Saturday, January 17, 2009

Horse Training in Iceland


Perhaps the horses should be started in sidepulls or bosals; at least bitless in the beginning.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think there's ill will behind those training methods, simply a lack of knowledge. None of the people on that vid have probably every had riding lessons or much less learned much about anatomy or training of young horses. I don't think that is something I would put up on a site like this. The people that should be held accountable for what they're doing are the professionals, the ones that actually make money by applying rude or non-horse-friendly training techniques, people who show horses in either competitions or breeding evaluations. but not private people who train their own horse in their little stable somewhere in Reykjavík. I agree with you about advocating for more horse-friendly riding and such, but i think this is not a good example, simply because those people don't know any better and knew no alternative to what they were doing.
Best wishes, Thylja.

IceRyder said...

Good point, Thylja. Perhaps I will take it down this weekend.

Why do you think no one pays attention to the horse's mouth?

How should we get alternative methods available to non-professional trainers?

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Hey, you're welcome.
I think the key word would be education and better "idols". If they knew better and if they saw better ridden horses without gaping mouths in competitions and breeding evaluations they probably wouldn't think it's the most natural thing in the world. But therefore the teachers have to be the ones to show some insight first. Luckily on Iceland people are actually starting to care, but that is mostly people in Hólar, hence students and teachers there and the few people that participate in clinics with those trainers. And even that isn't that common over there, but at least they're open. Here in Germany it's way worse because of the history we have with the english dressage (the rollkur-thing) people tend to think they're smarter than thou and don't need to be educated by anyone at all! I mean, luckily more and more horse owner get into the whole biomechanics-debate and start showing interest, but the "teachers" and especially the clubs and organisations are incredibly convinced that they're doing nothing wrong. It's a lot like riding against windmills here. *sigh*
Best wishes, Thylja.