THE CRUELTY OF EQUESTRIAN SPORT ["NEVZOROV HAUTE ECOLE"] by HELLENIC HORSEBACK ARCHERY SOCIETY

The cruelty of equestrian sport TYPES, METHODS, AND THE NATURE OF THE CRUEL TREATMENT OF HORSES

DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE

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As you look through this small collection of typi cal photographs of equestrian sport and oth er human activities which involve horses, you could consider where does the greatest human cruelty and dishonesty come from. And you probably would answer that it is the «iron» in the horse’s mouth. But this wouldn’t be completely true. Look closely at these photographs: at the faces of the horses writhing with pain and fear, at their tormented eyes, at their bodies blasting with muscular strain, at their mouths and legs pouring with foaming saliva and sweat. Look at the human faces disfigured with anger and fear. Try to ask yourself honestly: – Why humans do these kinds of things to creatures who think and feel as much as humans do?

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– What is the purpose of this now, in the 21st century, when savagery should belong to the past? We will give you an answer at the end of this atlas of cruelty. An now – look and consider... There is a great myth of sportsmen that says that all of these photos are trivial and that there are no such things in real equestrian sport. But its not true. This Atlas contains photographs of what champions and masters of sports do. All the pho tographs here are typical and you can easily verify it if you’ll visit any equestrian event with your own camera. None of these photos were processed via Photoshop. They are all true facts.

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Impact of a bit Principles of the painful action of dental "iron" (snaffle)

Painful impact on the minor palatine nerve Joint of a single-jointed snaffle digs into the soft palate

The tongue is squeezed and pushed into the pharynx

Rein action Impact on the alveolar and infraorbital nerves Painful impact on the teeth (first and second premolar teeth) Painful impact on lips, tunica mucosa of a gum and mandibular periosteum

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The tongue is jammed by snaf fle's joint (impact on the inferior alveolar nerve and lingual nerve)

Impact on the lingual and sublingual nerves

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on a horse Principles of the action of trigeminal "iron" (curb and pelham bits)

Impact on the lingual nerve The mouthpiece squeezes the tongue

Mouthpiece port hits the soft palate (impact on the minor palatine nerve n. Palatinus minor and the branches of maxillary nerve)

Rein action

Curb bit acts like a lever and curb chain pinches the trigeminal nerves

Long shank increases the power of the impact on the soft palate and the branches of mandibular division of the trigeminal nerve

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Schematic illustration of NEUROCRANIALIS SHOCK 4

Diagram explanation 1. Trigeminal nerve branches (n. trigeminus). 2. Second premolars (dentes premolars II). 3. Facial nerve (n. facialis). 4. Lingual nerve (n. lingualis).

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5. Small palate nerve (n. palatinus minor). 6. Infraorbital nerve (n. infraorbitalis). 7. Mandibular alveolar nerve (n. alveolaris mandibulae).

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Schematic illustration of NEUROCRANIALIS SHOCK 2

Diagram explanation 1. Trigeminal nerve branches (n. trigeminus). 2. Facial nerve (n. facialis). 3. Lingual nerve (n. lingualis).

4. Small palate nerve (n. palatinus minor). 5. Infraorbital nerve (n. infraorbitalis). 6. Mandibular alveolar nerve (n. alveolaris mandibulae).

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RACING

Common myth:

Speed trials are the only way to improve the breed and to stimulate the biological evolution of a horse. Horses love to race, they exhibit ardor and a desire to win.

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Truth:

Standard racecourse. Of course, all of these horses are very young. Of course, they’re panicking. Their death has already started for them. Loving horse owners, following the strict and accepted practices of horse racing, tie down the horses’ tongues to the lower jaw with pieces of stockings or nylon ropes. (With this idiotic practice they prevent the horse from any chance of using tongue movement to resist the painful and paralyzing action of the bit and other specific kinds of iron.)

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The tearing of the hind limb (in this particular case), in the jockeys’ slang, “crushing out”. This can (and must) happen because of the enormous overloading of the horse’s organism due to the speed and panic, and also as the result of a tiny stumble. In the photos on this page we can see the tearing out, the partial separation of the distal epiphysis, the partial destruction of the joint. The common

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digital extensor tendon is already torn, the skin and the third metacarpal bone are torn as well. The lateral collateral ligament is at the stage of tearing. The bone of the first phalanx is crushed. In the top photo we can see one of the phases of the gallop with the digging of the crushed first phalanx bone into the ground, and after that the phase of the full tearing of the collateral tendon begins.

