CDJ withdrawn from paris

[cauda equina]

Bc the rider was allegedly 15 when the incident took place and there is a clear power dynamic in play.

Counter argument, why hit a horse repeatedly as part of "training"? Surely that is the bigger problem?

The rider may have been 15 but I don't suppose for a moment there weren't any other adults around eg whoever was doing the filming for a start

 

[equinerebel]

The rider may have been 15 but I don't suppose for a moment there weren't any other adults around eg whoever was doing the filming for a start

Again, I don't think that is the biggest problem here. Let's consider the mental health of the rider in question as well, shall we? Ultimately, they have done the right thing.

 

[U.N.Owen]

Is this an issue generally with elite sports? Lots came out about the abuse of gymnasts by coaches, the dancers on strictly, football managers being hard on Premier league players etc. Does the drive to win create power trips?

 

[eahotson]

Lots of victim blaming in the Equisafety comments...

As said she was a 15 year old having a lesson with an Olympian who's put on a pedestal of course you'd be scared to speak out. You could even use the term grooming- has she been taught that this is normal, this is how you can get to the Olympics, trust me I know this works etc.

Some years ago I knew a teenager who had a lesson with quite a famous show jumper.She was giggling about how he had hit a horse with an iron bar.It starts early.

 

[Patterdale]

Worst part for me was how casual it all was. I wouldn’t believe that this is a one off, personally.

I’m also amazed though that anyone who has worked on professional yards is claiming to be surprised by this. It’s commonplace, sadly.

 

[Equi]

Is this an issue generally with elite sports? Lots came out about the abuse of gymnasts by coaches, the dancers on strictly, football managers being hard on Premier league players etc. Does the drive to win create power trips?

It has always been the way with sports. No one gets to the top without being hurt (emotionally or physically) and then the students become the teachers and the cycle continues..

 

[Miss_Millie]

Whoever is responsible for their social media is making a mess of it. They should either stay quiet, or make a considered statement saying that they will await the FEI findings, or they could take a moral higher ground and drop her.

I'm a long-term Equisafety customer and will not be purchasing from them again after reading their last two posts. So sick of this kind of thing being defended, just because someone is a 'top rider'.

 

[equinerebel]

The problem is when you then involve a sentient animal who cannot consent or understand that if they are hit x number of times, they may just win a gold medal that they don't care about.

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Guys, be careful out there....

I've just got back from taking baby pony out for 30 mins and got screamed at, yes, screamed at!

"You effing horse riders should just stop, it's effing cruel, seen it on the TV this morning and you are all disgusting!"

Many more expletives as baby pony carefully plodded on, it was quite sickening

 

[Ifmpw]

The rider may have been 15 but I don't suppose for a moment there weren't any other adults around eg whoever was doing the filming for a start

And if you were an adult, and you want the best for your child, you pay for an Olympic Star, they make the abuse look so normal, would the adult actually realize it was wrong. The parent could be a rich non rider - who knows. But the kid and her family have stood up and been counted - so all kudos to them.

 

[misst]

What she did was wrong. But what occurred to me was a 15 year old was sat on that horse while she frightened and upset it. Horses are dangerous enough without putting people at risk with dangerous training methods. I'm bit shocked at some of the victim blaming going on. A 15 year old child (no matter how good rider she is a teenager with a teenage mind) was having a lesson likely with someone she admired. Her parents were likely ambitious for her if things were happening at this level. Had he video come out another time they likely would have been ridiculed and ostracised and the likes of us would have known little ornothing.

 

[Miss_Millie]

What she did was wrong. But what occurred to me was a 15 year old was sat on that horse while she frightened and upset it. Horses are dangerous enough without putting people at risk with dangerous training methods. I'm bit shocked at some of the victim blaming going on. A 15 year old child (no matter how good rider she is a teenager with a teenage mind) was having a lesson likely with someone she admired. Her parents were likely ambitious for her if things were happening at this level. Had he video come out another time they likely would have been ridiculed and ostracised and the likes of us would have known little ornothing.

Non-horsey partner said the same having seen the video - she could have quite easily made the rider fall off, let alone the abuse to the horse itself.

 

[ponyparty]

Guys, be careful out there....

I've just got back from taking baby pony out for 30 mins and got screamed at, yes, screamed at!

"You effing horse riders should just stop, it's effing cruel, seen it on the TV this morning and you are all disgusting!"

Many more expletives as baby pony carefully plodded on, it was quite sickening

This is exactly the kind of thing I am worried will come from this.

ETA glad baby pony unscathed and hope you’re ok too!

 

[Miss_Millie]

Worst part for me was how casual it all was. I wouldn’t believe that this is a one off, personally.

This. Somehow it would have seemed 'less bad' had she flipped out at the horse for 'misbehaving' and lost her temper for a split second. But no, she was walking calmly and cooly between every strike, as if it was nothing. Very hard to watch.

 

[Burnerbee]

What she did was wrong. But what occurred to me was a 15 year old was sat on that horse while she frightened and upset it. Horses are dangerous enough without putting people at risk with dangerous training methods. I'm bit shocked at some of the victim blaming going on. A 15 year old child (no matter how good rider she is a teenager with a teenage mind) was having a lesson likely with someone she admired. Her parents were likely ambitious for her if things were happening at this level. Had he video come out another time they likely would have been ridiculed and ostracised and the likes of us would have known little ornothing.

Just to say, agree with you but violently attacking a horse isn’t a ‘training method’ (and I’m sure you didn’t mean to imply it was).

 

[eahotson]

Just watched the full video on YouTube. The Sun put it up.There was someone laughing in the ba ground.Hopefully nerves.One of the sad things is that the horse clearly didn't understand what was needed and didn't "improve" one iota.

