Yep. So happy that all of these years, the people I’ve been called a “snowflake” by, people who condone this blatant abuse, are now hopefully going to be held accountable. Ive always said I love my horses too much to participate in those practices. So glad to have more people speaking out on these topics!!!
I never watch the olympics because I'm always too busy to do so, but I always thought that the horses involved were treated better than most horses. Thank you for this funny, yet insightful video. :(
I was on the fence if I wanted to support olympic equestrians at first, but this video helped me realize that I shouldn’t. High level riding SHOULD be about a well trained horse and rider, not piling on abusive tack, bits, and technique to make them do what you want. It’s such a shame.
Yea, you shouldn’t have to abuse your horse to win a Medel! You just need hard work, not yanking on a peice of metel in your horses mouth. Don’t abuse horses!
Thank you so much for speaking out about this! If anyone wants to try and help make a difference for the treatment of Olympic horses “Raleigh Link” has a petition on her RU-vid community section that I suggest you sign.
I'm so glad you decided to talk about this!!! I wish more people did because it's just so terrible and I wish more people were less ignorant and actually educated themselves before claiming that Olympic horse riding isn't abuse
@@GypsyEquestrian To be fair, you would think that the most public, grandiose, widely-marketed sports event of all time would have higher standards, not lower. :/
yes this is so true I did not get to watch all of the horse olympics and I can't belive the way they treat their horses. By the way love your channel, and I hopefully will be R+ with you later in the year with my 2 ponies.
Unfortunately, this is too true. All these high-level disciplines take it WAYYY to far. All of them. Once high amounts of money are involved, people just go insane. I hate to see it. #stophorseabuse
Thank you for posting this. You showed very clearly everything wrong with high level equestrian sports, and actually did it in an easy to understand, humorous way. As an old timer who used to ride dressage, it didn't used to be like this. Dressage is supposed to be about lightness, balance, show progressive training, subtle cues and harmony between horse and rider. If you watch old videos of Dr. Klimke (4 time gold medal in dressage) and others from back in the day, the riders seem to barely move. The horses are relaxed and happy. Now it's turned into something ugly with incredibly poor riding - super heavy hands, seats all over the place, legs flapping around...not to mention bloody mouths, blue tongues, effing rollkur! I remember sometime back in the early 2000's, a grand prix judge told me that they were - kind of secretly - starting to introduce saddlebred blood into European dressage horses. I was like "Why would they do that?" and she said "Because saddlebreds are ATHLETES!" It seems to me like they started adopting the abusive attitude towards training that saddlebred trainers are so famous for. When i see olympic dressage today, they do remind me a little of saddlebreds - strong knee and hock action but less real extension, no support from their hindquarters, tension in their body, and the wide, distressed eyes that you often see in saddlebreds. They might as well just ask for big licks in the dressage ring and be done with it! At this point I'm all for eliminating equestrian sports from the Olympics.
So true. As a younger person, I used to love watching the Olympic equestrians but now that I’m older and understand more, this is just gross. I don’t even know why the equestrian sport is in the Olympics if the horses are treated so poorly. I was watching the riders in all events and I just wanted to scream at the very top of my lungs. I just wish things can get better for all these horses. Why do these people even get recommended for the Olympics.. they should be recommended for jail time and not just a slap on the wrist. Thanks you for pointing this out. Ik a lot of people have but the more actual equestrians there are, the better. Thank you. Also love the vids😊 sorry for such a long comment😅
it's unbelievable what riders do to win. and FEI just watches. this should absolutely be illegal, glad you pointed it out. dressage is meant to be a symphony, where horse and rider are working together to look beautiful and graceful. its less and less of an art, and more and more abuse. its awful how so many people just watch, and a lot of people dont even see it as abuse, thus doing it themselves. when will riders, trainers, and orginazations finally realize that theyre asking too much of the horses? and when will they do something about it? thank you for making this video, ive been watching your videos for a long long time!
