UPDATE: Here. Last month’s Ecco FEI European championships in Herning were the biggest sporting event of the year for Denmark. Hundreds of riders and thousands of fans came from across the continent for dressage, paradressage and show jumping competitions. But amid the clear rounds and medal ceremonies there was a groundswell of discontent with the …
Continue reading “Rollkur, the FEI and Byrialsen: An Interview with Julie Taylor of Epona TV”
This is the most sensible thing written about champion chaser Kauto Star’s controversial retirement to the dressage arena, from Greg Wood (Guardian) In a repeat of Jesse Owens’ sprint against a thoroughbred, bladerunner Oscar Pistorius took on a horse in Qatar, although not without, yes, more controversy. The South African SPCA say that the horse …
Have you recovered from the emotional rollercoaster of the Olympics? I think I nearly have. If you’ve read this blog before, you’ll know that my dressage experience is nugatory. It’s not something I did as a child and I certainly wasn’t interested in watching it beyond the first phase of the three-day event. Boring! But …
Continue reading “Post-Olympic Thoughts and the War of Hyperflexion vs. Harmony”
When we see pictures of dressage horses with extremely flexed necks, are we looking at moments in time? Random split seconds where a horse is tossing its head or biting a fly? In the week of the 2012 London Olympics, photos were released of dressage horses being hyperflexed or ridden in so-called “rollkur”. The defense: …
UPDATE: EPONA TV’s OLYMPIC WARM-UP ARENA FOOTAGE. It’s the second day of dressage at the 2012 Olympics, and although the mainstream media has largely ignored the fact that the UK are currently in team gold and individual gold and silver positions thanks to Carl Hester and Laura Bechtolsheimer, they should pay as much attention to …
Yes you can spend €15 million on a horse. Yes you can spend a little less than that but remain comfortably in the six-figure bracket. But you can also spend £2,500 on a three-year-old advertised in the Yorkshire Post small ads and end up with this: Stephanie Croxford and Mr President score 70,750% at the …
Continue reading “Romney’s Trainer is Right: Dressage Can be for Everyone”
Everyone has jumped in to say something about Rafalca, the Romney’s contender for the 2012 Olympics. The Romneys are rich and they run their hobby as a company, meaning that their spending on dressage is public domain information, so of course when it was widely reported that they were claiming $77,000 in tax deductions on …
Continue reading “The Romneys, their Dancing Horses and a Fraud Trial”
At the 2010 World Equestrian Games, the Dutch stallion Moorlands Totilas swept all before him with his rider Edward Gal. They took all three gold medals, capping a four-year partnership in which the pair had shattered dressage records around the world. Here’s their freestyle kur at Lexington in autumn 2010: Only days later, the stallion’s …
I’m interrupting polo week to bring you the maestro, Nuno Oliveira. I wrote a little background on him here to accompany some sketchy YouTube footage, but HHO just directed me to these two short films on Daily Motion. Bliss to watch happy, relaxed horses working hard and moving so beautifully. (for some reason WordPress won’t …
