I know that a photograph is only a moment in time and that each of these horses may have chosen to put their head in this position for a nanosecond, however, most if not all of these photos were chosen in order to advertise a horse for sale. It worries me because it seems that this is the position that riders may think represents the ideal and somehow it is getting passed down as the norm. The controversial horseman Gerd Heuschmann, along with many other classical dressage riders, talks about the fact that horses' heads should not be behind the vertical and that to be over-bent, which all of these horses are, is prejudicial to their health. They look pretty uncomfortable too. At a time when people profess to abhor Rollkur, how come these horses are half way there? If you or your horse are in any of the pictures above then I am sorry, and if you see me slopping about on my own horse, fine; I just couldn't do this to him.
Gerd's book is called Tug of War: Classical versus "Modern" Dressage. Well worth a read.
