resaerch group (verg Inc) in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada can read a lot more pressure. In a test with Western saddles with good padding, measured normal "pressure spikes" between 8.25 and 14 psi. (Wesley, ED, McCullough, E, Eckels, S, Davis, E, Article # 9329, 2007, "The Horse" magazine).

The pressure that occurs on the tissues under the saddle is propagated down through the muscles to the bone structures found underneath. Research on pressure ulcers in humans have shown that tissue death begins near the bone long before redness and skin lesion is present.What have happened with the horses that have visible wounds or scars in the saddle area?

The muscles longissimus dorsi and trapezius, which the rider sits on, the horse has developed since Eohippus (between 60 million and 45 million years ago) to facilitate mobility. This structure was never designed to carry weight in the form of a pressure from above. In many horses, you can see a marked muscular atrophy just behind the scapula up at the withers. Nevertheless, I have heard a coach say that he did not want to have horses with muscular backs because they become so difficult to saddle.

Pressure from the saddle and rider on the horse's back occurs independent of use. When blood is pushed out of the tissue and comes back, it feels like a thousand needles sticking in the body part. We have embedded sensors that ensure that we change position from time to time, when the pressure on a single point has been too high for too long. For a horse that is ridden, it is difficult to stow the weight on his body that way. It can try to attract your attention by taking shorter steps, swishing tail, scratching himselves against the fence /riding school wall, nip at the leg, have ears back or even bolt or buck.

What is emphasized in the article is that it is all too common with today's horsemanship, to dismiss the horse only possible way of communicating, body language,  as disobedience and as such it should be corrected - often with "stronger pain in the mouth, on the head, ribs and flanks, probably in combination with a longer session under saddle" writes Stormy May.

Now neither the author nor I are proposing to forbid riding but I share the conclusion that increased knowledge of the horse's movement mechanics would be a fantastic Christmas gift that would please both rider and horse.

I have searched both articles Stormy May refer to online but without success. It seems like an interesting task for 2013 to gain more knowledge on the issue. I would like to know more about how each study has been done.

As always, when it comes to our relationship with the horse, it is we who must strive to interpret the horse's signals/language - the horse already has full notion of us, as the true humanist it is.
Now I take Christmas holiday and will return after Twelfth Night. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Bitting, episode 3

We who choose to engage in horses, be it pleasure riding, competative riding, driving, harnessed horses or racing must at all times be aware that we choose to do something that the horse was not originally intended to make.

The horse is not designed to bear weight on his back, pulling heavy loads, have metal shoes (or any hoof protection for that matter) on the hooves or bit in his mouth. That it allows to let us make use of it is due to the fact that the survival strategy of the horse is silence. The horse is basically a docile animal, an animal that seeks to minimize conflicts because, in the wild, that has saved lives. The horse devotes no time to unnecessary quarrel, it is pre-programmed to find their place in a hierarchy, and to be responsive.

The horse, like the dog, has proven to be a useful companion for us. Their different characteristics has improved and simplified our lives and now that we who live in developed countries no longer need them for our livelihood they enhance our leisure time.

I have no moral qualms about owning and have a horse (or dog). What I strive for is to make the life that my horses will live with me as "a little bad as possible" by learning everything I can about the well fare of horses. Keeping a horse is compromising the horse as a biological being and the better compromise the fewer degrees in hell for the horse - a little brutally expressed.

Dr. Cook has devoted much of his professional life to research and to issues that he defines as bit-related problems. Just as Lena pointed out, some of the behavioral problems he connects to bitting can occur for other reasons. To me, it means that there are more variables to consider in this multifactorial equation that horse ownership entails. Leave no stone unturned ...

In his research, Dr. Cook compared the skulls of domestic and wild horses. What he has seen in the tame horses are so called bone spurs, micro cracks in the bars and deformed teeth, damage completely absent in the wild horse. That is damage to the hard tissue, a horse dentist may see friction damage to the tongue from a bit that slid back and forth across the tongue, sores on the inside of the cheek, crushing, pressure sores on the palate, etc.

