I can hardly bear to look at this picture and I wasn't sure I wanted to spoil my pages by putting it up, but the editors of the Horse and Hound must think that this picture is acceptable. What a strange world we live in when we love our horses enough to provide them with a crown piece that alleviates poll pressure and a spangly browband that they can't appreciate, and then we close their mouths so tight, using a crank noseband and a flash, that it digs into their skin, jams their teeth into their cheeks and prevents them from swallowing properly. I make no apologies for the picture but I hope that one day someone will apologise to this horse. This is not horsemanship, this is not dressage, this is cruelty.
