Concordia Magazine Issue One by concordia.ec

ISSUE

NO.1

JAN/FEB

2022

CONCORDIA MAGAZINE

For the International Community of Thoughtful Equestrians

OUR PRINCIPLES The foundation of our community, shared by likeminded and thoughtful equestrians. Our Vision Our vision is of a world where all horses are cared for and trained with kindness and understanding. Our Shared Values Our shared values are compassion, harmony, empathy, patience, partnership, and honesty. Our Compassion Our compassion is for all equines, and also for our fellow human beings, offering a supportive community, where openmindedness allows us to learn from each other. We adopt the 'Five Freedoms' principles that were developed for farm animals and which are: freedom from hunger and thirst; freedom from discomfort; freedom from pain, injury or disease; freedom to express normal behaviour; and freedom from fear and distress. Our Commitment Our commitment is to promote successful human-horse relationships in which equine welfare is paramount. Through sharing education and knowledge that are based on science, research, evidence-based practice and compassion, we create thoughtful practices in care, management and training. Our Beliefs Fundamental to our beliefs is the fact that horses are sentient beings, capable of being aware of sensations and emotions, of feeling pain, of suffering and of experiencing a state of well being. With this in mind, we acknowledge that the management, handling, training and riding of horses must be in such a way that fear and distress are removed, or at least reduced to an absolute minimum. We believe in listening to the horses, supporting the learning style that allows for the horse's individuality, and giving them the time to develop both mentally and physically. We believe that horses should have freedom of movement and expression, this applies to all the ways we manage, live, work and connect with horses, and eliminates the use of restrictive equipment and force. Our Desires Our desire is to be a force for good, and a voice for horses all over the world.

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Our Principles

Concordia

Production Team

Importance of Vertical Balance Karin Leibbrandt DVM

The Compassionate Equestrian Susan Gordon

All Welcome

Editor

In This Issue

Recognising Happiness

Dr Jo Hockenhull

Let's Ask Why?

Empathetic Communication Francesco Busignani

Editor

Thank you, Ben Hart Concordia

Bogged Down in Winter Blues Amelia Phillips

Australian Brumbies Fight for Life Joanne Canning

Kate Fletcher MSc

Working with Equimind

Championship Results

Equitopia

Taking it Easy Gillian Higgins

Empathy Francesco Busignani

Concordia Professionals

Following the Campaigns

Clipping Means Carrots Olivia Pollard

Saddle Research Conference

Orange Pages

About Us

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STNETNOC FO ELBAT

ISSUE 1: PRODUCTION TEAM & REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS

FROM IRELAND Michael Duffy is Concordia's IT Manager.

FROM ENGLAND Nicky Langley is a Concordia Director and Concordia General Manager.

FROM ENGLAND Milly Shand is a Concordia Director, writer and your magazine Editor.

FROM HOLLAND Dr Karin Leibbrandt is a vet, horse trainer and author of 'Compassionate Training for Today's Sport Horse'.

FROM CANADA Susan Gordon is a horse trainer and the co-author of 'The Compassionate Equestrian'.

FROM ENGLAND Dr Jo Hockenhull is an animal welfare researcher at the University of Bristol Vet School.

FROM ENGLAND Kate Fletcher MSc is a PhD Researcher in equine welfare at the Royal Veterinary College and an independent animal welfare consultant.

FROM BULGARIA Amelia Phillips is an herbologist and equestrienne.

FROM ENGLAND Silke Ceruti is the Managing Director of the online competition portal, Equimind.

04 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

ALL WELCOME! Tall, short, hairy, clipped, stripy or fluffy, whatever

different points of view.

To take an extreme example,

an abolitionist and a horse rider will, obviously, not share

share Our Principles (see page 2) then you are part of

the same points of view but both parties could share Our

our community.

Principles. If they can respect each other then they can share the same platform in order to speak for the horses.

The purpose at the heart of Concordia is to bring likeminded, thoughtful equestrians together, because as a

Our mission is to bring together all those who see horses

community we can not only give mutual support and

learn from each other, but we also have a much more

hasn't been easy but we are succeeding and we are

powerful voice for the horse.

already a positive influence in the horse world.

Sadly, within the horse world, there are many harmful

One thing is for sure and that is that we will only have an

practices that are taken as normal, taught as correct

influence on each other, and we will only have a strong

and practiced without thought.

Together we can raise

voice for horses, if we are open-minded and respectful

awareness of both the good and the bad in training and

of different views and celebrate the things that we have

care and make the world a better place to be a horse.

in common. With this in mind...

Now, here's the rub, we are not all going to agree with

WELCOME to issue one of Concordia Magazine.

each other, no sir, no way on earth will we all concur!

have some fabulous articles to share, written by some

That's one of the reasons that we make a point of not

awesome equestrians. I hope very much that you will

using the word 'ethical' because where the line is drawn

enjoy the experience.

between ethical and unethical will depend on so many

sentient

beings,

people

who

are

horse-lovers.

SETON S'ROTIDE

type of equine or whatever sort of human you are, if you

Milly

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“I marvel to this day that an animal as sensitive as a horse actually lets us sit on their back, much less respond to requests”

nairtseuqE etanoissapmoC ehT - nodroG nasuS

IN THIS ISSUE M O R E

E D I T O R ' S

Hippotherapy, phenotype, valence, ethology, tensegrity and binomial are some of the words used by our authors that I had to look up. Embarrassingly, our Dutch and Italian contributors, who write in English as their second language, have a more extensive vocabulary than I, who writes in my first and only language. Seriously though, our diverse range of articles have been such a pleasure to read and a great learning experience. In her article Recognising Happiness, Dr Jo Hockenhull talks us through the research on positive emotions in welfare. Historically, welfare has looked at what is wrong but how wonderful that we are now at the stage where we are looking at what actually makes horses happy and how to recognize it? Interestingly, Dr Sue Dyson, in her talk at the Saddle Research Trust conference, discussed the study of behaviours (facial, body and gait) to detect pain. Being able to ‘read’ the equine body language of pain is, I think, fundamental to the progress of equine welfare, and the natural progression is to be able to read the equine body language of pleasure. Of course, there will be those who say that we don’t need science to be able to read the emotional state of our fellow creatures. We should just know instinctively if our horses are happy or sad and it’s called empathy. Personally, I think that a combination of natural and learned empathy combined with the practical application of

N O T E S !

reading body language will be the most powerful tool we have ever had to advance equine wellbeing.

question or maybe your horse will offer a gesture. “Take a deep breath, and watch your horse’s expression. Just feel. Everything.”

Reading our horses, listening to them and connecting with them, are lines that run through all our articles. It seems to me that at least three of our authors are in some way spiritually connected. They write from their homes in Italy, Canada and England with such similar feelings and passion for finding the right way to communicate and most importantly, to listen to their horses.

Enjoy your reading, the magazine is packed full of great articles that are looking at training and care from the perspective of the horses highest welfare, like Dr Karin Leibbrandt's detailed explanation of vertical balance and the connection between correct training, soundness and wellbeing.

Francesco Busignani says that the real secret of empathetic communication is to focus on the sensations of others, like Kate Fletcher in her article ‘Why?’ Francesco says that we should avoid judging the horse’s behaviour but focus on why he adopted them and it is up to us to try to learn their language and express ourselves so that the horse can understand us. As Kate points out, behaviour can be a way of communicating something and, very often, can be a cry for help "we should not see challenging behaviour as a problem, but more as a message".

So please, share the magazine, share your thoughts, and spread the message of compassionate and thoughtful equestrianism. Wishing you and all yours a healthy and happy New Year. Milly

Susan Gordon connects empathy with compassion and the recognition of sentience and says that “compassion asks us to take note of the sensations of another. What does that animal feel?” Susan suggests that if we “thoughtfully approach, touch, and observe” that maybe a picture or a thought will enter our head in relation to a 06 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

Dr Jo’s Science Spot

Recognising Happiness

How good are we at recognising our horses emotional state? Most of us like to think that we know when our horse is happy, scared, or depressed. To date, there isn’t much scientific evidence to support this assumption. However, over the last couple of years we are seeing an increasing number of studies investigating recognition of equine emotional states by horse people and non-horse people. We have to be honest here. Correctly guessing the emotional state of someone who can’t tell you how they are feeling can be challenging. We rely on changes in behaviour patterns, postures and facial expressions. The more intense emotions tend to be easier to identify, such as sheer

terror or extreme joy. But not always. And subtler emotions may be even harder to recognise. At least when we are trying to identify how other people may be feeling we can draw on our own emotional experiences and how we think we would feel in that situation. This isn’t so easy with horses. While there may be some similarities, there are also many differences. Horses are a different species and that brings different needs, preferences, likes and dislikes. Anthropomorphism (attributing human traits such as emotions to other species) can help us in our attempts to understand and empathise with our horses; but dangerously, it can also lead us to attribute qualities to them that are totally

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incorrect. Treating horses based on human needs can lead to inappropriate decision-making on behalf of the horse that can seriously compromise their welfare. One common example we see is over-rugging, whereby owners rug their horses based on how cold they feel, not based on the horse who is physiologically able to regulate and maintain their body temperature down to a much lower temperature than we can. Back to emotions. As tends to be the case in welfare science when new research ideas are being studied, when researchers first started to investigate perceptions of equine emotions, it was negative emotions such as fear, stress and pain that formed the focus. This is similar to the early welfare studies that focused on poor welfare and evidence of suffering; more recently however research attention has shifted towards how we can promote positive welfare states and enhance quality of life. The same shift is now being seen in studies exploring recognition and perception of the emotional state of our horses. The studies into recognition of fear, pain and stress indicated that humans are not always able to spot signs of these states in horses, which raises the question of whether we are able to recognise other, more positive emotional states. Two recently published studies used surveys to investigate how humans interpret or perceive equine emotional states. In the first study (Bornmann et al 2021), the international team of researchers explored perceptions of happiness in horses by means of an online survey. Respondents were asked for their general perception of happiness in horses before being asked more specifically about their own horse’s happiness in different situations

and what their horse might choose to change in their life to increase their happiness level. Usable responses were received from 332 people, the majority of whom were horse owners. Most respondents thought that they could recognise when their horse was happy and reported using their horse’s behaviour, body language, ears, eyes and facial expression to do this. The majority thought that their own horse was generally ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ happy. Over 90% believed that their horse was happy when they interacted with them, 80% believed that they were happy when ridden and 89% believed they were happy when they were worked from the ground. Horses who were ‘very forward/energetic’ when ridden were considered happy by some respondents as were ‘bomb-proof'’ horses and those who did not react to ‘loud noises/scary objects’. The changes a horse might make to increase their happiness predominantly revolved around turnout and included more time at turnout, turnout with other horses and a larger turnout area. The survey was largely based on closed option questions where respondents could select one option from a list of two or multiple answer options, and while it generated some interesting data, I think this subject would really benefit from a more open, qualitative form of data collection such as interviews. Untangling the psychology behind these responses would be fascinating – do people really believe their horses are happy? Or do we perhaps think they are because we are in that situation? Or because we don’t want to think of them being unhappy in our care? The response to the question on the changes the horse would make to increase their happiness suggest that the respondents recognised that perhaps currently things weren’t as good for their horse as they could