Certainly, many of the injuries are resulting from careless handling and improper fitting of the equipment, absolutely! With better educated of horse owners, many of the problems are eliminated. Note bene! Not even bitless bridle is completely without effect on the horse if they are ill fitted or handled roughly.

Dr. Cook notes"By removing the metal bit out of the horse's mouth, you can address many problems, but one can not expect that all problems are cured.

A horse that previously had recurring throat noise will not stop sounding bad, a horse who developed permanent deformities of the airways as a result of bit use will still be handicapped by deformations.

If you remove the bit it heals no lameness other than "rein lameness" nor can it replace proper training of the horse so it correctly understands rein aids (slow down, stop and turn). All horses with bit caused nerve pain does not stop shaking its head from one day to another when the bit is removed. A few never stop. " (this is a translation from a swedish translation so...this one can deviate from the original english text.)

We need as riders and drivers to understand that the horse does not automatically understand our signals, that we need to train the horse to the language of signals we choose to use. When I was with Rune Olofsson in Sollebrunn he told me that 98% of the horses he had re-educated in riding had problems because they had never been taught the signals for start and stop properly, they did not know what was expected of them. The basis for all training is that the horse understand the signal for forward, stop, back up, left and right. When the response to those signals is established, the horse is ready to perform movements that combine these directions.

But there is another aspect of bit that concern the horse's physiology. When the horse has a bit in the mouth it stimulates the digestive system, which means that the horse's body is programmed to low activity and a lowered head/neck position while you want the horse to be alert, ready to perform and with raised the head/neck.

In the horse's throat, there is a switch function which opens or closes the passage of the air ways and esophagus. The horse breathes through the nose and when breathing, the lips must be sealed so that the mouth is free of air. With a bit in the mouth the lip seal is broken and air is swirling into the oral cavity, at the same time the stimulus on the tongue results in production of saliva that needs to be handled. When the horse swallows, it can not breathe and when breathing it can not swallow. It is a physiological impact of the horse as biological beings, and it has consequences.

A short note on why I chosed Dr. Cook's bridle. Amaretto has a convex nose and thus makes a rope halter or bosal tipp forward/downward and end up being in the wrong place. The nose band on the bitless bridle can be fasten and is thus kept better in place.

The signaling system is similar to the one I have when I worked Amaretto in rope halter, the headstall also conveys the signals from the reins that the direct and indirect rein aids create. Hackamore has never been an issue and the bridle that looks like a wheel with spokes I have not tried.

I was at a lecture given by Per Larsson on bit and bitting, he showed a picture of a bit called "Liberty", he graded it to be hot, really hot actually and it could "correct" the horse inducing so much pain that the horse either surrendered or went crazy ... we have an ability to paraphrase we humans, Liberty - freedom to whom?

Bitting

Is anyone else, besides me, wondering if we really have our 24 hours daily and an average of 30 days per month? It feels like it was only a moment ago that I had the last sip of bubble to celebrate the New Year - and soon it's coming up again!

Kerstin Kemlén is a good friend of mine and as a person she is one that goes to the bottom of all issues she is faced with. She is a owner of harness horses with a strong focus on performance. It was a question of performance that led her into the subject bits and bitting and its consequences for horses. In the beginning the question was one of solving a problem for a specific horse in her stable which drove her to explore the topic, but now it has become a question of  horse health in general.

Early on Kerstin came in contact with Dr. Robert Cook, who developed a bitless bridle, and they have had an extensive email exchange over the years where Kerstin has raised questions and Dr. Cook answered by the best his of understanding and ability.

The essence of Dr. Cook's research is that bit, regardless of form, material or the quality of the riders hand causes damage to the horse. The damage can range from physical injuries from bit on bars, tongue and teeth into njuries that take a little more time to develop such as breathing disorder and behavioral disorders.
 

