How far would riders and trainers go to win in dressage? Would they subject their horses to something painful, something psychologically debilitating, something that could break all but the best horses, yet put those exceptional athletes on the podium time after time?

These accusations and more are just part of the hubbub that has surrounded the technique of training, called Rollkur by some, round and deep by others, and now hyperflexion by the Federation Equestre Internationale.

And so with rumors flying and tempers rising, members of the FEI Dressage and Welfare committees decided to organize a workshop on this controversial technique. They invited 50 representatives from all aspects of international dressage and equestrian sport to a whirlwind conference on Jan. 31 in Lausanne, Switzerland, to discuss the pros and cons of overbending, or Rollkur.

One of their first goals was to define Rollkur. “A lot of trainers who are opposed to this technique would often train their horses in some kind of a round or lower frame,” said Dr. Hillary Clayton, who’s done a number of influential studies on how horses function in training and competition. “We’re looking at something specific and a little bit different.”

Clayton, who was a speaker at the forum, holds the McPhail Dressage Chair in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences at Michigan State University.

At the workshop, participants considered the term “hyperflexion” and agreed on a working 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 that cannot be self-maintained by the horse for a prolonged time without welfare implications.”

But that definition didn’t come close to ending the debate on the exact nature of hyperflexion.

The Netherlands’ Sjef Janssen, one of the most well-known proponents of “low, deep and round” (or LDR), explained that this technique was just one of the many tools in his system of training.

His horses’ daily routine includes warm-up, transitions, specific movements and short spells of LDR followed by relaxation. Janssen said that many people were confused about LDR training, which only involves short periods of extreme flexion alternated with extension of the neck, versus Rollkur where flexion is maintained over a long period of time.

Regardless of the definition, all the delegates agreed that “horses must not be seen to be put under pressure by this or any other training technique; the welfare of the horse must remain paramount.”

Does It Hurt Them?
Thus, one of the first topics was whether or not hyperflexion actually causes horses to endure physical harm.

Professor Jean-Marie Denoix of France explained that the neck is critical in all disciplines. He discussed the different clinical signs of neck pain and pointed out that a rider was often totally unaware of any injury to the horse.

“Hyperflexion or overbending of the neck would cause stresses in the intervertebral discs, in the nuchal area and in the withers. Such extreme movements would not necessarily cause primary lesions but may cause pain in horses with pre-existing conditions.”

Dr. Emile Welling, a Dutch veterinarian and member of the FEI Veterinary Committee, also spoke on cervical pain.

“Horses with clinical and radiological discomfort in the neck suffer mainly from spondylosis, arthropathy and vertebral stenosis. Another common radiological finding is calcification and new bone formation (exostosis) at the attachment of the ligamentum nuchae to the nuchal crest of the occipital bone.”

He referenced a study done in 2000, where researchers dissected the ligamentum nuchae attachment of 60 horses and found abnormal calcification and exostosis in 80 percent of them. These horses came from a variety of backgrounds and training methods.

Professor P.R. van Weeren presented a study he and his colleagues at Utrecht University (the Netherlands) had done on the effect of different head and neck positions on the thoracolumbar kinematics in the unridden horse.

They looked at seven upper-level dressage horses on a treadmill with their head and neck in six positions: head and neck unrestrained; neck raised, bridge of the nose in front of the vertical; neck raised, nose behind the vertical; head and neck lowered, nose behind the vertical; head and neck in extreme high position; and head and neck forward and down.

They found that the position with lowered head and neck and nose behind the vertical decreased stride length and increased range of motion, lending credibility to the idea that this position could be valuable in training, depending on how it was applied.

Another Dutch study, this one by Dr. Eric van Breda of the Maastricht University, measured stress in recreationally trained horses versus Grand Prix dressage horses trained using Rollkur.

He measured stress by taking heart rates 30 minutes post-feeding and 30 minutes post-exercise. There was no significant difference between the heart rates at rest, but the Grand Prix horses showed less stress after training.

“The findings of the present study suggest that the health and well-being of elite trained horses is maintained despite non-natural biomechanical positions,” said van Breda.

But Gerd Heuschmann of Germany, a veterinarian and certified trainer, vehemently disagreed that horses trained using hyperflexion, specifically young horses, wouldn’t be harmed.

“The goal is to nurture a relaxed skeletal muscle system and a well developed ‘long back muscle,’ which runs horizontally and functions as a stabilizer,” said Heuschmann.

“Throughout training, each muscle must have a chance to relax after it is ‘charged’ and this is specific to back muscles. The goal here is to minimize tension. A horse that is developed by way of tension will never be truly ‘through.’ “

Heuschmann stated that young horses should always be ridden with a forward and downward neck to develop the top line muscles in the neck area.

He found that horses that didn’t get this basic program tended to have lateral or stiff walks, exaggerated trots with impure rhythm and sometimes even four-beat canters.

Does It Damage Their Psyche?
Not all of the objections to Rollkur center on the fact that it’s physically difficult and possibly painful for the horses. There is also a mental component, as it appears that horses trained using hyperflexion for long periods of time might be unduly forced to submit.

