CDJ withdrawn from paris

reynold said:
www.horseandhound.co.uk

British medallist joins top names to ‘review’ dressage and create a future plan - Horse & Hound

Medal-winning British rider Gareth Hughes has been named in a group tasked with reviewing the current state of dressage – and developing an action plan to take it forward. Gareth, who was on the team that won European gold in 2023, and world silver in 2022, with Classic Briolinca, joins others...
www.horseandhound.co.uk www.horseandhound.co.uk

Gareth Hughes is on the FEI dressage review committee but the rest seem to be a lot of the 'usual suspects' that have been complicit in the current state of dressage.

The other possible voice of reason may be the Danish review member, providing she isn't in the Helgstrand camp.....
Click to expand...
I don't see how the usual suspects can be expected to make any progress at all here given that if they thought things were going in the wrong direction they've had ample opportunity to do/say something about it/vote with their feet. Therefore I must conclude that this is just a bit more window dressing. Also, rather unfortunate picture they've chosen to head the article. In general, I'm astonished at the number of pictures of repeat offenders riding horses in such a way that their resistances and unhappiness are obvious - they must all think it's acceptable and normal for your horse to open its mouth so wide you could drive a bus in there. I'd be so embarrassed to be seen doing such I probably wouldn't come out of the house ever again.
 
If any one uses instagram and follows CDJ there since the horse whipping story she posted from a report from FEI but I think she has taken a break to spend time with her husband and her family and her dog and her horses🤔
 
Cobxfan55 said:
If any one uses instagram and follows CDJ there since the horse whipping story she posted from a report from FEI but I think she has taken a break to spend time with her husband and her family and her dog and her horses🤔
Click to expand...
I mean, anything she posts would be absolutely ripped apart by a whole lot of people. So there's no point in her posting anything, until things settle down for her. Which might be a while...
 
CDJ is pregnant with her 2nd child (was pregnant at the time of the Paris Olympics). Think the child is due this month iirc or may have already been born (?)

Hence her suspension by the FEI is coinciding with her pregnancy. It remains to be seen what she does going forward after the baby is born...
 
Pammy Hutton praising Helgstrand's riding on her FB page. I do not follow her but the algorithm decided to show me the post. Naturally lots of people in the comments were asking why she is praising a known, documented horse abuser to which her retort was 'my page, my rules' or such like.

Genuinely quite shocking coming from her given that she used to admin a page dedicated to calling out abuse in the competitive horse world, but I daresay she showed her true colours when the CDJ video was released and she cared much more about the prospect of riding getting banned than anything else.
 
I couldn’t see the post ok Helgstrand but again it’s a reminder to the horse community that it’s a fools errand to believe that just because people are successful riders/horsepeople that they know everything and are ethical.

The more horse people I meet the more I’m convinced everyone is bonkers
 
I'm not a competitive rider and didn't even know who Pammy was until the CDJ scandal, but it's clear that she has influence within the British Dressage sphere, so to see her posting this kind of thing is beyond disappointing.

'Does one not forgive and forget?'

It's called accountability - when someone has had a literal documentary about them recording 10 years of serious abuse towards both horses and humans, no you do not 'forgive and forget'. Should we say the same of Harvey Weinstein or Jimmy Saville? Notorious, serial abusers do not change their ways, Andreas Helgstrand should be behind bars, and will be someday if there is any justice in the world.

But apparently 'correct riding' in one test is enough to gloss over his horrific past abuses, which are no doubt continuing behind closed doors.

I am tired of this.


Screenshot 2025-02-21 at 10.50.03.png
 
equinerebel said:
I don’t know what test she’s referring to, but the photos I shared were from 14th February 2025. I am assuming it’s the same thing.
Click to expand...
The photos of the grey are from 2015 I believe - I've seen them many times over the last decade as they are such an egregious example, so tend to be shared/posted quite a bit - they were also the first time wider attention was drawn to AH's riding/training, afaik. The post you've shared is from this month.
 
equinerebel said:
I don’t know what test she’s referring to, but the photos I shared were from 14th February 2025. I am assuming it’s the same thing.
Click to expand...

