With the general decline of culture in this century, which has influenced the art of riding, punishment of the horse has crept back into the system of training.” These words by Alois Podhajsky, director of the Spanish Riding School, appear in his 1965 dressage classic "The Complete Training of Horse and Rider". In the 21st Century, outright torture of the horse permeates the world of elite dressage. The main torture today is rollkur, a training technique where tight reins curl the horse's neck and pull its nose back against its chest, reducing its vision and its ability to breathe as well as causing long term damage to the horse's neck and body.

Following anti-rollkur petitions signed by thousands of individuals, the  International Equestrian Federation  (FEI), which governs Olympic equine events, banned the use of rollkur in warm-up areas before competition. However, rollkur continues in private stables and the FEI allows a rider to put the horse into a warm-up position called Low, Deep, and Round (LDR), a movement suspiciously resembling rollkur. The FEI also suspiciously puts up a fence to prevent people from viewing top level riders warm-up but removes the fence so the public can see Paralympic riders warm up. This, along with secretly taken warm-up photos, strongly suggests the FEI knows rollkur continues at the highest level.  

Rollkur, roweled spurs, and other abusive tactics shorten training time, meaning more money for sponsored riders and prestige for wealthy owners in the sport of competitive dressage, but force damages horses both physically and mentally. Just a few decades ago, dressage horses reached the top level around age twelve and often peaked many years later. Now youngsters suffer "accidents" in training and horses reaching what should be their prime years retire from top level competition because of  health issues. Abused dressage horses also buck or balk showing the world their pain, something virtually unheard of in horses trained without abuse.

For details and specifics on the scandals of competitive dressage, which extend beyond animal abuse into fraud and other issues, please contact me at 0046 7063 55342 or hecarmona@live.com. Currently a permanent resident of Sweden, I know dressage and the dressage community. My father founded one of the first dressage training centers in the United States and  coached the US  Olympic Team in the 1960s.  A top dressage trainer in my own right, I trained with the late Dr. Reiner Klimke, Germany's six-time Olympic gold medalist, and with Hubert Rohrer of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. I also used to be friends with many of today's top riders, but, unlike them, I cannot tolerate the abuse of horses.

Sincerely,
Hector Carmona

See the web page at http://www.springfever.com/HectorCarmonaFightAgainstFEI.htm for photos, articles and details.