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.

I’ll admit that I didn’t know much about dressage until now aside from thinking it’s a bit of a joke sport that only people of a certain class and from limited countries participate in. But reading the comments and the methods people use to train horses to do totally unnatural things, I really think this “sport” ought to be banned and this woman should be prosecuted, along with all the others who have been cruel to their horses.

Somehow I doubt the Netherlands, Germany or Denmark have a single elite rider who hasn't done the same or worse. And probably loads of other countries as well.

I remember being obsessed with Blue Hors Matine and Andreas Helgstrand - and it turns out he has had multiple instances of abuse from at least 2014 and it's taken Danish TV doing an undercover documentary to finally get rid of him.

She has as good as admitted animal cruelty.

She should be banned from having any animals ever again and possibly prosecuted

Animal cruelty is evil.

For those talking of the timing being suspicious, who cares. She did what she did, if she hadn't, then no one could have 'timed' anything. She's an abusive cunt.

Yes, Charlotte was at the very top of her sport. So what? It’s the horses that got her there, she didn’t do it on her own. It’s a partnership. Someone has to stand up for them. This is the 2nd time she’s had to own up publicly to an animal being subject to handling above and beyond regulations. She’s admitted that. No more excuses should be made. It sends the wrong message to young riders that as long as you don’t get caught it’s ok. It’s not ok. Ever.

Dressage movements are based on actual movements a horse can naturally do. The movements themselves aren't unnatural. It's possibly to train a horse to do dressage in a force free, gentle way. Essentially dressage in my opinion should be about reaching a state with your horse where you're in perfect harmony with each other. Done properly, it's beautiful to watch. I know someone who does dressage with no or very little tack and just using positive reinforcement. The horse does it because it wants to. It's beautiful to watch.

This article gives a little more detail about the incident. Apparently the lawyer handling the case is Dutch and his client is nineteen - so presumably was much younger when the incident happened? That might explain the delay in coming forward.

No @Standupcitizen they’ve stopped it now

I'm not sure. Levels of participation & animal welfare are among the issues.

The decision about LA28 has been delayed & now won't be made until after Paris. This really puts the FEI under immense scrutiny during Paris. I wonder if that's why CD was so quick to withdraw? They need to be seen to take welfare seriously.

Deleted duplicate post

It's on the timetable. Showjumping phase of modern pentathlon 9th August

Maybe the child involved in the lesson in which she whipped the horse is now old enough to make a formal complaint as an adult , possibly she is a professional rider herself now and wishes to remain anonymous ??

👏👏to the young person who reported this.

Dressage was going downhill well before Totilas. The low, deep and round technique aka rollkur was becoming popular in the early 00s with Anky et al. Seen footage of Nicole Uphoff riding this way in the 90s. Perhaps it came about as the modern warm blood became ever more powerful and athletic. Sadly harmony, relaxation and horse comfort get deprioritised with this riding style.

I confess to finding Carl and Charlotte rather irksome - their constant, mawkish pontification on welfare came across as a marketing ploy tbh. They are both top class riders (obviously) but ime ruthlessness also goes with the territory.

yes that makes sense, completely understandable to wait until they reached adulthood.

Hopefully now people can stop blaming the person who reported and start focusing on how a so called "professional" can treat her horse like this.

I remember this too !!! Can’t believe no one else has recollection over it it was a big story.

Sadly I'm not surprised at all. Knowing what goes on "behind the scenes" not only with dressage, but also with showing and showjumping at some yards has ruined my faith in the horse community.
I'll just say I reported a certain showing producer for beating the shit out of her horse at a show during a class (in the corner of the go round behind the judges back) and then constantly yanking at him and smacking him during the line up. Do you know what happened? Absolutely nothing. At all. Person still competing and winning. People still sending their animals to the person to be produced. It's actually good to see someone being held to account over their treatment of an animal in their care.

Where there's muck there's brass; and where there's brass- in the form of prize money, medals or sales prices/stud fees for winning horses- there's muck, sadly.

Abusing an animal is an 'error of judgement'?

I’m not sure if the latest statement has been posted on here, but apparently it was 2 years ago, not 4. And she beat the horse 24 times in 1 minute

Bloody disgraceful. That’s no way to behave.

“The whistleblower's lawyer Stephan Wensing told The Telegraph that while giving a lesson to a student, Ms Dujardin "took the long whip and she was beating the horse more than 24 times in one minute and really hard, really harsh, really tough".

Appalling. There are really no other words.

Any hope she will be prosecuted?

Unless the video has been massively understated, next to none.

But she is - assuming the allegations are substantiated and current reports are accurate - likely to face repercussions from the FEI, sponsorship and/or training deals. Possibly the removal of horses from her training. That would have a significant impact on her career and life.

It’s disgusting and I don’t believe for a second that it’s a one off or actually that she’s the only one behaving like this , she’s just the one they’ve caught .