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Normal racecourse speeds are fatal for a horse. Every horse has myological and physiological selfregulation laws, which always reduce the speed or even stop the horse. Even a typical racecourse speed is destructive to a horse’s limbs, and also leads to exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH, or “bleeding”) and obstruction of breathing. But jockeys need the speed to be even faster

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than the normative one. Only this speed wins races. The beatings that a horse gets from the jockey can only partially switch off these security systems, covering their “protest” with hurt because of the painful burning beating and with horror during the anticipation of the next beating.

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A bit affects the horse's brain as an electric prod which is constantly turned on. It gives a horse the same pain. This is a scientifically proven fact. The improving of the breed with speed trials is

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an absolutely unscientific myth. No one ever made it an aim to improve the biological prowess of a living being which belongs to the species of Equus Caballus during the breeding of racehorses.

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But there have always been other aims. Humans consciously and intentionally developed the operational characteristics of «the horse» device.

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A horse reaches it’s biological maturity (the age of «adulthood») at the age of 5. In races the horse is forced to enter the track at the age of 1,5–2.

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HARNESS RACING Common myth:

The trotter is a horse which is naturally capable of running in a frisky trot at a great rate with impunity. Horses love to run races while pulling a sulky.

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used © N. Bykova for Nevzorov Haute Ecole

Truth:

Today there are about 400 extensively used hippodromes in the world. These arenas dispose of hundreds of thousands of horses during each racing season. And for the next season the racing industry needs hundreds of thousands of new young horses instead of the ones who are still alive but can’t run any more to earn its keep. The industry needs new victims to replace the ones who died on the track, the ones who died of colics after doping overdoses; the ones who were put down, slaughtered or shot because they were "unsuitable" for further use.

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All these devices, ugly in their painful and injuring effects, are used by humans with only one definite aim – to not leave the horse a chance of successful rebellion. Check bits, bradoons, a score of different types of vicious «iron», toe weights, spiked shafts, ear plugs, bound tongues and tails, turpentine and chili pepper rubbed under the dock…

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This list could be continued for pages, because the trotters are the ones to whom the demands of the humans are of the most unnatural kind. This means, that the trotters are the most difficult to subdue. So the «inventors» devised the biggest armory to… «improve the breed».

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There is no such a breed as a Trotter. Trotters are just horses and they prefer to canter or gallop.The only truth about all the horse racing is that it is simply a way to generate cash, status, and sensual profit from the knowingly cruel and prolonged mass murder of horses.

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SHOW JUMPING, EVENTING Common myth:

Horses enjoy competing in sports. They love to run and jump with a rider on their back. Only while ridden can a horse exercise and unite with a human.

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Truth:

There is a great illusion that in sports, pleasure, or work, whether harnessed or ridden, the horse is controlled by the human. This is incorrect. The horse is controlled by PAIN. There are special basic methods that with «correct» application guarantee success in the business of equine sport (ES). ES success lies ONLY in the mastery of these methods, their constant improvement, and in their extremely ruthless application. All these methods cause unbearably painful effects in the mouth, and to the neurological system of the head, and destroy the whole physiological and anatomic system of the horse. Every rider must have an appropriate level of "blindness" to the sufferings of a horse.

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Method N.1. For verbal clarification of the actions that are presented in convincing photographic evidence in this article, representing the primary techniques that enable the obedience of a horse in ES; these are considered to be common practice by all criteria and are most appropriately called “NEUROCRANIALIS SHOCK (shock of nerve system of skull). In the use of method N.1, we see a very rigid rein grab with one hand and a very strong pull by the other hand, which is so powerful that half of the bit rushes through the horse’s mouth, and the rider’s elbow goes back as far as it is possible. This sharp elbow movement increases the leverage force of the bit accordingly, and results in an especially severe and painful blow to the left or right part of horse’s skull.

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Method N. 2 represents an even sharper direct blow by the bit, over all the sensitive areas of horse’s mouth. As a rule, every horse who has been forced this way, tries to weaken the effect of the blow by tossing its head up. The purpose of both methods considered above, that are the basic methods of ES, is to «inflame» the entire innervational system of skull (namely, all the sensitive and «mixed» nerves from 12 pairs of facial nerves) by a sharp painful impact.

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Do the sportsmen know of the pain they are inflicting to the horse? Yes, they do! And they call it an enjoyable "sport".

