In my opinion however, lately there has been far to much focus put on the make haste part, and less on the slowly with dire consequences for the horse.
The horse has to be ready for the youngster championships at ages 4, 5 and 6, and perhaps competitions at grand prix level as early as at 8 years of age, thus putting focus only on haste and perhaps less on questioning whether the horse is actually ready for what we ask of it.
This I feel has led riders to focus mainly on the form of the horse. The tendency is to focus more on whether the horse goes in "the correct" outline than whether it is working correctly. Forgetting that even if the correct outline comes from a correctly working horse, it does not equal that a horse in something resmebling the "correct outline" is also working correctly.
I often have the feeling that an unacknowledged checklist exists for what is correct riding:
1) Nose in vertical (or at least approximately) - check
2) Neck up (yeah we know the poll ought to be the highest point, but an each to or from - who's counting) - check
3) Spectacular leg movements (so what if it is only is movement in the front legs, nobody has the time to focus at the hindlegs at the pace we are going anyhow) - check
4) Bouncing back (well it is only the croup going up and down - but again, it is right next to the back - so I suppose it will be alright)
This will give you something which perhaps at a first glance looks like a correctly ridden horse, but at a second glance it ought to be evident that if the outline is forced the correctness is only an illusion.
As with any other things strength and muscle tonus to perform complicated movements takes time. Time that - in the case of grand prix horses - no longer seems available.
Therefore we often see shortcuts in order for the horse to be able to perform these difficult movement. On the dressage arena the horse will perform a variant of the original movement, but instead of the flowing movement which comes from suppleness and strength, we see forced movements created from tension and force from the riders hands and legs. On the showjumping course we also see the results of this focus to get the horse to perform at a younger and younger age, because the horse lacks the strength to actually clear the fences in the proper way we see the horses twist and turn in the air in order to clear fences that it is actually not ready for. Also here force is applied in order to get the horse to meet the wanted ends, again as a shortcut instead of spending more time on the horse' foundational training.
The most alarming thing in all of this is that this illusion of correct riding, has been so widely accepted that it gets harder and harder for people to recognise the illusion for what it is. As this wrong and forced riding becomes the norm, excuses are made up to explain why what we see differs from what it ought to look like, instead of recognising the error in it all.
Since my original focus for this text was actually the training of young horses please take a moment to look at the photos below.
The first photo shows a 5 year old stallion showing in the early eighties:
It later went on to compete at international level.
the second photo shows a 4-5 year old stallion who has been one of the most expensive three years old's sold on an auction in Denmark. Today it is six and shows at intermediate level.
and
The horses ought to be shown in much the same outline, but instead we see that the younger horse (on the photos from 2008) is shown in an outline and so called collection that it is not strong enough to show without consequences such as loss of rythm, dragging hind legs and tension.
All clear symptoms of the greater emphasis on "Make Haste" rather than "Slowly" in the education of this horse.
Do we really want this way of training and showing of the youngster, or ought we not put more focus on "slowly" giving the horse a fair chance to honour what we demand of it, instead of just applying more and more force to compensate for our shortcomings and impatience as a rider.
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