{"id":8941,"date":"2017-09-08T11:21:42","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T01:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=8941"},"modified":"2025-10-21T14:49:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T03:49:27","slug":"the-veterinary-basis-of-correct-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2017\/09\/the-veterinary-basis-of-correct-training\/","title":{"rendered":"The Veterinary Basis of Correct Training"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have to confess that I find most veterinary lectures boring. But not the one at the German FN\u2019s Bundeschampionate Seminar nearly ten years ago \u2013 it was amazing!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was really an extraordinary presentation from the famed German equine veterinary expert, Professor Stadler. Here it was laid out, black and white, good training\u00a0 (that means correct, progressive, gymnastic training) is not \u2018correct\u2019 because this or that \u2018expert\u2019 thinks it is correct, it is correct because it promotes the physical welfare and long-term soundness of the horse…<\/p>\n

It should have been obvious, but I had just never ever thought about it \u2013 vets have been crucial in the development of civilized training techniques, and not just famous modern vets like Gerd Heuschmann, but right through the Ages…<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, the Professor started with the Ancient Greek, Xenophon, pointing out that his essay had aimed to outline a training regime that inflicted \u2018the least damage to the horse that is being used…\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He passed quickly over the Age of Chivalry, merely noting that at times the horses of the Medieval Knights looked a little like some of today\u2019s dressage horses…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The professor pointed to some of the more extreme training methods of early \u2018masters\u2019 like Grisone and Newcastle, and suggested that the aggressive attitude to the horse was a result of the belief that horses were sentient beings and \u2018the animal as an intelligent being is responsible for its actions and obstructiveness must be punished.\u2019<\/p>\n

more follows<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The cruelties of the Baroque Age (1575 \u2013 1770) were replaced by the civilized values of the Age of Enlightenment (1750 \u2013 1780) where, led by the teachings of de la Gu\u00e9rini\u00e8re,\u00a0 \u00a0 the horse came to be viewed as a graceful work of Art. Great value was placed on elegance, beauty, unconstrained movements and discrete aids.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fran\u00e7ois Robichon de la Gu\u00e9rini\u00e8re published \u00c9cole de Cavalerie in 1733, a work that stressed three key points: 1 – Knowledge of the horse, 2 – Adequate training, stabling and grooming and\u00a0 3 – Maintenance and promotion of health.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This new attitude went hand-in-hand with the establishment of the first schools of veterinary medicine: the University-Riding-Institute of G\u00f6ttingen opened in 1734, followed by the \u00c9coles Nationale Veterinaire of Lyon (1761) and d\u2019Alfort (1765), then the Rossarzneischule Hannoer in 1778. Horses had become valuable so veterinary schools sprung up to keep them sound…<\/p>\n

The nineteenth century saw contradictory threads. \u201cThe riding masters of the 19th century proposed very different approaches, from the very horse-friendly to positive torture.\u201d (S. G. Solinski, Rider, riding, horse; The basics of the modern riding horse, 1993) Trainers like Baucher and Fillis used maximum flexion and absolute head elevation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By the beginning of the twentieth century, this debate had crystallized in Otto de la Croix\u2019s Natural Equestrianism (1901). He pointed to the extremes, Paul Pfinzner\u2019s hyper-flexion and Fillis\u2019 high elevation: \u201cThe time has seldom been more favorable for a detailed evaluation of the natural basics of the art of riding. Almost simultaneously we have hyperflexion and high elevation, and the riding world remains clueless who is right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just the vets who were trying to keep the horses healthy, the military also had a vested interest in their welfare, this led to the publication of the legendary Heeres-Dienst-Vorschrift or HDV 12, the Cavalry rulebook, published in 1912 which became the basis for the modern German training scale. When it was published the aim was more utilitarian: \u201cTeaching riding must result in a reduction of temporarily unusable horses.\u201d<\/p>\n

The HDV 12 was revised in 1926 and 1937 by Hans v Heydebreck, Felix B\u00fcrkner and Richard W\u00e4tjen \u2013 all famous names in German equitation, all cavalry officers, all great dressage riders and trainers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The goal was now: \u201cBy preserving and promoting its natural abilities, the horse will be brought into a shape and carriage that allows full development of his strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

Look at B\u00fcrkner riding, now we see the \u2018classical (natural) style\u2019 in action with an optimal, relative head elevation.<\/p>\n

Also influential in refining the HDV 12 were a couple of influential vets: the anatomist at the Hannover Veterinary School, O. Zietchmann and a Veterinary Officer at the Cavalry School Hannover, Udo B\u00fcrger, the author of that classic, The Way to Perfect Horsemanship (1939).<\/p>\n

