It's about time, that us riders, stand up four ourselfs. Ofcourse everybody can have his or her own opinion and speak freely, but it goes to far when we have to be ashamed for something that never happened, because of the critisism on social media.
I dare to show my horses and my stables at all times. Even when I'm training my horses, everybody is free to come watch at any time, I have nothing to hide. The well-being off my horses is above all, without a happy horse, you can't have good results. In the end a horse stays an animal, they can panic and we have to realise that they will respond like that. Every horse can be afraid, run off, rear or grind their teeth .. They are living animals, so you can't predict what they are gonna do.
My opinion is that people first should have the knowledge off our sport before they criticise it online. I think that the lack off knowledge and experience is the reason off critisism on most social media. It can happen that a horse is a little short in it's neck or behind the vertical, ofcourse this is not something that we want to see but it can happen. What gives people the right to give this much off critisism on public? Kittel states that people tend to look at a moment instead of a entire situation.
He's points to his colleague, Charlotte Dujardin, who said "I don't post on social media, I just ride my horses." We have really good horses in Sweden, maybe the best ones in the world. Now it's about time that we enjoy it. Time for a little less bullshit and more time to ride our horses. Leave the computer, and get in the sadlle! It's time we can unite our passion for horses and enjoy, says Kittel.
