Rollkur
LDR = Low-Deep-Round = Locking-Down-Respiration
Jock Ruddock, grundlægger af The Equine Touch skriver den 25. februar 2010:
For the past week I have been receiving e mails regarding the decision or findings expressed by the FEI. Every one has been so ecstatic about this meeting so I almost feel like a grumpy old pessimist when I write this article. Perhaps because I have never been a competitive rider I am naive, perhaps because I am a Scot I am arrogant, and perhaps because I am an ex police officer I am cynical but as I look at the poor horse on the left and I read the words of the FEI decision and then really study them I find that the original enthusiasm and uplifting feeling when I first heard the news last Monday has changed so dramatically that I must sincerely apologize for the complementary article I wrote about it. I am sorry to say it and I will make enemies and upset people (but I really do not give a damn) with what I am going to write but after studying it I have not read anything so negatively useless since the UN made its stand against the atrocities in Rwanda.
What we all want quite simply is a total ban on 'Rollkur' or any other cruel and sadistic practice being used on any horse, dressage or otherwise. We need Rollkur to be criminalized, to be made as much a crime as bear baiting or dog fighting. Rollkur is cruel and inhuman not just for dressage horses in competition or in the warm up arenas where at selected shows they (FEI) will put in closed circuit television, but banned across the board. Who selects the shows? What happens if they warm up behind the barn? What happens back at the stables for months before the competition? Who is going to complain about that and to whom?
Sanctions! What are sanctions? Saddam Hussien was sanctioned, Mugabe has been sanctioned, every perpetrator of cruelty in this modern day world of ours has had sanctions placed against them, and perhaps I am too old and sarcastic for my own good - but has any of them ever worked? What sanctions will the FEI impose? They certainly do not mention any. Are they going to banish Anky von whatever for life if she uses Rollkur, or any other Olympian for that matter? No way! What actions will they take? Lets be honest - None! They specifically state 'that no changes are required to the current FEI rules'. Does that not sum it up in a nutshell! They state that 'LDR without undue force is acceptable'. Funny I thought that was Rollkur, and what is undue force to one is aggressive force to another. In the Police I was taught to achieve the results I required using no more force than was necessary - boy that gave me a lot of leeway, from a hand on the shoulder to a choke hold. Come to think about it we should have called the latter 'Rollkur'! Look at the photos, it is exactly the same position we put the humans head in to render them unconscious, and exactly the same position that an SAS soldier places the enemies head in just before breaking the neck. LDR = Locking-Down-Respiration!
In essence the FEI have done nothing, other than flaunt the name of Princess someone-or-other and wrinkled their pompous foreheads, and tut-tutted. They have not recommended that the practice of Rollkur be made a crime, approached the S.P.C.A internationally to take criminal action against any person, rider, owner or trainer using this system at any time,fixing penalties that they be banned from the sport,(if we call dressage a sport), and be banned from owning a horse. For this they will have to bring vets as well as the SPCA to the table and then have it brought into law. It is ironic in some Countries and States that a person practicing something as non invasive as Reiki on a horse can be charged with a Level 2 felony while these torturers of the horse receive only a toothless tut tut from the FEI and Princess whats-her-name. Please remember in our ET world it is the horse that counts not the discipline, so if I have upset anyone with this article - I regretfully do not apologize! Charles Darwin said " The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man".
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