Just a bad moment?

We all know the feeling of looking over photos taken from a riding lesson or a horse show, and recognising that some are looking more pleasing than others.

Some represent the way we like to think that we are riding our horse, others broadcasts some of our faults as riders, while others again perhaps shows something we altogether does not like.

The first we will gladly show to friends, and perhaps online as representing the way we ride.

The second group we might share as well, albeit a little bit more reluctantly, we will perhaps learn from them and try to minimize those particular errors the next time around.

But what about the third group. Some of these might of course be simply because the photo is blurred, the horse is caught in a less pleasing part of its movement or perhaps they stand out because the horse looks less than pleased, it is tense and everything looks forced.

Maybe we delete them and dismiss them as just bad moments?
Maybe we ignore them and think that that is always the way it will look if we stop the fluid motion of the horse and split it into unforgiving frames as the camera does when the photographer press the shutter.

For me the question - the question we ought always present to ourselves - is:

How many bad moments should we accept in a riding session?
How bad can a bad moment before it is "too bad" to exist even as a single moment?
When is a bad moment no longer just "a bad moment" but the actual trend? A trend which immediately ought to cause us to look inward and question if this is really the way we want to ride.

Is a bad moment - just that - a bad moment, if we find one in five, one in ten, one in fifty or will it only be acceptable as a bad moment if we find is at one in hundred?

Lastly a question of perhaps a more general kind, why is the such a huge difference in what we see as a bad moment?

For example the photo below: some will find it disgusting and violent to the horse, while others will see it as just normal flexing.

And how many such moments are necessary before it can be deemed as actual abuse?




Well after a little more muddling around I seem to be able to get more photos in - so here we go:

Try posing the same question for the below photos:

And add the questions - if these are not so called bad moments, is it then really what dressage ought to be like? If these photos represent the trend - dressage as it is ridden everywhere - do we not have the responsibility to react on the behalf of the horse?