Just as traditional horse shoeing affects the horse negatively the tradition of brideling does the same thing. This colorful image taken from Dr. Cook's website shows by the scale the relative sensitivity to touch the different body parts of the horse have. The red areas represent the areas with the highest amount of sensory nerves. As you can see muzzle and mouth are areas very sensitive to touch.
Being a horse owner is to be aware of what you compromise with and why. I myself have chosen to shoe my horses this fall, and although I know that it costs in the form of hampered hoof mechanism, I´d take it rather than to have a horse rip itself.
I have bitted bridle in the tack room, but I ride using Dr. Cook's bitless bridle. And of course there is a difference in experience! The horse is a good deal stronger in bitless, 16 times stronger compared to a bitted horse according to Kerstin (who happily and readily calculates everything). Such a difference most certainly have an effect on the relative balance of strenght (if I can use that word) between horse and rider.
So when my horse gets Mr Hot in the Hat, that strenght it's really apparent ... but I have not felt unsafe despite some lively gallops. It is possible to make a one-stop rein with the bitless bridle and there is every opportunity to get a low-key communication via the bridle.
The difference is the feeling in the hand, there is no sensory feedback via the reins as one gets when the reins are attached to a bit the horse's mouth. It's actually quiet in the reins ... no chewing, no movement and it's really how it should be according to Dr. Cook. When the horse is working it has its mouth closed and it is still, it is only when the horse eats it should open the mouth and chew.

The hoof - a genious invention

Last fall, I was down to Iotas Hovbalans in Dalarna and took a course in Applied Equine Podiatry with KC LaPierre.
It was an interesting and thought-provoking course with many, for me, new perspectives on how the horse's hoof works and how it responds to the load that the horse is exposed to.
In the middle of his career as a farrier takes KC a place as an apprentice in a forge. The intention was to become such a skilled blacksmith that he could form any kind of horse shoe that he needed. During his two years as an apprentice the foundation for what would become KC's mantra was created: structure + function = performance. When he completed his apprenticeship period and returned to his profession as a blacksmith, he could really forge any shoe  atany time but there were still horses that he could not help. It led him on the path he walks now.
KC seeks to shift the focus of farriery from craft to science. Farriery became a profession that ceaced to develop as a new era of technological development began, and this in turn makes today's farrier trained with knowledge from the day before.
The basic thesis is that a healthy horse is dependent on healthy hooves whose function is to manage and distribute and utilize energy. Farriery in turn is designed to neutralize energy. This leads to a collision between nature and human demands and leaves the horse's hooves trapped in the middle.
KC has defined every part of his mantra: structure + function = performance. The structure is the internal components of the hoof and each component has a specific function that will work in harmony with all the other parts. Within the hoof there are several different types of tissue; blood-filled, not blood-filled, soft tissues and bone. The performance refers to how well a hoof can meet the requirements that the chosen activity imposes on the hoof. A recreational horse can function with lower demands on hoof performance than a racehorse in full racing condition. It may seem like a given truth, you do not drive Formula 1 with a SAAB V4 and hope for a top position, but according to KC lacking that insight is nonetheless quite common.
Domestic horses are living under very different premises than wild. It allows KC sometimes choose to talk about shod and unshod horses to emphazise that shoes may actually be the best compromise for some horses. Barefoot is always best for the horse, provided that its hooves have the qualities needed for the task. In shoeing the horse the hoof's natural mechanism is always adversely affected but if the job the horse is expected to perform also affects the horse negative, it may be better to have the horse shod.
Today there is are alternatives to iron shoes in the form of boots, various two-component gadges as "hoof wraps", plastic shoes and sole guards. A remark KC made is that, according to him, some of them does not take sufficient account of how the hoof defacto is built and that, indeed without nails, still hampers a proper foot function.
I have had my horses unshod in the summer but has been, because of lack of an alternative to shoes with studs, shood my horses now as the ice came. My horses are out 24-7 in a hilly forest pasture with a creek that runs through the pasture. When the creek begins to freeze and the water from the overlying wetlands continue to flow it floats out of the stream bed and freezes to ice on the ground. Our place is  popularly known as Märsfallet just because a mare slipped badly in the wake ice.


Personally I'm hoping for a snowy winter without periods of thaw because then I can take off the shoes at the end of December and then put them on again in March /April when spring with its icy periods comes. It is a compromise with the desire I have, but it's a conscious compromise, and I have (thank goodness!) a farrier that is open to dialogue.
KC comes to Boden in June and to give a 5 day course, read more about it on Kerstin's website. I recommend the course strongly!

