Sv: Nacktråd!
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The bend - Overstraining of the neck tendon.
The attitude dressage horses adopt for their training leads to chronic overstraining of bit where the neck tendon is attached at the back of the skull. This is the conclusion reached by horst Weiler of the free Universitet in Berlin in a scientific publication which earned him the title of hoogleraar. A conclusion which could reverse the course of dressage/ be very controversial. Throughout centuries horses have shown that they are very good at adapting to the circumstances they live with. From a small ??? animal horses developed into flight animals living in the steppe, and then finally into the large animals now used for riding purposes. Nowadays, with the very highdemands we place on very young horses, we ask more of them than they are able to adapt to. And bare the consequences thereof. That was the conclusion of the research of professor doctor horst Weiler at the free Universitet Berlin. The veterinary surgeon and pathologist examined more than a thousand live and dead horses. He looked thereby at the overloading of the ligaments and tendons of the anchoring of and links to the bone and the impact of it in legs and especially to the bit between the neck and skull. Weiler's answer
to the question of what is overloading is rather shocking for dressage riders. The overloading of the skull anchoring occurs when the horse makes the highly sought bend in dressage riding. Riding deep and round or with the chin almost on the chest or behind the perpendicular is fatal according to him. "At each competition I see, I see the chronic problems arise spontaneously so to speak. The riders do not know what they are doing. He emphasized that he not want to spell the end of dressage, but, however, wants to indicate that the manner the horses are ridden leads to problems in 80% of the horses. Naturally you can win with a horse which suffers from
overstraining, but the figures completely overshadow the horse itself. On the one hand I see riders panic as soon as their horses look slightly different, and on the other hand try to hide injures just to be able to go to a competition. What I mean to say is that someone that wins is not necessarily right in their approach just because they win.
To only prevent The actual deviation which appears to the skull is not wrong. With overstraining bone and tissue growth appear in the area of the anchoring, structural changes which do not belong there. These morbid developments can not be healed, only prevented. There is a direct link between the growths and riding deep and round. The mechanical pulling strain alone, caused by
extreme bending of the head, can cause the bone growth. Research on ponies used for recreational purposes, trotters, cart horses, race horses and some prewalski horses did not reveql qny of the problems with the point of anchorage. These horses don't have to bend their necks. The impact of the bone growth at the point of anchorage of the neck tendon with the back of the skull reveals itself particularly in ' rittigkeitsproblemen '. Horses which shake their heads as soon as any pressure is put on it, horses which are lame as soon as a rider takes up contact in the reins, or do not let themselves be handled, these horses could well suffer from the problem at this point of anchorage. What a horse that suffers from this problem exactly feels, is not clear. A test with a headshaker revealed a link between the problem and pain. When the animal was anaesthesised locally at the point of anchorage, he kept its head quiet. According to Weiler it doesn't matter how much pressure is put on the bit, that has no impact; it is really the bend of the neck in relation to the head that counts. If you don't need much strength to get the horse to overbend, he probably doen't have a growth or a high pain threshold; if you do have to use force to get him to bend, then the horse may have a big problem/ growth or a low pain threshold.
The bone growth in the neck can form in some cases an obstruction to movement because the growth is in the way, in other cases horses simply aren't able to perform optimally. To make things clear, I compare the pain the horse feels to tooth ache. With a little pain you can function normally, but with lots of pain you can no longer concentrate and your muscle tension will increase on its own. Which means that your body will be less relaxed. The same applies to horses.
Responsibility
Weiler hopes that his research will trigger a debate and in the long run lead to another approach to riding. Some riders have told me that they are unable to ride any other way, because then it wouldn't be dressage anymore. Which means that they will lead their horses to their demise. Thankfully there are still some people that believe that you can ride a horse in front of the perpendicular and do all the normal dressage exercises that way. Anyhow, top riders have a large responsibility. Everyone tries, as it happens, to ride in the wake of their idols and cause in this way the same chronic neck problems on their own horse. On the basis of my research I am also able to state that you are not bound to be confronted with these problems around the point of anchorage. If you want to prevent the problem, you must change the complete phenomenon, train the horses differently and teach riders differently too."