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Horseytalk.net Special Interview
Anne Wilson & Susan McBane
 

Talk to Anne Wilson and Susan McBane about the standard of riding today, the approach, the style and the effect on the horse and, in some cases, it practically reduces them to tears.

They talk of greed, impatience and insensitivity. They shudder at what they call horrendous gadgets used to train riding horses. They speak of bad practices in and out of the competition arena, and of their pleas to the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI), to establish internationally applicable standards and rules of behaviour.

Whether they are right or wrong or you cannot make up your mind, you’ve got to listen to what they have to say.

Anne Wilson and Susan McBane
Anne Wilson
ANNE WILSON

From an early age horses were the focal point of Anne’s life. Although a lover of all animals – she became a vegetarian at the age of five – horses were very special to her. At four years old, she attempted to run away from home to live with the baker’s horse!

Neither of her parents were horsey. In fact they were afraid of horses, but they could never keep Anne away from them. At the age of seven, her parents gave in, and allowed her to start riding lessons. Money was not always plentiful, so Anne wore home made jodhpurs in the style popular at the time, but would cause a laughing stock now – see photo on left, Anne is on the right.

Anne took part in the usual Pony Club gymkhana circuit until her late teens, when she started to have more serious lessons. Her first awareness of classical riding came from the books of Alois Podhajsky, former Director of the Spanish Riding School. These books inspired her greatly and made her aware of the importance of balance, not only for dressage but especially whilst cross-country jumping.

She started to teach about 27 years ago, after completing the usual British Horse Society stages exams. Although very much a part of the conventional British equestrian scene, Anne always leaned towards the classical way of teaching and riding and yearned to know more.

 She then trained with Sylvia Loch and experienced the benefits of Sylvia’s wonderful schoolmaster horses, which enabled her to advance the training of her own horses, as well as that of her pupils. For twelve years Anne was a Regional Liaison Member for the Classical Riding Club, organising clinics and events and generally educating people towards a gentler way of riding. She is a holder of the Classical Riding Club’s ‘Gold Award Certificate’.

Anne Wilson and when there was no horse available.....
Anne Wilson

Although Anne’s approach to horsemanship is essentially classical, she has a very broad base of all the differing disciplines and has taken part in most of them during her career.

Anne is an experienced author, having published articles for many years in local horse magazines, as well as in the Classical Riding Club newsletter and Equine Behaviour Forum magazine. She currently writes every month in the national magazine Equi-Ads.

 Her first book ‘Top Horse Training Methods Explored’ was published in April 2004 and has received glowing reviews, being named ‘Book of the Month’ by the British Horse Society.

 Her second book ‘Riding Revelations – Classical Training from the Beginning’ will be published in August 2009 by Black Tent Publications and is available from www.black-tent.co.uk

If would you like a signed copy of Anne's new book -
Contact: annewilsondressage@hotmail.co.uk

Susan McBane and Anne publish a quarterly, subscription only, paper copy, magazine called
Tracking-up – an independent view

 
SUSAN McBANE

Susan McBane is probably Britain’s most prolific equestrian author - fifty books to date. She started riding at the age of four at a small, local riding school which just happened to teach classical techniques (Saumur/Weedon methods) although neither she nor her parents, who were not horsey, understood that at the time. When the owner retired, she spent the years before buying her own horse (at the age of 20) riding at other yards and on friends’ ponies and horses. Her earliest equestrian ambition was to be a bareback rider in a circus – an ambition she never fulfilled!

Over the years, she has experienced looking after and riding all types of equine, from children’s ponies to racehorses, but has never been competitive by nature. In the 1980s when publishing EQUI magazine, she received a ‘phone call from Dési Lorent, a French-speaking Belgian teacher of Portuguese classical riding who had trained for many years with the legendary Nuno Oliveira, inviting her to visit his yard to write an article about his methods, which she did. 

 Susan McBane
Susan McBane Books

She continued to visit and learn from him for two years, until he left England, and teaches the methods he taught to her own clients, combining them with modern learning theory on training animals.

She has been an equestrian writer for many years, holds an HNC in Equine Science and Management, the Classical Riding Club Gold Award and is studying for a degree in Equine Science and has been accepted as an Associate Member of the International Society for Equitation Science. She is a Shiatsu With Horses Level II practitioner and, in 1978, co-founded the Equine Behaviour Forum with which she is still very involved. She teaches classical riding and schools horses for clients. A firm believer in lifelong learning, she constantly studies the best literature on classical riding.

Her main publishing interest now is in developing ‘Tracking-up’, the new publication she founded with Anne Wilson. It covers humane riding and schooling techniques, equine behaviour and psychology, classical equitation, veterinary and equine science, care and management and much more.

