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.

Totally agree

It’s too late.
The abuse is too ingrained.

This is not the first time CJD has used the lunge like that on a horse
Fri and British Dressage will white wash all of this in their respective inquiries

Have you got evidence of this? Because if you have, publish it, I agree about the dressage assiciation, or at least about Brautigam. Well will see about the FEI.

What struck me about the CDJ is how completely ineffective the method was. The horse lacked the balance to do the move and/or the rider was ineffective. She should have stopped, and told the rider to go away, work the horse from the ground, using the correct methods for this (eg, tapping horse with schooling stick on heels) until it gets the movement without having to balance with the rider. The rider should in the meantime be doing lunge lessons, riding without stirrups, etc, to improve her own seat and balance. THEN (some months later) she could try again for piaffe.
My impression is CDJ was trying to get an instant result for a paying customer.
Many top riders are poor teachers.
Ingrid Klimpke on the other hand….a master!

oh she's not been punished yet. She is suspended. She still has her horses, she still has her money. What she is experienceing now is consequences, not punishment. I, and I suspect many others, would queue up to be unkind to her to the same degree that she was unkind to the horses who should have been able to trust her.

But don't you see? Effective or inneffective is not relevant.

She could be getting a nice little power trip. Like all the nut jobs that abuse animals. Power and Christ only knows what else feelings.

Quite right.

Not sure if I’ve said this on here but when I found a new person to train with he took my stirrups and reins away for five months and put me on the lunge on one of his schoolmasters. I was winning at medium affiliated with my young horse at the time and would say that I was a kind and fairly competent rider.

This chap had graduated from the Spanish Riding School and this was what he did with new (to him) horse and rider combinations. What an eye opener it was and a fabulous experience, four hours a week with nothing to think about but myself.

I think that knowing how the people I know train their horses and riders makes this worse. But they’re not chasing the big rewards.

Obviously CD’s actions were horrific and there’s no possible justification for it, but in amongst the horrific viewing it isn’t even obvious what she was actually trying to achieve, what was going through her head? The rider doesn’t look capable of containing power from the back end, there’s no balance, lightness or strength anywhere in the picture.

It is just horrific, from anyone but even more so from someone who is an Olympian who sells herself as she has done.

there is an old saying "If all you use is a hammer, every problem becomes a nail" in this case, if all you use is a whip......

My You Tube algorithm now keeps bringing up videos of her "best" and world class performances including the London Olympics one and when Valero retired.

I felt so sad when I watched a couple as it completely taints it worrying what those horses may have gone through.

As a viewer I felt so naive as I presumed that these routines would have just been the partnership and training of a special horse and rider. It's horrible to now consider otherwise

I think the evidence is there before you , do you think this is the first time she has ever done this ?
First time she has been exposed on film more like

Me too! I feel so sad, let down, disappointed, disgusted and naive, and as you say, as if the whole sport is tainted.

I don’t know how I could have been so stupid really, especially now that my You Tube algorithm is showing me a channel called ‘Dressage Hub’ and the US woman on there has videos going back 3 mths, 7 mths, 1 year etc etc evidencing abuse by CJD and others.

So it was widely known about, as pps have repeatedly said on here. But I didn’t know. All because others at the top did know and it’s been systematically covered up for the sake of prestige, sponsorship and medals.

Interestingly, the Dressage Hub lady talks about non-disclosure agreements being signed by working pupils. So that is how the cover up happened. Disgusting. I will try and link.

I get that absolutely but that is not the kind of evidence that can be accepted eg by the FEI. It would be like saying that a burglar is good at it, therefore they must have done it before therefore we will add further offences to the charge sheet. We don't have any details but they must have practiced somewhere.....it also doesn't take us any further into the who taught her, who colluded, who knew chain of investigation.

It’s arguable that the monetisation of sport leads to the cruel treatment of humans and animals.

All because others at the top did know and it’s been systematically covered up for the sake of prestige, sponsorship and medals.

Yes. That is it in a nutshell.
So you can be sure that all the medals won at the Olympics by any country are won through animal abuse and cruelty.

yup why do you think they call it the bloodstock INDUSTRY.

She gets a hell of a lot of flak for pointing out the realities of dressage - lots of people really dislike her for it and because she’s blunt and doesn’t mince her words

I only watched a few videos late last night but to be fair she seems to give credit where she thinks it’s deserved as well as calling people out. You Tube makes money too doesn’t it so I can’t vouch for her credibility or not but let’s just say the content of her films and her assessment appear pretty credible on first viewing.

Anyone else watching Olympic eventing atm , without, let’s say, as much undiluted joy as before? 😢.

Edited: to clarify , not casting shade for the sake of it, have been a life long fan of the sport but I trusted CDJ before, so now I genuinely don’t know what to think about any of it any more 😢

Yes, agree, there's a tinge of sadness hanging over all of it

That’s one of the worst aspects of all
of this overall isnt it?

I guess most people on this thread will know what it takes, to look after a horse properly. Even at my happy hacker level it takes time, energy, commitment, resilience and considerable financial sacrifice. (Still worth it, even though last winter was 😖)

And there will be hundreds of innocent well intentioned grooms, vets, farriers, trainers, breeders, producers, etc aligned with dressage and eventing who have worked their arses off to provide consistent good horse welfare in all weathers 24/7. And now they will all be tinged with sadness and maybe even suspicion.

Yes, I've not had horses for a while now but was so lucky to have been brought up with only other owners who treated their horses with complete kindness and compassion. I passed two riders yesterday and did think of this situation and how it's put horse ownership in the shade 😢

I have loved the Olympic eventing so far. I don't understand the mentality that just because cd has been cruel and unkind, everyone in horse sport is. I think if your agenda is to get rid of horses altogether then of course you are delighted to tar everyone with same brush.

And there will be hundreds of innocent well intentioned grooms, vets, farriers, trainers, breeders, producers, etc aligned with dressage and eventing who have worked their arses off to provide consistent good horse welfare in all weathers 24/7. And now they will all be tinged with sadness and maybe even suspicion

No they won't. Obviously there will be a noisy minority online or people that make money out of youtube who will be looking to push this as far as they can go, but it's clearly not correct that everyone involved in horses are complicit in some cover up conspiracy of cruelty.

The racing is still going on, eventing is going on, dressage is going on all over the country this weekend. It won't be 'cancelled' because of CD.

I've loved the sports where those that compete have chosen to do so.

People thought the sun shone out of her ass. And it came to light she was nasty and cruel to at least one horse. Plenty of others will undoubtedly be getting away with it. But see the sunny side of how jolly wonderful this 'great' sport is.

A horse somewhere today has suffered greatly. And will do tomorrow. And again the next day...