What emerged was the scale that we all should know off by heart: cadence (rhythm), suppleness and rein contact \u2013 the 1st stage of training \u2013 and impulsion, straightness and collection, the 2nd (advanced) stage of training. The goal of all these principles is the maintenance of equine health.<\/p>\n

This approach is enshrined in the 1997 FN resolution: \u201cDressage means gymnastic schooling and careful education of the horse to develop its natural talents, to improve its performance, to maintain its health and to achieve harmony between horse and rider.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Stadler showed a number of photos of horses illustrating their natural head carriage, and suggested that the:<\/p>\n

Goal of classical training =<\/p>\n

Body carriage with functional muscle tone:<\/p>\n

With natural muscle tone at the correct level for the work load<\/p>\n

And this involved:<\/p>\n

Slow development of elevation or as Udo B\u00fcrger put it:<\/p>\n

\u201cCarriage will develop by itself as a consequence of schooling.\u201d<\/p>\n

However the schooling has to be correct schooling, and Professor Stadler pointed to the \u2018modern\u2019 riding style which he described as a \u2018significant deviation from\u00a0the natural head-neck carriage.\u2019 This style of training led to a body carriage with dysfunctional muscle tone, which if practised for a long time leads to lameness. It also produces movement with the foreleg elevated, the back stiff, a protracted hindleg, and \u2018dissociative movement\u2019. Where, Professor Stadler asked was the FEI code of conduct, which stipulates… at all times the welfare of the horse must be paramount and must never be subordinated to competitive or commercial influences.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Professor went once again to Xenophon for an historical take on \u2018clashing aids\u2019:<\/p>\n

\u201c…if the rider holds the horse back with the rein and at the same time asks him to go forward, the horse will be irritated and will throw the chest forward and lift the legs higher because it is hot-tempered, not agile.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here we have the crucial connection between the psyche of the horse, the suppleness of its muscle tone, and resultant orthopedic health.<\/p>\n

Jean-Marie Denoix and Jean-Pierre Pailloux in Physical Therapy and Massage for the Horse: Biomechanics \u2013 Exercise \u2013 Treatment point out that \u2018emotional equilibrium is as important for optimum sporting performance as the physiological fitness of the anatomical structure\u2019 \u2013 this is well-accepted for human athletes, but not always understood in relation to horses. Denoix and Pailloux establish that the pre-requisite for healthy forward movement is a favourable psychological environment, and that the cause of pathological orthopedic conditions are poorly coordinated movements that are executed too fast or slow. The causes of poorly coordinated movements can\u00a0 be diseases, limb disease, ataxia \u2013 and these are easy to see, the horse is lame.<\/p>\n

Psychological stress results in dysfunctional muscle tone and tenseness. Because the horse is a flight animal, fear is expressed by contracting the muscles. The causes of dysfunctional tenseness can be environmental stress, or the demands of the rider, as when the horse is put in an inescapable aversive experience \u2018jerk and spur\u2019. Dysfunctional tenseness can also be caused by significant deviations from the natural body carriage. The function of the muscles in movement is contraction followed by elongation. If this process is incomplete, the muscle\u00a0 \u00a0 remains in contraction and the musculature hardens,\u00a0this produces a wrong tension leading to poorly coordinated movements.<\/p>\n

Is the goal of dressage an atonic [lacking muscle tone] horse? The professor asked, of course not. With the correct level of tension and the maintenance of an appropriate level of relaxation, then antagonistic muscles do not spasm, and the horse shows well coordinated movement, resulting in increased performance capacity. The alternative is a worn-out horse.<\/p>\n

Suppleness of the individual muscles, muscle groups and the entire body, are a result of: education, repetition and training. Once this suppleness is learned it is always attainable. If it is not learned in the first month of training then it will not be achievable in the future. Suppleness is a psychological as well as physiological, or as B\u00fcrger put it: \u2018innocence of mind must always precede suppleness of the body.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Professor was firm that the \u2018modern riding style\u2019 of working the young horse with tight head-neck carriage was the way to a tense horse and dysfunctional muscle tone. He suggested that as a result in modern times there were more examples of poor piaffe\/passage than we saw with the Old Masters. But Professor Stadler was really at pains to show that the result was not only awful images and poor piaffe and passage, but also health problems.<\/p>\n

This is no modern insight. La Gu\u00e9rini\u00e8re in the eighteenth century asserted that \u2018sadly even quite good horses can suffer bone and tendon injuries \u2013 impatient \u2018trainers\u2019 attempt to school them too quickly and destroy them.\u2019 Again: \u2018Strength and natural perfection are lost and disappear through over-working and exhaustion with \u00a0too strenuous and prolonged exercise. The horse will develop joint and tendon sheath swelling, spavin and other diseases.\u2019<\/p>\n

