Wednesday November 8, 2006

Euro Update: "Curbed" Discussions at the 2006 Global Dressage Forum

Hyperflexion Discussed by Anky van Grunsven, Sjef Janssen and Rene van Weeren

The final session of the Forum was on coaching and hyperflexion. Dr. Rene van Weeren discussed his observations on his scientific research studying the low-deep and round (LDR) head position of the horse. So far he has come to the conclusion that from a biomechanical viewpoint there is no reason to contest this method (LDR/Rollkur/Hyperflexion). Sjef Janssen spoke about how he motivated and trained Anky van Grunsven. His lacklustre speech was followed by a training demonstration in which Van Grunsven rode Painted Black in the rollkur position.

After her short demo, van Grunsven and Janssen stepped up to the podium to take questions from the audience. Anky stated that “I am 90% sure I wouldn’t have been this good without this system. The horses are easy, soft on the aids and elastic. It makes the last couple of percentages that makes me the best.”

Dr McLean cooled everyone down by saying that he didn’t see anything problematic but that it LDR can not be used as a smokescreen for other problems in the horse sport.