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DRESSAGE Common myth:

Dressage is a harmonious partnership between two happy athletes. It is the highest art of horsemanship, the highest degree of the horse’s own development.

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Truth:

In accordance with all requirements and qualifying standards of any type of dressage, the horse is forced into false collection (with a violently flexed poll and engaged hindquarters) by means of special devices, lever force and other forms of pain. The first consequence of false collection is the full or partial crushing of parotid salivary gland.

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The chemical composition of saliva changes as the parotid glands - the largest of the salivary glands – are crushed and necrotized as a result of forced collection. The mandibular gland which, relatively speaking, does not suffer as severely, emits a seromucous secretion and its excess upsets the balance of chemicals in the saliva composition. Saliva tests of sport horses reveal cardinal differences between the saliva of a sport horse and that of normal saliva! Acute stresses from pain and the effect of the bit, wh ich is unavoidable in the life of every sport horse, leads to ulcers. Gastritis, colitis, and ulcers lead to colic, which causes death.

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Due to forced collection, injury of the atlantooccipital membrane is unavoidable. As soon as the membranes are torn (and this is the inevitable sequel to collection) the defense mechanism that protects the spinal cord is lost.

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During the course of experiments the degree of traumatic pressure to the tongue of the horse emerged. The main pressure of the bit acts upon places where the lingual nerve (lingualis) plexus is located. The bit causes a pressure on the tongue of 100 kg per square centimeter (this is with an ordinary rein tension; the rein acts as a connection for the bit of course). A jerk intensifies the pressure and it reaches 250–300 kg per square centimeter. What can the curb chain do, a very standard curb chain on a standard curb bit? The curb chain applies pressure to the bone and nerve at an amount of more than 300 kg per square centimeter! Besides the ever-popular rollkur collection seen in modern dressage, (see photo at the right), the hyperflexion of the horse's neck paralizes the neck and spinal muscles; its a false collection which leads to the full destruction of the cervical spine, to the full blindness of the horse and to the collaps of all systems of the horse's organism.

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Diastema is the place which the bit effects. Here the most sensitive part of trigeminal nerve is located. There is no submucosal layer on the diastema and the bit affects the nerve directly. The nerve is supersensitive. The bit beats and presses right on this place causing a horse «acute, burning, paralyzing» pain.

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DRIVING Common myth:

It is easier to the horse to move while in harness than while ridden. The harnessed horse is free of the riderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s weight. Driving is an easy and pleasant walk, healthy fitness and entertainment for the horse.

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Truth:

Driving and so-called Russian troikas merit a separate conversation; they are a most impressive and primitive symbol of torture, the uncivilized invention of drunken coachmen, born of a cruel competitive struggle for a passenger, who had to be soundly impressed. The necks of very young "wing" horses (those harnessed to the left and right sides of a troika) as seen with thermographic imagery shows that there are no longer “merely” injuries and ruptures

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of the muscle tissue, there is cervical vertebral STENOSIS, or, to put it more simply, narrowing of the spinal cord in the neck section of the spine. Because of the constant fixed abnormal position of the head, the vertebrae are being deformed, pinching the spinal cord. Physiologists characterize the pain resulting from this as practically unendurable.

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You can see on the photo at the right the injuries from the harness. It is impossible to think of a more unhealthy and subtle torment for the horse.

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WESTERN Common myth:

Western riding is a pleasant and easy way for a horse to «make friends» with a human. There is a minimum of «iron», the demands of a human are simple, the conditions and relationship are «natural and harmonious».

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Truth:

The cowboys were romanticized and cinematographized in a way that the facts of the real history were shyly withheld. And the truth is that on a Western cattle ranch a horse was nothing more than a «mobile piece of meat». Modern «cowboys» deliberately and fondly remodel the horse tortures which were never considered tortures in the time of the real cowboys. They weren’t even considered «roughness» and haven’t been classified at all because you can’t apply the word «torture» or the word «roughness» to the living but cheap piece of cattle-working equipment which a horse was to a human in those days and still is, as we can see, today.

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Typical bridles, spurs and always barbaric curb bits – all these devices are indispensable attributes of every western show.

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The so-called «sliding stop» is an artificial remodeling of the situation when the horse needs to stop abruptly on wet ground. It induces specific and regular injuries and disability of the horse because of the severe unnatural overwork.

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A horse now «heals» for some time (as long as it is economically sound). The horse makes her way into the soup a bit later and not straightaway but indirectly with the help of slaughterhouses and dog-food factories.

