Are horses really athletes, who said it ?
lundi 30 mai 2011 17:44
EPONA.tv says: "Horses are not athletes"
By: Julie Taylor and Luise Thomsen (originally written in swedish) 23-8-2008
A horse is not an athlete. It is an animal, that we use as a requisite in sport. And it makes a demand on much different ethical claims than an equal partner for hunting the medals. "The horse is an athlete, and must be treated like one", somebody says. And the ones who know about equestrian sport are nodding in agreement. An elite-horse has the same need for physiotherapy, correct food and perfectly timed plan for training, as an Olympic swimmer, marathon-runner or a gymnast. The horse is in a constant danger of being hurt and mentally exhausted. It travels the world for international championships, and obtains either immortality or will be forgotten, depending on how it acts on the crucial day.
But this doesn't make the horse an athlete. An athlete has chosen it's way, and understands and accepts the "costs" which are included when practicing sport on a high level. He or she pays the price, because the dream of getting honour, glory and money comes before anything else. This choice is a luxury that the horse doesn't have. It can never be called an athlete. Course anyway that it lives with the same resigns and risks that the two-legged sport performer, it never enjoys the victory. The motives, which drives the human athletes to brilliant presentations, isn't a horse-thing. If it was, we wouldn't see "disobedience", when medals can be won. No dressage-horse would raise on the hind-legs during a final - it would be the same as a handball-player throwing the ball besides of the goal on purpose. If a horse was an athlete, it wouldn't be hard to teach it to stand still during delivery of the prize. Instead it would stand pretty, receive the cheering from the audience, and proud as a peacock, make the experience last as long as possible.
If the horse was an athlete, it wouldn't be necessary to force it with a tight nose-band to keep the mouth shut during competitions. Instead it would freely close it's mouth and keep the tongue inside, hoping to impress the judges. If horses were athletes, you didn't have to dope them to win medals. Under the Danish coverage of the Olympic Games in Equine Jumping, the commentator said she had a "funny story" about the fact that it takes two men to make Jos Lansinks horse stand still during mounting (getting on the horse). What an athlete, that needs to be hold back in order not to attack it's partner.
You could almost get the idea that it's completely careless about winning a medal. And that's exactly what it is! The horses are animals, that we use as living sport accessories. It doesn't sound romantic. But why shouldn't we call a spade a spade? It's not necessarily wrong to use animals as a sport accessory. Just like it's not wrong using an animal for everything else, as long as you do it in a fair way.
Why are horse-owners such hypocrites? Why embellish the relationship with the horse by acting like it has an interest in flying to South China to win a price? Could it be, that the equestrian sport paints the horses actual rule, because what we allows ourselves to offer an athlete is something much different from what we allow ourselves to offer an animal as a living sport accessory? Sometimes it's seen by everyone that the horse isn't a willing athlete - also during the Olympic Games this year. Would a trainer tighten the nose-brand of the athlete, accept that the athlete was afraid during prize delivery, use pain to control the athlete and would a tv-commentator think it was funny if the athlete had to be forced by two men before going joining the competition. The explanations were "The horse is not ride-able". "The horse doesn't stay collected". "Stallions want to rule by nature". "The horse is running away".
When it's that clear that the horse isn't a willing athlete, there are no boundaries how much people try to cover the truth. What if the commentator said "The horse is confused". "The horse is being ridden too hard". "The horse thinks it's extremely uncomfortable". "The horse is afraid and tries to escape". But no - they try to cover the fact that the ethics doesn't exist.
Can a living sport accessory be happy and satisfied. Yes, absolutely. If it's basic needs, that motivates it's way of being, are fulfilled. Scientists in animal-welfare talks about five freedoms. Freedom for hunger and thirst. That kind of freedom exists to most horses. Freedom for discomfort - which means access to a shelter and a dry and soft place to lay down on. Most horses in Denmark have this as well. But the third kind of freedom is different. It's the freedom for pain, injuries and illness. We don't know precisely how much it hurts to be pulled in the mouth by an iron-bit or pricked by the spurs until the skin is really thin. But we know, that some of the vets that treats the horses in competitions are starting to "screaming" about the way horses get trained and used. Freedom number four deals with the fact that the horse has to be free to express it's normal and natural behaviour, and at this poing the elite can't follow. The freedom involves that the horse must have space and social contact - said in another way, a pasture with other horses. This is something that only a very few "athletes" have. Freedom number five, it the freedom for fear and drawback. This freedom doesn't seem to get near. Not as long as it being accepted that the horse is a passionate sport-practitioner, that values honour and medals to the same level as the rider.
As long as this believe is accepted, it's also accepted to offer the horse the same stress and the same resigns and the same physical pain and injury that the two-legged top-athletes accepts voluntary. Then it's actually for it's own need that it's being isolated and pushed right to the limit of what it can take - or a little bit longer. Course it's all done for the equipage as a whole. Right? With the horse as an equal partner, as a true athlete. Or what?
Stop the hypocrisy. Horses are not athletes. They are living sport accessories - animals. And if we choose to use them for hunting medals and prizes - or whatever may be, we need to speak honest about our egoistic purpose. We need to do everything, to offer the horse an optimal life. To give him the chance to be what he is. A horse.
Vertaald door: Donald U. Newe
Warboel