It wasn't this photo, the horse was bay/black. The photo was from behind and not great image quality so couldn't see the horse's face. But I'm floored that anyone would share his riding as an example of 'good' in any way, I don't care how 'correct' it is.

Many masks have slipped since CDJ was outed and I'm convinced that the purpose of 'It's Time to Act' was to purport a moral superiority because GB riders were apparently leagues above other countries in terms of welfare - which we know now not to be true.
 
Miss_Millie said:
Even though the photo quality is crap, it looks like the mouth of the horse is gaping open. What a surprise.


View attachment 155252
Click to expand...

Presumably PH is meaning that the HORSE's shoulders should lead in LY/HP - because the rider's shoulders and set of the body look to be set completely AGAINST the balance and direction of movement and energy flow in this photo!

Truly 'free moving steps' would surely be encouraged by a softer, more harmonious partnership?

Talk about trying to train people to train their eyes poorly!!
 
Sorry but forgive and forget applies to someone who may have made an error, learnt something new and thus changed their thought process, or crumbled under immense pressure and got swept up for a brief period or on an odd occasion - it is NOT OKAY on any level, but I am more inclined to believe that this could be forgiveable if they make a demonstrated and transparent effort to admit, rectify and change.

What AH did was systemic, prolonged and in full knowledge of exactly how cruel he was being. Potentially thousands of horses over many years and potentially hundreds of riders over that time span encouraged to adopt and do the same, the cruelty was extreme and covered up fully in the know of how horrific it was. That is, and always should be, unforgivable IMO. How that man didn't receive a lifetime ban from owning animals I do not know, someone in my area had 25 well-fed dogs cooped up in two rooms of their house, appalling conditions and one had a broken leg, they received a lifetime ban and its not even comparable to the reach of AH's cruelty.

I wasn't necessarily anti-Pammy before now, albeit I realised she has as good as admitted she's done unsavoury things over the years and I can well believe it, but I have lost all respect for her now.
 
I don't think she has ever been for the horse - on national television she sidestepped around what CDJ did and instead drolled on about how humans need riding for their mental health.

She moaned about people ruining the Olympics for her because they were talking about the CDJ video all over social media.

She later campaigned for people to 'write letters' on their FB pages about what riding has done for them. As usual, it was all very human-centred with no consideration for the horse's lived experience.

The sport will die a death because people like her who have influence, refuse to take a good look in the mirror and realise how very wrong all of this is.

The sooner it dies, the better.
 
AShetlandBitMeOnce said:
Sorry but forgive and forget applies to someone who may have made an error, learnt something new and thus changed their thought process, or crumbled under immense pressure and got swept up for a brief period or on an odd occasion - it is NOT OKAY on any level, but I am more inclined to believe that this could be forgiveable if they make a demonstrated and transparent effort to admit, rectify and change.
Click to expand...
This is so true, and applicable to many different aspects of life...
 
Jellymoon said:
I know lots of people have huge respect and love for Pammy and her family, but I can’t read her posts any more as she seems to have gone a bit bonkers. She gets into arguments with people online and comes across as silly and childish.
Click to expand...

I used to admire Pammy and dream of having a lesson at her yard - now if I were offered the chance I'd run 1000 miles away and then some - sadly she does seem to have gone off the rails :(
 
There are some positives from the CDJ thing and that the judges seem to , at last, be marking the more sympathetic riders more correctly. Look at Becky Moody and Lewis Carrier for their better placing recently. If the judges don’t reward the stressed overbent unhappy horses I would hope that they would be ridden in a kinder way ., there is still a long way to go . What I find odd is that all the hate is for dressage and nothing much is said about showjumping, and as for the barrel racing etc in America , I find that pretty upsetting as well
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top