I have to say I agree with this assessment.
I think a truly terrified horse would have had the kid in the rafters.
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Wow, I didnāt see that at all. I thought he looked trapped and confused and scared - not sure what he was being asked to do, not being given any real feedback, just hit and chased.
I didnāt see him a lazy but as an absolute saint for not launching his rider and getting the feck out of there and away from CDJ.
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wait, what? The sponsor was/is Alicia Dickinson and she is the one who sought out the attorney and filed the complaint? The rider did not file the complaint? how do you know who is laughing in the video? are they laughing in a private conversation or to what is happening with the rider/horse?
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My three thoughts, after feeling very upset about this all day long
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The video is an effing disaster for CD. It was a topic on the UK national news this evening. She is that rare sportsperson who has broken out beyond their sport into general public awareness. No excuses: she had to remove herself from the team and accept the FEI investigation and any sanctions. I hope her mental health survives the battering.
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The timing of the actions of the whistleblower looks highly deliberate and very malicious. There is currently debate about when the video was made (4 years, 2.5 years ago?) but it certainly wasnāt just last month. If, as stated, the Whistleblower simply wants āto save dressageā then why wait until three days before the Olympic Opening Ceremony, when the horses are already in France? Taking out CD removes any chance of a TeamGB medal. Interesting: it is a Dutch lawyer who is acting on behalf of the whistleblower. If there was honest intent I feel the allegations could have been made a long time ago, particularly with the video evidence.
3.This incident is likely to be the end of equestrian sport in the Olympics. The IOC is looking to modernize the games and horses donāt fit anymore. The disaster of the abuse in Modern Pentathlon, the poor picture of horses being pushed to extremes in Tokyo in Eventing and Show Jumping - because of the āthree in a teamā rule, the huge cost and complexity of equestrian participation and a perception that equestrianism is just not sufficiently popular with international audiences. Horse abuse is the final straw.
38 Likes
Charlotte has short arms if I am not mistakenā¦some riders have to make adjustments by bringing the the hands up a bit higher to get the bend in elbow.
Carl made light of the short reins comment at a symposium a couple of years agoā¦saying it was obviously more than short reins that won medals.
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I keep coming back to the notion that Iām not sure the sport as it stands is salvageable. I think itās naive at best to assume that CDJ is an outlier in terms of internationally competitive GP riders resorting to āmethodsā like this. Maybe (certainly hopefully) not often, maybe only in moments of impatience, but maybe not. She did not learn this in a vacuum or come up with it on her own. And I would bet good money that if we had 24/7/365 video of Isabell, Jessica, Patrik, Hans Peter, Edward, et. al. we would see things comparably horrifying at least once. For many of them I suspect it would be a lot more than once.
I also agree that Iām not sure if the whip is actually making contact in all of the strikes, itās hard to tell. Of course itās better if sheās not actually making contact, but itās still bad.
The sport has evolved into something that rewards ridiculous movers and ignores obvious signs of tension. We are breeding animals that struggle to stay sound and the path to the international upper levels cranks them through a meat grinder of pressure, both mental and physical. A lot of them break, mentally or physically. To be internationally competitive itās not just good enough to have a stupid-good mover, thereās a constant push to make them move better, higher, bigger, flashier, etc. For too many folks, the ends justify the means.
I think this will probably kill equestrian sport in the Olympics and it saddens me. The entire thing saddens me greatly.
32 Likes
Ah, I remember seeing those kind of comments in SM posts, articles, etc. And when I had dinner with said 5* judge after a clinic and she made the same type of comment, I thought, āInteresting!ā That judge, BTW, had judged Charlotte several times at very big name competitions, and admired her for her riding talent.
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I am honestly concerned about this as well.
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What better time for maximum impact and exposure than immediately before the Olympics?
No, it doesnāt āsave dressageā immediately and certainly not in this Olympics. No, it doesnāt help the welfare of the horse in the video as years have now passed. But damn if it isnāt getting up front news coverage in multiple mainstream outlets and the public is outraged. Does anyone think that would really happen if it was released in 2022 when nothing big was happening when the public was concerned? It would have been a news story on COTH and H&H for a couple weeks, she would be sanctioned for a few months, and then life goes back to normal.
No larger and broader discussion about horse welfare and use in sport.
I get that the timing looks malicious, but if you think about it from a broader perspective, the timing is incredibly perfect for the big picture discussion and review of horse welfare in sport.
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The horse looks clearly stressed and frankly is the reason I think this is so egregious. If he was lazily cantering around, maybe he needed one or two sharp smacks, but certainly not this many. But heās going against the hand and kicks out a few times, so heās getting the āgo forwardā message loud and clear.
