AS the search goes on for better frangible pins and safer cross-country fence design, British Eventing recently announced a £25,000 award for any new safety device.

However it is probably the case that in Ireland we are neglecting more obvious areas that could have an even bigger effect on making our sport safer, in particular the way we ride and train for the dressage.

How can a horse just ‘run blind’ into a fence and fall, when it would never do this as a young horse without a rider?

How can a horse become so mechanical and reliant on the rider that they fail to take responsibility for jumping a solid fence?

Part of the answer is because of bad dressage training.

BAD DRESSAGE

It is not easy to say this but bad dressage can be a killer.

I know this as I lost a friend because of severe problems created by over forceful dressage training that reappeared across country.

Therefore we shouldn’t shy away from a zero tolerance approach to force, or endless drilling of horses, or inappropriate use of gadgets, or anything that takes away a horse’s natural instincts for self preservation, their fifth leg, and in particular stop a horse seeing what they are jumping.

Horses needs to change the position of their heads to see short and long distances because they cannot change the shape of the lens in their eyes.

Humans can change the shape of the lens, making it either thicker or thinner, depending on what is needed, but horses cannot do this. So it is dangerous lunacy to develop a fixed unnatural position of the horse’s head. In addition, it should be obvious to all who study biomechanics and classical equitation that the position of the head is dictated by how the horse goes from behind.

If they are ‘through’ in the back and connected from behind, the head and neck will automatically be in a good position.

So why is it that so many riders do the opposite and ride from the hand instead of from the leg to the hand? And why is it that so many riders use gadgets to do the same?

Last year I watched an event rider sitting on a horse in our village eating an ice cream. She was there for about 15 minutes in halt on returning from a hack.

At first sight, it was just great to see them there, but on a closer examination, it was not such a happy picture.

The rider was sitting on the back of the saddle, with her horse dropped and hollow in the back, yet the head and neck was in a fixed, unnatural and advanced shape because she was using a De Gogue gadget.

She probably did not know it but by using this strong pulley and pressure system in this way she was increasing her risk of a fall across country.

Why? Because she was beginning to restricted her horse both physically and mentally by separating the use of the head and neck from the use of the back, by discouraging the natural method of changing the head position to be able to see what was in front of them, and by creating submission rather than acceptance.

TRAINING METHODS

But let’s be clear, it is not dressage or the level of dressage that is causing the problem. It is some of the dressage training methods themselves.

It does not have to be this way. Carl Hester and the world’s leading dressage rider, Charlotte Dujardin, have changed the face of competitive pure dressage training worldwide by showing true harmony and natural outlines and rejecting rolkur and force. Sounds like a good recipe for cross-country training to me.

In addition we have two of the biggest winners in the world, Michael Jung and William Fox-Pitt, demonstrating at home and in competition the same principles as Carl Hester.

Despite these examples, many riders follow a very different route that says ‘don’t let them move their head’ or ‘stick the De Gogue or running reins on each day and everything will be fine.’

SPEAK UP

I believe our training leaders need to make their voices heard louder and more often than they have been up to now.

A colleague of mine witnessed an Irish international rider having a dressage lesson with an international trainer at an English horse trials last year. As far as both my colleague and the horse was concerned, it became 90 minutes of misery as the horse was drilled into reluctant submission.

Perhaps it was a one-off, my friend thought, but then a second horse was produced and the same pattern was followed.

Without doubt the FEI and their stewards increasingly try to prevent this type of ignorance, and without doubt, there are few situations that go to these extremes.

But there are many occasions when riders and coaches go in this direction at a national level and there are few people in positions of influence who are speaking out about the subsequent increased risk of an accident when riding across country.

In the USA, David O’Connor has once again got riders thinking about dressage training that will complement safe cross-country riding, in the same way as his great mentor Jack Le Goff. In Germany, Chris Bartle is spreading the same message.

Both O’Connor and Bartle regularly attend conferences and gatherings at all levels to sell their message. They explain that it is not dressage that is the problem but the unacceptable training methods that some people use, methods that can be the root problem behind falls of horses and serious injuries to riders.

But who do we have in Ireland?

The almost total absence of this message from our Irish eventing leaders is a huge weakness in our safety strategy.

We need more senior coaches to stand up at every opportunity to explain why front end training and why ‘submission’ rather than ‘acceptance’ is so dangerous in eventing.

ANTAGONISTIC OR COMPLEMENTARY?

What is certain is that future top coaches will truly understand the sport of eventing and be expert in all three disciplines. They will be the heirs of Jack Le Goff, Christopher Bartle, David O’Connor, and British coach Yogi Breisner.

I was asked last month by the legendary trainer and rider, Lucinda Green, whether the three phases of eventing are in fact antagonistic rather than complementary. to each other,

This gets to the fundamental requirement of eventing training. To be efficient, humane, and safe the training for the three phases must be complementary. This is where a number of riders are digging a big, dangerous, hole for themselves that one day they will fall in.

In recent years in many countries we have often been led astray by choosing to use specialist trainers, however brilliant, whose work does not suit the needs of the other two disciplines.

Therefore the national coach or lead trainer must have an in-depth knowledge of the training required for eventing as a whole, and only employ other trainers whose work fits into this programme and who also fully understand the training priorities of the other two disciplines.

In my opinion, this strategy should also apply at the lower levels, and making progress towards this goal would significantly improve both safety and performance achievements.

SYNERGY

Look at the truly brilliant William Fox-Pitt and Michael Jung riding and their very public description of their training.

Both maintain that the training for one phase is without doubt the training for the other two. Everything should blend and then there will be synergy, and this is what the great riders and coaches achieve.

But instead what do we so often see?

Training that is antagonistic. In particular, the type of inappropriate strong, mechanical and uncomfortable dressage training that I have explained. The ‘yank and spank’ school of dressage training.

In addition there are problems with show jumping training designed to ‘trap and rap.’

As Andrew Nicholson explained at the International Eventing Forum: “A good cross-country horse needs to jump economically. My method is not designed to produce a show jumper but rather a cross-country horse that needs to be smooth and glide down to the fences with the minimum of changes.

“In this way he saves energy, goes faster, and is safer because he allows the horse to concentrate on the fences in front of them rather than be distracted by the rider.

“A big flashy jump with the horse hugely above the fences, also wastes time and will lose their confidence, particularly when jumping into water and going down drops,” he added.

Nicholson, therefore, tends to jump his horses regularly over small fences, teaching them to get close to their fences and be able to cope with jumping from all angles and on all distances.

NEXT WEEK: Accidents waiting to happen

Read what else Andrew Nicholson had to say about cross-country riding here