Why we’re seeing blue tongues in horses – and what must be completed

It’s usually assumed that “blue tongues” (aka cyanosis) seen in dressage horses end result from restricted oxygen provide, variously brought on by harsh use of the double bridle, with and with out rollkur, and tight nosebands.

Denmark-based Julie Taylor, founding father of equine welfare channel Epona.Television, broke the primary “blue tongue story” in 2009, involving Sweden’s Patrik Kittel and Scandic. She had been in search of out situations of hyperflexion and captured Scandic’s alleged blue tongue on video “solely as a result of it was hanging out.” She instructed H&H: “We had heard of tongues going blue however by no means seen it, however as quickly as we reviewed the footage, we knew what that was.”

The video went viral. Within the UK alone, dialogue on its members’ discussion board crashed the British Dressage web site. Mainstream press equivalent to The Guardian wrote about it. Patrik Kittel emphatically denied breaching the FEI code of conduct; the FEI finally dominated his driving was not “extreme” although did situation a warning .

Julie didn’t count on blue tongues to nonetheless be unaddressed over a decade later. Extra alleged blue tongue examples can be found now than then because of advances in excessive decision nonetheless pictures.

Blue tongue pictures

Ju­­­­lie’s Norwegian collaborator, skilled photographer Crispin Parelius Johanessen, devotes his spare time to on the lookout for examples at main exhibits. This additionally means being accused of photoshopping by some, which Crispin vehemently denies, supported by the Scandanavian newspaper Aftonbladet.

The FEI’s chief vet Dr Goran Akerstrom revealed (in an unofficial media briefing throughout the Olympic Video games) that he commissioned his personal pictures at Paris in quest of blue tongues. He discovered sufficient to “warn” a number of riders. He additionally made a connection between double bridles and blue tongues in an interview with Reuters.

Nonetheless, he has additionally identified the problem for judges in noticing discoloration at lengthy distance. One other barrier to detection is that tongue pinkness is more likely to be shortly restored when the horse leaves the sector in stroll on a protracted rein, which means there’s nothing amiss on the post-ride stewards verify.

Throughout the current IDTC/IDRC media briefing, stakeholders surprisingly professed no data of the Paris blue tongues. However Olympic accredited photographer Kim Lundin stated she noticed some blue tongues with the bare eye, and located “many” extra when she enlarged her excessive decision photographs later. She recognised that judges may not essentially have seen them, and famous that if FEI dressage doesn’t recognise blue tongues as a type of abuse, then logically no-one will search for it or penalise it.

This similar logic goes some technique to explaining why FEI dressage points significantly fewer area of play sanctions than different disciplines, and can provide the impression of experiencing much less abuse than different horse sports activities. FEI eventing, for example, regards some situations of blood on the horse as abuse and points yellow playing cards – whereas in dressage blood means elimination however nothing in your disciplinary file. The FEI has reiterated a number of occasions that the completely different horse sports activities are greatest positioned to resolve for themselves methods to sanction for welfare issues.

Analysis on blue tongues in horses

One massive distinction between hyperflexion and blue tongues is analysis. There’s zero identified scientific or evidence-based analysis about equine tongue cyanosis. A bunch of British researchers has funding, is ready for House Workplace approval and hopes to announce such a mission within the New 12 months.

In August 2024, the extent of the data vacuum was set out by British equine scientist Dr David Marlin on Fb. His lengthy checklist of questions provoked debate however no corroborable conclusions.

He requested, amongst many different issues, if blue tongues end result from restricted blood movement, if that’s the case the place, of what sort (presumably the “shunting” of blood movement – a traditional physiological course of) and if it’s painful. Are some horses extra inclined than others, and is it extra prevalent in some disciplines? What function is performed by the bit, the scale and form of the horse’s oral cavity; the pinnacle and neck place; rein pressure; noseband sort, place and tightness. How shortly does cyanosis come – and go – does it trigger nerve harm or comfortable tissue abnormalities; do wild horses or non-exercised horses get it; how can it truly be measured; and is pictures dependable.

David instructed H&H: “I feel it’s arduous to penalise riders harshly once we don’t even understand how or why it happens.

“Why did we by no means see it earlier than? Had been we simply not wanting – I’ve spoken to different professionals and, even previously yr with elevated consciousness, few have seen this in any respect or much more than as soon as.

“I’m nonetheless of the opinion that correct unbiased analysis must be completed. Not a campaign by individuals who wish to crucify riders for having a horse with a blue tongue.”

“Organs turning blue isn’t a great factor”

Oral cavity knowledgeable Dr Mette Uldahl is without doubt one of the researchers concerned in a newly commissioned FEI research, associated to her different current work on mouth ulcers and lesions.

Dr Uldahl is concurrently independently researching blue tongues and has already offered preliminary findings to stakeholders. “I knew it could be comparatively straightforward for me to look into a few of my present knowledge units and create a few new ones to place a analysis perspective on the [blue tongue] phenomenon,” she stated.

For a very long time she had resisted, feeling it needs to be apparent to anybody with medical or veterinary data that “organs turning blue isn’t a great factor”. One other caveat was that analysis would possibly feed into the “thoughts video games” in elite sport the place riders, trainers and others ask for analysis, then query it, or state it isn’t adequate to justify change. “That is in distinction to utilizing the precautionary precept, the place practices questionable in direction of the welfare of the horse are sought to be solved or discontinued instantly,” she provides.

“Photoshopped” blue tongues on horses

How straightforward is it to “photoshop” a blue tongue? The plethora of blue tongue images on social media have garnered just a few unproven allegations of manipulation.

“There’s a chance {that a} minority of photographs posted on social media have been altered on this manner. It’s additionally doable that the color of a tongue could be inadvertently altered by way of filters frequent on cellphone apps,” stated Jon Stroud, photographer’s consultant for the Worldwide Alliance of Equestrian Journalists.

Jon stated that revered media and prime photographic businesses, equivalent to Getty, work ethically; manipulation is prohibited in Getty’s phrases of use. “If these professionals are capturing photographs displaying ‘blue tongues’ or any types of abuse, then it’s in all probability value listening to what they need to say.

“Professionals shoot in a format referred to as RAW. It’s like a unfavorable – precisely what the digicam sensor captures – and isn’t adjusted in any manner in any respect. We maintain these RAW photographs. They will all the time be used as proof as as to if a horse has or has not displayed a blue tongue.”

Authorities motion

As time glided by, Julie Taylor puzzled if governments might be persuaded to intervene. Hyperflexion and blue tongues are each sizzling subjects in Denmark, the place dressage and warmblood breeding is massive enterprise, tarnished by abuse allegations towards previous Olympic staff dressage members Andreas Helgstrand and Carina Cassøe Krüth, who’re each at the moment suspended.

Certainly, after a convention in Copenhagen (18 November) the Animal Ethics Council, advisory arm of the Danish Ministry of Agriculture, determined the FEI was not performing quick sufficient on welfare issues. It’s now recommending the Danish authorities to guard sport horses by legislation.

Julie helped them with analysis. “I’ve additionally been feeding tales to information journalists in Denmark and overseas to lift consciousness among the many basic public that there are issues which may’t be fastened by the business,” she instructed H&H. “The aim was to pave the way in which for any Danish or EU politicians who would possibly wish to do one thing about animal abuse in horse sport. And now it appears as if they’ll.”

● What are your ideas on considerations associated to blue tongues being seen in sport horses? Write to us at hhletters@futurenet.com, together with your title, nearest city and nation, for the prospect in your letter to seem in a forthcoming situation of the journal

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