be. This study has scratched the surface of human perceptions of happiness in horses and highlighted the need for further research in this area. In the second study (Merkies et al 2021), a team of Canadian researchers developed an online survey to investigate whether people could tell a horse’s emotional state from a recording of their whinny. They focused on whether the horse in question was in a positive or negative emotional state (also known as valence) as well as how aroused the horse was. Previous research exploring the acoustic structure of whinnies expressed in different situations when the horse’s emotional state was known, found that they contain both of these characteristics. So, from a whinny there is the potential to know whether a horse is happy (positive valence) or sad (negative valence) as well as if it is excited (high arousal) or calm (low arousal). The researchers compiled 32 audio clips of whinnying horses into their survey. Participants were asked to record whether they thought the horse was in a positive or negative emotional state and to rate the horse’s arousal level from 1 (very calm) to 10 (very excited). The audio clips were balanced to include whinnies from mature (aged 2 or older) and immature (under 2 years of age) horses, males and females, in both positive and negative valence as determined from the context of video clips from which the whinnies were taken. A total of 309 participants completed the survey. The researchers found that participants were able to identify the valence of the whinnies significantly better than chance, with female participants performing better than males for both positive and negative valence.

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Although the difference was only small, both male and female participants scored more of the negatively valenced whinnies correctly than the positive. Characteristics of the participant e.g. age, location and experience with horses did not effect their ability to score valence correctly. Female participants and those over 65 years old rated the arousal levels higher than males and those aged 65 years and under, but no other characteristic had an effect. The researchers speculated that the gender differences found may potentially reflect the more empathetic nature of women, alongside their tendency towards a

greater affinity for horses. Both of these studies contribute to our understanding of people’s perceptions and abilities when it comes to recognising equine emotional states while also demonstrating just how much we don’t yet know. It is always refreshing to see welfare science focusing on the brighter side of life. We shouldn’t only be striving to avoid negative emotions and welfare, but be promoting positive emotions and welfare in our horses. Being able to recognise happiness in our horses is just the first step and it will be interesting to see how this field of research

develops and how the findings can be used in practice to improve quality of life for our horses. Dr Jo Hockenhull

Tanja Bornmann, Hayley Randle & Jane Williams (2021) Investigating Equestrians’ Perceptions of Horse Happiness: An Exploratory Study. Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 104: 103697. DOI: 10.1016/j.jevs.2021.103697 Katrina Merkies, Elizabeth Crouchman & Haley Belliveau (2021). Human Ability to Determine Affective States in Domestic Horse Whinnies, Anthrozoös, DOI:10.1080/08927936.2021.1999605

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ERALDO BONEVAC "ASKING WHY IS THE ROOT OF A SCIENTIFIC MIND SET"

LET'S ASK WHY? KATE FLETCHER Let’s talk about why we should always be asking ‘WHY?’

Ignoring behaviour doesn’t make it go away, it might just make it less visible temporarily, but the cause has not been addressed so it is still there, under the surface,

Every behaviour has a reason, a story, a justification.

causing the horse more negative emotions and quite Every

behaviour

can

way

communicating

possibly worsening every day that we fail to peel off the lid and look at what’s going on there.

something and, very often, can be a cry for help.

We should not see behaviour as a problem, but more as a message.

Making assumptions about a behaviour without taking the time to understand the full story is letting our horses down.

How

feel

when

are

struggling,

confused, overwhelmed or in pain? How do we feel if We, as the caretakers of domesticated equids, have the obligation and responsibility to ask why our horse is

try

voice

that

and

get

dismissed,

ignored

treated harshly?

behaving in a certain way. Constantly striving to better understand how horses tick This doesn’t involve just looking at ways in which we can push the behaviour down, cover it up or ‘fix it’ but to dig deep into the cause and evaluate what welfare needs the horse is not having met, what emotions the situation is producing for them, what is the reason behind this behaviour, and what measures can be taken to help them.

and why they do certain things helps us to forge a stronger

human-animal

connection

and

may

even

prevent unwanted behaviour occurring in future.

We can all generally agree that prevention is easier than

cure.

unwanted

can

prevent

behaviour

things

ensuring

from

that

causing

meet

the our

horses ethological needs and fulfil all of the five welfare domains. We can watch them for subtle signs that they

understandable

think

that

skipping

over

the

aren’t coping and ask why they are not coping, along

‘why?’ and straight to the ‘well what can we do about

with

it?’ (or ‘how can we get rid of the problem?’) is the

encourage desired behaviour.

focusing

positive

ways

which

can

easier option in many ways. Longer-term, however, it can create more ‘problems’, or more extreme behaviour, as the horse realises that the more subtle signs are just ignored.

This sets both us and our horses up for success. Let’s all strive to be better equestrians and consequently better humans. Let’s always ask, 'WHY?'

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The Importance of Vertical Balance by Karin Leibbrandt DVM

What is balance? Balance is an important topic in the training of horses, but what exactly is balance and how do we know a horse is in balance? A horse out of balance always has to compensate in his body. This will cause tension and overload in certain parts of his body. If we want to train the horse in harmony and if we want him to move effortlessly we have to find a way to dissolve the tension and help the horse to balance himself first without and later with a rider. So let’s have a look at balance in more detail!

What is vertical balance? A horse can be out of balance in two directions. The vertical plane and the horizontal plane. The horizontal balance refers to the shifting of the weight to the hindquarters. The vertical balance is all about the position of the trunk in between the shoulder blades.

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If we look at the left picture we can see a horse in vertical balance. The trunk is exactly in the middle of the shoulder blades and the sternum is in vertical position. This means that the withers are also in vertical position. The picture in the middle show a horse out of vertical balance to the left. She is placing more weight on her left front leg and her sternum and withers are rotating to the left. The right picture shows a horse falling on the right shoulder. In this case the sternum and withers are rotating to the right and the horse is loading the right front leg too much. What happens with the horse’s spine if the horse is out of vertical balance? The vertical imbalance causes crookedness in the spine in three dimensions. 1. Rotation 2. Lateral flexion 3. Extension and flexion of the back We already discussed rotation. The sternum and withers rotate to the left or the right and of course this causes a slight rotation in the entire thoracal and lumbar spine. In the next picture you can see the vertical imbalance seen from above. This is a right bent horse. She has lateral flexion to the right, her head goes to the right and she lifts her head. Her withers go to the left and what we can actually see is the cause of the vertical imbalance; The right hind leg is pushing weight into the left front leg. This means that the right hind leg pushes too much weight to the left and to the front. The left hind leg is just pushing too much weight to the forehand. Although this horse has lateral flexion, this is in an incorrect manner. The lateral flexion should be equally divided from nose to tail.

The last dimension is the vertical imbalance seen from the side. The right hind is pushing too much weight in the left front and therefore the withers are rotating to the left, but they are also lowering. This causes a hollowing of the thoracal part of the back. As a compensation the horse needs to over flex the lumbar part of the back. The horse wants to compensate her imbalance by lifting her head to the right. If we allow this, she will be more or less comfortable, but if we ask her to position her nose behind the vertical and therefor shorten the neck, the thoracal part of her back lowers even more and the horse will even lose more of her vertical AND horizontal balance. So this will cause more load on the forehand and more discomfort for the horse.

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How does vertical imbalance affect the load of the back and the legs? If a horse is out of vertical balance there will be a lot of tension in his back due to the rotations and the crookedness. In some parts of the spine there will be compression, especially in the transition from the cervical vertebrae to the thoracal vertebrae (lower neck) while in other parts there will be overload by traction on the ligaments. A horse out of vertical balance hollows the back and this increases the risk of developing kissing spines. In the following pictures we can see the difference between the top line of a horse out of vertical balance (fig 1) and the top line of a horse in vertical balance (fig 2). The horse in fig 1 will not be able to stabilize her back and therefore it will be difficult or impossible to carry a rider, and if she does, she will overload her front legs even more. In fig 2 she lifted her withers due to the vertical balance and activation of the shoulder sling. She activated the muscles of her underline and she stabilised her back. Now she will be able to carry a (well balanced) rider with ease. Fig 1 This horse is out of vertical balance and will not be able to stabilize her back and therefore it will be difficult or impossible to carry a rider and if she does carry a rider then she will overload the front legs even more.

Fig 2 The horse has lifted her withers due to the vertical balance and activation of the shoulder sling. She activated the muscles of her underline and she stabilised her back. Now she will be able to carry a (well balanced) rider with ease.

If a horse is being trained for several years without addressing the vertical imbalance, the horse will load one front leg more than the other. Injuries on this leg are to be expected, for example tendon injuries or navicular syndrome. A horse out of vertical balance will also place too much weight on the forehand. This causes the front legs to stand on the ground for too long and the hind legs will stay too far behind the body. Of course this causes an overload on the tendons and joints in the front legs and the hindlegs will overstretch in particular in the stifle, the tarsal joint and the fetlock joint, causing all kinds of injuries. So vertical balance is of huge importance to keep your horse sound!

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How a good vertical balance leads to a correct posture and movement pattern A horse in vertical balance straightens his spine, he will lift the withers by placing it correctly in the vertical plane and therefore the shoulder sling can be activated and will lift the withers even more. The weight is equally divided over the left- and right front leg. The horse will round the entire back and become more stable. The bones of the horse will be in line with each other and the tension on the fascial system will be equal. The fascia system is a three dimensional connective tissue system in the horse which connects the entire body from nose to tail and from skin to organs. A balanced horse can use its fascial system as a bouncing ball. He has tensegrity: his entire body works as one system and during the landing he will store energy, which will be released at the moment he bounces of the ground. This way the movement only costs a relatively small amount of muscle power and energy. The movement of the horse looks EFFORTLESS and the rhythm is perfect. Since the horse doesn’t lose any energy on compensating for imbalance, the movements become powerful and free. And through moving in the way his body was designed to do, the horse becomes resilient and sound. A horse out of vertical balance doesn’t have access to the bouncing ball effect in his fascial system. It actually functions as a poorly inflated beach ball. He needs to work very hard now to carry a rider and move in a spectacular way. His body will be tired in no time, which causes injuries in the long term.

