Wu Wei, the publisher of Dr. Gerd Heuschmann's renowned DVD against rollkur training If Horses Could Speak (Stimmen Der Pferde), has been sued by Austrian former Olympic champion Sissy Max-Theurer for negative footage. The original version of the DVD will be available until 19 June 2009 when Wu Wei and Max-Theurer, who filed the suit on 22 May 2009, go into trial. It will be decided in court whether the DVD can stay in its original form or not.
Bayerns Pferd wrote that, "this action is the apex so far in a long string of attempts to forbid veterinarian and author Heuschmann to speak. For years, Heuschmann has been reviewing methods of wrong training against the anatomy of the horse at home and on show grounds. Famous athletes are not afraid to show these methods. In If Horses Could Speak, he criticizes these methods with images."
The lawsuit concerns footage of Victoria Max-Theurer riding Falcao OLD (by Feiner Stern) in the warm up ring at the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany. Max-Theurer and Falcao are used as "negative trot example" and cited as "horrible example" on the DVD. In her own official statement Victoria condems the passage on the DVD where the voice says that "a clear biomechanical analysis shows that the typical round movement mechanism and the parallelling of the suspended legs in all trot movements are heavily disturbed."
Max-Theurer does not aim to question Dr. Heuschmann's competence but condemns the fact that a few instances of training footage are used to sentence her entire training system.
"I can't take it serious that he speaks of a biomechanical analysis when he films just a few minutes from the warm up ring without looking at the horse in detail."
In her statement Victoria Max-Theurer highlights the successes Falcao has achieved in the international show ring over the years. The family acquired him as a 4-year old and he is now 17 and in excellent health. "For years we have been breeding and training dressage horses the classical way. Animal welfare and the health of our horses in particular are always very important factors to us," Max-Theurer explained. "On this basis we decided to take legal steps, because I don't want my healthy and classically trained dressage horse Falcao OLD to be unrightfully used on film as a "horrible example."
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