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RIDING SCHOOLS, LIVERY,RENT, AMATEUR HORSE-OWNERS Common myth:

Only through riding can a human have a relationship with a horse. Riding develops a horse physically and mentally. It gives a horse an opportunity to “selfactualize” and to “live an interesting life”. A horse loves amateur sports and the “good hands” of nonprofessionals. Kids learn kindness and the ability to feel and understand an animal while visiting riding schools.

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Truth:

Usually, adequate parents teach their kids to understand the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. Still in equestrian sport that truth is turned upside down without any reason. What is the difference if someone teaches a child to torture a horse or to torture a cat, a dog, a brother, a feeble old lady? Most are considered wrong, but the first is considered to be normal and to be the right of the free man in this branch of entertainment – equestrian sport and other entertainments which involve horses. Small kids begin their study when they take a whip. They take it to beat another being. They learn to put the bit into the horse’s mouth with their small hands. They do it to cause pain ably and successfully. They learn to make another being obey them…

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Many of us are parents ourselves. Look into the faces of the kids in these pictures! Imagine that some child would hang a cat or put a bit into the dog’s mouth and beat it with a whip just for fun with the same level of amusement. Wouldn’t you stop it? And here we can see exactly the same thing.

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Violence is ingrained in these children, teaching them to find pleasure in sadism and considering it to be normal and acceptable. Society, by its own hand, traumatizes the psyche of these kids, and destroys their personalities. Violence which has become so normal and acceptable for them, will later be carried over to human relations.

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The most amazing thing is that otherwise good people who can shed a tear at the kitten who mews in the rain are pathologically blind and deaf when they see horses. They do not understand and do not see the tortures done to these beings.

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It is as if a horse is a mechanical toy. Maybe the medieval mob looked at the bleeding executions in the town square the same way, as if it was simply a detail in the background.

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POLO, FOLK EQUESTRIAN GAMES and SHOWS Common myth:

A horse is intended for human amusement. A human cares for a horse, so the horse must earn its food and housing with its “work”. A horse loves to play games. The shows are really good for horses. Because of shows a lot of people learn to love and admire horses.

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Truth:

Polo is another human entertainment in which the disgusting truth is covered with carefully polished illusions. If someone would publish the X-rays of all the legs, necks and spines those illusions would vanish. Only the dumb scrambling activity where 8 human specimens try to hit the round metallic object with hammers while barely balancing on the backs of extremely lame horses for the prize which consists of a metallic pot with the ornate handles will remain.

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A polo-player uses at least 5 horses during one game. This is done because no one wants to spoil the glamourous image with a horse’s dead body. While a player rides a fresh horse, the used one is quickly transported into the hands of the veterinarians who urgently give the horse a blood transfusion or drugs.

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All of the ways that humans are amused by horses are possible nowadays only because they are deliberately shrouded by fanciful and beautiful illusions, and the actual sadism of the practices are carefully hidden from the eyes of the public. As soon as society knows the truth about these amusements, they will cease their support. They will see the sports as the savage and bloody atavism it is.

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The methods and the devices in all the kinds of horse-human activities are the same: the pain, the fear, the violence. Here a horse, as usual, is only an instrument to satisfy human ambitions and desires.

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The blood, the tortures, the pain. The pain, the blood, the tortures. Those are all that an everyday horse’s contact with a human is.

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In every show a horse has it’s place. But this place is like a cow's place in a barbecue.

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As is done in equestrian sport, in every horse show and any other human amusement, a horse pays with its life for the pretentious, pain-laden tricks and "elements".

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BEHIND THE SCENES Common myth:

Those who work with horses or spend a lot of time with them love them. Ev erything they do they do because of love. They care for horses. A human who can subdue a horse is a hero, a romantic who deserves to be respected and admired.

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Truth:

A total alcoholization of the "horse" society reveals the quality of its personalities. The question always arises: do you really think that your child learns the right lessons at the stable?

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The inducement of paralyzing pain and making a horse run or stand still with the usual and "normal" human violence.

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The final answer: In the XXI century the use of a horse is not a vital necessity for a human. Humans cause pain, torture and kill horses only for FUN. It is always violent, senseless and disgusting. It deprives the society it belongs to of the status of being called civilized. Those who are involved in horse-using activities also deprive themselves of the right to be considered mentally sane persons.

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XXX /FW[PSPW)BVUF&DPMF DPN