A few important things to remember!

A horse in vertical balance can carry his rider with ease, uses his fascial system in the most effective way and therefore his movements will be effortless and rhythmical. He will look spectacular with ease and lightness instead of force. The chances of keeping this horse sound and happy for many years to come will increase hugely. Vertical balance gives a horse direct comfort in the the training and the gift of resilience and soundness in the long term. These are important ingredients for a long lasting true partnership with your horse. 14 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

Vertical Balance Video

Click on the video screen to watch Karin's intro video on vertical balance

20% DISCOUNT FOR CONCORDIA MAGAZINE READERS - use the code concordia20

Getting Started with 4D - an Online Course Start training your horse for tensegrity, resilience and soundness today! 4D Equitation’s online course “Getting started with 4D” teaches you how to train your horse in vertical balance, allowing his fascial system to work as it was designed to. The course takes you step by step through: Theory on horse and rider balance and the fascial system Vertically balancing your horse on the lunge line Balancing yourself as a rider with mounted and unmounted exercises Vertically balancing your horse under saddle Please note: the course is hosted in an environment that’s partially Dutch, and we have provided a tutorial to get you through registering and paying. But the course content is entirely in English. Can’t get enough? The book 'Compassionate Training for Today’s Sport Horse; Biomechanics in Four Dimensions, the Key to improving Posture, Balance and Strength', discusses the biomechanics of healthy versus unhealthy training and describes several techniques for vertically balancing a horse, supported by many illustrations and photos. https://training.4dequitation.online

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The Compassionate Equestrian In the book The Compassionate Equestrian, horse trainer Susan Gordon and veterinary surgeon Allen Schoen have created 25 principles to live by when caring for and working with horses. These principles are congruous to those of Concordia but each is more specific and explained in detail in their extraordinary book. Susan Gordon is going to write about each consecutive principle, newly and exclusively, for Concordia Magazine She starts with Principle One, the principle that gives the title to the book.

Principle One - The Compassionate Equestrian

We recognize the sentience (ability to feel pain/pleasure) of horses, as well as all beings. We acknowledge that the horse is a willing, thinking, living being with most of the identical emotion-creating molecules found in human beings. We recognize that the horse has bones, muscles, nerves, and organs, as does a human, and that these structures are just as susceptible to injury, damage, and disease as those of people.

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The Compassionate Equestrian The first time I sat on Ali, a Thoroughbred mare with a gleaming copper coat, I noticed how “hard” she felt. All of her muscles seemed tense. There was no elastic feel from my hand to the snaffle bit. Her back was rigid, and through my closecontact jumping saddle, it felt like I was sitting on a rock. Her legs moved quickly underneath, but she hopped more than she went forward. If I took a deep breath she jolted forwards, and her canter was panicky. She was trying to switch leads almost every step. I stayed as quiet as possible, trying to figure out this hot-tempered young mare. She had run on the “B” tracks in the Interior of British Columbia, not quite making it to Vancouver’s Hastings Park. Somehow she found her way into the hands of the cowboys in this tiny hamlet of 100 Mile House, where my husband and I were now managing the co-op owned equestrian facility. Rol Eden’s Alee was the mare’s registered name. Bred for racing by a well-known family whose horses were popular on the region’s tracks. I never did learn why Ali was taken off the track, officially earning the OTTB designation (off-track Thoroughbred), but I could see why the cowboys were having a difficult time making a cutting horse out of her. A cutting horse was a different animal altogether, but that’s what the guys knew how to do. They didn’t know how to handle an exracehorse. The cattle-savvy Quarter Horses were bred low to the ground in front and high behind, with an innate sense of how to work a cow.

Ali was bred and built to run as fast as she could, over a much longer distance than the racing bloodlines of the Quarter Horse breed. There are many things that would look and feel very different from the racetrack environment. The weight and bulk of a big western saddle. Having to work in two different directions, as the track only required her to go left. A directional change—from running full out straight forward to quick side-toside movement required of a cutting horse. And going face-toface with cows. That’s not what Ali’s background required nor responded to very well. It was 1981 and I was 21. I had become a pretty good rider since acquiring my first horse at age 12. I trained my young Appaloosa horses and showed horses for other owners in my teens. I found myself in the right place at the right time to have been connected with an excellent riding instructor, the late Margaret Ellard, who was also a hunter/jumper judge and a Technical Delegate under Canada’s equestrian organization. She mounted me on a big, reliable warmblood named Grouch for my jumping lessons. I did a lot of “grids” on that horse - a line of 4-6 jumps in a straight row - without the benefit of stirrups or reins. This teaches an independent seat and hands. And both she and Grouch taught me how and what horses feel. I marvel to this day that an animal as sensitive as a horse actually lets us sit on their back, much less respond to requests to walk, trot, canter, jump, piaffe, pirouette, or

chase a cow. When we say, “they feel,” it means both physically, and emotionally. Although, most often, and to most people who handle horses, it is the physical that is the most obvious response, leaving the mental/emotional feedback from the horse as often more of a mystery, if it’s even acknowledged at all. I felt that Ali had been pushed to her limits of anxiety and physical capability, with no time to recover from either the track or a change in her career. In human terms, she was “fried”. In those days, it wasn’t common to recognize ulcers and other subtle indicators of pain in horses as anything other than “behavioural issues”. Thankfully, that has changed. Or, at least the opportunity to diagnose and acknowledge a broader array of issues affecting behaviour has opened doors to a greater understanding of equine welfare. My husband tried to ride Ali first. We had a client who wanted to purchase a couple of jumpers “on spec” as an investment proposition. The cowboys offered us the fiery chestnut mare, as they had given up trying to get her to calm down. Maybe she wanted to jump, they thought. You never really know if a horse wants to jump or not. Anybody who thinks they can “force” a horse into jumping is not going to have a very pleasant time. And once the horse quits, even if they loved to jump, they won’t be going back. It’s a fragile thing, jumping horses. They only have so many jumps in them in a lifetime. If your horse wants to jump, every one of those leaps needs to be treasured.

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The Compassionate Equestrian I felt sorry for the lovely mare, fancy with her big white blaze and socks on three legs. She had the presence of an athlete; strong and focused. I wanted to help her, but she wasn’t mine to ride ... yet. I had to watch while my partner struggled with her speed, agility, and response time. He was an eventer, used to galloping full speed over big crosscountry fences. Controlling the horse for a dressage test, and hanging on for the final show jumping round. Ali went through jumping grids faster than I’d ever seen a horse jump before. She snapped her knees up at a blinding pace to clear the rails, exhibiting considerable talent, but in a hightension package. As with everybody who came into Ali’s life before, Dave (we were divorced many years ago) was unable to bond with her personality and create anything resembling a respectful partnership. He tried to punish her for going too fast. It didn’t go well. He finally handed her over to me. I can only guess as to what kind of emotional response the mare felt having been through a string of humans who did not understand her. Physically, all the pounding she took at the track and in trying to please the men on her back must have taken its toll. But she was tough too. She was a survivor. I couldn’t wait to find out if we would develop a relationship. I loved everything about this horse, and if horses have a sense of such things, she was about to indicate the possibility. A good jumper needs to have all the qualities that Ali had. Size doesn’t really matter. They say it’s “heart” and I knew there was a big, generous one beating in Ali’s chest.

She was still trusting of humans and this said a lot. She was also a recipient of my training with the patient, exceptional teachers, Grouch and Mrs. Ellard. I had to be aware of every breath, every twitch, every moment of our rides. I took Ali for long hacks in the rolling hills that bordered the stable - 60,000 acres of open land and trails that were used for crosscountry skiing in the winter. There were cross-country jumps spread throughout about a thousand acres, and I often took Ali out to see what she would like to hop over. Anything I pointed her at, she jumped. If I was scared, I’d just throw the reins at her and let her take over. We connected beyond my expectations…and trusted each other. I can’t tell you for sure what a horse feels emotionally, but I know what I felt as a rider. I was confident, and proud of our accomplishments. She was the catalyst to my career as a professional rider. As a team, we won almost every jumper class we entered. We started with a beginner-level 3-phase event, then moved up to show ring hunters, and finally competitive jumper classes, where Ali excelled. She needed no prodding. When she heard the starting bell for a jumper round, she took it upon herself to pick up a gallop. I only had to make sure we were aimed at the first fence. Compassion asks us to take note of the sensations of another. What does that animal feel when we groom her? Place a saddle on her back? Fly through the air and land; on one foot no less? Her ears are pricked at the sight of a jump and I feel her take a hold on the reins, 19 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

The Compassionate Equestrian telling me, ”we’re jumping this!” Does this mean she “loves” jumping? Did she enjoy all the attention, the trips to shows, and our long gallops over the hillsides? What a gift these horses are to humans. It doesn’t matter if you ride them or not. What matters is how you and your horse answer these questions. Thoughtfully approach, touch, and observe. Even if you don’t expect an answer, I promise you will get something. Maybe a picture, or a thought will enter your head in relation to the question. Maybe your horse will offer a gesture. Place a hand on your heart and then on your horse’s heart. What is the response? Take a deep breath, and watch your horse’s expression. Just feel. Everything. Susan Gordon

Susan and Ali practicing on the cross-country course circa 1981

"I would highly recommend this book for anyone who loves animals--not just horses--and wants to gain an understanding of them on a deeper, more intimate level. The authors offer us numerous, often profound insights, through their own varied experiences and backgrounds, regarding the integration of compassion into all areas of our lives. With deeper reading, one begins to appreciate more fully, how the immutable relationship between human health, animal health, and that of our environment--a world of One Health--is the real basis for improving the life of our entire planet." Ted Cohn, DVM President, American Veterinary Medical Association

"This is a book for those who seek a mutually satisfying relationship with their horses. The Principles provide a road map...we should read them carefully and often." Hilary Clayton, BVMS, PhD, Dipl. ACVSMR, MRCVS

20 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

Concordia says

Thank you, Ben "I see things are going well for Concordia, well done for making such a difference to equines and bringing so many good people together" Ben Hart

HART'S HORSEMANSHIP PRINCIPLE CENTRED TRAINING Horse Training and Equine Behaviour Courses. Ethical, Safe, Sustainable. Ben has a mission to provide safe, ethical and sustainable behaviour training for horses, donkeys and mules worldwide by using the practical application of the science of behaviour.

www.hartshorsemanship.com

The key elements of empathic communication

"Here we will have what can really be called a binomial" Francesco Busignani

Transparency: Avoid masking your emotional reactions. The messages must be clear, the attitudes and feelings well defined. A fundamental characteristic is knowing how to really convey that precise state of mind in a clear and defined way. Horses do not lie.

