The Icelandic Horse World Championship, 2007:

There has been quite an uproar about the Icelandic Horse World Championship, 2007, held in Holland.

The problem apparently is the amount of forced used on the horse, heavy contact, forcing the horse into unnatural frames, severe equipment, per an eight-page article with a number of pictures taken at the WC, published in the November issue of the Cavallo magazine.

See the pictures here:

http://www.heste-nettet.dk/nyheder/3284/

http://www.eidfaxi.is/Media/w450/ef782856f96ab7b.jpg

http://flickr.com/photos/islandpferde/1206135297/in/set-72157601569036835

What do you think about the beads directly on the sensitive part of the nose?

How about the practice of rollkur that is coming into the breed?

Or forcing the horse into such a ventroflexed frame, with it's mouth open to get away from the contact?

Just a little Alabama honest redneck wisdom from a friend of Lucy: "If you must alter the physical body of any creature, in order to force it's performance, then what you are asking it to perform is stupid."

There is NO horsemanship involved in this type of riding.