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.

Most of us who’ve spent time around horses and such yards know it is not a one-off. Big money has always corrupted sport. The problem is few sports involve animals that have zero choice in how they are treated to win those sponsorship deals.

The fullest details I’ve read on it are here:
www.eurodressage.com/2024/07/23/dressage-icon-charlotte-dujardin-toppled-horse-abuse-allegations

My niece does dressage at a much lower levels and recently worked on a top yard in Germany for a few months. She found the level of cruelty in training really upsetting - should a rule of the sport really be that horses mouths can’t bleed ? When there are also rules about bitting meaning horses can’t be ridden in simple snaffles
At a low level dressage training is good for horses. Once you start asking them to do unatural movements the training methods become questionable

I heard this too. Just 19 now so around 15 when it happened. Not easy to stand up to one of the most famous and influential people in the world in your sport as a mid teen.

Quite.

Hope someone gives Charlotte a good "error of judgement" so she knows what it feels like. Scum.

@Babadook76 - She’s well known to be part of the ‘blue tongue and bloody spurs’ club. If you look closely you can see the scarring up some of her horses sides.

So when did you report Dujardin to the authorities? And what happened when you did?

I haven't been involved in the horse world for 20 years, but it doesn't seem to be a place involving swift change.

Back when I was involved there was a great deal of openly accepted abuse of horses. It was standard to 'make' or 'force' a horse to do some thing.

This involved whipping from a mounted rider or one not mounted using a long lunge whip, (Not designed for actual whipping, but very capable of being used for this purpose).

I've seen children whipping their ponies furiously, adults whipping horses until they leave wheals, riders furious that their horse is refusing to pass something that it is scared of whipping them forwards, unseated riders beating seven shades of shit out of their terrified horse, parents whipping ponies that are trying not to be loaded into a horse box.

The above are just a few examples. The beatings were generally accompanied by screaming, yanking and sometimes a nasty kick or knee to the belly.

This wasn't hidden. It happened in plain sight. Less acceptable during a competition admittedly- until a competitor's horse underperformed or refused a fence after which no one was surprised to see the rider beat their horse.

I saw this at every level from riding club gymkhanas, through pony club events, very causal clear round jumping, dressage at all levels, hacking, competing in fact everything except racing which I was never involved with.

I absolutely hated this culture. I felt in the minority as someone who didn't use a whip. I kept and rode a series of horsies, and I did more or less ok in terms of the sport. But I did more than ok in terms of loving and respecting my horses. I was an oddball though, and was judged as soft and daft. I was told so many times "don't let him win" and "show him who is boss".

My horses may have preformed reliably better if I'd beaten them when they didn't do as I wanted. That doesn't make it right.

Bearings and whippings are an integral and accepted part of most of the equine world. I'm surprised we've not seen more leaks of this nature because I doubt many top level competitors are interested in a kinder approach.

CDJ

I anticipate that many riders involved in the Olympics are beginning to feel very uneasy as they realise that to most of the rest of the world don't think beating a horse is acceptable.

It strikes me that there’s a large number of posters on here who through experience, know this to be an openly accepted practice. What a difference it could make if we all collectively took the time to write to the FEI to (a) recount these damaging practices that we individually have witnessed, how accepted it seemed, and make them fully aware that cruelty of this nature will no longer be tolerated? I feel as if they need to be made more accountable publicly now rather than have this swept under the carpet.
Another area I’d like them to turn their gaze to is instagram and TikTok. I’ve witnessed the most awful “horsemanship” reels from some seemingly semi-professional accounts and those aspiring to be them. There are a lot of young riders out there who think nothing of bragging online about how they “correct” their bucking, anxious, green, lazy, unridable mounts. It’s a bragathon and very damaging messaging to send to aspiring riders who think they need to follow suit, post reels and use their horses to showcase their lack of horsemanship. If the FEI are true to their word, that’s where they start; ban some of the content being put online, start sending a very real message.

The video is being shown on good morning Britain this morning

it doesn’t look like a one off to me, it looks like a standard way of training the horses

the horse in question is clearly in distress, the sound of the whip (it’s a long whip) hitting the horse is not nice.

But I expect a lot of people who train horses will look at this and not see anything too wrong which is sad 😔

She's sorry she was recorded and reported more like. If you abuse an animal your scum in my book

I woke up thinking about this again first thing, so distressing

Me too. It's really upset me to think of the way those poor horses are treated 😕, all for the enjoyment of human beings 😢

And what do you think would have happened if it had been reported? Do you seriously think the FEI would have taken action?

My mistake - it’s from 2028 that they’ve removed it. Which is a shame as they had three years to remove it for this Olympics.

I know it’s a derail (and probably old news to lots of you), but Mark Todd….😢😢
It does seem like cruelty is far more prevalent than I had ever imagined.
I really hope this is a watershed moment across all equine disciplines

I was thinking about this earlier, it’s money isn’t it. That’s the big factor in the change in sport these days. CD has an estimated net worth upwards of £12million, depending on where you ask.

Of course they’ll be an ego, drive to succeed and achieve perfection, there has always been, but the financial incentive to succeed is massive and the methods to achieve success, for some, stray into the blatantly cruel and unacceptable. Then when you’ve done the blatantly cruel a few times and got away with it/think you’ve achieved something it becomes normalised for you.

My dd has been at 3 riding schools and they all encourage the use of a whip. Largely to tap the pony or horse. Is this a slippery slope? What other ways are there to make riding school ponies do what they need to do.

It all sounds so gruesome.

What surprises me is that people haven't thought through the processes that result in horses moving in the extremely unnatural way required by dressage.

What other ways are there to make riding school ponies do what they need to do Don't make them do things they don't want to do.

the lady speaking on radio 4, previously of Horse and Hound, seemed to feel it was sabotage.

Wouldn’t be sabotage if she hadn’t done it.

Fair enough. What should riding lessons for people who don't have their own pony look like? How could the approach be transformed? More focus on grooming and looking after the horses? What else? My dd has read list enology for kids, there is a version for adults too by Elaine Heney. What could a more holistic riding school experience look like?

Horsey people are not covering themselves in glory by trying to make all these excuses for her.

She did it. If she hadn't ever done it there would be no video to release. "Sabotage".would be if someone mocked up a video

I’m not a rider, so these could be daft questions, but do horses not respond to positive training like dogs do? And why wear spurs at all? I can see there could be a difference between touching and hitting with a whip (although as I’m not horsey I don’t know why you’d do either), but surely spurs are only to cause pain?