Self-control: Do not confuse one's reactions with those of the other, nor make one's needs prevail.

Unconditional acceptance: Avoid judging the horse's behavior but focus on why he adopted them.

The real secret of Empathic Communication: Focusing on the sensations of others, identifying with them until we reach that emotional harmony that will elevate our way of communicating and relating to a higher and more effective degree from all points of view.

Francesco's article on Empathy can be found on page 35

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Bogged down in winter blues? Take a herbal assist

for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the nights are drawing in and the cold weather is upon us, so I wanted to take a moment and talk about things we can do to naturally help our horses through some of the season’s common problems. Grab a mug of chocolate and read on…

Dehydration can be a common reason for winter colics. There are a number of ways to increase a horse's fluid intake when he’s on a dry diet that naturally contains less moisture, one way for example is to give sloppy mashes. Bran itself lost favour in the equine community as convenience foods took over, yet it still contains valuable protein and B vitamins. When mixed with hot water, a bran mash is very inviting to a horse. They are much more likely to drink warm water in winter than they are cold, try having two buckets of plain water, one cold and one very warm, side by side and see. To make the water more enticing, turn it into a herbal tea. If you don’t want to dabble too much, you can just use human herbal teabags. In our house, we drink

herbal teas every day, so we throw the used bags into a stock pot, cook it up every evening and serve the mixed tea, hot in the mornings. My horses will queue up to drink from the trough or bucket where I put the herbal tea down. When it’s really cold and snowy, I’ll make bran mash with a herbal tea instead of with plain water. Not forgetting of, course, horses need access to salt. You can always make up salt water to offer as well as plain water. To get more creative with your teas, you could look at making them specific to supporting different body systems. For example, to help with respiratory health try an oregano, or mint, plantain or mullein tea and to try different route of administration, what about inhalation? Make up the respiratory tea and then pour it, boiling hot, over a hay-net and serve immediately, so the horse will inhale the steam. A well-made tea will release compounds that are taken directly to the respiratory tract. For gastric health, use dandelion, or plantain, fennel, or common mallow. For arthritic related issues, rosehip, or thyme, ginger, or ordinary green tea. To increase mineral salts as well from your plant material you’ll need to make a decoction, because a plain tea won’t extract minerals. The same method is needed if you use herbal roots or bark.

Here’s how:

Put around 40g fresh plant material into a pan with 1 litre of cold water, put a lid on the pan, bring it to a low simmer. Keep it simmering for 10-20 minutes. Leave to steep for one hour. Remove the plant parts, keeping the water and serve warm as a drink or add to hard feed. Keeps around 3 days in fridge, or freeze portions. For a good herbal tea, use the same proportions but add boiling water to the plant material, remove from the heat source, cover and leave for 20 minutes. You can leave the plant parts in or fish them out and drop beside the bucket.

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Coat condition A reduction in daylight hours, us owners having less time at the yard, mud, rugs and not wanting to over-groom can all impact on the horse’s coat. The skin is his first defence against external parasites, fungal and bacterial infections, meaning winter can be a very testing time indeed. Increasing food sources containing iron, zinc and antioxidants, supports skin and coat health – good old stinging nettle is perfect (cut and let them wilt before serving) also fat hen (Chenopodium album) and burdock (Arctium lappa). Mood The horse’s temperament can change when we want to increase calories by introducing winter feeds. Consider using whole foods instead of processed bagged feeds. These are more in tune with the horse’s biology, don’t distress the gut biome, contain greater quality of protein, with a more rational balance of starch and sugars as well as the allimportant phytonutrients. Whole grains contain no stabilizers or binders. If you can get ahead of your feeding, regime by a day or two, you can soak or sprout whole grains and seeds, this will reduce the starch hit and unlock digestive enzymes that otherwise remain dormant. Growing fodder is quite good fun as a supplement to the diet too. Just think of the hype about humans drinking juiced wheatgrass – those benefits can be given to your horse as well by sprouting seeds and letting them grow on a little. Tree chewing As the growing season comes to an end, a decrease in nutrients can affect the horse. Less botanical diversity comes hand in hand with a natural decline in forage quality. Horses will often hunt for vitamins and plant compounds where they instinctively know them to be – in trees. Whether they chew at branches or strip bark, it’s a perfectly normal thing for them to do. Trees and shrubs also contain more structural carbohydrates like lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose which ferment over long periods in the hindgut, keeping the horse warmer and providing energy for longer periods of time. These structural carbohydrates are not found in short grasses or leafy plants, which are comprised more of starch and sugars. If a horse is seeking the robust types of fibre, he might attempt to find them in stable or fence wood. A way to help would be to provide him with branches or bark covered logs, from horse safe tree varieties – think of ash, willows, birch, hazelnut, hawthorn, hornbeam and beech. If we’re really lucky, this winter won’t be too harsh and we won’t have to worry too much about any of this, but its handy to have some tricks ready up your thickly padded sleeve, just in case. Amelia Phillips

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Visit our website to find out about our mission to improve equine welfare and relieve animal suffering by providing free-ofcharge education and support to horse owners in deprived areas. "In my free Herbology course on the Equine Academy, I also show you how to make a simple spray that can be used as mane and tail detangler, or as a healthy grooming/coat shine that is an easy to make herbal formula, using common pasture plants." Amelia Phillips

We believe in a future where all horses are well cared for, and where their owners can ask for help when they need it.

www.equineacademy.org

www.communitiesforhorses.org

Representing and providing a network for equestrians, owners, vets, equine professionals and trainers who believe in fairness, equality and choice of bridle for Bitless, Bitted (Part-time, thinking about it, transitioning) & Bridleless for all horses around the world.

www.worldbitlessassociation.org

"Thinking of your horse as behaving badly, disposes you to think of punishment. Thinking of your horse as struggling to handle something difficult, encourages you to help HIM through HIS distress." 24 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

The Fight for The Lives of

The Australian Brumbies

By Joanne Canning

The fight to save the wild horses in Australia has of course been going on for many years. However the current situation in the regions of NSW (New South Wales) and Victoria is very different from that in previous years and for those who remember the incident, is reminiscent of the horrific slaughter by aerial shooting of wild horses in the Guy Fawkes National Park in the year 2000. The horrendous video footage and photographs of this incident, once seen, can never be forgotten. Men in helicopters with rifles chasing wild horses galloping flat-out and shooting at them to kill. Horses were shot several times in various places of the body, and very many died a gruesome death. This aerial cull was conducted by National Parks and Wildlife Service. The results of this cull provoked such International public outrage, that aerial shooting of Brumbies (Wild Horses) in NSW was banned - a ban that stands today - but only for aerial shooting, not ground shooting. The RSPCA brought charges against NPWS alleging cruelty to animals; however these charges were dropped, in favour of a guilty plea by NPWS. Aerial shooting in Victoria is not banned and is supported by the RSPCA! The new plan of management for the Alpine National Park in Victoria has just been released. In spite of many submissions strongly against the draft plan, these submissions have been ignored totally and the plan is to remove 530 Brumbies in the first year of the plan. Although they have said that rehoming will take priority, this seems not to be the case. The qualifications for rehoming have been made extremely difficult and rehoming applications have been, for the most part, turned down - even by very well-known and successful long standing Brumby re-homers. Some of the re-homers are not local and rehoming would involve then a longer journey. However, the alternative is that they will be shot. They intend to trap only the horses that they have accepted rehoming applications for and this is very few. So over 500 Brumbies will be shot in the Park at night. Free running horses. They maintain that they will adhere to Standard Operating Procedures. These require instant loss of consciousness for a ‘humane’ death, which would only be achieved by a shot delivered to a very small area on the forehead. If the horse moves its head even slightly? As an Equine Professional and Scientist of many years, in my opinion, it will

25 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

not be possible to adhere to the Standard Operating Procedures and horses will be badly injured and may then not be able to be found for days or longer. Suffering and bleeding to death in agony. I have requested a confirmation in writing from an Equine Specialist Vet that the SOPs will be adhered to. This has to date not been received. The new management plan also states that if they feel that ‘targets’ are not going to be met, they will then turn to aerial shooting to achieve their goal. This is their intention for sure, as they know that trying to shoot over 500 free running horses by ground is going to prove impossible. So aerial shooting will be quickly employed. Another Guy Fawkes massacre! In NSW, on an annual basis, horses have been removed from Kosciuszko National Park at anything up to 600 per year and most of these horses have ended up at slaughterhouses. Slaughterhouses that just recently have had legal proceedings bought against them for barbaric cruelty. The Brumby support groups and locals have been attempting to stop this for a long time and in 2018, legislation was brought in, in NSW, to recognise the heritage value of these horses. And in this area, over the last couple of years it has helped to protect the horses. However this situation has now changed drastically. A new draft management plan was recently released for Kosciuszko National Park. While the draft plan was being put together, over 700 horses have been removed and thanks to the massive efforts of Brumby Advocates and Rehomers, most of these have been rehomed. The draft plan was open for public submissions and many submissions (over 4,000) were sent in. However, just as in the Alpine National Park,

any submissions against the draft plan have been totally ignored and the new management plan has now been released. The only changes were to extend areas where the Brumbies will not be allowed to live. The new management plan states that the intention is to leave 3,000 horses remaining in the Park. However, the problem with this is, that they are working on a starting number which has been produced by computer software that has estimated BIOLOGICALLY IMPOSSIBLE numbers. There are already less than 3,000 horses in the Park. There have been helicopter spotting counts confirming this. The 2020 headcount in the Northern Region, where 85% of the horses live, counted 2468 horses! But they are still determined to work off the starting numbers generated by computer software. Estimates from these “surveys” are 14,380! So, the intention is to remove 11,000 horses. And as there are not 11,000 horses there, this will mean they will end up removing all the horses in the Park – in spite of legislation giving them recognised heritage value. If they continue to try to remove horses at the rate they have been in 2020-21, there will not be sufficient homes. The Plan then involves SHOOTING ALL THE OTHER BRUMBIES captured in the traps or loose in the Park. There will be exactly the same problem as in Victoria. It will not be possible to adhere to the Standard Operating Procedures and for horses to be shot without massive stress and suffering. How on earth can this be allowed to happen to completely innocent sentient beings. I would add here that these horses are not starving or in drought conditions and there are thousands of photos taken by local photographers showing that the Brumbies are in good condition with plenty of food.