 

[Peregrine Falcon]

Money and ruthless ambition seems to overrule compassion these days. Abuse of humans and animals is sadly occuring on many levels. Social media is dangerous for those at elite level as it can bring unsavoury practices to light.

Even at basic level dressage I was told to tighten my mare's noseband and consider wearing spurs. I found another trainer.

 

[Burnerbee]

Apologies if cross posted - from The Guardian. More details, especially on why video took a while to emerge…

““Charlotte Dujardin was in the middle of the arena,” he said. “She said to the student: ‘Your horse must lift up the legs more in the canter.’ She took the long whip and she was beating the horse more than 24 times in one minute. It was like an elephant in the circus.

“At that time, my client was thinking this must be normal. She is an Olympic winner. Who am I to doubt? My client asked around and was warned against speaking out in the UK. But last year my client saw others suspended in the UK and elsewhere.

“And this weekend, she eventually made a decision to let me admit the complaint to the FEI and that happened yesterday. The FEI took this immediately very seriously.”

British Equestrian refused to directly comment on Wensing’s allegations. However the organisation’s chief executive, Jim Eyre, admitted the allegations against Dujardin were serious.”

Dujardin banned from Olympics over allegedly ‘whipping horse 24 times’

Three-time gold medallist said she is ‘deeply ashamed’ as FEI imposes six-month suspension while investigating coaching footage

www.theguardian.com

 

[Wizpop]

I’m not sure if this has been mentioned already, but timing wise, the release of the video does coincide with the current ‘’Strictly’ revelations of ‘human abuse’.

 

[Polos Mum]

Is this an issue generally with elite sports? Lots came out about the abuse of gymnasts by coaches, the dancers on strictly, football managers being hard on Premier league players etc. Does the drive to win create power trips?

Have a look at the new contrversial Nike advert - lots of crazy stuff in elite sport. Which is OK if people participating are adults and can make choices.

The horse has no choice - horses and sport are not a great mix it would seem

 

[ester]

It will be interesting to see how this plays out compared to helgstrand. In some ways I think the timing is good and maybe significant enough that dressage does get hauled over the coals as a thing due to wider public attention rather than abuses coming up year after year but only really being known about if you’re horsey and on a forum.

 

[scats]

I wouldn’t be suprised if Equisafety continue to support her. That’s all I’m saying on that.
Though I sincerely hope they don’t.

 

[cosmic389]

In her slight defence here, she hasn’t tried to make up an excuse or reason, just held her hands up and said it’s unacceptable and she’s let us down.. or her PR team have anyway

 

[littleshetland]

Ive just watched the video in full on You Tube where you can hear the accompanying sound track. It claims that the rider at the time was 19 years old. You can quite clearly hear the person who's videoing chuckling and laughing with another person sitting next to them. The cracking noise the whip makes is extremely loud.

 

[Equi]

I hope everyone keeps a good eye on their horses. In this ecomob world it’s not unreasonable to think some people will make it their mission to free the horses..who will promptly go and kick ten bells out of each other. Or a car will honk to show their displeasure at the horse being ridden.

Be safe out there everyone.

 

[Roxylola]

You have to be incredibly ambitious and driven to get to the top in any sport - look at any Olympian, none of them came to their sport as an adult and got there for talent. They all talk about sacrifices commitment etc.
Charlotte undoubtedly has this ambition drive and commitment, I think she'd have been at the top of any sport she chose. And I suspect that drive was what reignited Carl to continue competing. It has two sides though, and there is the need to produce results quickly and consistently to stay at the top.
And you need money - sponsors etc to afford just the training sponsors will drop you if you aren't staying at the top...
So you have to stay at the top doing whatever it takes to get results. That's bad enough when it's parents pushing kids, no council estate kid just gets support for being talented doing cartwheels at 9 and goes on to be an Olympic gymnast. I'm not sure it's right to involve an animal in that ambition.

 

[ester]

I’m not sure if this has been mentioned already, but timing wise, the release of the video does coincide with the current ‘’Strictly’ revelations of ‘human abuse’.

I’m not sure someone of another nationality would be aware of that though, it’s more piggy backing in the other dressage scandals this year (and i can see why that might be the push, especially as when those come up the Brits tend to claim their riders are all whiter than white….) and obv maximum impact at the one time in 4 years when dressage is in tbe public eye not just horse peoples

 

[Peglo]

Is it just me that couldn't care less about the timing of the video being released? I could understand it being part of the subject if it was 20 years old, (hopefully) so much has changed in that time but it's 2 years old!

My guess is they wanted to get it out and they decided to release it before she won any more medals.
If she’d won medals and then it came out I think things would be so much worse for her.

But I agree. I don’t care about the timing either.

 

[meleeka]

Just watched the full video on YouTube. The Sun put it up.There was someone laughing in the ba ground.Hopefully nerves.One of the sad things is that the horse clearly didn't understand what was needed and didn't "improve" one iota.

Having watched the video in full it appears the horse isn't going forward as much as required. It clearly just doesn't understand collection yet. I could have maybe seen why it happened if they were trying to teach it a specific movement and got frustrated, but this is just pointless abuse, especially when she uses both hands for extra force

 

[Miss_Millie]

I wonder how many other people are sitting on videos (not just of CDJ but of other top riders) and have been too scared of the backlash to release them...maybe this will inspire them to speak up. People like grooms who work in the industry must see a lot of abuse, but probably also fear being blacklisted or losing their jobs for reporting this kind of thing.

I really hope that this is the catalyst for significant change.