Herr Zettl: Interview on Nosebands
& Learning to Trust the Hands
Article Summary
This article features a profound interview with the late master, Herr Zettl, on the troubling trend of tight, cranked nosebands in modern dressage. He shares the classical wisdom that a loose noseband was a sign of a rider with soft, trustworthy hands, and explains how this has been replaced by a culture of force that causes fear and resistance in the horse.
Discover why Herr Zettl believed the horse opening its mouth is a direct result of a rider's hard hands, and how tightening the noseband only masks the true problem. The full interview is a call to return to an artful dressage built on a relationship of trust, not a fight for control.
Read More From the Interview...
Herr Zettl’s first language was not English. In respect of Herr Zettl, we have left most of the following discussion in his words, so you can hear his voice as if he was still with us. But sometimes it is a little difficult to read. So we have made some minor changes. For those enrolled in our Online Instructor Training Program Level 3 we will be posting the entire original interview at a later date.
We miss you Herr Zettl.
We miss your kindness and your wisdom.
We are here to make sure that you will not be forgotten.
Herr Zettl: You know how terrible our dressage is right now. It’s no more about being classical; everything is only to get ribbons. They don’t care about the horse anymore!
We’ve lost so many because of this awful riding. Lots of dressage riders or people who were interested in dressage, saying I don’t like this anymore. It’s so terrible and I’d really like to bring those lost interested people back and bring in new people. To try very, very hard to get the people to like the dressage again.
Nadja: I think that’s so important. We have lost so many people because they’re just horrified and sickened by what has been happening.
Herr Zettl: Of course, by what we see in the warm-up ring, and in the ring is from beginning to the end fighting. They are fighting, fighting, fighting. They fight with nosebands, so the horse gets sores on the nose, and they hardly can breathe, and he gets afraid. A horse is a flee animal. That’s the main difference. They tighten this stuff in the front so tight, he can’t breathe anymore.
You know I was really lucky. I had a great, great teacher. He always said the most important is really the well-being of our horse.
We have built up a relationship with respect to each other and make sure not to do anything that we regret, like keeping the nosebands too tight and too rough on the horse. They always said you still have to get your fingers between the nose and the noseband.
Nadja: When you grew up what did you learn about the noseband? What were you told? What were you taught?
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The Kjrsos Experience ~ Is knowing the horse must trust the rider's hands.