I can’t. Many scenarios? Like what.
She might have slept badly? Been in an argument with someone? Felt down or depressed or blue or anything that hinders decent teaching-ability?
Many human scenarios put us all in less than ideal mindstates, none of which allow for brutal whippings and lousy training. This is her ‘mastery,’ her calling, her career. It sucks.
Also curious to hear the answer to this.
Interesting that a 4 year old video just happens to show up right before the olympics…not justifying what Charlotte did, but I think this video came out now for a reason.
I was trying to withhold judgment until seeing the video, and was definitely skeptical about the timing.
But what’s shown in the video is pretty inexcusable. There is no purpose to the whacking and the horse clearly isn’t sure WTF is being asked, other than that it’s in pain.
What a damn shame.
I will try to give my opinion
This is an Olympian giving a private lesson.
So everybody has high expectations that the kid and the horse get something amazing out of this lesson.
I personally assume (might be wrong of course) that the horse was not really active in any way because the kid wasn’t able to get it in front of the leg)
If this happens you have different choices… you can explain why the horse is not in front of the leg and you can offer some excersises for the rider and the horse to get the horse more active and more willing to listen to the rider. (For example transitions) But this will not be spectacular because it takes a couple of lessons until the rider gets the concept and then he needs to convince the horse as well…
So CD kind of took a shortcut… (in a way the same thing as the German trainer did in the Parra Video). And IMO these shortcuts are used on a regular basis because the faster the horse is ready for GP the more money you can make with him…. For CD in this moment it was about the only way to produce visible results from this lesson…
Maybe she should have had the guts to explain the problem to the kid and the spectators and let the lesson end in a nice and horse friendly way…. But you need a strong personality to do this…
It is what it is as long as all these dressage enthusiasts who have no idea cheer for all the big names……
Sleep deprived, just had a massive fight with spouse, stressed about money, contractually forced to perform when she needed a break. All hypotheticals.
I’m not defending her. I’m just saying she’s human. Can anyone here say they’ve never had a bad day where they broke a glass or slammed a door? Unfortunately, the horse paid here. Again, it’s not ok. But I’m not pretending we are all masters of self control 100% of the time.
Granted we aren’t seeing the whole ride but in the snippet shown it’s hard to imagine that there was a huge improvement. The timing seems off, the placement is sloppy, and the horse seems utterly confused.
Well there is no real timing necessary for this… it’s more about surprising the horse and scare it into getting more active. Sure you shouldn’t overdo it because you don’t want to put the kid in danger, but other then that you get for sure more visible results then by giving only advice…
And ask my how I know 
I forgot to add to my list the, It’s bad BUT, we are all human.
I especially don’t get this one. Being human with her huge cerebral cortex allowing her to know this is not okay makes it worse, not better.
I know you say you aren’t defending her, but you and people who do the ‘it’s bad BUT’ routine are absolutely trying to make it seem less bad, soften the impact, normalise it at least a bit.
It doesn’t matter if every single person here hit a horse the exact same way, repeatedly. It wouldn’t make what CDJ less bad, it would make us all equally bad.
This thread discusses Charlotte Dujardin as a public figure, role model, and Olympic athlete.
Her private life is private, should remain private, and this video excerpt happens to be about her teachings and training methods.
There is no doubt that many discussions must have gone into the release of it. It wasn’t done lightly (that’s human, too), but with teaching intention. Teachings and counter-teachings.
Honestly now I need to defend CD… I’m am not sure if she really knew that it was not ok…
I bet she grew up with seeing trainers doing it like this.
I also dont really believe the German trainer in the Parra video knew that it was not ok…
Both of them are really successful in their fields and I am sure both are nice and friendly people….
So they have always seen it and done it so why should it be wrong???
I believe these top horsepeople think a bit different then we do…. And we pamper them to think like they do because we admire them….
Sorry, it won’t work…I would have been fired long ago for telling the emperor he had no clothes.
Well, that’s far worse than I had hoped and about what I expected. At least it wasn’t worse than what I expected.
I’ve seen and been on the horse when a longe whip is used to help the rider get the horse more forward in canter. It’s not whack after whack after whack. It should be a random (to the horse) surprise single whack delivered in time with the rider asking for “go” NOT this random beating. 
The horse’s fear would be enough damage.
Now that the video is out, I’m just amazed at how everyone who thinks its absolutely indefensible for CHARLOTTE, but the rider who repeatedly steered her horse within range of the whip and her mother, who paid for it AND IS HEARD GIGGLING, are innocents.
I’m looking at an arena of THREE PEOPLE who failed this horse and the absolute refusal to hold the rider and owner accountable while one of them can be heard giggling is mind boggling to me.
Somehow it is absolutely indefensible for ONE of the people involved but it’s apparently defensible for, and people are ACTIVELY DEFENDING, the other two people in the ring.
But make no mistake: it took active participation from ALL THREE of those people for this to happen.
The fact that you folks only have pitchforks for one of them, and nothing but excuses and understanding for the other two, is mindboggling to me.
I’m so disgusted with these “top” riders right now. The only one I have faith in right now is Ingrid Klimke.
I could only watch part of the video. Absolutely indefensible. The moment where she takes both hands to swing the whip did me in. This is not training and is IMHO not the first time this has happened. If I was the rider, I would get off of the horse and hit CDJ with the whip.
No wonder people are terrified to send their horses away for training. I certainly am.
Almost certainly.
It will be interesting to see if he starts his own CYA campaign soon or whether he hopes to fly under the radar. I think it will be telling whether their business relationship is terminated or whether they carry on.
If this was a 16 year old I think we could say she hasn’t had enough life experience to know better. At some point though there has to be individual accountability.
I agree that most of us have very little idea of what is done/required to develop an international GP horse and that much of it would make a person cringe.
Unfortunately Charlotte may be the example to show what goes on behind closed doors but I don’t think that absolves her from her actions. She had all the power and resources to show how to train differently and she chose callous antiquated methods.
You really need to grow up and understand that people who are ignorant (I mean that in the dictionary sense of the word) cannot stand against something they do not know is wrong. It is impossible for someone who does not know better to magically know better because you want them to.
These people likely don’t know whether this is the only way to fix the giant animal’s “problem” or not, but they 've got a top international competitor, trainer, and coach demonstrating to them that this is how it’s done.
Get off your high horse. We can all see your knickers when you sit sideways in your fashionable mini skirt. It’s not a good look.
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