Public support has not only been drummed up by the false accusations about supposed damage that has been done by the Brumbies , in most cases backed up by photos that clearly show wild pig damage or a photo of two brumbies walking in a more sensitive area. But the public support has also been gained by – in my opinion – sensationalism by massively exaggerating the number of Brumbies in the Parks! Having researched through hundreds of pages of official papers, I noticed some significant discrepancies. These are not difficult to spot. As an example, according to reports, the population increase in the Kosciuszko National Park has always been previously estimated to be between 6-17% per annum. This is in fitting with scientific papers about wild horse populations from other parts of the world and Australia. From the two aerial surveys done in 2014 and 2019 (which used a computer software programme Distance Software - to estimate the number of horses in the Parks) - the estimated annual population increase for the horses in the Northern Kosciuszko National Park Region calculates to be 41% per annum. This increase is not biologically possible for wild horse populations and is more than double the scientific accepted maximum. This was pointed out in the peer review process. It was also pointed out by the Scientific Advisory Panel in their final report to the Minister. The ludicrous estimates of numbers have then been used to convince many of the public and government officials that drastic action needs to be taken to reduce the population. 85% of the Brumbies in Kosciuszko National Park live in the Northern

26 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

Photo credit – Karen Ferguson, The Memory Keeper’s Pocket region, according to the survey reports. Every year there are helicopter spotting counts done by Parks' staff. These people of course know exactly where the horses always are. So they are able to do an actual headcount, which would give of course a much more accurate estimate of the amount of Brumbies actually living in the Park. There was a spotting count conducted in 2020. The amount of horses counted was 2,468. This opposed to the figure of 12,511 estimated by the use of computer software. This was also before removal of 764 horses. Leaving a total maximum of 1,704 in this area of the Park. The chart on the following page shows how ludicrous the estimates done by computer software are. The chart compares the computer software generated numbers, to estimates done using a starting figure from a very well-respected survey done in 2005 and then with an increase of 17% per annum (in keeping with wild horse science) and then also the numbers actually counted during the head spotting counts done annually by Parks. You will note how close the head spotting count figures are to the figures calculated using realistic wild horse science.

The anti-Brumby lobby in Australia is well established and extremely wellfunded. And in fact the discrimination applies to all nonnative animals, who are literally considered an invasive species and are all condemned to death on this basis. The vindictive nature of these people seems to, certainly where the Brumbies are concerned, have become a real hatred. Probably because of the amount of public support that the Brumbies have.

The wild horses, who are constantly referred to as feral horses because it makes them sound worthless, are accused of destroying native flora and the habitat of native fauna. However, it is well documented that there is a lack of independent scientific research done on the effects of the wild horses in this environment. The true causes of the destruction of native fauna and flora are also extremely well documented and researched. The main causes of

negative effects to native species are, of course: Human development and tourism, including building and expanding ski resorts, roads and dams and allowing four-wheel drive vehicles and quad bikes to cause massive damage; massive wildfires; global warming effects; damage by wild boar, deer and rabbits and the effect of funguses. And yet human development and tourism are being massively expanded. The wild horses are being scapegoated.

27 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

It seems that throughout the education system in Australia the students are brainwashed, especially anyone studying ecology, to think that all non-native species are the destroyers of the environment, in spite of the many projects throughout Europe using horses for rewilding and helping the environment. Horses are now considered a keystone species in the environment and in recent research, they were found to be able to help save the planet by saving the permafrost and therefore staving off global warming. In spite of the reports and studies by environmentalists and ecologists that have been produced in support of the wild horses, these are chosen to be ignored. A world-leading wildlife ecologist Craig Downer, alone and together with reporter Mae Lee Sun, has written articles and made radio broadcasts in support of the Brumbies. He has pointed out all the advantages they bring to the environment, for example: “the modern day horse (Equus caballus) - They are restorers of balance in ecosystems, complementing ruminants and replenishing overgrazed soils, turning them into “living sponges” that equitably release life-giving water throughout the year. They are amazing gardeners who sow a great variety of seeds far and wide and provide them with fertile beds to enable their successful germination through their humus-enriching droppings.” “Though they do not have the same deep evolutionary roots in Australia as do the marsupial mammals such as kangaroos, their roots are quite deep on Earth and they have compatibly lived alongside marsupials in South America and elsewhere for

Photo credit – Karen Ferguson, The Memory Keeper’s Pocket

“the modern day horse (Equus caballus) - They are restorers of balance in ecosystems, complementing ruminants and replenishing overgrazed soils, turning them into 'living sponges' that equitably release life-giving water throughout the year. They are amazing gardeners who sow a great variety of seeds far and wide and provide them with fertile beds to enable their successful germination through their humus-enriching droppings.” Craig Downer

The chart compares the computer software generated numbers, to estimates done using a starting figure from a very well-respected survey done in 2005 and then with an increase of 17% per annum (in keeping with wild horse science) and then also the numbers actually counted during the head spotting counts done annually by Parks.

28 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

millions of years. They can harmoniously adapt and co-exist with more deeply native Australian fauna and flora. We people just have to give them the chance to show how it’s done, rather than negatively prejudging them. During this era of Global Warming, it’s crucially important to recognize the critical lifesaving value of Brumbies in mitigating and even preventing catastrophic wildfires. And I need not remind you of how devastating these have recently been.” - Craig Downer And in the words of Mae Lee Sun – from her website blog: “It’s ironic that in the land downunder, which birthed permaculture- a holistic form of land management that focuses on ecological design meant to regenerate and integrate all ' of life, there also exists a backlash toward the land by those who claim to protect it. This is a case of environmental thinking gone wrong when wild horses are caught in the

middle. ‘Brumbies’ evolved not only to survive but also thrive in varied habitats across this island continent, yet they continue to be patently maligned by environmental groups and ill-informed, mis-informed and head-in-the-sand ecologists. Thus goes the debate, issue, conflict and war on the wild horse in Australia which has been labelled a ‘feral pest’ by environmental extremists, rendering it an enemy of the State to be harassed, tortured and slaughtered at will. The horses don’t seem to stand a chance with such obviously biased media reporting and dodgy science, which is bent solely on proving ‘damage' to the exclusion of all positive contributions. Their point is to convince the public and those who oversee the Parks that, however minute the perceived disturbances to a habitat, such will result in the collapse of the ecosystem, whether lower river or alpine meadow, etc. Much to these extremists’ chagrin, the ecosystem of KNP continues to thrive

with those very same horses whose ancestry on the land dates back two hundred years. Alarm bells should be going off that reverberate through the mighty Snowy Mountains themselves as well as in the halls of academia and environmental consulting offices in Australia when science lacks rigor and objectivity and only canned, government-funded responses are put forth!” - Mae Lee Sun. PLEASE SUPPORT THE BRUMBIES AND STOP THEM BEING CRUELLY SLAUGHTERED BY BULLETS PEPPERED ALL OVER THEIR BODIES! This will involve stallions, mares and of course FOALS! For further information and ways to support and help prevent this mass slaughter, please visit the website at www.brumbiesforever.org

Joanne Canning BSc Equine Sports Science, HND Equine Sports Coaching, BHSII.

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Working with Concordia Associate Organisation, Equimind The online competition and training hub where equestrians can send their videos in order to compete in a diverse array of both ridden and inhand competitions. By sharing the same values and principles as Concordia, Equimind is the natural partner to run the Concordia Fine Contact Competitions (CFCC) in all areas of equitation by promoting ethical training methods and lots of groundwork. Equimind has over 10 disciplines and runs monthly competitions for all ages and abilities of horse, rider and handler. There are even classes for horses that are old but too young to retire, for horses that can or can't be ridden or can't compete for other reasons. There is something for everyone and a chance for everyone to shine! Director of Equimind, Silke Ceruti is part of the Concordia Team. The Fine Contact competitions run under Concordia rules which differ slightly to those of Equimind, but, of course, for both Equimind and Concordia the welfare of equines is paramount. Correct training based on science, compassion, partnership and harmony is most highly rewarded.

30 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

EquiMind So what is different? Equimind, 4D Equitation and Concordia have come together to bring something unique to the equestrian scene. Competitions that reward riders and handlers for putting the wellbeing of the horse first. Fine Contact Competitions put emphasis on lightness, empathy and correct training in both ground and ridden work. In the ridden classes there is a completely new set of criteria marked on in the overall impression putting more emphasis on correct training and less on the individual moves, and we are excited to announce that Equimind will be adopting the Concordia criteria for all their dressage competitions. Competitors at Equimind have the choice of riding under Equimind or Concordia rules, which although very similar (both allow bitted or bitless and share the same welfare concerns) do have notable differences, for instance, if bitted, Concordia riders may only use a simple snaffle with a correctly fitted cavesson noseband or no noseband, and no rider may ride in spurs. The Concordia guidelines, rules and format have been written in collaboration with former professional competition rider, judge and trainer, Milly Shand, and veterinarian, trainer and author Dr Karin Leibbrandt, director of 4DimensionDressage.

4D Equitation

Loose nosebands is something that we all feel strongly about and this is one of the rules that we all support. Concordia rules make it clear that competitors should always have room for at least 2 fingers between the noseband and the nasal ridge of the horse, and bitless bridles must provide an instant release of pressure when the rider loosens the reins. It is SO easy to video a test, even on your mobile phone, and upload, especially with the Equimind App.

There are loads of classes including

jumping, seniors and juniors and qualifications for championships. There are even photo competitions. Equimind competitions are presently run online and that makes them truly International... and eco-friendly! There are two hubs, one in the UK and the other in Germany so competitors from all over the world can choose to compete from either website. www.equimind.co.uk www.equimind.de

31 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

Equimind Concordia Summer Championship 2021 Level 2

Level 3

1. Valentina & Neveo - 68.99%

1. Mareike Spratte & Matrix - 72.56%

2. Selina & Benn - 68.72%

2. Julia Schimmelpfennig & Bubbles - 72.27%

3. Jenny Hoffmann & Egano - 69.05%

3. Pia-Vanessa Lehmann & Chakyra - 69.59%

(Sporen) 4. Manu & Duell - 69.30%

Photo: Mareike & Matrix.

5. Ulrike Klaffehn & Sterling - 69.13% 6. Carola & Ginger - 67.30%

Congratulations to all our prize-winners! We asked them to share their stories. Mareike said

"Matrix and I have been a team for the last 6 years. Both of us had not much training in the beginning and started our journey together from day one. Matrix is a cheeky chap and is definitely very selective when it comes to making friends with people, but once you are in his “circle”, he will do anything for you 🙃😍 And in return, I would do anything for him, I love him forever" ❤ More photos and stories in issue two. The Winter Championships are held in April.

