Have you heard of the Five Freedoms? They were originally developed in England by the (then) Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC), and are fairly universally accepted as a desirable standard to achieve in domestic animal care (particularly in farm animal production).
Grand Prix show-jumping shows attended have given me cause to consider… do ridden horses achieve these freedoms?
The five freedoms are:
1. Freedom from thirst and hunger
2. Freedom from discomfort
3. Freedom from pain, injury and disease
4. Freedom to express normal behaviour
5. Freedom from fear and distressAs the general public is increasingly questioning, educated and vocal, it is essential that competition riders are seen to be addressing these issues. My observations show that it is fair to say that many top show jumping riders are currently contravening freedoms 2 to 5.
I think that reconsideration of currently-accepted training methods such as Rollkur,and gadgetry such as draw reins, over-tight nosebands and harsh (let’s face it, down-right cruel) bits is necessary.
If the horse could talk, what would he say?
I encourage you to leave a comment below.
Related posts:
- Competition & the 5 Freedoms of Animal Welfare revisited
- Equestrian competition’s sad expose
- Part 2: How to help your horse become a happy horse.
- Anky van Grunsven, Patrik Kittel and the horse’s blue tongue
- Why this blog – Ethical Horsemanship?
- Klaus reveals horses ‘die inside’
- What does lateral thinking have to do with horse cruelty?
- Rollkur use investigated by EponaTV
- Horses – eating our friends
- Competition dressage vs ‘working’ dressage
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hellow!
I have two blog posts referring to this matter. One older (http://enlightenedhorsemanship.net/2009/06/08/toward-an-equine-bill-of-rights/) and one coming up on July 4. Thanks for writing about this.
Excellent, thanks!
I have gone over and checked out your piece on the Equine Bill of Rights, and have left a couple of suggestions there, that you will hopefully find useful (the 5 Freedoms & NZ Code of Recommendations and Minimum Standards for the Welfare of Horses – also available elsewhere on this site).
Good luck on moving on with this, and thanks for starting the conversation on this important topic. ; )
FEI and other govening bodies fail miserably on all aspects exept numer one.
The competitive horses are simply not free from discomfort,
simply not free from from pain and injury, definitly not allowed to express normal behaviours, and live in constant domination from fears and distress.