CDJ withdrawn from paris

There have been so many horrible reports in the last year or two. I think we have to discuss this because it will just be swept under the carpet again if people don't pay attention. PETA et al will be delighted with this latest report, if the sport and its fans and participants don't clean up their act then someone will do it for us and more will be lost.
I am sorry (I know not everyone feels this) for CDJ because it must feel awful to be so publicly humiliated. Before anyone says anything - I am more sorry for all the abused horses (not just in dressage) but I can spare a little for her too.
 
There are already comments on social media from the general public saying things like “the horsey lot don’t like the truth coming out”. I sure hope they don’t count me and many others like me in “the horsey lot”. This is absolutely terrible for the sport but it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.
 
misst said:
There have been so many horrible reports in the last year or two. I think we have to discuss this because it will just be swept under the carpet again if people don't pay attention. PETA et al will be delighted with this latest report, if the sport and its fans and participants don't clean up their act then someone will do it for us and more will be lost.
I am sorry (I know not everyone feels this) for CDJ because it must feel awful to be so publicly humiliated. Before anyone says anything - I am more sorry for all the abused horses (not just in dressage) but I can spare a little for her too.
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It’s not good for anyone; for the individual concerned, their family, owners, sponsors, supporters, the sport and horse owners generally (who many already think are ‘posh rich people’). It is an absolute PR disaster for everyone involved. If you asked most non-horsey members of the public, I suspect most would have heard of CDJ.
 
SkylarkAscending said:
OK - my last comment before I walk away, saying the same thing over and over again is clearly pointless.

It is not a six month ban - CDJ has agreed to that suspension whilst the investigation takes place - bearing in mind the speed the FEI seems to do anything i can understand why the timescale is so generous. I refer to the statement from the British Equestrian Federation.
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https://inside.fei.org/media-update...nsion-dressage-athlete-charlotte-dujardin-gbr

Under her suspension she's banned from competing - so yes it is a ban
 
Dare I say the modern pentathlon video was potentially less shocking than this potentially is if the wording from the papers is correct

Especially as its the golden girl

I follow her on FB (reconsidering that now) and she often posts pictures of fan mail she has received from children saying how she's their idol etc. She was someone you thought was one of the good ones
 
Orangehorse said:
I'm really shocked and deflated by this.

But if it was so terrible why wait for 4 years and act the week before the Olympics?
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This has been discussed upthread:

- Possibly because it would be taken more seriously at this momentous time on the brink of The Olympics

- Possibly (if The Guardian reporting is assumed correct) because the person on the horse in the lesson would have only been 15 years old at the time, and scared to speak out. The article quote suggests that videos of other top rider abuse being leaked earlier this year is what gave them the courage to show the video to the FEI.
 
I think the video needs to come out now if I’m honest else everybody will always be left wondering and unable to trust her. It must be bad if she’s withdrawn! I have heard before she is hard on her horses.
 
spotty_pony2 said:
I think the video needs to come out now if I’m honest else everybody will always be left wondering and unable to trust her. It must be bad if she’s withdrawn! I have heard before she is hard on her horses.
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She has admitted that she is ashamed of her behaviour so I don’t feel I need to see the video. That is enough for me.
 
I don't think the video will be released until after the full investigation has been carried out - if nobody saw it beforehand the 'whistleblower' surely sent it directly to the correct channels to be investigated and did not spread it around social media. If the rider in the video was also 15 at the time (17 now, so still legally a child) it's quite likely the parents are also involved and there's a certain element of protection in place. It's quite likely the rider would be accused and slandered online for engaging with the behaviour and continuing with the lesson if that is what the video shows.

I'm not an expert on these things but that's my two cents.
 
This has actually really upset me. Not that I’m a huge CDJ fan but it’s just… again?! Another one? Seriously? And HER? She’s so high profile, it taints the sport for everyone else. It’s been discussed many times on this forum, that the general public will one day want to ban horse sports/riding. This is just another nail in the coffin, as far as I’m concerned.

It’s sending me into a spiral thinking of all the horses - at all levels - that have to endure abuse and harshness. We don’t deserve these beautiful creatures 🥺
 
NinjaPony said:
It really couldn’t have happened to a more high profile rider, she’s one of the very few names the general public might recognise. It’s all quite sickening.
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It’s certainly a day that is going to go down in history for British Dressage, and not in a good way.

That said, I do hope CDJ has people around her to support her. She must be feeling pretty horrendous this evening. I’m not condoning her behaviour in any way, and no doubt she is absolutely disgusted with herself for her conduct on that occasion (and I sincerely hope it was just one occasion), but she must be fully aware of the ramifications of this on her career, and also how people view her past achievements.
 