32 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

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33 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

TAKING IT EASY Horses need time to develop

"A strong, well-developed skeletal system is essential to ensure optimum structural support, limb soundness and to minimise the loading, strain and concussive forces imposed on bones and joint structures. There are over 80 growth plates within the spine. These mature between 4 and 7 years. An important aspect of skeletal maturity is the timing and rate of maturation of the growth plates. These mature when the cartilage changes to bone and close from the hoof up. The coffin joint closes at birth, the short pastern between birth and 6 months and the scapula and pelvis, which has growth plates on the ponts of hip (tuber coxae), the peak of croup (tuber sacrale), and points of buttock (tuber ischii), between 5 and 5½ years. The hock does not fully mature until the horse if 4 years old an is often considered a weak link." Gillian Higgins, Horses Inside Out www.horsesinsideout.com

A poem about youngsters

Let them grow Allow them to be horses rain, shine and snow If and doubt, go slow Let the annoying things make you laugh out loud

And always let them know your proud Take a deep breath if things get a little hairy As you mustn’t forget their mental capacity can be a little airy Give them time That way they will always be in their prime And most importantly enjoy them for who they really are Not all horses are born to be a star

By Harriet Jane Szwed

Harriet riding her horse Sabria. "Sabria is an Iberian that I brought over from Spain and I’ve owned her for 7 years. She’s had a lot of stuff going on physically so she’s taught me a lot through the years. It’s an ongoing journey with her! Who knows how long it’ll take. I’ve had to unlearn a lot to get to where we are today."

34 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

Empathy By Francesco Busignani

Empathy is the ability to understand the state of mind of the other, whether it is joy or pain. It really means "feeling inside" or "putting yourself in the other person's shoes" and this ability is not only part of the human being but also of the animal. From various studies it appears that empathy is not a learned behaviour that requires an intellectual effort but is already part of the genetic makeup of the species or of the individual himself. Between two people or between two animals you often happen to observe this empathy, because within the same species it is easier to understand verbal language and above all nonverbal language, which allows us to put ourselves in the other's shoes and really understand what we are wanting to communicate. When we are dealing with a species other than ours, it becomes a bit more complicated. When there is harmony between horse and rider, in horse riding it is said that it is a good combination. But what is this binomial really? There are differences between horse and rider, starting with our basic needs which are different from those of the horse. Our way of communicating is different from that of our partner, and our way of doing is not always compatible. Since it is we who want to relate to our horse and understand how to communicate with them, it is up to us to try to learn his language and

try to express ourselves so that he can understand us. It is thought that it takes years to create harmony and collaboration between the binomial, an intense bond, but this is only partially true as this type of synergy is normally made available immediately, or almost, from the horse, but clearly the right conditions must exist for this to happen. After years that horse and rider are together they begin to read each other, to understand each other's habits and to solve everyday problems. But with my work, having to deal with many different horses, it becomes a priority to learn to immediately read their mood

by entering into empathy with them. To do all this you need to have a solid base of knowledge of horse language and ethology. Before going to ask the horse for practical and concrete exercises, the important thing to do is to understand how he relates to me and what attitudes he shows to my requests. What can help me is certainly to understand the history of the horse but also what relationship it has towards the owner or whoever manages it every day. Sometimes the answers are already written in the attitudes of the rider but above all in those of the 35 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

horse. Knowing how to read both of them is a skill that develops with experience. For example, it often happens to have to deal with horses addicted to the requests of the rider or on the other hand horses that are too nervous or quick to requests. This is because, most of the time, the rider's attitudes are reflected in the horse's behaviour through empathy. Very often it takes little to rebalance this relationship (little time for the horse and often a lot of time for the rider) unless the situations are really too deeprooted. But in any case it is the rider who must learn to communicate correctly with his horse by empathizing with him, reading the various situations and thus managing to interpret them. This does not mean that if we learn to adopt an adequate language the horse will immediately respond correctly to requests but it is the attitude that is adopted at that moment for that particular horse and for that particular exercise that makes the communication effective. It is we who must understand and interpret the horse we are facing, in a less technical and more instinctive way to really understand the needs of that horse at that moment. However, instinct will be good if educated by experience. 'I t i s r e a l l y t r u e t h a t t h e perception of reality is personal! Yet it would be enough just to slightly

change the perspective everything to change!'

for

According to a study from the University of Sussex, horses would be able to distinguish expressions of joy from those of anger. The ability to interpret the emotions of a species other than their own would be the most relevant aspect of the project. This is to say and underline how much the horse, despite everything, is ready to read us and interpret our requests, and how often we do not read his attitudes correctly, falling into a standard work situation thinking about the exercise to be performed without holding account of the emotional component. Initially we do not focus only on the fact that the exercise has been performed, but it is the 'how' that interests us. And here a whole world opens up. The calm in the exercise that makes learning pleasant and harmonious. This is where empathy comes in, reading the horse and learning to give them what they need. My actions must change according to the horse's attitudes. Since they are very good at

Francesco's key elements of empathetic communication can be found on page 21.

Francesco Busignan is a Level II Instructor with

Do You Speak Equis www.doyouspeakequis.com

reading us, for example, how long does it take a pony to understand that it can drag a child to eat grass? Just a few seconds, maybe he won't even try with us. We have to learn to change our state of mind and spirit on the basis of what is needed for the education of the horse. For example, to an insecure and fearful horse we should convey confidence, calm and allow him to trust us. When communicating with another person, there are two ways of understanding what they are telling us. First, I can really analyse the facts through an intellectual understanding, trying to understand the objective facts and how they unfold. The second part, which is also fundamental when dealing with a horse, is to understand the state of mind of our interlocutor. By focusing on all those emotional components that are too often overlooked. We can thus speak of empathic understanding. Even between two people, we often feel understood when on the other side, whoever listens to us, really understands what we are experiencing.

36 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

Concordia Professionals

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37 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

CONCORDIA VIEW POINT

Following the

CAMPAIGNS The Concordia Point of View It is our job to share information for those who want it, in a sensitive way, while recognising that we will all hold our own opinion on any particular topic. The campaigns on the following pages are shared because we know that many of our community will be interested in them. Some may agree wholeheartedly, but others may not agree with the whole campaign or some aspect of it. Our job is to share information, stimulate discussion and very importantly, not alienate anyone in our community who does not agree.

We will never all agree 100% but what we can do is respect each others opinion. The greatest challenge in bringing like-minded equestrians together is that we are not going to be like-minded in every aspect of training and care and that we might look at an article or campaign and immediately dismiss Concordia for not being exactly in line with our thoughts or think that Concordia represents some concept because we share an article or campaign that addresses that particular concept. Here, for example, we have shared two campaigns that are hosted by the World Bitless Association, a group that campaigns for equality in competition to allow riders to choose to ride either bitted or bitless because at the present time competitors have no choice in many events, they can only ride with their horse in a bit. Of course, the preference of the World Bitless Association (WBA) is bitless, but that does not mean that Concordia is a bitless community. Concordia supports thoughtful equestrians to choose what is best for each individual equine that is in their care. However, Concordia also supports WBA unreservedly in their campaign to leave the whiskers on horses well alone.

Concordia supports thoughtful equestrians to choose what is best, bitted or bitless, for each equine that is in their care. The use of the whip is another area that thoughtful riders and trainers have different views upon. We have a team of professional advisers who are Concordians through and through but all have slightly different viewpoints on whips, from they shouldn't be carried at all, to they are an extension of the arm, to they are to be used to back up a light leg aid, to they are for safety when hacking. We will never all agree 100% but what we can do is respect each others opinion and agree that sticks should never be used to punish horses or to make them go faster. The 'I Can't Watch Anymore' is a campaign that like-minded thoughtful equestrians will again hold differing view points on. In our team, many agree wholeheartedly with the campaign and do not think that the Olympics is an environment, for many different reasons, that can genuinely put equine welfare before national and individual glory. The pressure on the riders alone must be phenomenal and it would take an extraordinary human being to give up an Olympic medal by not compromising their horse! But the Olympics is probably an area where some of the most thoughtful equestrians dream that rules and attitudes could change so that horses could compete with their welfare put first. Again, we will never all agree, but we share this campaign here because many will want to support it and for others it will be a subject of interest and discussion.

38 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

Following the

CAMPAIGNS

‘I Can’t Watch Anymore’ A case for dropping equestrian from the Olympic Games. Epona TV have started a campaign ‘I Can’t Watch Anymore’ to supply the International Olympic Committee with all the arguments that it needs to discontinue Equestrian and Modern Pentathlon from the Olympic Games. This is in the form of an open letter written by Julie Taylor from Epona TV and supporters are invited to buy a copy for themselves and for a member of the Olympic Committee. Go to epona.tv and click on ‘buy the book’. We can’t actually view the letter itself but it’s fair to say that Concordians will have mixed views on this subject. The fiasco of the Modern Pentathlon at Tokyo last year served to highlight the inadequacies of putting relatively inexperienced riders on strange horses in highly competitive situations. This must bring into question equine welfare in an event where the showjumping phase could surely be replaced by another sport. If Concordia were running a campaign I think it might be less dogmatic about ending all Olympic equestrian sport. We would however, most certainly campaign against many aspects that are accepted parts of all equestrian sport like the use of restrictive tack and harmful training techniques. This campaign is bound to be a hot topic amongst Concordians, one that will have many perspectives and strong points of views. Certainly something that deserves discussion and that many will support. We will post this as a topic on the Concordia discussion group on Facebook ‘Thoughtful Equestrians’. Where do you stand?

39 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

Following the

CAMPAIGNS Global Ban on the removal of Sensory Whiskers (Vibrissae) from horses on welfare grounds The World Bitless Association (WBA) is thrilled that the governing body of modern equestrian sport, the FEI, has followed in the steps of the WBA campaign #HandsOFFWhiskers which included documentation of scientific evidence, and as of July 2021 the FEI has banned the clipping of the sensory whiskers (vibrissae) around the muzzle and eyes, on welfare grounds. WBA now have an ongoing campaign to raise awareness and achieve a global ban on this unnecessary practice. Details of the campaign can be found at www.worldbitlessassociation.org

Drop The Whip! What are your thoughts? The ‘Drop The Whip’ campaign was launched by the World Bitless Association in April 2021 and is ongoing. It’s aim is to achieve a total ban on the use of the whip for ‘encouragement’ and for ‘punishment for non-performance’ in racing and across all equestrian sports. Their goal is for all equestrians and all horse sports to recognise that there is no place for pain and fear inducing stimuli in competition. Details of the campaign can be found at www.worldbitlessassociation.org Concordia has supported and shared the campaign over 2021. As in many areas of equestrianism there will be differing views among Concordians. Of course no Concordian would support whipping an equine but many see the tap of a stick used to back up a leg aid preferable to seeing people kicking or spurring horses. Riders and handlers are allowed to carry a stick in the Equimind competitions that are run under Concordia rules. What we would all be in agreement with is never using a whip to punish a horse or to try to make him run faster. This is a campaign that I think most Concordians would largely agree with but as always we can discuss this respectfully among ourselves on the Facebook discussion group Thoughtful Equestrians.

