Parallel bars (equestrian sport)
The bullion is a controversial method of training, show jumping to educate more cautious or higher jumping.
Purpose of the ingot
While young horses , who are not yet able to judge jumps very well, tend to jump over (jumping too high), older, more experienced horses usually limit themselves to the necessary jump height. Since the jumping supports on which the top bar lies are very flat today, the top bar falls very easily. With some horses this can be a problem because they do not pull their legs and accept obstacles. Such horses can be made to jump higher by bars.
Active parallel bars
After the horse has jumped, the top bar is raised so that the horse hits the bar. The horse jumps over a higher obstacle than it saw when assessing the jump. The horse learns to value the obstacle higher than it actually is. It is encouraged to draw your legs better, to jump more carefully and higher.
The bar can either be lifted by two hidden helpers, or with the help of special, sometimes rider, remote-controlled jump pads. A normal wooden obstacle pole, hollow aluminum pole, hollow iron pole, or bamboo pole can be used. In addition to being touched, the hollow bars cause an unusually loud noise, which also causes the horse to jump higher.
Criticism of the active bars
It takes exceptionally good knowledge of horses and a pronounced sense of responsibility to decide which horse, with which jump height and in which training state, the performance can be improved with the help of the bar . In addition, a lot of experience is necessary to raise the bar by the right amount at the right moment. Otherwise the horse can be overwhelmed and frightened ( angry at jumping ), pain can be inflicted on the horse, or the horse can be injured under certain circumstances. If the horse is wrongly assessed, an already cautious horse will be barred at heights that are at its performance limit in order to wrest even more performance from the animal. On the other hand, the method can be used to improve performance in a horse with a robust mind, little tendency to be cautious and ample reserves of jumping power. In equestrian sport, the parallel bars are not viewed as a rider's aid, but only as an aid to conditioning .
The FEI prohibits tournament participants from active parallel bars, but it will still be used. The FN also prohibits tournament participants from active parallel bars in training and on the tournament site. The active parallel bars were also secretly filmed; At the beginning of the 1990s, television documentaries of the active barring of horses in Paul Schockemöhle's stable caused a sensation in Germany .
In 1998, the American Horse Shows Association (AHSA) allowed active parallel bars with wrapped bamboo poles 5 cm thick for national shows.
One of the earliest and harshest critics of active barren was the journalist Horst Stern in the early 1970s as part of the ARD television series “Sterns Hour” with his remarks about the horse .
Passive ingot
With passive bars, a thinner metal bar, usually aluminum, is placed on the actual obstacle bar. The metal bar is difficult to make out for horses. If they appraise the thick, colorful wooden pole when jumping, they tear the metal pole. The horse also becomes more cautious due to the unusual noise and possible pain. There is also the method of setting up a second stand with a thinner metal rod in front of or behind (maximum 60 cm) the obstacle. In this way, the jumping curve can be influenced depending on whether the horse tends to make fore-quarters or hindquarters errors.
Criticism of the passive bars
There is no consensus as to whether passive or active bars are preferable. On the one hand, the active parallel bars require human helpers with a lot of horse understanding, which is rarely found, on the other hand, a knowledgeable helper can omit the parallel bars if, for example, the start-up phase was not optimal or the horse is overstrained.
Blisters with chemical substances
Similar to the parallel bars is the rubbing of the cannon bone with a sensitizing substance, which makes the horse feel pain when touching an obstacle. To avoid pain, jump higher. This is also known as a chemical ingot or blister. At the Olympic jumping competitions in Hong Kong in 2008 , four show jumpers were excluded because of the use of the substance capsaicin , which among other things has a sensitizing effect, including the German show jumper Christian Ahlmann .
Criticism of the blister
Blistering is prohibited as it causes unnecessary pain to the horses.
history
The parallel bars go back to a form of jumping training in which a trainer stands next to the obstacle and briefly touches the horse's legs with a bamboo stick or a whip above the jump in order to draw the horse's attention to the position of the legs. This form of jumping training is called touching and is allowed. Touching is also used in dressage to show the horse which leg to lift, for example for pointing backwards and circus lessons in freedom dressage .
Individual evidence
- ↑ With pricked ears . In: Der Spiegel . No. 29 , 1990, pp. 164-165 ( online ).
- ↑ William Steinkraus: Considerations on Riding and Jumping. 1998, ISBN 3-487-08402-3 .
- ↑ Ahlmann also has a B-sample. ( Memento from September 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) sport.ard.de, August 27, 2008.
- ↑ Four months ban for show jumper Ahlmann. ( Memento from November 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) sport.ard.de, October 22, 2008.
- ↑ Lesson: Turning Backwards. from: reiter.spass.com , accessed on October 27, 2012.