It was just a video clip posted on YouTube. But in a few days, 58,665 people all over the world had seen it. It was just a group page on FaceBook. But within 24 hours, 841 people had joined it, again from all over the world. Now, just days later, it has over 2,100 members.
For a minimum of two hours, Swedish Olympic rider Patrik Kittel trained his stallion, Watermill Scandic, in various degrees of hyperflexion, on the Friday ahead of Saturday’s Odense Grand Prix. EPONA.tv was passing by the warm up at 3.45 pm, and at this time, the rider was well into his session. At circa 5.45, the session ended.
During the first part of the training session, the horse’s tongue was briefly showing. The tongue was clearly blue, and flopped limply from the horse’s mouth. However, Patrik Kittel was quick to notice, and halted the horse before reaching for the muzzle with the hand furthest away from the camera. Afterwards, the tongue did not reappear. EPONA.tv’s caught the revealing moment on film.
Click here to see the Blue Tongue World Cup Video
Officially, the FEI rules discourages what is called hyperflexion, rollkur or “bite the chest”–riding with the horse in an overbent neck and head position for a prolonged period of time.
This video clip was shot at an FEI World Cup Dressage qualifier in Europe last week. Videographers Luise Thomsen and Julie Taylor from Epona TV were surprised that a rider at this level schooled this stallion for as long as two hours in a hyperflexion frame.
They grabbed the camera when they noticed that the horse’s swollen tongue had turned blue. The horse’s lips were curled and apparently even the rider could see it, as he stopped and put the horse’s tongue back into its mouth.
Apparently the schooling ring steward did not see anything wrong with this rider’s method.
Rollkur first made the news a few years ago when Dutch Olympic dressage champion Anky Van Grunsven was videotaped in a warmup arena riding her horse in the allegedly abusive manner. A German dressage magazine pumped up the volume and an international outcry concerned the FEI that it was not protecting the welfare of horses at its competitions.
According to the website of Anky van Grunsven, Patrik Kittel and Watermill Scandic are trained by Dutch chef d’equipe Sjef Janssen, and the pair finished third in Sunday’s freestyle, which was the first World Cup qualifier of the season.
