Awful youtube video with blatant abuse

[BC_MoM]

Flagged it as well. Poor horses.

I believe the Lippizaner horses do similar work, if not the same, but they have much more humane and gentler ways of teaching.

[K9soul]

It is similar to dressage type moves which Lipizzaners and other dressage type horses do except from what I can tell they are supposed to just mostly stand in one small area and do it and also there are some head tosses and bucks often done. The thing is a lot of the training methods I see for these "charro" horses (apparently this discipline is referred to as charro) consists of smacking the crap out of them with a quirt to make them jump and turn and so on, as well as liberal use of painful bits and spurs. I do not think as a rule dressage trained horses are abusively trained like that. Of course that is not to say abuse doesn't exist in the dressage world, it certainly does, as it does in all animal/human activities. I have no problem with freestyle, dressage, the lipizzaners, and such as long as it is done humanely.

This video in particular just made me sick. Especially whipping it in the face like that.

[Pam]

That was disgusting. Someone needs to hit El Gordo with that whip.

[lizbud]

El Gordo needs his a** kicked, preferably by this horse.

[RICHARD]

Charro is the generic term for a Mexican cowboy. A charreada is a Mex rodeo.

Years ago I attended a concert/rodeo event that honored Antonio Aguilar and his wife, Flor Silvestre. Now, being older and knowing how animals are trained and treated, I have a different view of things-But, at that time I was
engrossed at the spectacle. Charros dress in pretty extravagant costumes and the tack of the animals is elaborate and very regal. I am sure that not all animals are treated with so much abuse and brutality.

As in any story concerning animals, training and handling there are the worst cases that get the 'ink'-for each case you see of abuse, there may be hundreds, if not thousands of animals that are treated better than you or me.

And I take exception to you using my "Nom de Youth" in a derogatory manner.
El Gordo is now 6'2' and 240 lbs.

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I won't watch the clips because it makes me crazy.

[K9soul]

I definitely agree there are almost always humane trainers and inhumane ones. It seems unfortunately that this particular discipline really has its share of inhumane trainers.

This one does not seem too bad. It looks like a friesan horse and he does not appear too upset or agitated
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_deVOQhrL8



But this horse seems very anxious and agitated and they are even using a vehicle to keep it in one area.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCcQ9qxNqwA


And this one is another harsher "training" clip (may not want to watch though not as bad as the original video I posted)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzef6...eature=related

[K9soul]

On the blog I first read about "charro" on - I'm not sure if that's the actual correct term as I do understand it means cowboy in Spanish - or if it's some Americanized term, but anyway, in one of the comments someone asked don't the dressage people do something similar without this kind of abuse. I thought I'd c/p the informative reply:

Question: "Correct me if I am wrong and I may be, but don't dressage folks get their horses to do this in place trot (dance) without having to beat them?"
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Answer: Yes, in dressage, horses can be taught to piaffe...without beating. Essentially, the piaffe is a cadenced trot in place. The passage is a cadenced trot in which the horse moves forward. Piaffe and passage are the most advanced movements in competitive dressage. Sadly, I'm sure there are some dressage folks out there who train doing something similar to charro--that's the quick way to make them "dance." Every equestrian sport unfortunately has their own shortcuts (often cruel ones) either to get to a milestone more quickly or to force a horse to do something for which he has no talent. I don't personally have any knowledge of abusive dressage folks, but I've heard stories of riders using things like friends with bamboo poles to smack the horses legs to achieve more lift.

I'm just making a wild guess here, but it seems (from the very little I've seen of "charro") that it's a corrupted version of using the pillars for training piaffe and some of the airs above the ground. The Spanish Riding School (SRS) uses pillars as part of their training for the advanced movements, but you'll never see the crap that we've been watching on YouTube.

I should note for those of you who've never seen the pillars is that they are just two side-by-side pillars that are 1.45 meters apart and tall/wide enough that there would be no chance of impalement. There is a specific "pillar halter" and "pillar reins" that are used when the horse is worked in the pillars. The reins can be attached to the pillars at a variety of heights and are then attached to the halter...not the bridle or bits. The pillars aren't anything like boxing a horse up in a stall and completely preventing forward/backward motion. However, like anything else, they still can be abused by those who have no clue what they're doing. Charro training from what I've seen is just a corrupted version of using the pillars, and you can see for yourselves how horrid it is.

My guess is some idiots saw the Mexican rodeo horses performing and decided to take matters into their own hands to "train" their horses to dance.