Rein in hand

In early October, I attended a lecture by Kerstin Kemlén on the topic bit and bit related problems.

Kerstin has for over three years been involved in intense email exchange with Dr. Cook, an American veterinarian and professor emeritus, who has devoted much of his professional life to studying horses and their mouth and throat health and its connection to bit.

According to Dr. Cook, there are 47 problems that can be scientifically verified to be connected to the use of bit. A part from the physical damage that bits can cause in the mouth; damages on the bars, ulceration of the mucous membranes and deformation of the teeth, there are a number of behaviors that can be associated with bits and with a scale from immobilised to flight. Kerstin has the full list, if you want to know more contact her.

During the lecture, with an audience coming from both the riding and the harnessed horse world, those who wanted to try Kerstin home made reintaking gadget were urged to do so. The picture shows the principle of the gadget (lackning round rod, I had to use my son's wooden Winchester replica). The spring balance is attached to the rod together with the rein.

Anyone who wanted to test the pressure on the reins took the reins and tried to establish the contact they usually had while riding or driving. Kerstin was reading the pressure on the spring balance and kept the value to herself. Then she got the rider/driver stand between the reins and put the bit on forearms and lean on the bit until Kerstin said they reached their previous pressure. (The picture was taken by my 4-year-old assistant, so he has time to get better at sharpness ...)

Putting the bit on the forearm is as close as we can get to the horses bars in on our body, the bones have only a thin layer of skin over them, just as the bars themselves only have a thin mucosa over the thin and sharp edge.

Those who dared to try the gadget in front of the group had a range in pressure from 15 kg to 600 g.

She who held her mighty strong horse with 15 kg in the reins found it difficult to lean into the bit with the equivalent weight because of the pain she felt in her arms.
This is perhaps not an exact scientific method, but it gave palpable knowledge to each rider and groom! Please read a previous post on the blog about pressure on the bit.

I want to remind you of the importance of avoiding bringing your hands backwards when you hold the reins in riding or driving (more difficult to completely avoid in the latter case) and if you do have to take your hands backward REMEMBER to ease off!

Curb or no curb?

”My horse likes the curb” is an argument I sometimes hear for why a rider chooses to ride with a curb bit instead of a normal snaffle. I assume that the horse in question when ridden in a snaffle can choose to pull, lean on the bit or go against the rider's hand (resistance of force), but since the horse chooses not to do this when ridden in a curb, the rider feels that the contact with the horse's mouth is lighter and smoother. But is it the horse or the rider who thrives with the curb?

Maybe it's wrong of me to say that it is the rider who likes the curb. Of course it's nice that the horse doesn't hang your hand! That is not something I want no matter what bit I choose to ride with. What I mean is that the rider may lack practical knowledge of how she could train her horse not to pull or lean on the snaffle. This knowledge exists, for instance, within the tradition of French classical riding.

I would also like to point out that whatever bit you choose, it's you as a rider who has the ultimate responsibility for the quality of the contact between your hand and the horse's mouth. Horses can, unfortunately, accept far too much pressure in the mouth with either the snaffle or curb. A curb does not guarantee that the horse does not get injuries in the mouth. We as riders should not put the responsibility on the horse to let us know what contact is OK, regardless of the bit we choose. I strive to have the weight of the rein and nothing more in my hand, what do you strive for?

Whatever bit you choose, you as a rider are responsible for:
1) training your seat and balance so that you don't use the reins for support. You should be able to follow the horse in all gaits with loose reins without holding on with your hands, or if you need to hold with a hand you should do so by holding the mane or the pommel, and not use the reins
2) training your coordination and body awareness so that you do not accidentally or without being aware of it tense or move your fingers, hands or arms, especially not backwards
3) getting yourself a decent idea of what is a proper contact.