SkylarkAscending said:
Or not if you follow the wider media …..🤷‍♀️

www.bbc.co.uk

Charlotte Dujardin: British dressage star provisionally suspended

Charlotte Dujardin, Britain's joint-most decorated female Olympian, has been provisionally suspended by the FEI.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk
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I'll take the FEI statement over a Beeb article that doesn't care for the finer details, and are solely focusing on the Paris element given she's been a key feature of their pre games build up/potential to be the most decorated female GB Olympian.
 
Truly libellous comments aside, I can’t understand why some posters are trying to defend someone who has admitted wrongdoing. We don’t know what she has done - beyond the alleged 20-odd hits to a horse’s legs within a minute - but it is sufficient that she admits to being ashamed about it. Whatever the video shows, it’s not going to be good for her or for the sport.

I don’t understand why anyone would want the thread locked, or discussion halted, when the welfare and social license implications for this are huge. Why would equestrians want this whitewashed?

I want to see change in elite sport, even if that means the end of it - because if humans can’t behave with horses, we don’t deserve to be around them. And I really don’t want it to come to that.
 
SkylarkAscending said:
As I have said repeatedly - WE DON’T KNOW THE FACTS!

Thats what the investigation will uncover. Anything else is rumour and speculation.
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An enormous amount of effort goes into standing up stories, and we actually know quite a few facts. The Guardian is not speculating or starting rumours, it is quoting the lawyer of the person who made the complaint (not the young rider, but the person filming the training). The elephant quote is clearly attributed to the lawyer, as is the quote about how many times the horse was struck. Given that he will have seen the video more than once and it is now with the authorities, it would be a bit strange if he was making it up., and very easy to disprove given that it's all on film. In any case, that would be on him, not the Guardian, which is reporting in good faith.
 
anguscat said:
Arguably releasing the video at a really significant time might do more for animal welfare than if it were released earlier.
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It might also do more for Dutch chances of medals. And rich, coming from the country that gave us rollkur as a training method {Sjef Janssen, Solange Schrijer, Anky Van Grunsven, Edward Gal...}
 
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One of the most interesting aspects of this story, for me, is that CDJ, or her PR people, rushed out a statement withdrawing voluntarily from competition before the FEI got their announcement out. I'm sure that she has agreed to withdraw from competition and equally sure that if she hadn't done so, she would have been suspended anyway. I imagine the FEI agreed to the timing of both statements. This is classic HR policy/practice.
 
She was a global ambassador for Brooke as well so quite influencial in campaigning for horse welfare which makes it more shocking.

Hopefully it was a one off occasion and not something she regularly does especially if it was as reported in a lesson with a young person.

I also expect she will be more harshly judged by the general public as she is female and her personal brand was very much built on doing things differently to most top riders with horses having more turnout and hacking.

I can see there being more situations where people are saying "me too" in terms of witnessing this sort of behaviour with other professionals. It is so easy with phones now to video.

I think horse ownership is on it's way out and possibly will end up being something only for the very wealthy. There is a lack of horse friendly livery yards, people either struggle with lack of turnout or too much grass and trying to prevent obesity. Everything has become very expensive and trying to keep a horse in an optimal way has an element of luck depending on availability of decent yard if you cannot afford your own land, having enough spare money to cover vets bills which can soon rack up if you are unlucky which a lot of people are horses seem to be fragile creatures not suited to riding or the way we keep them. Costs are rising. Doing everything perfectly I think is beyond the reach of most people now.

I don't think competition brings out the best in people when an animal is involved. I am almost of the mindset now that anything competitive related to animals should be banned even though I get massively jealous when I see posts on social media of people out competing all the time.
 
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Roasted Chestnuts said:
Another toddy situation then. Regardless of what was done this has been done to affect medals. If the person who had the video was truly concerned about welfare issues this would have been released at the time. Meh
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So we should blame the teenager for not reporting the abuse sooner?

I vividly remember decades ago being in a group lesson (we were all under 16 years old), and watching our 40 something year old instructor tell a girl to dismount, got on her pony and beat the living daylights out of it for 'misbehaving'.

We were all horrified, I don't think any of us spoke a word to each other after the incident, let alone told our parents.

Teachers/instructors are in an unbalanced power dynamic with their students, especially when the students are children. We look up to them as people to learn from and respect. Imagine how amplified that would be if you were being taught by an Olympic gold medallist?

I actually find it baffling that despite the fact CDJ has admitted she abused the horse and said she was ashamed of her behaviour, everyone is going after the person who reported the abuse as if they're some sort of villain. And people wonder why they wanted to remain anonymous!
 
I agree but the timing I guess seems very spiteful. That said, whatever the motives of the person reporting it, it's kind of irrelevant really. Abuse is abuse whenever it comes out.

I don't really get the whole idea that we haven't seen the video, we don't know etc when Charlotte herself has said it wasn't acceptable (or whatever her own words were).
 
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