UPDATED 26 January 2010: Since publishing our footage of Watermill Scandic's blue tongue at the Odense World Cup Dressage qualifier warm up arena on Youtube, we have received a lot of questions and comments about the four minute clip. Here are the answers to the most frequent queries.
I am very upset that you wouldn't hand over your tapes to the FEI. Now the FEI has said there will be no formal disciplinary investigation due to a lack of evidence. I blame you.
As previously stated, EPONA.tv has no interest in any disciplinary investigation against Mr. Kittel. Our objective was to rekindle the debate about hyperflexion, which is exactly what has happened. We wanted to show what sort of riding is actually allowed by the FEI to go on during international events. The FEI chose of its own accord - due to immense pressure from the public - to announce an investigation, which it has now decided to drop. This means that there is nothing in the ten minute video available on YouTube which the FEI feels constitutes a violation of the Code of Conduct, which was what we wanted to know. If you feel that riders should be punished for this sort of riding, go to a show near your home and video the warm up. Send your tapes to the FEI. It is easy - riding like this, and worse, goes on everywhere - but filming it and demanding disciplinary action is the job of activists, not journalists.
Have we disappointed your appetite for justice? Good! Go and video some horse shows and make your footage available to the FEI and the world. This will make a difference, unlike complaining about what we do and don't do with our work.
According to Roly Owers of WHW, hyperflexion on its own can't cause a blue tongue
That's possibly true. As we have already stated in our editorial Necks, lies and videotapes, rollkur is probably not the main issue. The main issue is the use of excessive and/or relentless pressure from the bit(s) which is necessary to maintain the hyperflexed position for prolonged periods of time.
I have read this FAQ and I still don't understand. If your camera was off for some of the time you witnessed Kittel's ride and you were filming other riders too, how can there be 120 minutes of footage just of Kittel, as I have read elsewhere on the World Wide Web
That's because other equestrian journalists and members of the public as well have extrapolated on what they have read on our website or on something they have heard. We were indeed standing by the warm up ring in Odense for two hours. And we did witness that Patrik Kittel was riding for that period, but as stated further down in the FAQ, we were not filming him the entire time. When we switched on the camera, we obviously didn't know for how long the session would go on. So when we saw something else worth documenting, we did just that. Not until Mr. Kittel had finished his ride, did we check the time and discover for how long the training had been going on.
But you said two hours. You should be able to document this with your footage.
Our material more than justifies our editorial representation of the incident, and only subsequently to the story going global did Patrik Kittel deny having ridden for two hours with his horse in various stages of hyperflexion. During Mr. Kittel's telephone interview, which - contrary to media reports - he was prepared for, he made no attempt to refute this claim. Nor did he do so in response to the emailed questions he had requested, and so far, Mr. Kittel has not asked us to correct any facts of the story as would constitute normal procedure if it was felt that members of the press had misrepresented events.
Someone did try to get the clip on YouTube removed as a violation of privacy, but this person was unsuccessful.
Why won't you hand over your footage and make a statement to the FEI?
We are journalists and have to remain impartial in any disciplinary investigation by the FEI. The sole purpose of EPONA.tv in relation to this incident has been to create a piece of journalism to spark debate about the style of riding allowed during warm up at FEI events.
Our story deals with a general and widespread problem, and is based on an example which is far from unique. Please keep in mind that the steward didn't find it necessary to react, because other followers of the same method were riding in a similar way. As for video footage, it is extremely rare for journalists to hand over such material without a court order. If we were to hand over our tapes each time we have filmed something dubious, we would be taking on the role of pseudo-stewards, which is not compatible with that of independent journalists. Anyone - including the FEI - can refer to the material which we have published on the internet.
I have read on somebody's weblog that Patrik Kittel thinks you have tampered with your footage to make it look as if he hyperflexes for longer at a time than he actually does.
We have heard that too. So we have uploaded an uncut version of the sequence in question to Youtube. As previously stated, we do sometimes follow other riders with the camera, and we also have to stop and change the tape. But Patrik Kittel rode for two hours while we were standing there filming, and the clips we have so far uploaded to youtube are representative of the style of training which was employed.
But Patrik says he sometimes walked the horse on a long rein or worked in a competition frame.
Except for one walk break on a long rein and a few trot extensions where the horse's nose touched briefly on the vertical plane, all work was done in hyperflexion.
But what do you mean by hyperflexion?
We use the FEI's definition: "Hyperflexion of the neck is a technique of working/training to provide a degree of longitudinal flexion of the mid-region of the neck. Hyperflexion cannot be self-maintained by the horse for an extended period of time."
By having a rule against "excessive" as distinguished from "prolonged" hyperflexion, the FEI acknowledges that this technique can be employed to various degrees.
In the news story accompanying the video of Watermill Scandic, it is stated that:
"For a minimum of two hours, Swedish Olympic rider Patrik Kittel trained his stallion, Watermill Scandic, in various degrees of hyperflexion"
So, sometimes the horse was hyperflexed to what appears to be a maximum, and sometimes the neck is merely broken at the 3rd vertebra with the nose behind the vertical. The point is, that hardly ever during the ride is the horse allowed to extend its neck.
I am confused. Did Patrik Kittel ride for 90 minutes or two hours.
We don't know for how long he rode, because he was already cantering, when we arrived. But for 120 minutes, we watched and filmed at the arena as he trained.
Sometime during the first part of the training which we witnessed, the tongue fell out, so that it became obvious that it was blue. After this episode, the ride went on for at least 90 minutes in the same way as before.
It's not nice to put video of others out on youtube without giving them a chance to respond.
