"The update in British Columbia, from the Animal Health Centre laboratory (Ministry of Agriculture), indicated two positive nEHV-1 cases confirmed through the laboratory. These cases had either direct or indirect contact with horses that were at the Ogden, Utah competition.
It appears all of the cases and suspected cases remain in horses associated with the cutting horse industry.
All other disciplines outside of the cutting industry continue at this time to be considered low risk. The decision to cancel competitions and shows in other disciplines should be made in partnership with their associated veterinarian to develop a risk assessment of each situation. Any time we travel to a competition where there is mixing of horses from many locations there is a low risk of transmitting infectious diseases. Biosecurity measures should be followed. Excellent resources on biosecurity protocols for the equine community can be found on the Alberta Veterinary Medical Association website and the Alberta Equestrian Federation website.
The next conference call is scheduled for Wednesday June 8th, 2011. If any local veterinarians would like to participate they can contact the office of the Chief Provincial Veterinarian for further information."
Recently a video has surfaced and has quickly made the rounds in the social media circuit, I believe it merits some discussion here. The video was made without permission of the videotaped parties, by an organization called Epona TV. According to Epona's website, "EPONA.tv is produced by seasoned equestrian journalists with a special interest in the sciences of biomechanics, learning theory, nutrition, behavior and management." However in this particular episode, I believe that they have behaved more along the lines of an animal rights activist group in the same class as PETA, in that they have used questionable tactics to “out” what they believe to be abusive treatment to animals, and then promote their ideas to sympathetic “animal lovers” who may or may not have background knowledge to make fair or realistic judgments on the material they are presented with. In this particular case, Epona taped the warm up sessions at the FEI World Reining final, and produced a video that they posted online, of reining trainer, Craig Schmersal, schooling his horse in the warm up pen. In their opinion, the video is proof of that fact that Craig is abusive to his horses, and that reining in general is poorly regulated for abusive treatment of the horses.
I have spent a lot of time reading comments on this video, both at the original source, as well as numerous other horse related social media sites, and am completely appalled at the comments, and general level of overall ignorance being displayed in these online environments.
First and foremost, let me say that I believe that this video does not show Craig in any way abusing this horse. He is a professional trainer on a very highly trained horse, at a world class competition, and he is simply doing his job, which is schooling his horse before he goes into a class. Period. Now I am not going to try and explain WHY I believe this is not abusive, because that is not the intent of my post. And, would I recommend that you run out to your backyard pony and start picking up on them like that? Of course not-it would be a recipe for disaster...
I have gleaned a number of comments from a variety of sites that I would like to include here. The first few are in support of Craig and I believe they all make some good points. These comments are few and far between in the 100’s of comments on this video that are out there. If you go looking for these comments, you may or may not find them. Why? Because those people who have posted this video are trying to do everything they can to damage Craig’s reputation, and the sport of reining in general, and are removing them as fast as they are posted. Please read on...
“These horses are the elite of their event and are capable of performing way above the average horse, If this is the worst example of abuse you can find in the sport, I think that the FEI and the NRHA are doing a great job monitoring for abuse and the trainers are doing a great job developing these athletes without abusive training. I am pretty sure that the riders hands and feel are way better than your observation skills. This horse is showing no signs of being abused.”
“I think people are reacting to what they think this feels like in their hands and to their horse, and I am sure if most people complaining tried this on their horse it would react like an abused horse. The trainer is not jerking, he is checking for resistance by picking his hand up.”
“After watching this video SEVERAL times and reading the varied comments I found myself unable to resist commenting. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING this trainer did should fall under the label "ABUSE". Did he school the horse? Yes! Could he be considered heavy handed by some? Maybe! But abusive or inhuman? Hell NO!! This man was simply schooling a horse-nothing inhumane.”
“I watch our horses work every day, and NO I am not seeing the downtrodden look that some of you are. We treat our horses with the utmost respect, and they have a quality of life most people would kill for. What I see here is an edited video used to inflame those who don't understand actual training as opposed to simply riding. Note the distinction here-“ACTUAL TRAINING AS OPPOSED TO SIMPLY RIDING!”
