30.07.2021-A very nice comment on dressage riding from the German newspaper taz:

Dressage riding can no longer be Olympic. The horses are forced into figures that have nothing in common with their natural movements.

The German dressage team wins gold in Tokyo for the fourteenth time in Olympic history – and everyone is cheering.
“German dressage stars are unbeatable in the Olympic final”, it says in the “Sport broadcast ” and if the media has its way, “the triumvirate” deserves a “roaring applause”.

Applause for what?
For the most terrible cruelty to animals?
For the most perfect submission of the horses?
As a reminder: the dressage horses are not robot horses.
They are living animals that have feelings and a will of their own. Horses do not voluntarily bend their necks down so much that their nostrils almost touch their rib cage and all they can see is the ground.
Because that is not only painful, but also psychologically stressful for escape animals.

In the wild, horses neither trot-like on the spot nor do they gallop sideways across the meadow with crossed legs.
As the name suggests, these tricks have absolutely nothing to do with a horse’s natural movements.

2.19 million people watched the appearance of the German dressage team on the state German television program on Tuesday – no other competition achieved such a high audience rate that day.

Did you, dear viewers and colleagues, have all the tomatoes on your eyes?

Winner in repression

Or did the television commentator’s lyrical descriptions mesmerize you?
Or, and that would be the saddest of all explanations, are you so excited about gold medals that you simply suppress the suffering of animals?

According to the commentator, dressage riding is “not the pressing of a horse into a template, but the careful development of its talents into a noble silhouette”.
To formulate such a sentence, you have to be an Olympic champion in repressing (we say…or a complete idiot)

When the Olympic Committee takes on new sports such as surfing or skateboarding to get young people excited about the Games, it should also say goodbye to disciplines such as dressage, show jumping and eventing.
Equestrian sport has been part of the Olympic Games since 1912 – when the “Titanic” went under.

Instead of dropping the disciplines, we can of course simply leave out the horses.
The riders could dress up as horses and perform traversals, piaffes and gallop pirouettes themselves.
If they touch their collarbone with their chin throughout the entire freestyle, they will get an extra point.

https://taz.de/Pferdedressur-ist-Tierquaelerei/!5787803/

And I mean…Wonderful taz, you really made a great review!

Who actually watches such cruelty to animals, which is also cheekily referred to as “sport”?

In the 21st century such “sports” should finally be banned. Incidentally, obstacle riding is an even greater cruelty to animals, because horses only jump when they absolutely have to – for example when there is danger.

Horses are very susceptible to suffering.
Horses have few facial expressions and no painful sound, that is their misery, they are dependent on special sensitivity and unfortunately only a few horse lovers have that … those who are loved by their riders like dressage horses no longer need enemies …

It is a shame that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is being manipulated by a powerful equestrian minority aristocratic minority and continues to allow animal cruelty as a sporting discipline.

My best regards to all, Venus