Glenshee Equestrian Centre

Billie over at camera-obscura has been a great resource in following the rollkur issue, and prior to the next FEI meeting on the subject, she has posted this logo and text , and invited us to do the same in solidarity with Dr. Heuschmann and his message at that meeting.  I hope you'll visit there and consider adding your voice to this important debate: ---- The FEI is holding a closed-door round table meeting on Feb. 9th to discuss the training method known as rollkur, or hyperflexion, which involves pulling and holding the horse's muzzle to his chest. This practice is known to have many negative effects on the horse, both physically and psychologically. Gerd Heuschmann, the lone voice for the horse at this meeting, has my support and appreciation as he presents his case "for the good of the horse" along with petitions and letters saying NO TO ROLLKUR. You can see a taste of this method in the Epona TV's footage in the previous post. Please take a moment t...

One of our readers has very generously agreed to participate in a virtual clinic here on the blog.  Reesie found GEC through a previous post on releases over fences .  She was good enough to submit some of her own photos for review.  In this post, I will critique some of them, which I hope will be helpful.  Please feel free to comment on the critiques or let me know if you think there is anything I've missed or I haven't explained well.  While this pic is blurry, it's easy to see a positive effort here.  I really like to see the low/following release and well balanced, centered position.  Her lower leg has slid back a bit, but her angles are well closed and her weight is in her heel, giving the impression of confidence and security.  That her horse looks positive over a solid xc fence is further proof. As anyone who has ridden xc knows, a crest release just doesn't cut it in the field over solid jumps.  This is ...

--> --> GHM recently posted some amusing horsie stories and encouraged the rest of us to do likewise.  Since so many of my own embarrassing or funny moments have already been described there, I thought maybe I’d share one of my personal favorites that you probably haven’t heard.  It involves my horse Nate while we were training with the British Horse Society in Scotland. As regular readers here may know, our Scotland adventure may not have been all we dreamed it would be, but it did have its moments.... One of my favorites involved trail riding.  It’s not a particularly funny or exciting story, but it is just so classically “Nate” that I have to love it.  It’s probably my favorite story from that trip.  You see, the facility we were at was not just a top equestrian center in the area; it was also an exclusive resort .  And many of the hotel’s clients would pay a good deal of money for the privilege of getting on one of the centre’...

   I received this e-mail today and thought I'd post it here for anyone who may be interested.  Phillipe Karl is urging concerned horsemen to sign a petition asking the FEI to officially condemn the horrific practice of rollkur: Dear Madam, dear Sir, On 9 February 2010, more than 20 experts will attend an FEI meeting in Switzerland to discuss once again whether the so-called hyperflexion (“Rollkur”) is an adequate method of training a horse. In order to support the opponents of this method and offer them further arguments, a petition has been initiated at www.no-rollkur.com. We’d like to invite you to support this action against hyperflexion – time is short! You were so kind as to sign our own petition calling for reforms of the FN rules, which was initiated in May 2009. This obviously bore fruit: The German FN eventually invited Philippe Karl for a meeting in Warendorf, Germany. They now have to find an appropriate date. We will of co...

Scrubbing feed and water tubs (I know I haven't been posting much lately, so here's a quick post while I start working on some new stuff...) I’ve been experimenting with a good old-fashioned natural household cleaner/disinfectant that works better, is cheaper and is safe even if you leave some behind in the buckets.  It’s vinegar.  Plain old distilled white vinegar that I buy in the giant size at the supermarket.  I figured that, since it works so well for bathrooms and kitchens, is recommended for cleaning fruits and veggies, and can actually be ingested on purpose, this might be the way to go. I normally mix up individual feeds for the horses in 8 qt pails in the feed room and then dump those into the feed buckets in their stalls.  After a few days, these can get pretty nasty with feed residue, supplements and, in particular oil (I feed a liquid vitamin E supplement as well as pure wheat germ oil for some of the horses.)  Even when it was warm...