“Maybe to some he is heavy handed, but in general no he is not. This video is simply a product of the bleeding hearts who feel that you can achieve an international level competitor with a special stick, string, or whatever method you feel can convince your horse to do as you please.”
“I always find it funny when people pass judgment on a trainer or even a discipline, with which they do not have any involvement. All of us involved with reining, cutting, or working cowhorse know what it takes to get the job done. And we also know our horses get more pampering than most Beverly Hills house wives.”
“That horse has a life better than me and you. She lives in one of the nicest barns in the world with full time care, spa, vet, and a trainer that loves his job. She understands her job, which is why she has won over 100k in earnings. He does not ask anything that she is not capable of... “
“Anyone who competes at high levels of competition is aggressive, but his horse is well trained and knows her job...he is not abusive he is demanding...big difference.”
“This guy is training a show horse at a high level of competition.”
Now, here are some comments that I found typical of those in support of the video, and to me, display a blatant level of ignorance, that it is hard to believe! I have chosen NOT to post the 100’s of comments that threaten all kinds of abuse on to Craig and his family. They are easily found and are not worth my time or energy to post here: Note my comments in yellow…
“If this is what it takes to make a reining horse….geeze, I wonder how Stacy Westfall ever did it with NO BRIDLE and riding bareback…. and she didn’t have to use the wall to force a slide.” (Do they honestly believe, that Stacy just decided one day to climb on her horse bareback and perform a reining freestyle? Do they not understand how much TRAINING with (AGAST)-a saddle and bridle with a BIT went into this horse in order to be able to do this performance???)
Is that how they train horses to stop? Running them into walls with their head between their legs? Poor horse. (NO! That is NOT how they train horse to stop!! (NO they don’t “RUN THEM INTO THE WALL”! OMG!!)
When he was going backwards, I was thinking of that as a precursor to flipping over backwards. Then he almost ran into a wall! (ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!)
… oh and i just cannot get over the amazing skill of getting your horse to stop like that…. running her into a wall. poor thing hasn’t got a chance…( AGAIN-THESE PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE LOOKING AT!!)
And my favorites…
“And what’s with the giant bandage on her knee?”
or..
“And I forgot…how does he even justify riding her with her knee bandaged???!!! I mean he probably took it off during the performance, but still, looks like an injury waiting to be even more exacerbated” NOT… I so can’t be bothered to explain this…the ignorance is pathetic….
Here is my problem with all this…The MOTIVE with which this video was made, was to deliberately damage one person’s reputation by giving a highly edited glimpse of a situation that is easily misinterpreted by those who do not have the knowledge or background to understand the situation. I take HUGE offence to people passing judgment in this circumstance, and using this as their “soapbox” to cry abuse, and even more so, to use this as excuse to utter death threats and abuse onto an innocent party. It is disgusting and offensive.
I came across this article on the NRHA's blog, and felt it was worth posting here. It is an interesting perspective on reining vs the English 4 day eventing, by John Strassburger, Horse Journal Performance Editor
Excerpts from Strassburger’s blog at www.horse-journal.com
I spent last week at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, working in the Media Center, as I’ve done for the last five years, and I’ve come home with two observations after watching the reining competition, a new and very popular addition to the event.
More than 6,700 people came to watch the two nights of Reining, which isn’t that much compared to the 62,000 who came to watch the four days of eventing. Except that the Alltech Arena, where the Reining was held, can only hold about 5,000 fans, while the cross-country course can easily accommodate much more than the 29,000 fans who enjoyed that phase on Saturday.
It took 25 years for the three-day event to reach those numbers, after a lot of work to develop the competition into the truly spectacular event that it is and a great deal of (continuing) marketing and public relations. Reining’s debut, though, was basically sold out for the freestyle on Saturday night, and I suspect that people are going to have to buy those tickets early from now on.
Four event riders—2000 Olympic individual gold medalist David O’Connor; his wife, four-time Olympian Karen O’Connor; 2008 Olympic silver medalist Gina Miles; and Australian Hamish
Cargill—borrowed horses to ride in the freestyle, and afterwards they and some of us eventing press types pondered Reining’s appeal to the fans. We were impressed by the way the crowd’s enthusiastic cheering had created an electric atmosphere rarely seen in equestrian competition. “I think there is a lot we could learn from Reining,” said David, who’s been the USEF president since 2004 and has seen a few reining events.
