It Is A Job With A Lot Of Headaches, But The High Notes Are Absolutely Stunning!

Here is a fantastic article which gives the average person valuable insight into a world most people willnever have the opportunity to experience. It is a lovely, well written tribute. Thank you to my facebook friend Cathy Insley for sharing this.

What does 'on the bit' really mean?

Finally, I feel like I've come across an article that expresses exactly the relationship I have been trying to achieve between horse and rider. I feel like someone finally understands and I can't even describe how I am feeling right now-I suppose overjoyed would be the best word at the moment? I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!!!! xoxoxo, Dancer



"The important point here is that in correct riding, you earn the trust and voluntary submission of the horse in a physical or gymnastic way, by showing the horse that he is safe in balanced motion.

We don't believe that you can ever achieve this level of mental calmness through training the horse by conditioning his mind, as is the methodology of many natural horsemanship methods. Horses are extremely physical beings, everything about their mental state is related to how they feel in their body. In domesticating horses we have (for the most part) removed them from the physical security of the herd, and then in riding them we have upset their natural way of balancing in motion, so, in riding, it is therefore only by giving them back the physical security of the balanced connection of engagement on the bit, that we can give the horse back his natural lack of tension, and maybe even create something more profound."

Read the entire article, by Camille and Gabrielle Dareau here.

Here is a little background about their approach:

"In our passion for the art of dressage as a pure gymnastic discipline, we have taken the perhaps unusual approach of studying riding purely for its own sake with no other agenda, whether competitive, commercial or even that of simple recognition.

This has allowed us to work with horses that in most other circumstances would be rejected, and in doing so we have discovered exactly how it is that the rider can transform themselves in order to transform the horse.

In the normal context of dressage based on the performance of certain movements, our results may be limited, but the quality of movement we achieve through progressively suppling problematic horses by means of engagement speaks for itself. Riders who apply the principles we teach, often very different from what they learned previously, are equally convinced by the results.

When we come to difficulties with our horses in their training or management, we don't think of 'selling them on and getting another one' as being a relevant option. To us that would only mean passing up an opportunity to learn something from the process of finding a real solution. thanks to this attitude we have seen many of our horses develop a radically different appearance and disposition, to the point of a real change in their conformation and basic temperament, characteristics usually seen as unalterable.

In the same way we have seen riders of many different types and abilities transform to become confident, effective and skillful at riding in engagement, which had often been a totally undiscovered dimension of riding to them."


Thank you, Camille and Gabrielle, for putting so eloquently into words what so many have made their life long search!

This Could Have Very Easily Been Me....

