When the sport takes over…

I've shown or participated in most equine activities or sports.

I had my early years growing up on the broke ones at 4H and open shows. Days started with Halter and Showmanship, followed by English pleasure, equitation, and hunter hack. After lunch was western pleasure, horsemanship, western riding, and trail. Then, games if you're going for the all-around. All on the same horse.

I've shown AQHA, APHA, PtHA, ApHC, and AHA. I had my western pleasure/hunter under/breed show all around years. My working horse years in cutting and reining while working at the local sale yard.

Then USDF dressage…I educated my own very ordinary horses to a bronze medal and even my first 4th-level score toward a silver.

Cowboy dressage (went to their world gathering garnishing placings for all 4 horses and riders), western dressage (AHA Sport horse Top Ten), driven dressage, Working Eq dressage. Dressage dressage dressage....

Carriage driving came in the 2000s because my mom wanted to drive. Then came Hackney Horses and getting serious about it.

Last year was my first limited-distance endurance ride.

That gives me a unique insider/outsider perspective on all of it.

I've participated enough at high enough levels to see what those who are "serious" about it do to get to and stay on top. I kept shifting disciplines over the years in hopes of learning more and to see if there were more horse-centric methods of preparing horses for showing or other activities.

Instead, I found a disturbing similarity among all of them: the willingness to put the activity/discipline above all reproach, even putting horses in harm's way to compete/be competitive. Find every little "positive" to say, "Look! It's actually good for the horse!" while ignoring a mountain of negatives.

Horses schooled by fear and force. Extreme positions, extreme movement (low and flat or high and flying are both extremes), extreme levels of work, extreme stress on the horse physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Ulcers, damage to the tongue/bars, scarring in the spur area, every kind of tie down, martingale, side reins, fixing horses in a "pleasing" position while the horse cannot relieve their cramping muscles, joint injections (even in the neck nowadays) in young horses (under 10), drugs (legal in NRHA and snuck in other places), drilling and drilling horses without considering their experience.

Not one horse signed on the dotted line to go to a horse show.

YOU did.

Not one horse signed up to drag along in western pleasure, only being able to see their own front feet or throw their knees to the sky in fine harness driving/saddle seat with eyes bugging out of their heads. Not one horse signed up to slide and slide and slide and spin and spin and spin. Horses did not sign up to jump as high as they can or be on drill teams, repeating and repeating and repeating the same thing. Drill, drill, drill.

WE are responsible for the experiences of our horses.

Are they being asked to do what is healthy for them physically, emotionally, and mentally?

Are they prepared for the activity?

Is the horse activity inherently extreme, regardless of how much money is behind it or how many people compete?

Is it becoming more extreme and unhealthy for the horses?

Does the activity call for shoeing that drastically changes the natural stride of the horse, flight of the hoof, or put undue stress on tendons and ligaments?

Can your activity of choice be moderated to be healthier for horses? Will those overseeing the activity listen to ideas for moderation and stick to them?

In the long run, horses should be about, well, celebrating horses.

Protecting their well-being by working toward positive experiences.

Offering cross-training for mind and body, like trail riding on varied terrain, dressage, jumping, and cavaletti. Runners do weight training, and football players do yoga...it's the balance that is important.

Varying neck and body positions to improve balance, as human athletes do yoga and stretching.

Giving them time off and time out. Kids get to be kids, or they become depressed or anxious. Horses are just big, hairy kids.

Be honest with yourself. Is it all about what you want, or is it about celebrating your horse and his unique abilities and wellness?

I have to ask because what does it say about the horse industry if horse professionals and serious amateurs refuse to be honest about that core principle?

What does it say when those same serious horse people excuse over and over, damaging practices in the name of points and prizes?

Or even worse, they don't realize how damaging their practices are.

I'm not against these activities.

I'm FOR the horse and protecting the horse first.

Then see how the activities fit in.