40 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

Clipping Means Carrots by Olivia Pollard In an international magazine there is never going to be a mutually appropriate time to talk about clipping but wherever you are, if you are needing to clip your horse, pony or other equid (for example due to Cushing’s disease or PPID, for hogging their mane or dealing with itchy, feathery legs, or mud fever) then I hope you find the following both useful and thought provoking. As usual, with my lot, who are a collection of rescues of mixed age and breeding, with various and sometimes complicated histories, the task of clipping throws up issues that I might have thought have already been dealt with. So I try to approach the job of clipping as a mixture of an experiment and a training opportunity. The experimental side means that I am looking to see what areas still have issues by the horses’ reactions to the clippers which, let’s face it, is a bit like the slow drill at the dentist... yuk! When I get a new horse/pony, they are likely to come as 'salt of the earth' types, sometimes grumpy, sometimes dangerous. You need to watch the quiet ones as much as the more outspoken ones as the quiet ones are often not quiet at all, but depressed, in a state of learned helplessness. This is caused, as I understand it, by not being able to escape toxic pressure/punishment, no matter how well they behave or if they are constantly being asked to perform something they are not physically or mentally capable of, so they either fight or withdraw. Often these horses are amazing to clip… for the first year. By the time they have been with me for a second clipping season they seem to have learned that they have a voice and tell me, in no uncertain terms, that they don’t like being clipped, have probably never liked being clipped, and they don’t intend to be clipped again! At this point the relationship that we have built up is really crucial… it is so important to listen to them and to make a mental note of what they are telling me - or write an article about it! So, for example, horses that haven’t yet learnt to push themselves from behind, rather than pulling themselves along from their front legs, will dislike having their chest and pectorals clipped. Horses that have been worked in an overbent

41 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

position, had draw reins used on them or most other gadgets, will dislike having their poll and/or sacroiliac area clipped. Ones with temporomandibular joint (TMJ) issues will not want their poll or jaw touched. Laminitic ponies might be sore in their tummy muscles even if you haven’t noticed a laminitic episode. One of mine had raging thrush this year (over our summer and for no explicable reason) and it caused soreness and loss of muscle behind her shoulder blades, so now I don’t clip this area. As you can imagine the list goes on! Of course there is often more than one issue. My message is that if you find a sore bit, back off, this is where the training starts. Other issues may result from the, frankly, abuse that often happens to horses whilst they are being clipped. Whether this is being jet washed before clipping, the twitches, restraints, tying up, shouting and sometimes hitting to keep a frightened or bored horse still, the noise, the feel of the clippers with no desensitisation beforehand... sadly, this list also goes on. I am not, at this point, getting into the ethical pros and cons of clipping, though this is also worth thinking about, rather I am assuming we have decided to clip. I think we should aim to always, ALWAYS, make the training more important than the clip, by this I mean not only paying attention to the horses we know have issues, but also listening to all horses that are being clipped and rewarding those who are easy to clip too. It was when I was training my first youngsters that I noticed how rarely I praised my older, established horse who, in spite of his troubled early life and 'interesting' time when he first came to me became my trusted fellow explorer. That was nearly 20 years ago

and I promised him, as we opened and shut the gate whilst also leading a youngster, that I would make a point of saying thank you to him as often as I did the young horses. What does this mean in practice? I realised a few years ago that I was timing my rewards all wrong whilst I was clipping, turning the clippers off and then rewarding the horse/pony. While working with a remedial case, it occurred to me that by doing it this way, I was teaching the horse that their reward would come once the clippers were off when I wanted to reward them for standing still while the clippers were on. When I start with a new horse, I time the reward, often carrots, when they don’t move away from the clippers when I bring them to my waist, when I turn them on, when the horse turns towards me to to look

at them or when they sniff them while they are running (carefully, obviously, as you don’t want them giving themselves a fright or an injury by putting their nose on the sharp blades) and finally when they allow me to put them on their shoulder or on my hand which is resting on their shoulder. This means that the reward should be given just before you want to take the clippers off, usually just as you approach an area that you suspect might be tricky (see above) so that you can reward their standing still, and BEFORE they pull away, clippers off, have a short break and go again. It can take several clipping sessions and sometimes a couple of years before I can get anything like a “normal” clip but, touch wood, the pay off is that I haven’t doped or twitched anything for nearly three decades and none of my ponies have ever hurt me while clipping which is hugely important both for their sakes and mine.

42 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

I have vivid memories of having a hoof on either side of my head whilst helping someone clip one of their show jumpers and being told it was just part of the deal with clipping! I also met someone recently, ironically at my first aid refresher course, whose arm was in a sling from being hurt while clipping a twitched and doped horse. The stress that a horse being clipped undergoes if the training and desensitisation have not been done correctly is more than enough to overcome and often results in an explosive and frequently dangerous equine that many deal with by artificial or natural doping. This is also true for horses that are very sore. The horses that have been started by me and are clipped by others, along the lines laid out above, barely need tying up, even to do

their trickier bits, which get less every year. I often think that one of the nicest things I can do for a horse who may not spend its whole life with me, is to teach it not to be frightened of being clipped, as most face this at least a couple of times a year, wherever they are in the world. If you are struggling with one of yours, I really hope that this article might help you view the whole thing in a different light and frankly, stuff what anyone else thinks of your lines or how neat it is, your pony will be the happier for it and you too will be happier, safer and better informed about what your horse/pony needs. So make 'Clipping means carrots' your mantra and Good Luck! Olivia Pollard Founder and Coach at Pioneer Equestrian Coaching

PIONEER EQUESTRIAN COACHING Biomechanics in Action

Who We Are

Pioneer Equestrian Coaching is an accredited Ride With Your Mind® horse riding school based in the Cotswolds. We offer 1-2-1 riding lessons for all age groups and levels of experience using biomechanics-based techniques. We are a value-for-money & friendly school where EVERYONE is welcome. We encourage our clients to try something different or new in a friendly & welcoming environment. We teach in a calm, safe, supportive & appropriately challenging environment, with no raised voices and no impossible demands.

Ride With Your Mind® Horse Riding in the Cotswolds England

What We Do We use Mary Wanless' Ride With Your Mind® approach, using innovative & streamlined techniques to help riders improve concentration, body awareness & core muscle strength. This creates incredible improvements in both the rider's seat and in the horse's response to their body. Utilising elements of NLP, and the Alexander & Feldenkrais bodywork systems, it is a highly interactive method, with rider & coach acting as equals, combining perceptions to unravel the puzzle of how the rider affects the horse and the horse affects the rider. www.pioneerequestriancoaching.co.uk

43 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

Saddle Research Conference

A worldwide audience logged on to listen to leading equine specialist veterinary clinicians, research scientists and practitioners last week. The world class presenters shared their equine knowledge and disseminated the findings from recent evidence-based studies at the Saddle Research Trust's 4th International Conference entitled Welfare and Performance of the Ridden Horse: The Future. “With this year’s full day conference, we proudly embraced change to present a high quality and accessible virtual event", said Dr Jan Birch, CEO of the Saddle Research Trust. “Thanks to industry, academic and charity support, together with all our sponsors, especially including our generous title sponsors Neue Schule and WOW, we reached a wider international audience than ever before, and the event is continuing to be viewed on playback around the globe.” Chaired by Professor René Van Weeren, the day opened with a welcome from Saddle Research Trust CEO Dr Jan Birch. World Horse Welfare Chief Executive Roly Owers then presented a vision for the future of equestrian sport. He emphasised that the horse human partnership underpins all of equestrianism and that we must train horses with respect, compassion and understanding. To safeguard the future of horse sport we must safeguard equine welfare. “If we can do this, the future is bright,” he said. Applying the science In the first session entitled ‘Applying the Science’ Professor Hilary Clayton presented the keynote on how the rider affects the welfare and performance of the ridden horse. She explained how rider asymmetry or a rider who is too large can compromise performance, how the synchronisation of movement with the horse is often lacking especially among less skilled riders, and how better performance is associated with minimal disruption by the rider.

Professor Heikki Handroos then showed how engineering science has been applied to develop a new generation of riding simulator which is able to provide a more ‘real life’ experience than those currently available on the market, to benefit riders at every level. He explained how the system, which has a wide range of potential applications, also has potential as a hippotherapy tool, by enabling the optimal gait pattern to be programmed for each patient. The system incorporates advanced sensor technology, which could also be used in riding schools to monitor the learning curves of riding students. Through the lens In the second session of the day, leading veterinary authority on gait analysis, Dr. Filipe Serra Bragança, discussed the significant advances in technology for sophisticated objective analysis of gait for research purposes and clinical use. He explained that subjective agreement of lameness by veterinary/physiotherapy experts has been found to be low but with the evolution of modern kinematic gait analysis it is now possible to assess the horse/rider interaction, analyse performance, and quantify asymmetric gaits and lameness. In addition, research has now started in the field of equine selection and phenotyping. He concluded that “The future is bright!” Dr Russell MacKechnie-Guire presented on the topic of saddle fitting and whether an objective approach is useful or misleading. He pointed out that thermography is not a reliable tool for assessment of saddle fit for the horse, that a horse’s back dimensions can change during the day and that although more pressure mapping devices are becoming available, they are not necessarily accurate or validated. His take-home advice was to keep it simple, for example by using markers placed on the horse, saddle and rider and using a smart phone to take videos.