I also donāt think sheās popping the whip because thatās a different motion in the arm/wrist than swinging the whip at him repeatedly. I will say that the sound is much louder than I would expect from the end of a whip on a horseās hindquarters so maybe she is popping it? I hate to say it, but is there a possibility the sound of the whip has been artificially amplified? Iām just really surprised that the lash of a longe whip makes that loud of a sound (unless itās a heavier lash than Iām used to seeing?).
10 Likes
I have seen more than my share of terrified horses and I think if this guy was truly terrified he would have launched the kid and bolted. And someone would have been hurt - the rider, maybe even the horse and/or Charlotte.
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Same. Sheās losing a lot (sponsorships, support, etc). Sheās also going to get thoroughly and repeatedly roasted. Iām also not sure that itāll be over quick.
Now, it was her own actions that led to this consequence, but everything is just amplified these days with social media. F*cking up sucks. Nowadays, you can be destroyed from all directions, and things spread like wildfire.
While I donāt agree with what she did, I do actually hope that she can come out on the otherside with something left intact (in respect to her mental health).
Maybe Iām being too kind, I donāt know. It was a horrible thing to do.
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This! And also: if you have a horse that gets too excited about the treats, downgrade the treat quality. My mare kind of loses her head over cookies, but sheās just the right level of engagement when I give her alfalfa pellets as treats.
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This has been my thought, and a frequent topic of discussion at my barn, since this happened. I have a fairly strong feeling - not from personal experience, though I ride with a trainer who has trained many horses to successful (not international) GP careers - that it is not possible to get a horse to successful international dressage level without at least occasionally engaging in practices that non-horse people, and many amateur types, would find very troubling from an ethical or animal welfare perspective. To get these animals to be in front of the leg to the degree they are, to have the constant extreme sensitivity and immediate responsiveness to a mere whisper of a request to go so extremely forward in the manner thatās rewarded at the highest (and not even always highest) levels - I donāt think itās possible without at some point(s) fighting with the horse, and sometimes just hitting him til he goes. I donāt think most riders beat them bloody, but Iād be shocked if the type of thing CD is doing in the video wasnāt consistent with the norm at her level.
This makes me very uncomfortable and conflicted. Is this what our sport should be? What would dressage at the highest levels look like without these methods? And with social media etc, what will happen to the sport, because if you read the comment section of any of these articles you can see clearly that many laypeople see no reason for international dressage competition at all, much less eg in the Olympics.
Then again, horses have always paid a big price for their domestication, and public outrage is easy in the comment section or on forums but isnt equivalent to action. Horse racing continues with all the deaths and drugging despite public outcry, with offenders receiving nothing more than slaps on the wristā¦ As I understand, Helgstrand can ride for the Danish team again in 2025. I wonder if the consequences of this scandal will be any more substantial.
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Yes, that is something the 5* judge mentioned - that Charlotte brings her hands up a bit higher because of her shorter arms. I believe that Debbie McDonald rode much the same way on big olā Brentina.
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Exactly, I donāt use R+ methods on a clientās horse if a client doesnāt understand the methodology well or if they wonāt commit to using it. Thatās a recipe for a confused and frustrated horse and might cause more problems for the client, which is not what I want for them and not what they pay me to do.
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Thanks. I may not have been following SM for her too closely at that time.
1 Like
Several Thoughts hereā¦
- That horseās reactions: one of three things, either the horse is already SO desensitized to being beat that this is itās reaction to it now. Which is scaryā¦ Think about that. Orā¦ The horse is not actually getting contact with the whip and it is making sound, or hitting the kick boards. Or that kid has an absolute strangle hold on it. I am actually leaning to #1, becauseā¦ all the horses I know, if they had a whip swinging behind them like that would be OUT OF THEREā¦ If it had that much of a strangle hold on it, it would be standing upā¦
My first reaction to the video was: that horse is not reacting to this like a ānormal horseā
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I donāt think he looks all that stressed - annoyed, yes, and maybe a bit confused about why he is being asked to do what is apparently an effort for him. He isnāt sitting into the right hind and is avoiding bringing it under and through - whether because of a mechanical/pain issue (hocks or stifles?), or because it just isnāt his general MO. He also isnāt going forward into the bridle, maybe because the rider is grabbing onto his face too much, maybe because of tension about the situation. It could also be that he is stiff to the right and hollow to the left - either because that is his natural tendency or because the rider is also a bit crooked in that direction. It would be super interesting to see him going in the other direction and see if he also had the same issue of not wanting to come through on that inside hind.
But whatever the reason, CDJās actions are certainly way over the top. She SHOULD be ashamed, and I hope every single dressage trainer is now starting to think hard about their own training techniques.
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Interestingly, I am very long in the torso and for awhile rode with a coach who has essentially no torso. Itās freaky how her hips are basically at the bottom of her rib cage. So she would comment on the length of my reins and angle of my elbows until I finally said to her "you do understand that you are 4 inches shorter than me and wear breeches that are 3 inches longer than mine? " and we found a happy medium.
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