For myself I normally choose to ride with the snaffle. The double bridle or curb are tools for precise and delicate communication that I only use on the highly schooled horse. The snaffle bit, properly used, is the most effective way to supple a horse. A supple horse has a calm and gentle activity of the mouth. He swallows, plays with and lifts the bit with his tongue. A supple horse can, in halt, walk and trot bend his neck 90 degrees. In canter the bending is slightly less. A supple horse can raise the neck and above all, he can lower his neck while extending his nose forward so that it will never be behind the vertical. This is what, in the School of Légèreté, is called neck extension.

In the end I believe it is the rider's body awareness and control, and her ideas about what is a good contact that determines which bit a horse likes.

Thanks to Mark Stanton of Horsemanship Magazine for proof reading! All remaining errors are my own.

out of scale

Now you can buy a gadget that measures the pressure on the reins. It's called EC Hands (a bit witty actually). It works like a fishing scale but the scale is composed of two fields of color, a green for ok and a red to alert that the pressure becomes too high.

I think the idea behind EC Hands is good. The pressure may well vary during a riding session and with this you could "see the variation". Another pressure measure tool is made of plastic and breaks when the limit is reached and passed, but it gives no indication of whether you stay too close to the limit all the time you ride.

But even if I like the idea, I can not hold back a sigh - how did they set their scale!? I had to pull quite hard just to reach the green field, I guess that it was at least 1.5 kg. In order then to get me up to the red zone, I really had to put effort in the pull. The plastic pressure measurer has a minimum weight of 2 kg, so my perception of 1.5 may well be 2. Manufacturers often glance at each other to look for guidance.

During the ISES Conference a research project on horses habituation of the pressure of the bridle was presented. The study showed that horses were not accustomed to the pressure, but tried to avoid it. The maximum pressure they put on the reins once (and never again) was 1 kg, then they exposed themselves to about 600 g.

My reins including a 12.5 cm bridong bit weighs 394 g. To that weight in the horse's mouth I can add up to 200 g and land on a pressure that a horse might accept.

There are research done in the U.S. showing that bit damages horses' mouths. The scale ranges from micro-fracture on the bars to fully visible dental damages.

I have not taken a stand against bits. But I definitely react to how the bit is used and what is considered acceptable in today's riding regarding what riders do with bits and reins.

Therefore, I wish and hope that the producers of "pressure gadgets" dare to adjust their scales so that they begin with grams, not kilograms. And that riders dare to let go of the reins during their riding lessons. It is not about having un-taut reins but to reduce the tension in the muscle chain belonging to the arms. If an exercise went well, do it again with half as much effort. It decreases your muscle tension and increases your flexibility.

Quoting Nuno Oliveira "... try to relax your hands to have a lighter contact. I have been lecturing for forty years and this is what I never cease to repeat to students around the world who speak to me about their difficulties."

The control lays not in force but in ease! This insight would certainly be appreciated by a large number of horses.

Side reins for riders – NOT a good idea

Most of us have understood that a good seat is worth striving for. Most of us also dream of having perfect and light communication with our horses. There are different ways to train the seat and develop communication. Some are good and some not so good. According to me the following falls in the latter category: a rubber band that is advertised to "help the rider to keep the shoulders, arms and back in the correct position when riding". (The page only in Swedish but I bet you get the picture.)

If you think about trying this one out my advice is – forget about it.

I see this stuff as side reins for the rider. The only good thing I can say about it is that humans are reduced to objects just like the horse. How does that make you feel? Side reins for horses, or these so called ”aids”, guarantee neither a correct seat nor better communication. The key to developing a balanced seat and light communication lies in your own posture and in the technique you use when you communicate with your horse.

Any flaws in your seat and/or communication will not be resolved because you force your body into a certain position, quite the contrary. Perfect posture and a balanced seat on horseback have their origin in how well you can allow your skeleton to be aligned correctly so that your postural muscles are free to do their job efficiently. Any imposed straight jacket on the surface will just interfere and hamper these tasks.

Do you want to improve your posture? Take a lesson in the Alexander technique!

Do you want to improve your riding technique and your communication with your horse? Take a lesson in classical equitation!

Rein tension, something horses get used to?

During the ISES Conference an danish/ukrainian team had examined how much rein tension a horse was ready to accept in order to obtain food reward. The horses in the study was 2 years old and not experienced to bridles before.