44 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

Saddle Research Trust Conference Spreads equine welfare and performance knowledge worldwide Speakers Dr Jan Birch – Chief Executive, Saddle Research Trust Prof René Van Weeren – Head of Dept, Dept of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University Roly Owers – Chief Executive, World Horse Welfare Prof Hilary Clayton – Professor & McPhail Dressage Chair Emerita, Michigan State University Prof Heikki Handroos – Professor, Head of Laboratory of Intelligent Machines, Chairman of Collegiate Body, LUT University Dr Filipe Serra Bragança – Researcher & Clinician, Utrecht University Dr Russell MacKechnie-Guire – Director, Centaur Biomechanics Dr Marie Dittmann – Senior Scientist, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (Switzerland) Dr Sue Dyson – Independent Consultant Dr Rachel Murray – Associate, Veterinary Specialist, Rossdales Veterinary Surgeons Dr Sue Dyson – Independent Consultant Dr Dee Pollard – Research Analyst, The British Horse Society Dr Céleste Wilkins – Lecturer in Research, Hartpury University Sofia Forino – Lecturer, University Centre Sparsholt Richard Davison – Four-time Olympian & European medallist

Dr Marie Dittmann went on to look at the high prevalence of ill-fitting saddles in Swiss riding horses and the subsequent potential for compromised performance. She highlighted the association between the presence of back pain and ill-fitting saddles but emphasised that horses have varying pain thresholds and therefore react differently in the face of discomfort. With her work showing that 95% horse owners thought their saddle was an ideal fit, yet only 10% of those assessed had no saddle fit issues, her take home message was that there should be more regular checking for changes in back shape and saddle fit accordingly. The horse as a stakeholder In this third session of the day Dr Sue Dyson presented the keynote on the Application of the Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram (RHpE) which comprises 24 behaviours (facial, body and gait) the majority of which are at least 10 times more likely to be seen in a lame horse compared with a non-lame horse. Dr Dyson explained that more skilled riders can improve gait quality and can in some cases obscure lameness, but in a small number of cases can exacerbate it. A more skilled rider can also change behaviours, but not reduce them or conceal them; for example, with a novice rider, the horse may show discomfort by putting the head up “above the bit”, but with a good rider the horse may become overbent. Dr Dyson pointed out that horses with lower RHpE scores were placed higher in competitions compared to those with higher RHpE scores. This demonstrates that competitors are likely to have greater competition success with comfortable/sound horses and that we have a moral responsibility to improve welfare and performance by recognising a problem, identifying the cause and treating it.

45 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

Saddle Research Conference

Dr Rachel Murray went on to look at the importance of bridle fit, stating that while there is much discussion on bit and noseband issues there is little research on bridle fit for optimal welfare and performance. She explained that the huge variability between horses in head shape, size and symmetry means that bridles should be individually fitted, taking account of facial asymmetry, and that bridle stability is important; without a noseband the bridle is less stable, which can allow the bit to move excessively, causing injury in the mouth. However, a tight noseband places pressure on the nose, jaw and headpiece and limits movement. She raised the importance of routine dental care; many lesions in the mouth are not the result of the bit or noseband but secondary to teeth problems that could and should be managed. Dr Dyson went on to discuss what can be learnt from the observation of horses’ behaviours during tacking up and mounting. She said that some horse owners think that their horse’s behaviours are normal for their horse, e.g. putting their ears back when the girth is being tightened or during rugging. Gastric ulcers are also often thought to be a cause of ‘girthiness’ but may be secondary to lameness. Hot topics of the moment were discussed in the final session: Dr Dee Pollard looked at equestrian road safety concluding that traffic risk is a barrier to equestrian activities. Road safety stakeholders, local authorities and governments need to work towards a more inclusive transport system. Dr Céleste Wilkins discussed the dynamic technique analysis of dressage riders highlighting that it is essential for riders to be assessed during movement because rider posture whilst stationary does not indicate how they will sit when actively influencing the horse. Sofia Forino looked at the self-perception of body image in female riders concluding that a higher level of self-consciousness when riding was correlated with their perceived body image being much greater than the ‘ideal’. An open forum at the end of the presentations enabled listeners to pose questions. These included the legal minefield of the use of gait analysis during pre-purchase examinations, the necessity of using gait analysis in conjunction with clinical appraisal and the potential value of a riding stimulator to help riders learn specific movements and reduce repetitive strain injuries in horses. To round off the conference Richard Davison reflected on the day’s proceedings concluding that new research is essential to move the equestrian sector forwards; as riders we must develop our understanding of equine behaviour and support other riders to improve welfare and preserve public support for equestrianism.

Playback of the conference is available until 10th January 2022, and further access to the review (individual sessions) will be available from late-January onwards. Tickets to the full playback are priced at the cost of the livestream; £80 plus booking fee, while the individual sessions from January 2022 will be £15 per session, plus booking fee.

To find out more visit about the Saddle Research Trust visit the new website. www.saddleresearchtrust.com Further information from: Bright Bay, 07768 958911, sarah@brightbayconsulting.co.uk

46 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

The Saddle Research Trust (SRT) is a charity registered in England, promoting and facilitating collaborative scientific research into the interaction between horses, saddlery and riders with world leading experts including those from academic, charitable and industry partnerships. The SRT disseminates this evidence-based knowledge through conferences, open-access web resources and training opportunities to advance equine welfare, performance and safety. Recently the SRT has undertaken extensive developments to enhance its ability to deliver key missions: ·Additional Trustees will help to direct activities to meet stakeholder needs in priority areas.

https://www.saddleresearchtrust.com/

A new Veterinary and Scientific Research Team comprising leading national and international specialists will support the SRT’s key mission to promote and facilitate collaborative scientific research into the interaction between horses, saddlery and riders with world leading experts including those from academic, charitable and industry partnerships. The new Knowledge Transfer and Communication Team will support the dissemination of evidence-based knowledge through

Concordia Friends

conferences, open-access web resources and training opportunities to advance equine welfare, performance, and safety.

Anybody who loves horses can register as a friend with Concordia and become part of our like-minded community. The Concordia Magazine is freely available to all but registered friends will have it sent directly to their email inbox every two months.

Registration is easy to do and from the Concordia Equestrians website. To register, all we need is your name and email address.

“Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.” Helen Keller

Join us

discount codes

www.concordiaequestrians.org

4D Equitation 20% off 20% off the online course by using the code

concordia20 - see pages 11 - 15

Equitopia 50% off Type

Concordia

in the voucher section on the checkout page to get 50% off the first month payment on

the Silver or Gold - see page 33

47 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

classified ads

email: hello@concordiaequestrians.org

CONCORDIA PROFESSIONALS Our orange pages of classified adverts are reserved for those professionally involved with equines who have assessed

themselves

and/or

their

businesses,

charities,

organisations

clubs

aligned

with

the

Concordia ethos, and have made a commitment to share and uphold the Concordia Principles.

ARE YOU A CONCORDIA PROFESSIONAL?

Read page 37, and if you would like to register or reregister as a Concordia Professional, for free, then email

your

database

details future

and

editions

will of

list the

you

the

Concordia

Magazine.

SPECIAL OFFER!

Let's get the new database off to a good start and give

our

readers

professionals

great

choose

from.

list

Send

thoughtful your

simple

registration to us in January and, should you wish, we will give you a free box advert in the March/April edition of Concordia Magazine.

Any

CONCORDIA PROFESSIONALS Your free advert here in Issue 2

equestrian

professional,

business,

club,

organisation or charity that can honestly self-assess themselves as Concordia Professional can register for free.

hello@concordiaequestrians.org

with

your

name, profession, website or email address and the region and country that you are based in. We will freely publish this information in our database in

Create your own jpg advert with Canva It's fun, free, easy to use and the email header template is the correct ratio for a 3:1 ratio advert www.canva.com

subsequent magazines as well as offering reduced rates

advertising

and

free

advertising

for

charities.

Your advert should be sent to us as a jpg or png in the ratio 3:1. Landscape and approx 9cm x 3 cm.

Inclusion on the orange pages does not necessarily imply assessment by Concordia, as with professional equestrians coming from all around the globe, Concordia can't readily endorse them. The magazine database and adverts for Concordia Professionals are intended to be a tool for horse people to make their own, more informed, decisions.

48 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

about us AND PLEASE JOIN US! Concordia started six years ago when a group of like-minded professionals got together to support each other and promote training and care that is based on science and compassion. Since that time our community has grown with over 600 registered friends, 116 registered professionals and over 3.3K joining our Thoughtful Equestrians group on Facebook. But it hasn’t all been plain sailing! We have had some pretty big, and expensive set backs in both money and time. In the past year or so we realised that we had bitten off more than we could chew, too many projects, too big projects that one day could be amazing when we can pay people to do them as they need more time than any volunteer could be expected to donate. We have also ruffled too many rich and powerful feathers, people who can influence our destiny may, perhaps (thoughts dependent on if you are a conspiracy theorist or not) have helped to slow down our progress! Our website was built by people who promised the earth, took a great deal of money and then left us with many problems that are still being sorted out by Michael. Fortunately one thing the website did have was good security so we didn’t get hacked but we did get sabotaged, someone in Russia, for fun, for menace, at the will of someone who didn’t want us around? Who knows, but we had thousands of people fraudulently register with us until the system could no longer cope and we had to spend many, many hours sorting the imposters from the genuine and the database lost most of our trainers details in the process! In the meantime, we applied to

become a charity, but that was turned down because we are apparently 'campaigning for horses that already have high standards of welfare’, ummm we wonder where they got that line from. So we applied to be a Community Interest Company but were turned down as ‘they’ didn’t consider us to be a community, even though there are about 600 of us already registered. So, Nicky and Milly set Concordia up as a company limited by guarantee, which means that any profits have to be put back into the company or given to charity. Hurrah! So, to the present time. Thanks to Michael, the website is being updated, please bear with us, this is a lot of work, all being done in precious and limited ‘spare’ time. We decided that The Concordia Magazine, something that has been planned from the start, is going to be the very best way to grow our community, bring like-minded professionals and nonprofessionals together, educate and have a much needed positive influence on equine training and care. Instead of the online database, we will have ‘orange pages’ of classified adverts and a simplified free database for those who assess themselves as Concordia Professionals. Please join us. Anyone who shares Our Principles (see page 2) can register

Friend

www.concordiaequestrians.org with their name and email address, to support Concordia and

have the

Concordia Magazine sent to them bi-monthly.

COPYRIGHT All content of this magazine is copyright. Please do not use the whole or part of any article without permission from the author. Photos are the copyright of Canva unless credited individually. CONCORDIA MAGAZINE is published online bi-monthly, to inform, educate and entertain the Thoughtful Equestrian Community. The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Concordia Equestrians. The Editor and publishing team accept no responsibility for any supposed defects in the goods, services and practices represented or advertised in this magazine. The Editor reserves the right to edit contributions. SUBSCRIPTIONS are free. The Concordia Magazine is automatically emailed on the date of publication to all Concordia Friends and Professionals. Registration is free and the current and archived Concordia Magazines can also be accessed from the Concordia-Website: www.concordiaequestrians.org WEBSITE The Concordia Equestrians website www.concordiaequestrians.org is where the Concordia Magazine and all archived issues can be freely downloaded. THE CONCORDIA EQUESTRIANS is a company limited by guarantee, meaning that all profits must go back into the company or go to an appropriate charity or charities. ADVERTISING, FEEDBACK & EDITORIAL MATERIAL for any content, comments and questions, please hello@concordiaequestrians.org

email:

49 CONCORDIA MAGAZINE JAN/FEB 2022

The Concordia Equestrians Join Us

Concordia Magazine Issue One

Articles inside

Concordia Magazine Issue One