If anyone is intersted in how things are moving on in the pusuit of equine welfare in high level dressage competition and training, there has been a lenghty exchange of letters between Philippe Karl (French Clasical Trainer) and Christophe Hess (head of German Equestrian Federation). Karl is trying to get Hess to admit that things are very, very wrong in top level dressage and to change some things.

I thought some of the quotes in this latest letter are enlighting (!!), although it does address some very serious issues

http://www.philippe-karl.com/wcms/ftp//p....fn290709_en.pdf

This bit made me lol:
One would have to be deaf and blind, or an official of any equestrian
federation, to ignore the unspeakable practices that result from these dogmas
yet are now regarded as normal, not to mention the devastation
they produce.

I could not open the link

http://www.philippe-karl.com/wcms/ftp//p/philippe-karl.com/uploads/brief2philippekarl_fn290709_en.pdf

Hi Emma

Try this one, it may be better to copy and paste it in to your browser (not that I know anything about computers!! but it worked for me).

Jo

Very interesting - particularly pleased to see the postscript, the idea that there should be judges in the warm up ring and that the latter should not be used for "exhausting" horses - time limit and all.........
I hope everyone is going to comment - I'm too far out of this world to know if all the rest is going in the right direction - although I'm pretty sure the others aren't!

Got it - Thanks Jo!