The rolkur/hyperflexed position is when a rider is putting a horse head all the way down to its chest which is why it can’t breathe and the reason it’s tounge turns blue is because it can’t breathe and has nearly no oxygen
if you look at the Pentathlon there were also these moments i caught. One of the riders that was riding for the woman's to replace another because she got injured(I think?) was the same one that beat their horse last time crying because the horse wouldnt jump.
Let me cach my trainer wiping my horse... It would everything inside me to not wip the hooves off of her. That is why I don't have a trainer, most (not all) of them are abusive. It time someone stands up for what's going on in the Olympics. Thank you for showing this to people! Love your channel.
Olympics needs to be tackless (including spurs and crops). If theses are elite horsemen/ women, they should all be able to ride a horse tackless just fine...
tackless should at least be an event. if their horses will do the same at least without a bridle, it would be a very good demonstration of horsemanship.
I think people who enjoy having their lower back over 4’+ jumps might disagree but what do I know 🤷♀️ I think a lot of countries don’t really do tackless to the point where there’s a lot of athletes to pick from
@@BrightStarHorses Cool! An old cowboy I knew used to ride his cutting horse without a bridle and she would do everything the same as with. one of his favorite sayings was "the more on the horse's head, the less in the riders" 🤠
@@itsstorytimee6156 there are degrees of tackless. I wouldn't ride bareback anymore faster than a walk, and for some events, bareback would be too dangerous, but riding without a bridle is a good skill to learn, particularly if the bridle breaks in some way.
it really just depends on the rider there id abuse in every discapline its up to the rider to make that desicion ive met some english riders really respect their horses but some dont care
That dressage walk in the beginning though 😂😂😂 In all seriousness though, thank you for making this video. I totally missed all of the equestrian sports this year. These wrongs were very disheartening to see. Such a shame.
You know the funny thing is most olympic horses are abused Mostly talking about jumping jumping a horse 6 feet Is not natural to an animal that weighs 800+ That cannot be good on their cannon bones 😅
After the demonic blasphemous opening I refused to watch any of the Olympics. It’s no surprise considering the demonic nature that this is how the poor innocent horses were treated. I’m so tired of this abuse taking place at the so called “top levels”.
This is seriously why I do not watch anything high level with horses because I know in some part I am going to see abuse and it makes me mad, and so I try and avoid that
@AbsolutlyChaos well, I have always wanted to try western (not abusing, obviously aha) but is western pleasure as a whole abuse or are there just elements of abuse like in top level dressage for example? I don't know much about the discipline
@@appls_equestrian it's really only some people. I feel like with any discipline, the people who want to win are usually the ones who treat horses like tools. My * favorite* discipline is O-Mok-See, I would highly recommend as everyone I've met is so nice and supportive!
@@appls_equestrian Western pleasure generally is ok. The point is to have a relaxed and collected horse. There is some very sketchy people but generally “pleasure” sports are better than extreme ones.
I just hate how horses get treated like machines and has to do everything "perfect" (even though that's impossible) just for human entertainment and for the win. It's absolutely disgusting...
RO IF I GET TO THE OLYMPICS I WILL NEVER ABUSE THE HORSE LIKE I RIDE HORSES WITH NON BAD TACK BUT STILL IM SCARED IF IM ABUSING when and or if I go to the Olympics I’ll make sure my horse is ok the whole way through
Honestly they should make it all bitless then it would be better (not perfect I know but at least a little ebtter) but people who want justice for the horses 👇🏻(not forcing at all
@@BeMoreBillyOfficial thank u so much for the confirmation I do think that those riders should not even be allowed to own horses and some of those riders r actually good riders I do lessons at a barn and they take amazing care of all their horses and they do boarding and still help with exercising all the horse! And btw sry for the long answer
The things they did during the Olympics are so wrong! Whatever happened to the "vets" that are supposed to check over the horses... I would not abuse an animal for money or prizes. They are souls, too!!! How dare they... #stophorseabuse
Wait, are you not even allowed to go bitless at all? I mean, in my opinion there's nothing _inherently_ wrong with bits, but yeah, if you don't want to use one, and your horse behaves just fine without it, I don't see why you would have to.