Of more recent times, Professor Stadler pointed to the article in The Veterinary Journal (April, 2010), Identification of risk factors in dressage horses by Rachel Murray. The study found that lameness was the most common disease or injury in the dressage horse and that elite horses tended to be off work longer. The work indicated that 24% (557 out of the 2532 in the study) of dressage horses may become lame in a two year period. The most frequent problem was suspensory ligament and tarsal joint diseases, while 20% of dressage horses suffered from back pain.<\/p>\n

Another paper, Identification of risk factors for lameness in dressage horses (Murray, R.C., Walters, J.M., Snart, H., Dyson, S.J. and Parkin, T.D.H. 2010) found: \u2018It has been noted that extravagant moving young horses prepared for sale or young horse classes have a high incidence of hind proximal suspensory desmitis.\u2019<\/p>\n

In a paper in 2006, Rachel Murray noted: \u2018During the stance phase of the stride, the hind limb is loaded, with the tarsal joint in flexion and\u00a0metatarsophalangeal\u00a0joint (MTPJ) in extension, resulting in loading of the suspensory ligament.\u2019<\/p>\n

In the mid stance of the extended trot, if the movement is not correctly supported by the horse\u2019s back, then the suspensory ligament is loaded, but the same problem can also occur in the collected movements, As Udo B\u00fcrger noted: \u2018premature exercise in piaffe and passage-like steps without suppleness, results in pathological changes in the suspensory ligament.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite the views of some that the classical principles were hopelessly outdated and super-ceded by the \u2018modern\u2019 techniques, the professor showed that they were more needed than ever. In fact, the cavalry horses, schooled often by less-than-expert riders, lasted longer than the modern dressage horse! Cavalry horses in times of peace on average lasted in service until they were 15 years of age, and then went on to an additional 3 years of civil duty. In other words, they were sound and useful up to the age of 18. Modern Warmblood horses studied between 1974 and 1982 and 1986 and 1996, had an average working life of 8 to 10 years.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bad Piaffe<\/em><\/p>\n

The Cavalry Report of 1929 found that out of 37,000 horses, there was a wastage of 436 or 1.18% of the total, while Orthopedic disease affected 32 or 7% of that group, and that the horses had a mean age of 10.2 years. On the other hand, Sedensticker, (1999: Abgangsursachen entsch\u00e4digter Pferde einer Tierversicherung aus den Jahren 1990-1995. Diss. med. vet., Tier\u00e4rztliche Hochschule Hannover) looked at 30,000 horses between 1990 and 1995 and found a wastage of 519 horses (1.73%) and of that group an enormous 233 \u2013 or 45%! \u2013 suffered from Orthopedic disease. The modern horses had a mean age of 8.7 years.<\/p>\n

And yet the solution to this modern wastage is there in the training program:<\/p>\n

Cadence, rhythm\u00a0\u00a0 > \u00a0\u00a0well coordinated movements
\nSuppleness \u00a0 > \u00a0 optimal economical muscle use
\nContact\u00a0\u00a0 > \u00a0\u00a0elastic response to the aids
\nImpulsion, swinging \u00a0\u00a0 > \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0shock absorbing
\nStraightness \u00a0\u00a0 > \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0even-loading
\nCollection\u00a0\u00a0 > \u00a0\u00a0load reduction of the front quarters<\/p>\n

What then is the solution? Professor Stadler says there is nothing wrong with the FEI rules, or the FEI ethical guidelines, it is just the discrepancy between these noble ambitions and the reality. He pointed out that on the entrance door of the Versailles School of de la Gu\u00e9rini\u00e8re, one could read: \u2018Where art ends, violence starts.\u2019<\/p>\n

One of the Seminar participants, Dr Sch\u00fcle, felt that the Professor\u2019s depiction of the \u2018modern riding style\u2019 lumped too much together. \u201cNot all the riders train in the same way, there are different lines and many train in the correct way \u2013 look at the European Championships in Rotterdam and the riding of Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin, that was very correct. There are two types of \u2018modern\u2019 riding and one of them is correct.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Professor Stadler was not backing away from his criticisms:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I criticize you see very often at the lower levels. While lots of riders practice the sport very well, most horses are prepared in the wrong style.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
\n

Advertisement<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\"\"Bordeaux – competing himself and siring winners – available in Australia from International Horse Breeders. Check out the large range of top European bloodlines, including many new young stallions, available now! –<\/strong><\/em><\/span>\u00a0www.ihb.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is simply one of the best ever explanations of the connection between good dressage riding and the physical welfare of the horse by German equine veterinary expert, Professor Stadler…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,4,37],"tags":[942,20,944,943],"class_list":["post-8941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-dressage","category-horse-care-and-health","tag-classical-principles-of-dressage","tag-dressage-training","tag-professor-stadler","tag-the-veterinary-basis-of-correct-training"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8941"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69257,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8941\/revisions\/69257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}