At the test the horses had reins attached by the bit to a girth and the length of the reins created the resistance which the horses experienced when they stretched to reach the food. The researchers assumed that the first time the horses were subjected to tests, they would put a little pressure on the bit, but when they had realized that there were titbits involved they would be willing to increase the pressure of the bit to access the food.

The results showed otherwise. The horses applied the highest rein tension on the first day 10,5N +/- 1,4N (10 Newton or approx 1 kg) but for the following sessions they avoided to put so much pressure into the bit (6,0N and 5,7N). Instead of getting used to the pressure (habituated) the horses learned to avoid the pressure in the mouth. It was concluded that horses ability to avoid tension could be used in horse training by increasing focus on the timing of pressure release.

Of course I make (fully unscientifical) connections to the controversial training method roll kür and LDR varieties. Bone-wise the bars are razor sharp ridges that are covered with a very thin layer for protection. The bit is placed on these ridges. A high pressure on the bit creates such discomfort that the horse just "takes the pressure once" and then make whatever it can to avoid the discomfort in the future.

For me, it may be a way to understand how an animal that is so much stronger than us can keep itself from breaking free from the position that roll kür and LDR puts them in. They "curl themselves up" in a (desperate?) attempt to avoid the discomfort that pressure from the hands, through the reins and bit create on the bars.

During the conference suggestions were made to introduce so-called pressure gauges on the reins during dressage competitions. But I think it's too late to measure the pressure at that point. It must be done during training. Because if the horse seeks to avoid the pressure it will have learned to take the position itself that creates the least discomfort and that without the rider necessarily putting much pressure in the reins.

The focus must shift from what we can see on the competition grounds to what we can not see during training. Ethics will have to range from training to competition and, as another scientist said, "even if it is not illegal, it need not be ethically correct".

A system is alright as long as it is all right...

Sitting in the car on our way home my travel companion and I tried to sum up all we'd experienced during the ISES conference.

The theme for this years conference was safety and horse welfare. It was quite obvious that hyperflexion (including LDR), cranked nosebands, swishing tail and other signs of detrimental riding upset the majority of attendees.

On Sunday we were all exposed to the official system of horse and rider training in Sweden and being swede in the audience that day made me wanna seek asylum in what ever country that had accepted my application. There were sounds of astonished disbelief on more than one occasion.

My intent is not to accuse the teacher/trainer, rider or horse - they were all well educated according to our present system. It is the system that fails.

In our system we seem to have inherited procedures that we upon a straight question really don't know why we do as we do.

Why do lungeing of the young horse require two persons, one holding the horse one the whip. The answer started with - I think it's because we have a tradition if showing our horses with the help of a separate whip carrier. Her answer remindes me of the story of a woman copping off both ends of the christmas steak and at one time her mother saw what she did and asked her why she did it. -Well, you used to do it, the daughter answered. -But that was because my pot often was too small.

One question was regarding the saddle used on the present horse, it was noticeably bad fitting. The answer stated "It's a tradition to use bad saddles". I do think that she ment that we usually use old, cheap saddles not bad in the sence ill fitting - but at that time the audience was prone to take her answer literally.

The education process of the rider showed discrepancies between the wordings and the action on several occasions, and what was said was more in line with good riding than the actual riding.

On a straight question of why the horse seemed to resist the work by opening its mouth and swish its tail it was explained to us that this was how this horse behaved when he was ridden.

Only the day before Andrew McLean urged us not to put any blame on the horse as an individual if it showed signs of conflict behaviour, the behaviour was a result of the training and not its personality...

So, what do I feel is necessary for thing to improve?
Well, first of all I wish them a good horsemanship trainer to teach them how to walk their feet forwards when lunging, so that they stop dragging the horse towards them as they want him to trail outwards. I want them to stop the use of a separate whip carrier. The pair we saw were not syncronised at all, as the whip carrier tried to engage the horse the one in front janked on the horses head.

In riding it is essential to introduce them to the concept of neck extension and to stop the use of draw-reins. Then I'd go for some lessons in non-doing because lightness is not something you get by doing, it is given to you by allowing.