Is it true about Charlotte Dujardin withdrawing from the Olympics?

[Freakwave897]

Or is it fake news?

It’s so disappointing if true…

I am a huge fan and can’t quite believe what I am hearing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/equestrian/articles/c97d4vnxv45o

It sounds like she has abused a horse from the wording.

Seems it is true!!!

It's totally shocking. I've always liked and admired Charlotte.

The video doesn't seem to be in the public domain as of yet. Without seeing it and understanding the circumstances she was in it's impossible to judge.

Suspicious too that it surfaces now, days before the Olympics. Not at anytime in the last four years .....

Agreed @EllenLRipley

Interesting that it's taken 4 years for the video to emerge, I wonder where it came from/who's had it all that time, but on the face of it, she had to go before she was pushed?

Wow didn't see that coming . She is not denying it either , an error of judgement.
Such an icon of dresssge and everything she's achieved completely tarnished if true .

It is very disappointing not only for Charlotte, but for her team and her family too.

I took from the statement that it was something that happened in a lesson she was giving to a pupil. Perhaps she got frustrated with the pupil and said something she shouldn’t have done, I hope it’s that and not that she beat a horse.

This will feed the public’s perception that horses are for rich, spoilt brats and dressage (and horse riding generally) is not a ‘sport’

I know people who train and have lessons with Charlotte. None of them have a bad word to say about her.

Yes agree with every word written there.

Timing is suspicious.

And it does very much depend on what is depicted.

But it sounds bad I’m afraid.

Such a shame as she is really looked up to by my daughters and I’ve always loved watching her ride.

I am hoping the investigation shows it’s not as serious as my imagination is making out and really was a one off event that happened four years ago.

Timing is suspicious.

Maximum impact to say something now.
Presumably it would have just been brushed under the carpet at any other time.

She has form. As they say, “I wouldn’t send her a horse I liked…”. The only aspects of this that surprise me are that it’s taken so long for a damaging video to come out, and that it’s considered breaking news by the BBC.

Why would it take four years to come to light?
For an Olympic rival’s nefarious reasons presumably.

Has anyone actually seen the video?

There was a very iffy video of her being very heavy handed riding a very green and unbalanced horse a while ago…

It’s a bit of a badly kept secret in the horse world that neither she nor Carl are as nice as they manage to present.

I used to groom professionally and half of why I quit is i increasingly felt that to get horses to perform to a certain level it would be inevitable that there would be a level of force that I didn’t think to be acceptable. I think a lot of equestrian sport needs a complete rethink

There are lots of reasons why videos emerge at later dates - sometimes people don’t realise how wrong the training they’re receiving is until they’ve moved on from it, sometimes the video is shared by a third party who didn’t have access to it earlier, staff can be held by NDAs for periods of time…

It’s certainly possible the timing is motivated by spite, but it’s also possible there is a very valid reason for it.

What? I have never heard anything like that.

The only thing I read was an anonymous unsubstantiated comment on sm about the yard, hinting at “less turn out than promoted” , but Carl has always been such a strong proponent of horses being horses that I paid it no attention. In fact wasn’t he one of the first in the dressage world to advocate turn out?

And I have never seen or heard any evidence to the contrary tbh. Plus he’s been involved in the sport for such a long time and practices have improved and are improving over time thankfully.

Plus some of their horses are so valuable that they would need to be meticulous about security I imagine.

This may be naive but I don’t believe you can get a horse to work for you consistently like Blueberry if you are not fair in your training.

The wording of Charlotte’s statement makes it sound as though she has done something very serious though.

But at the same time, there appears to be malice in the timing which makes you wonder about motive.

It would have been quickly buried by all her mega fans if it had come out at any other time. This has maximum impact and has to be taken seriously. According to the telegraph she was hitting a horse from the ground while it did a “slow moving trot”. Haven’t seen the video

@OneReformedCharacter teaching it piaffe you mean??!! Hitting vs tapping to teach piaffe I see could be a very grey area

Someone must have seen the video…

I agree with you but I also think the week before the Olympics is deliberately timed.

Yes I can understand those reasons.

But it being a few days before the start of the Olympics makes it seem too much of a coincidence.

I understand the max impact point made by pp though.

I suppose I desperately want her to
be cleared of the allegations but her statement doesn’t make that sound likely.

As to the wider effect on the sport of dressage as a whole; it doesn’t bear thinking about!

Teaching the Spanish walk?

It shouldn’t involve hitting.

I can’t comment on what you’ve heard, OP, but I stand by what I said. This isn’t a surprise to many of us, and personally I’m glad she’s seeing the consequences of her actions.

We don't know, but I think it's highly unlikely that's she withdrawn from the Olympics because of a one off lapse in being a bit firmer than usual, in a generally accepted practice.

Define hitting though.

To some so much as touching a horse with a whip (or even carrying a whip) would be considered abuse.
Just a whip to touch/tap a horses leg whilst training specific moves is in my view totally reasonable. However there will be those who will call it hitting.

I follow a young rda rider who rides with two whips and spurs. Because she has limited use of her legs. All the time she is called out for using them as aids despite her disability. Despite her using them kindly in a way that is entirely appropriate. She has been criticised and called out repeatedly.

I can easily see a video of training moves being manipulated to look way worse than it is