Kudos to De Kunffy
When I received my issue of Dressage Today and read Charles de Kunffy's article I felt I must impart my thoughts and feelings on this subject. Over fifteen years now I attended my first Charles de Kunffy Clinic and I can remember it as though it was yesterday. I Was beginning my journey toward dressage work and I was teaching a lady on her lovely Arab gelding. The opportunity arose in my area to ride in his clinic, so with my student and her horse together we took a deep breath and met Mr. de Kunffy And the lesson began. It was amazing how within an hour's time I saw such a transformation in both the horse and rider. His voice orchestrated the ride as he began sculpting and molding her seat and body to present herself as a new rider to her horse. Then through the gymnastics and rib boning of the patterns the horse began to relax and the partnership began to happen. Watching this come together brought tears to my eyes as I felt this is the beauty of dressage - the relaxation, the unlocking of stiffness, the enhancement of the bend ability and suppleness to give our little horse all the wonderful things he needed - to make him an athlete and offer him the therapy to enhance his health and well being. It was all there. As an instructor, his work and his words have stayed with me, always in my mind in all I do with a horse and rider. So, to read His article in Dressage Today was splendid and so needed. There are such valuable words within. I am so happy to be again clinicing with Mr. de Kunffy and as I listen to him and as I read and re-read his books there are always Things that give me "aha" moments and on goes the journey! So, Mr. de Kunffy - I thank you for all you do for horses and riders - from the bottom of my heart!
Mary Lou Moody
San Antonio, Texas
First of all I love reading your magazine, but..I.n the July issue I was reading the answer to the 'accepting the rein' question. I was curious to the answer because i had the same problem with my horse. I missed a huge solution to this problem. Let me explain: At a dressage clinic, I asked the clinician what the reason could be to my problem. The first thing she asked me was: How stiff is your side? And she was right. I was creating the problem. My back at the right side isn't perfect because of neck problems. My horse was compensating for me. By paying more attention to my seat, she was slowly accepting the rein better. My point is instead of not only addressing to the horse, maybe the rider should be mentioned too. Quite often he or she is the beginning of the problem.
Baudina Slikker
Helmets On
Helmets off (or should I say HELMETS ON) to you for your editorial and for the entire focus of the July issue of Dressage Today regarding the importance of wearing a maximum-safety riding helmet regardless of the rider's perception of "trust" in the animal. As was stated over and over in this issue, riding accidents affecting the head are NOT always caused by the misbehavior of the horse. I have ridden every horse I have owned for 25 years with a top-quality riding helmet and have had more than a couple of spills where my helmet likely prevented serious head injury. Most of these spills have occurred because I had lost control to some degree of the horse I was riding, be it a quick movement I didn't expect or some sort of misstep, as experienced so tragically by Courtney King-Dye. However, this past January, I was riding the quietest and calmest draft cross gelding wearing my helmet in an indoor arena in a brand new saddle and girth. I didn't even consider the girth might loosen up as we rode, but it did, and as I was cantering into a corner, I felt a strange sensation which turned out to be the girth and the entire saddle slipping sideways to the left. If you've ever been in that situation, you are not immediately sure what is happening. To me, it felt as if the horse had decided to spontaneously change leads. I must have somehow reacted by shoving my foot farther into the left stirrup (where it got stuck in the stirrup). The next thing I remember was feeling a total lack of control to control a fall and then the back of my head hitting the sand packed in the corner followed by a sensation of my the contents of my skull recoiling hard against the front of my skull. Then I lost consciousness. I was incredibly lucky because the horse had stopped and from what I was told, I kept a grip on the reins while my left foot was hung up in the stirrup, probably subconsciously to keep him from moving and dragging me. Then I remember yelling for my friend Peggy (who is an R.N.) as loud as I could. She apparently had to remove the whole stirrup leather to release my foot because the tension prevented her from merely sliding my foot out of the stirrup. I ended up in the E.R. with the diagnosis of a concussion and was restricted from riding for 8 weeks. I was told by the physician that I would likely be dead or brain-damaged if I had not had the helmet on. Recovery from a concussion is not easy and to this day I feel I was altered cognitively to some degree. I am still riding (not scared because I don't remember much !!), but when I contacted the helmet company, they were insistent that I throw this helmet away and obtain a new one. They told me any helmet that sustains enough impact to cause a concussion should be discarded and replaced because the construction of the helmet is such that it is made to react in a certain way to a single hard impact and afterward loses some or all of its ability to perform equally effectively in another fall. My point is that serious riding accidents involving the head can and do occur for reasons other than the misbehavior of the horse. My accident was caused strictly by "equipment failure" and had nothing to do with the horse. I think that people who consider it "amateurish" or unsightly to wear a helmet are detracting from the concept of equestrian safety because they pass this absurd and unsafe myth to the upcoming equestrians. If everyone wore a helmet, no one would feel like a geek because it would become the norm. What will it take for people to learn?
Gail F. Haskins