The racing industry is silent about slaughtered thoroughbreds.How did a five-year-old racehorse named Princess Madeline end up in a feedlot on July 13, priced for slaughter? Ask a horse trainer, and they’ll probably shrug. More than 10,000 U.S. Thoroughbreds a year ship to slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico, slightly more than the 7,567 yearlings sold at auction in 2010 to American, Japanese and Middle Eastern billionaires, among others.
These doomed Thoroughbreds are racing’s collateral damage—and that’s before you include the 750 who die on the track each year, an average of two fatal injuries per day according to the Jockey Club’s new equine injury database.For some reason, though, the media won’t talk about this spectacular pile up of dead horses. They’re too busy covering the fun and investment side of racing, like partnerships and syndicates and tax deductions for yearlings.
More than two dozen stories on racing have run in recent months on this web site and on nytimes.com, including nearly back-to-back articles in which two different billionaires shared the thrill of investing in racehorses and one auctioneer compared it to buying yachts. But 10,750 dead Thoroughbreds? No mention of them in the sport of kings.
The Thoroughbreds’ tragic, untold tales lead from racetracks across America to auctions vastly different than the scene at Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton that the media celebrates so blindly. This is where Amish farmers trade in their draft horses and other people buy and sell backyard ponies, quarter horses, Paints, Appaloosas, donkeys and discarded racehorses on the cheap.
The names read like fancy farms somewhere in bluegrass country: Winter, Sugarcreek, New Holland. Most consist of feedlots or kill pens into which large numbers of horses are systematically whipped and herded, their halters and identifying information replaced by hip numbers. Some go to homes and rescues; more than 100,000 a year go to kill buyers.
The U.S. shut down the last remaining slaughterhouses for horses in 2007, but still allows horses to be shipped over our borders to be slaughtered for affluent diners in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy and Japan. And while new legislation seeking to ban that (S. 1176: the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011) is presently in review, until it gets passed, U.S. horses travel 24 hours or more, without food, water or rest, in livestock trucks designed for cattle, to slaughter plants using slaughter methods also designed for cattle.
This is a disaster for horses, which could not be more different than cows. Horses are flight animals. It’s the reason they’re used for racing, fox hunting, polo, steeple chasing, Olympic dressage, jumping and barrel racing. It’s also what makes them useful for the military and police, as well as for plowing, logging and calf roping. We do not use Herefords and Holsteins for that.
The livestock trucks were not designed to accommodate horses’ longer necks and legs and higher center of gravity. Put a horse in a cattle car, and it can’t stand upright.The kill boxes and stunning methods, too, ignore horses’ slimmer bodies and longer heads as well as their instinct to flight. Cows aren’t built for speed. Herd one into a kill box and they don’t have room to move. They’ll basically stand still. This is documented in nearly every hidden video on horse slaughter now accessible online—and there are many.
Complicating matters, horse brains are located further back in their skulls, making them harder to knock unconscious even when a clean shot is delivered. Many regain consciousness within 30 seconds. They do this to all the horses—even foals, which is illegal. Compared to the slaughter of cattle, horse slaughter is relatively unregulated, and even the attendant laws to protect humans are routinely ignored. I’m talking specifically about those banning the use of carcinogenic drugs in livestock used for slaughter, such as Phenylbutazone (or “bute”), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug that racehorses are given as a matter of course.
The point is, that racehorses—and horses in general—may be beloved among Americans, they may be celebrated by the media, but they suffer worse abuse than the routine brutality that cows endure at slaughter. The dead Thoroughbreds should haunt every racing enthusiast and humanitarian, not just because of how they’re transported and slaughtered. How about the vast sums they make for owners who maintain a profitable relationship with kill buyers, ensuring the betrayal of 10,000 Thoroughbreds every year?
Consider No Day Off, a filly taken from Mountaineer racetrack in Virginia to Sugarcreek and on to Richelieu Meats in Canada. HBO captured her story on undercover video: the weekly pickups arranged at the race track by her owner/trainer, Ricardo Hernandez, to clear the slow horses out of the barn; her arrival at Sugarcreek where she was purchased by a kill buyer; and her arrival at the slaughterhouse.
The same fate befell Deputy Broad this past summer. Less than 48 hours after coming in last in a July 11 race at Mountaineer, his trainer, Danny Bird, had an Ohio kill buyer pick up the colt for transport to Richelieu. He arrived on July 19 and was confirmed slaughtered, according to online reports. Bird didn’t even give Deputy Broad the chance to be adopted by a rescue. Stable to table in less than seven days.
Mountaineer has rules against trainers doing this, but doesn’t enforce them—same as at other racetracks. Why? The circle of money, flowing from the betting public to the race tracks to the owners. To them, every racehorse is an investment, and this particular kind easily loses value with age, injury and races lost to other horses.
Don’t kid yourselves that the owners treat their horses the way other people treat their dogs. Some do, but for most, it’s just another part of their portfolio. They may love the sport passionately, but they’re very upfront about their desire to compete, win and make money. And, as one billionaire noted recently, racing is a tough business to make money in.
Even so, some of the biggest money earners get slaughtered, right alongside the losers. Kentucky Derby winner and Horse of the Year Ferdinand was slaughtered in 2002, in Japan. His lifetime earnings of $3.7 million made him, at one time, the fifth-leading money earner of the Thoroughbred world, with a stud fee set at $30,000.00 upon his retirement from racing. But he stopped producing foals and was sent to slaughter by his owners at age nineteen.
With lifetime earnings of $1.6 million, Exceller was, and still is, the only horse to have defeated two Triple Crown winners, Affirmed and Seattle Slew. But he was ordered slaughtered in 1997 by his owner, Göte Östlund. Two years after his death, Exceller was elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, NY.
Consistent with its mission to “interpret the history and convey the excitement of Thoroughbred racing in America to the broadest possible audience,” the museum avoids any mention of Exceller’s manner of death on his honorary plaque, just the year that he died. Its web site does, however, broach the topic, by lying: “He was later sold to a Swedish owner whose financial problems led to Exceller being put down at the age of 24,” it states.
Slaughtering a horse for meat is not “putting it down.” It is not euthanasia. The museum knows that full well, but the public doesn’t, and many in the racing industry and the media would prefer it stay that way.

Click here to learn how you can help put a stop to this NOW.

Trainer nets award for putting horse's interests first

Dressage trainer Keri Garber brought her horse, L.A. Baltic Destiny, to the Gold Coast Dressage Fall Fling at Jim Brandon Equestrian Center at Okeeheelee Park on Nov. 12 and 13. It was the horse's first show.

Garber knew she wasn't going to walk away with a championship, but she entered the show to give "Monkey," as he's known at the barn, experience at a dressage test. It wasn't about perfecting each movement or being the best.

After the test, Garber, who owns Finesse Farm in Loxahatchee, Florida, was proud of her horse. She grinned at him, praised him and left the ring thrilled. People noticed. Even though she didn't score highly on the dressage test, Garber won an even more meaningful award.

"A woman came into the show office looking for me," Garber said. "All these thoughts went through my mind, like, 'Uh-oh. Am I parked in the wrong spot? Is the horse loose?' "

The woman was a representative of Premier Equestrian, a supplier of dressage arenas, horse jumps, arena footing and stable accessories.

"She told me she was there to present me with an award," Garber said. "I was speechless. She said she watched my ride and noticed that I was riding a horse that was having a lot of issues. She told me I'd dealt with them in a positive manner and that she'd watched me get off the horse at the end and pat him with a huge smile on my face. She said she was there to present me with a sportsmanship award. I was completely blown away."

Garber brought L.A. Baltic Destiny to the show for his benefit, not to win.

"Sometimes, when you train horses, you have to have the guts to go out and not have a brilliant performance because it's in the best interest of the horse," she said. "You have to not worry about what other people are going to say or think, and put the horse first.

"It wasn't the most beautiful ride, but I was really pleased with him. He was a good boy, and he had a great attitude. I wanted him to have a positive experience, so that from there on out, he'd think, 'Horse shows are a lot of fun! I like them!' "

Receiving an award for sportsmanship meant plenty to Garber.

"There could be no higher prize for me," she said. "I try to be positive and put the horse first and always make sure they feel happy in the job they've done."

The U.S. Dressage Federation rule book contains a sportsman's charter that Garber lives by. A portion reads, "Amateurism is something of the heart and spirit, not a matter of exact technical qualifications."

"I read the rule book, and I believe in it because it's all for the benefit of the horse," Garber said. All some people are focused on is winning and getting a high score, but at what cost? Winning will never come at the expense of my horse."

-By Amy Bower Doucette, Palm Beach Post