No, it's not and we would never do that. It would be very unprofessional. Of course, Patrik Kittel was called up on the telephone before we ran the story. However, Mr. Kittel did not wish to comment beyond a reference to his lawyers and a statement that he believes he is using the method, hyperflexion of the neck, in the correct way and so also in accordance with the FEI Code of Conduct. As the recording of our conversation with Mr. Kittel appears in the clip featured on our website, it is self evident that we could not have made this footage public without first speaking to the rider. We are aware of rumours that Mr. Kittel has forgotten the actual course of events, and has gone on record accusing us of denying him the opportunity to comment, but clearly, such statements would be false.
As per his requests, we have emailed him the rest of our questions, but so far he has refused to comment further.
Are you just trying to make money?
No, but we are professional journalists. We work hard and want to get paid for our efforts. Having said that, there is not much money in independent, critical equestrian journalism, which is probably why hardly any equestrian media go down that road. What we do is especially unprofitable when we give our work away for free on YouTube as is currently the case. If you are worried, this may have made us rich, you may rest at ease :)
How can you say that the ride went on for two hours, when you have only published a four minute clip?
Because we were standing by the arena for the entire two hours, filming. Some of the time, the camera is on other horses being trained in the same way as Watermill Scandic, but the riders and classes being called over the loudspeakers reveal that the footage spans 120 minutes, during which Patrik Kittel is mostly working his horse in a very short - or hyperflexed -frame.
Will the video disappear, if you start getting letters from lawyers?
No, it will not. The footage was taken at a public venue by professional journalists with press accreditation to the event. It does not infringe on anyone's privacy, nor have we made any claims which are not evident from our footage. Any legal letters will be forwarded to the Danish Union of Journalists, which has a department that deals with such matters.
Is the tongue really blue? Or is it the artificial lighting?
The tongue is blue. Five independent veterinarians were consulted, before the footage went live. On our footage of another horse with a blue tongue, it's clear that the bars of the mouth are pink and the tongue is purplish. This would not be the case, if there were a problem with the white balance of the footage. Also note that the horse's saddle pad and markings show up as pure white.
Didn't the horse just get its tongue over the bit?
Possibly. Or between the bits, as some have suggested. What ever the reason for the tongue hanging out and the discoloration, the problem is still there and not taken care of, which compromises the horse's welfare. If one were trying to free a blue, lolling tongue from a compromised position in relation to the bit or bits, it would likely be necessary to let go of the rein pressure in order to achieve this aim, and to restore normal circulation to the tongue. Normally when a horse's tongue is trapped by the bit, the tongue, which is a poweful muscle, can be seen to squirm in an effort to relieve the discomfort. And the horse will show other avoidance behaviours as well. The poignancy of this clip has largely to do with the fact that the horse seems to make no effort to improve its situation. Or seems unable to.
Why didn't you do something? Say something? Stop this?
At the time of the blue tongue incident, we were informed that the Chief Steward had already been notified. Moreover, journalists are not supposed to interfere. It sounds harsh, but that is the job of other people. Our job is to document and confront reality - not interfere with it.
Were other horses really ridden like this too?
Yes. And they always are at every high level dressage show or showjumping competition we have ever attended, which is quite a few by now. We have hours of footage of coercive riding, which is always allowed to go on. There is no such thing as "short spells of hyperflexion" - except at official clinics and at FEI seminars. In the real world, horses go like this for periods well in excess of the 10 - 30 seconds claimed by Sjef Janssen at the 2006 Rollkur workshop in Lausanne. Anky van Grunsven herself has confirmed to EPONA.tv that she does not in fact know for how long at a time she will hyperflex a horse. "I don't have a clue," she confesses. "Time flies when you're having fun." Sign in and watch the interview, which was filmed in 2008.
If other riders were riding like this, too, why is only Patrik Kittel in hot water?
It was his bad luck on the day. His horse's tongue fell out - for whatever reason - and allowed for all to see that it was blue. We were not there to film him or even to film hyperflexion of the neck. We had been to see another competition, and happened to pass by the warm up on our way to the car park just as a number of World Cup horses were being schooled. We thought some of the riding would be worth having on tape, so we stopped for a while. Little did we know we would be standing there for two hours or documenting an international dressage scandal. To tell the truth, we didn't think it would cause such a major stir. We have filmed ugly stuff before. Usually, only a few people care. But this seems to have been a sort of last straw for many people. It's very unfortunate for Mr. Kittel, who really does not deserve to be the recipient of so much personally directed hatred. There are scores and scores of international riders doing the same - or worse - to their horses. This problem belongs to all of us who are members of federations under the FEI, who buy the brands which sponsor the sport and who clap our hands at electric horses who could only be made to move as they do through coercion.
Will you be putting out more footage of this kind?
Yes. That's part of what we do. For the past two years, we have documented various problems in the management of the rules of equestrian sports. Spur marks, illegal fences at international jump warm ups, prolonged, coerced hyperflexion of the neck, children who are pushed to beat their ponies and abuse of draw reins. It's all on film, either on our website or in our archives, and now also on youtube. So far, we have been unable to get any comment from the FEI, aside from a standard reference to the federation's Code of Conduct.
Are you out to end the tradition of equestrian sport?
Most certainly not. As journalists, we have no political agenda, and being riders ourselves, we wish to be allowed to continue to ride. But we seek to make evident that the average horse person is being led behind the light, concerning the importance of equine welfare in the sport. The welfare of the horse is not currently what is paramount. Yet, this is the claim of the FEI. In the interest of transparency, the FEI must either admit that the welfare of the horse is no longer paramount, or make sure that the welfare of the horse is once again paramount. Saying it is while it's not, is a lie. The agenda of EPONA.tv is to expose the lie. Not to ruin the sport.
Blue tongues at World Cup qualifier
Sign in now and hear EPONA.tv's very short interview with Patrik Kittel
Watch EPONA.tv's footage of Scandic's blue tongue on youtube