What unites Anne and Susan is not just their love of the horse but their utter conviction that the horse must be looked after, cared for and treated as a horse, not as something to be trained, manipulated and forced to do non-horsey things for the sake of money or prizes.

COMMENTS FROM

ANNE WILSON

“In general terms, there are two ways to produce a good dressage horse.

“There’s the correct (and classical) way. The horse is backed at around five years old. You carefully, slowly and gradually build up the horse’s strength, suppleness, and balance, etc., via the tried and tested classical movements, which have been practiced for thousands of years by good trainers. Many trainers have trained in this way all their lives and never even realised that they are classicists, but some of them are classical in the best sense of the word. All the word ‘classical’ means, in an equestrian sense, is a correct, kind way of training, following the laws of nature, as laid down for us since the year 400 BC by the Great Masters. At around eight years of age, if the horse is ready and only if; you may start thinking about more advanced movements such as flying changes.

“Then there’s the incorrect, selfish ‘ I want it now ’ way of doing things. You take a five-year-old and within a year it’s forced into performing flying changes whether it’s ready or not.  It may look impressive to the uninformed eye, but it will be worn out very quickly and probably die young. It will be a travesty of what a beautiful horse should be. I wonder why it is that the stallions at the Spanish Riding School often perform into their late twenties and even early thirties? Not just because the Lipizzaner is a long-lived breed, I think – make up your own mind who is right.”

SUSAN McBANE

“One modern practice which has become common in people’s rush to make horses perform and bring in some money, and which really makes my blood boil, is the practice of weaning foals at, in my view, too young an age and getting them to jump on the lunge or loose - even before they are weaned - to exhibit their talents. It is not uncommon to see foals as young as five months jumping at sales and exhibitions, which I could not believe was allowed if I had not seen it.

“Riding techniques are often much harsher than when I was young and incorrect principles are very common, resulting in forced, artificial action, contorted postures and distressed horses. Sadly, many people think this is acceptable and even correct but it is a quick way to ruin a horse. Surely this constitutes abuse?

“On the management front, horses are often treated as inanimate toys or vehicles which have no feelings. They are fed unnatural diets which encourage the development of digestive problems, are often denied freedom and proper social contact with their own kind, or, conversely, are left out at the mercy of flies and the weather with no decent shelter. It is clear to anyone with a feel for horses that this kind of treatment causes both physical and mental suffering.”

   

One word, just one word, makes them very angry – Rollkur or hyperflexion:

ANNE WILSON

“It’s horrendous. It does so much damage to the horse, both physically and mentally. Riding is all about following the laws of nature. It goes completely against nature to force a horse into any kind of outline. To see a horse in Rollkur or hyperflexion makes me feel sick.

“Susan McBane and I wrote to the FEI in February 2008, backed by the signatures of several eminent horse people, imploring them to instruct their judges to implement the principles contained in the FEI rule book, namely ‘The poll should be the highest point and the nose should be just in front of the vertical’ We believe that if this rule were to be applied, in all disciplines, horses who are habitually over-bent or behind the bit would be penalised in competition, thus minimising the need for formal constraint against Rollkur or hyperflexion. We received a reply in March, which although not definitive, did give us some encouragement that the matter was under consideration.

“In April 2008, the FEI Veterinary Committee issued the following statement at their Bureau Meeting in Switzerland (subsequently posting it on their website): ‘There are no known clinical side effects specifically arising from the use of hyperflexion. However, there are serious concerns for a horse’s well-being if the technique is not practiced correctly. The FEI condemns hyperflexion in any equestrian sport as an example of mental abuse. The FEI states that it does not support the practice.’

“We were over the moon with the FEI’s condemnation of hyperflexion, even if we do beg to disagree over the statement that there are no known clinical side effects – who would want to use a technique which is condemned by the FEI as mental abuse? The answer to this question sadly is, quite a few. The practice still goes on, although I think it is fair to say probably less than previously, and many more judges are beginning to penalise over-bent horses.

“Back in 1996, I helped to obtain signatures on a petition organised by Sylvia Loch of the Classical Riding Club, designed to regulate the use of draw reins and gadgets to ‘keep the horse in an outline’ There are thousands of people all over the world who agree with us – now is the time to put a final and official stop to it.

“We have written again to the FEI, requesting that they put in place some form of formal constraint against hyperflexion, and we are awaiting a reply.”

Rollkur or hyperflexion
Rolkur

SUSAN McBANE

“I agree with everything Anne has said. In all the best traditional and classical texts, old and modern, and in lessons from true horsemen and horsewomen, being over-bent or behind the bit (which produce the same posture but are slightly different) are regarded as serious errors and the fault of the rider.

