You’d have a hard time selling that to Joe public.
There was an interesting bit in the FEI Final decision;
" the FEI applied their discretion in considering the matter as a whole, taking into account also the mitigating and aggravating circumstances detailed in the Notification Letter."
Valegro had a damaged nose? I did not know that…
What is the source for your allegation of nose damage? What is the nose damage: misshapen nasal bone, white hair from noseband pressure, nerve damage, ??? I’ve seen pictures of him without tack on enjoying his retirement and there is no damage. I’ve also watched the documentary, Valegro: An Incredible Journey and there was no nose damage. Again, source.
It’s BS.
I think these photos are what started the speculation regarding noseband tightness. The scar could be from any number of things.
https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/behind-stall-door-valegro/
The mark on one side of his nose is above where a noseband would sit. You can see the mark is above his noseband in the picture Between the ears of Valegro. The mark is also only on one side of his nose. An overly tight noseband would leave marks on all the pressure points around the nose, not just in one spot. Sadly, I have a rescue race horse that has such marks from a too tight of a noseband from her racing days. CD and CH certainly did not try to hide the mark from being photographed. Some of the photos used in the article were taken by Allan Davis. Yes, the mark can be from any number of things.
Exactly. People who say it’s from a too-tight noseband have clearly never owned a thoroughbred who’s whacked his head more than once trying to flip his hay net over. 
IMO, part of what made the video confusing this way is the horse’s willingness to take it.
What she wanted, IMO, was him to take quicker steps with his hind legs.
What one would have expected, what would have been normal behavior for a horse being chased that hard with a whip (whether she connected with him or just snapped it at him), would be a much bigger response. I would have expected a big bolt forward on the first snap. If he were held there, I might have expected the horse to lash out at DuJardin, sooner or later, to some extent,
So what bugged me the most about that video was the obedience of the horse. To me, that says that he’s been trapped between the hand and leg before, most likely for a very long time. He had learned to accept it such that his coping strategy was just to check out of his body a little bit, to abandon himself, to get dull to the leg.
What also bugged me is how many commentators didn’t see that. IMO, that’s because this kind of behind-the-leg dullness happens a lot in dressage and people don’t see it.
When a horse doesn’t respond as you expect to an aid or pressure, as you point out, you have to ask why. And the cause was not just DuJardin being a bad trainer on that day.
Except that she was brought in for a clinic, so wasn’t the regular trainer. So - horse might have been shut down, but it wasn’t because of CD’s work. Which might have prompted what was on the video… (admittedly a bad choice on her part)
^^^ I have seen and given a lesson to many people over the years who say go and whoa at the same time…the leg says go the ass say’s whoa. What’s a horse to do? I think bad riding on a daily basis with bouncing hands and pulling reins can be abusive.
Agreed.
I have seen Dujardin teach in person. She does require that a horse be ahead of the leg. In the clinic I saw, long ago in Oregon, she solved that by having riders go for a gallop around the ring. Most of them didn’t know what she meant-- to get up in a little half seat, shorten their reins and go for a hand gallop, staying off the horse’s back. Some of the pros’ horses needed this exercise. Every amateur’s horse did.
My point is that this kind of “learned helplessness” dullness is endemic to dressage. People focus so much on “the contact” and care so much about the horse staying in their hand, that they make going forward unattractive to the horse. Over time, they create a kick-ride of a horse only because the sport doesn’t encourage letting go in front.
CD made a horrible training choice that was abusive for a situation where the rider for what ever reason was unable to let go of the hand break. The horse was trained to be ridden behind the leg before ever coming to CD’s clinic. The rider in the video never allowed the horse to go forward. The rider was the training problem not the horse. Hopefully in future CD clinics, she will address the rider problem and not focus on the horse to solve the problem.
THIS! And thank you for saying it much better than I did.
It’s disturbing to me that the longer-term training built into this horse hasn’t gotten more airplay and/or isn’t recognized as out-of-the-ordinary. Maybe it is ordinary for the discipline? I’m not trying to be snarky so much as I want to know if this is what I am signing up for if I practice dressage.
I’ve seen horses being ridden behind the leg across all disciplines at the lower levels and sadly at the higher levels and by recreational riders. I think that some riders are unaware, some riders are scared of the feeling of a forward, in front of the leg horse and some coaches/trainers do not address the hand brake problem because they do not want to lose a client or don’t recognize the problem themselves. I’ve been fortunate to have coaches/trainers who teach rider/horse to be forward thinking and in front of the leg.
You nailed the sources of the problem again, IMO.
I truly understand why this is happening-- few people have time to learn to ride, and really accept the athleticism of the animal they swung a leg over, any more. But we love horses and want to ride, so we find a way, even if that means damping them down. And I understand how it is happening from the pro’s side.
I can think of a time in my own life that I was guilty of this. This was with a young, kind and lazy hunter I had bred for myself and was riding after his first 90 days were done by someone else. I did that year, showed him and all, and then moved across the country ahead of him. I left him with the pro to install an ammy-friendly lead change and then ship him back to me when I had found a place for him.
When I got him back, I thought he was running away with me! Nothing about this horse was that, rather, the pro had gotten him ahead of her leg and I hadn’t been part of his program during that time, so I didn’t get to learn just how dull I had made him and how to ride him as he should be ridden.
What this means is that DIYers like me, even people who have been riding forever, can dig training holes for themselves and/or have standards that are too low. But, as a lifetime rider of jumping horses, I am not afraid to go forward. I appreciate that long experience as I get older. But riding that way also makes me worry a bit about a discipline that asks a horse to press into the bit all the time. I think that’s not the most attractive proposition for the horse AND it’s especially easy for the horse to do some subtle cheating with a slow hind leg and a dropped back. After all, it takes a lot of strength to correct the horse who is dull in the bridle and to your leg! I think most people can’t/don’t fix that. And if they refuse to give up the contact in the bridle in order to get the “forward” first, well, they have their work cut out for them.
This method of training, and CD’s reaction to it, is not out of the ordinary for the discipline. I have seen many trainers utilize what CD did.
This is exactly what I posted about to my social media last year (I have a lot of non-horsey friends who were asking me about the video). The rider was at fault to begin with. BUT, when she saw this, CD had a responsibility to tackle THAT issue. She chose not to. She chose to blame the horse for the rider’s errors.
She could have dealt with this in several ways. She could have gotten on the horse herself. She could have lunged the rider (which is what needed to happen, IMO). She could have worked with the rider to address their issues, whatever they are. But she chose not to.
For that, I can’t forgive her.
Bless you, who are always perfect under pressure to perform for a client who is paying your bills.
Oh, please.
She’s a professional.
Part of being a professional is performing under pressure and being held to a higher standard than amateurs.
It took thought - it took making a conscious choice - to pick up that whip and do what she did. The horse was trying to do what she was demanding. The rider was too locked up to let it. Charlotte, being a professional, should have seen this and acted accordingly.
Spare me the glass house, pearl-clutching crap.
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