Dr. Andrew McLean, a professor in the Australian Equine Behavior Centre at the University of Sydney, presented his colleagues’ research on equitation and learning theory.

Several different types of conditioning can be used in training different species of animals, but for dressage the most common is negative reinforcement.

“It relies on the immediate release of pressure as an instantaneous reward and, in the best cases, is very subtle,” according to McLean.

“Overbending as a learned response may be as acceptable as other forms of negatively reinforced postural responses, such as lateral bending,” he continued. “However, cervical flexion as a result of sustained bit pressure has a lot more to do with compliance and pain avoidance than suppleness. Therefore, some forms of Rollkur may be extreme, dangerous and capable of compromising welfare.”

McLean cautioned that the training method could lead to bolting and other unwelcome behavior because the brakes were “deadened.” It may also teach the horse “learned helplessness,” because horses learn that there’s nothing they can do to remove the pressure.

“The animal no longer has any resistance to what’s being done to it,” explained Clayton. “If his neck is in a bad position and it hurts, there’s no way to get away from it. They give up a lot of their resistances. It’s something that’s hard to prove, though.”

And proof of what exactly Rollkur does to horses was lacking from most of the research studies.

“It’s difficult because the way one person rides a horse is not the same as the way another person rides the horse,” said Clayton. “Outwardly the horse can look similar, but some riders can put on a lot more pressure than others.”

In the perfect research situation, veterinarians would need to be able to reproduce the training technique exactly every time.

“In an ideal world, you’d have an equal number of horses trained the classical way versus the hyperflexion way, and you’d have them trained by the same rider, and they’d all have equal talent,” said Clayton. “You’d need a hundred in each group. But it’s not possible to do that.”

How Do We Find Out For Sure?
Even though the ideal research situation doesn’t exist, Clayton was adamant that much more research should be done on Rollkur before deciding that it isn’t harmful to horses.

“So far they’ve not been able to identify a direct connection between horses trained this way and a higher incidence of neck pathology,” said Clayton.

She’s doing a study that uses fluoroscopy (a type of radiography) to measure the angulations between the vertebrae in the neck when horses are in this very flexed position. This is a preliminary study that will define the hyperflexed position for application in future research studies.

And even if the position turns out not to be harmful physically, it’s important to learn how much stress it causes, she said.

“You can measure heart rates in horses and you can measure cortisol in the saliva,” explained Clayton. “But you expect some stress with training, and some stress isn’t bad.”

The FEI committees agreed not only to continue researching hyperflexion, but also to start supervising the technique. Even though harmful effects haven’t yet been proven, inexperienced or unscrupulous riders can clearly abuse the rollkur technique.

Andrew Higgins, chairman for the FEI Welfare Subcommittee acknowledged that as long as people perceive Rollkur to be a welfare issue, it will be.

“While the [FEI Welfare Subcommittee] considers that in sound, experienced professional hands at a top-level event, Rollkur or Rollkur-like practices are unlikely to cause lasting harm to a horse, it may well cause discomfort and apprehension and could therefore be a welfare concern,” said Higgins.

“The [committee] does believe that there is a serious risk that less-experienced riders (including minors) or trainers may imitate techniques seen and attempt to develop similar training methods at locations outside the FEI’s jurisdiction,” he continued. “The [committee] believes that in such circumstances there may well be a serious welfare issue.”

But even those cautious statements left many participants unsatisfied. “Of course an experienced rider will be more likely to recognize when there is too much stress to the horse,” said Gabriele Pochhammer, chief editor of the German dressage magazine, St. Georg. “But this group of people is often more ambitious, and there is more money involved.”

Does Hyperflexion Training Create Correct Horses?
Although the main topic of the FEI Rollkur Conference focused on veterinarians trying to discern whether or not overbending is physically or mentally harmful to the horse, there was another underlying concern about what Rollkur training does to the sport of dressage.

Some participants raised concerns that horses trained using Rollkur may show flamboyant, but impure gaits.

“In today’s arenas, instead of demonstrating correctness in the basic gaits, some are more interested in the show effect and ‘wowing’ the crowd,” said Dr. Gerd Heuschmann of Germany.

Gabriele Pochhammer, chief editor of St. Georg magazine in Germany, concurred, wondering where the sport of dressage is headed.

“Do we want horses who have ‘learnt’ special movements by any methods, as long as there isn’t proven damage?” she asked. “Or do we want the horse as an athlete to fulfill the lessons with physical training that follows the rules of nature, strengthens the body, and keeps the mind well-balanced?”

While not everyone feels as strongly as Pochhammer, there was a consensus that judges must not reward spectacular but incorrect movement over classically correct movement.

“The judges have to be very astute in giving the good marks,” said Dr. Hillary Clayton. “Your brain can only pick up a certain number of aspects of the movement at one time. The judges have a very difficult job, but a very important job to keep the sport on the right track.

“The judges have to judge well, because the trainers produce whatever is scoring good marks. And then as long as they’re getting the correct results without hurting the horses, then I don’t know how you can legislate against one training method.”