Billie at Camera-Obscura has written a great primer on the practice of rollkur, the controversy, and what you as an individual can do about it.  I can't recommend it enough! This disgusting practice has gone on too long.  Sadly, many feel unqualified to question it and most of us have felt powerless to stop it, but we are not alone; there is now a growing outrage at the practice and a community of concerned horsemen denouncing this horror and offering humane, classical alternatives.  Together we can make out voices count. I hope you'll check out this excellent post here . or cut and paste: http://camera-obscura-billie.blogspot.com/2009/11/rollkur-101-what-you-need-to-know-to.html also, more here on GEC:   Rollkur

O'Grady is the latest addition to our little herd here at Glenshee! I received and e-mail from a friend who recently hooked us up with our arabian rescues saying that there was a very nice ex-showjumper looking for a nice home as a dressage horse. Well, I've never been one to pass up the chance to give a nice horse a good home, so I agreed to go look at him... And it was love at first sight! Grady, a 18hh, 14-15(ish) yr old grey sport horse gelding, was bred in Ireland and worked there for a while as an eventer. He was then imported to Florida where he was intended to be a showjumper, but apparently he developed an intense dislike for jumping while there. He's a very willing, enthusiastic horse, but something about jumping just didn't sit well with him. His last owner bought him for a jumper and had him shipped up to NYS without knowing this history and, though she did her best with him and took very good care of him, it seems his mind has been made up ...

The German Equestrian Federation has finally responded to Philippe Karl's Letter and Petition; a translation of their letter may be found here . Mr. Karl's answer can be found here . ________

enlightened horsemanship through touch has posted another great discussion on dominance-oriented training. while reading the post i recalled several horses i have met over the years who were trained this way and rebelled. it didn’t work for them, and this post has effectively put into words just why this approach didn’t work. it also got me thinking about what did work, and a possible explanation of why it worked when the standard approach didn’t. in a nutshell, i think it comes down to this: "these dominant-submissive relationships are constantly renegotiated in the wild. they are not static. jostling for rank never ends.. in contrast, a calm, secure state of loving cooperation can be maintained indefinitely, so long as the human does nothing to destroy it." i have seen the effects of this first hand. this approach leaves the horse only two routes forward; the first is as above, to continue jostling for rank, and the other is to create such an atmosphere o...

i'd like to recommend the following blog post: Do You Demand Your Horse’s Complete Attention? I came across this great post over at Enlightened Horsemanship Through Touch , a blog I happen to love! This is a subject that is near and dear to me and my personal training style, but it was never something I thought about in any formal way, so it was really cool to have someone put it all out there in words where I could wrap my brain around it a bit. The result was a comment too long to post that I thought I’d post here in hopes that some of the readers here might visit the original post and share some of their thoughts on the subject too. Anyway, for what it’s worth, here’s my two cents: This is a post I instinctively agree with but have never put into coherent thoughts, so I’m grateful someone has so succinctly put it into words for me! This gets right to the heart of much that I dislike about natural horsemanship and all its talk about “being the alpha” and “respect.” There is ...

It's about time. Riders and trainers have long complained about the decline of horsemanship in general and dressage in parti cular, especially as concerns competition. In recent years, only the most spectacular, showy performances have been rewarded at the expense of correct dressage and, more importantly, at the expense of the well-being of the horses. The situation is becoming toxic - for horses and riders. It's time to clean house. Granted things are unlikely to change when these riders are backed by serious money and corporate sponsorships, but we have to try something to bring the standards back up to some meaningful level. Grey Horse Matters sent me this link from Philippe Karl's website and I thought I'd pass it along to those who might be interested. Philippe Karl is one of the too few truly classical voices out there, and someone I have great respect for as a horseman. Of course, the Petition only addresses the German Equestrian Federation, however, thi...

I've been so busy now that spring is here that I haven’t had a chance to post in a while, but I’m hoping to post a few more installments related to rein aids next, so I thought I’d post these links all in one place before I continue.  If there are any topics you’d like to see discussed, please leave a message below and I’ll try to post something soon…  I've missed being here and  I'm looking forward to catching up with all of your blogs :-)  see ya soon! - jacquie Rein Aids Series: Holding the Reins The Turning Seat Inside vs. Outside: The Weight Debate ***** The Five Rein Aids: Introduction The Direct Rein The Indirect Rein The Direct Rein of Opposition The Indirect Rein of Opposition in Front of the Wither The Indirect Rein of Opposition Behind the Wither ***** Going Bitless