“It seems that the FEI are not willing to implement their own rules on this issue and one has to ask why. Also, there are equestrian sports and disciplines which are outside the remit of the FEI, remember, where it is also seen.

“It should be automatic that horses presented this way in competition are eliminated, and those which are obviously worked in hyperflexion at home or in the warm-up areas are also not allowed to compete. Such horses usually have the neck posture called a ‘broken neck’ or ‘broken crest’ in which the highest point of the neck is a few vertebrae down from the poll, instead of the poll being, as in nature, the highest point.

“I’m afraid that I do not think encouraging people to abandon this practice voluntarily, or introducing a Code of Practice, will do the trick. It needs unequivocally banning by rules which are stringently implemented. If judges do not do so, they should be struck off the judging lists, in my view.”

   

Both Susan and Anne are doing everything they can to see a return to classical riding, as well as a better way to care for horses. They teach, write articles and books, and publish their own quarterly periodical, ‘Tracking-up’ as mentioned previously. Tracking-up covers a variety of topics besides riding, such as care and management, veterinary, equine behaviour, farriery and dental articles, as well as reviews of important book and DVD titles. To subscribe, see their website – www.tracking-up.com

ANNE WILSON

“Ten years ago, there was little emphasis on classical riding, although in my younger day much of what I was taught was classical, without being called so. Somewhere in the 1980s everything seemed to become too competitive with the emphasis swinging away from established principles. Luckily, and after much hard work from people like Sylvia Loch and others, the pendulum is swinging back towards classical principles.

“In countries which have always been thought of as the home of classical riding, such as Spain and Portugal, it has never really gone away, although even there some of the training methods leave a lot to be desired, but there are still some wonderful examples of horsemanship in Iberia.

“Definitely in the UK and USA it is becoming more popular. People can see that it is the answer to an ethical way of keeping and riding horses. We’ve still got a long way to go in some respects; there’s always work to be done.

“I have nothing against competition, only competition purely for the sake of winning; then it is at best meaningless and at worst a travesty to the beauty and generosity of the horse. People should realise that taking part well is so much more worthy, and something to be proud of, than simply winning a trophy. If that’s all you want, you may as well just buy one from a high street shop.”

 

SUSAN McBANE

“Although I am not competitive by nature, I am not against competition provided that horses are not made to suffer for the sake of their human connections wanting excitement or the kudos of winning or because they make their livings by ‘doing well’ in competition.

“Unfortunately, at the higher levels a lot of money is now involved in equestrian sport. At the lower levels competing tends to cost money rather than bring it in unless it is done to publicise horses for sale. Some people seem to use competition as a means of bolstering their egos, too, which is really sad because they often do it at the expense of their horses.”

Rolkur

   

Susan and Anne don’t agree on absolutely everything.  There’s always room for slight differences, and they don’t deny them.  However, they concur in their main ethos and ways of thinking, putting the horse’s welfare first, with classical riding as the basis for all disciplines.

They also have their own heroes, their own favourite riders:-

ANNE WILSON

Francois Robichon de la Guérinière
Col. Alois Podhajsky
Sylvia Loch
Paul Belasik

“In ten years time I think things will improve and we will see a widespread return and appreciation of classical principles.  People will begin to realise the true beauty of the horse’s movement, when not forced or coerced.  Hopefully people will share with me the lasting, uplifting, fulfilment which comes from being truly close to a horse.”

Rolkur
A pensive Dr Klimke with a very relaxed looking Ahlerich after their Grand Prix test

SUSAN McBANE

the same plus
Nuno Oliveira
Egon von Neindorff
Reiner Klimke
Goncalo Oliveira
Gerd Heuschmann (author of ‘Tug of War’)
plus others 

“I’ve always wanted a horse for that same reason, not for what the horse can do for me.  Because of my deep interest in equine behaviour and psychology, and the fact that it is finally – slowly but surely – coming more to the fore in equine management and even in training courses, I think that more people will understand horses better which I hope will lead to their going back to the old tenet ‘every horse is an individual and must be treated as such’ ".

“Learning much more about equine body language, which is how horses mainly communicate, and developing the sensitivity to be able to know how they are feeling and what they are trying to convey is key to successful relationships with them, whether you’re on the ground, driving them in harness or in the saddle.”

 

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‘Riding Revelations – Classical Training from the Beginning’

Horse Senses Top Horse Training Methods Explored Six Steps to a Schooled Horse: A Thoughtful, Effective, Structured Approach to Schooling for Success
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