The biggest topic we pondered was what we could borrow from Reining to increase the connection fans feel to the competition and to the competitors? Reining is presented more like a concert or a stage show than a serious competition. The announcer plays country music or beat-driven rock music during the gaps between competitors, and even during the FEI-sanctioned event on Friday night, every horse performed with music selected by the show manager at only a slightly lower volume. And on both nights the announcer introduced each horse and rider with a tone and excitement that was closer to a monster-truck show than a golf tournament.
As a result, the crowd did lots of cheering and screaming—before, during and after each ride.
These aspects showed in stark contrast to the dressage phase we’d watched (and Karen and Hamish had ridden in) on Thursday and Friday. There, the atmosphere was hushed, rather like a putting green, as the British-accented announcers serenely introduced the horses and riders, with no music playing.
Nevertheless, the fans in the Rolex Stadium—10,962 on Friday and 6,810 on Thursday—did cheer mightily at the end of each test, often seriously surprising the horses.
We weren’t quite sure what eventing (as well as the other two Olympic sports of show jumping and dressage) could borrow from Reining. A particular challenge is that international-caliber horses in these three disciplines are almost always high-octane horses who would become unhinged by pounding music and cheering during their tests. Plus, Reining’s atmosphere would be outrageous to many Europeans and to many dressage riders, European or American.
But why couldn’t show managers and announcers raise the bar and borrow from the managers and announcers of Reining and rodeo? Play low-volume music; tell the folks something interesting—with excitement—about the horses and riders. Anything to make it less like watching a chess match.
At events like Rolex Kentucky, the announcers always attempt to explain how the (dressage) horses achieve their scores, and riders analyze where they gained and lost points, to themselves and in response to journalists’ questions. The scores the judges give are a major point of focus for everyone, and riders often question or criticize those scores.
But in Reining, the scores seem to materialize out of thin air. I’ve probably covered or worked at half a dozen reining competitions, and I’ve yet to hear a reiner question or criticize a judge’s marks.
These differences are, I think, largely a matter of culture and personality, but they’re manifested in the different sports’ public presentation. After last year’s Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, there was tremendous debate about the relative merits and faults of a Spanish Andalusian who performed an expressive and hugely popular freestyle test—finishing to waves of cheering—but didn’t get a medal. Dressage purists, including the judges, pointed to technical deficiencies they saw, and analysis of the marks showed that the horse had scored clearly lower on the technical side than the medalists.
Meanwhile, others cried, “How can dressage ever be popular if the most engaging and popular performance doesn’t win, doesn’t even get a medal? People won’t watch what they don’t understand.”
In the Reining freestyle on Saturday night, the winner wasn’t the showiest or the funniest. His freestyle was done to a more melancholy song, and while beautiful, it didn’t have the same flavor as those done to more raucous music with showier choreography and costumes. And he did spin better and galloped faster than everybody else. I’d say that in the aftermath he got a bit overwhelmed by the eventing “celebrities” and by the two more entertaining performances, but I didn’t hear anyone complain that it was a blot on Reining’s reputation that he got the highest score.
I seem to be suggesting that those of us in the Olympic disciplines pay too much attention to the scores, but I don’t think it’s anywhere near that simple. How do you have a competition if you don’t keep score? You can’t—then it’s just a demonstration or a social event. But maybe we could make it just a bit more fun?
If these thoughts seem a bit scattered, it’s because they are. The atmosphere at the Reining freestyle is something I’ve only rarely experienced in 30 years of covering equine competitions. That it’s fun and popular and that we English disciplines should glean some sort of “take-away message” from that experience feels obvious, but it’s hard to figure out exactly what that message should be.
But I’d certainly pay good money to see a dressage freestyle with a horse is wearing an Afro wig and sunglasses and the rider wearing a psychedelic, thigh-length mini-dress and white go-go boots.
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