It was at the familiarisation.
Ironic… the guy looking away whilst stuff occurs in plain sight.
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Anyone read this and feel that Charlotte has become the fallguy for dressage whilst the icons hide on pedestals of clay?
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So… if she would have given that lesson in a different style, she would not be the fall guy….
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So, if someone posted a video of Kottas whacking a horse with a whip, would he be front page of every newspaper?
I don’t see Kottas stepping forward and saying, “what Charlotte did was unacceptable. I have done it before, and it was unacceptable then and unacceptable now. We all need to step up to take responsibility for what we did in the past”
But nope. Everyone is silent. “Ooh you bad girl, ban her! Glad it was you and not me!”
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Sure does. Sending something that might actually reach the intended person does make more sense than sending something that is probably going to end up in a black hole.
Wow, what a bad look for the Brazilians, to try to get away with that on site at the Olympics. Was that his coach standing there?
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Sadly, I’ve seen a lot of neglect and abuse at that level too.
I think competition encourages abuse among the knowledgeable and lack of knowledge encourages abuse and neglect among the casual.
I do follow a lot of trainers who are more focused on biomechanics and sound horses. I see a movement of understanding and education there and I am grateful for it. It’s coming with some pseudoscience and sometimes you have to wade through some BS, but it is happening.
There are some things that I am extremely on the fence about with regard to “proper” equine training and exercise. For instance, you can dominate a horse at liberty the same way that you can strap them down with tools. It’s just that it appears kinder to the uninformed.
Or you can seek to help the horse understand slowly and kindly and with as much gentleness as possible, straddling the line between confining them and helping them use their bodies well. That’s the route I’ve taken but it has taken considerable studies to get to this point. Very few people start here, and I know I continue to make mistakes on this journey (and will continue to do so).
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Well you only think about Charlotte who you obviously cherish…
Maybe think about the horses… do you know that the average sports horse only makes it to 8 years ? How many of these young horse stars make it to an older age?
Because CD is an Olympian she has a responsibility to show other people how it’s done correctly….
And yes I did have a couple of incidents in my youth I am not proud about…. but… I tried to learn from it and nowadays I solve most of my issues I have with my horses with carrots 
and patience….Works better then you would expect…
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What do you mean by this - That they only have a 8 years of a career, that they only live to be 8 yrs old, that the break down at 8? Please, more specific and what is the source of this.
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8 years of overall age… In Germany they have statistics about it… I can look it up…
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I’ve seen Kottas get pretty aggressive with a whip on multiple occasions, esp. when trying to teach half-steps/piaffe. In one instance, the poor mare just shut down and endured repeated hard slashes on her hind legs because she couldn’t grasp the concept of putting a hind leg up underneath herself instead of behind her. In another instance, he laid into a friend’s horse when it wasn’t picking up its legs fast enough - horse reared in response and went up so high we were all afraid for an instant that it was going to go over (and my friend was on its back!). In another episode, he went after my horse and learned very quickly you don’t do that to my horse without seriously endangering your own life (my horse was big and powerful and he did not tolerate unfair or rough handling - his explosions could register on the Richter scale). That was the last clinic my horse did with him - it wasn’t worth the risk to either horse, rider, or clinician.
Bear in mind that Kottas removes boots/bandages from hind legs when teaching a horse piaffe, so the whip lands on bare skin.
Also, he got pretty adamant that people were not allowed to video the clinic or take pictures, even of their own horse. We thought at the time it was because he was trying to market his own line of videos but now understand that it was because he didn’t want evidence of his “strong” use of the whip to be caught on film.
I will also add that he starts out very gently and methodically, with light touches/taps to teach the concept, but will and does escalate to harder taps, raps, even slashes if the horse doesn’t respond in the way he wants it to.
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Oof.
I think about blue saddles a bit…
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Why doesn’t this suprise me?…. Obviously you do not have the welfare of horses as a priority but more the welfare of celebrities 
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Oh dear, I forgot you are always right. Obviously.
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Link to the post you are referencing is pasted below.
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It’s good that effort is finally being made to enforce the rules and prevent inhumane riding in the warmup, but it’s a shame that it didn’t get actually cleaned up prior to being in the public spectacle of the Olympics. Dressage has shot itself in the foot by waiting til the biggest, most public stage to crank up its concern for horse welfare.
That said, I hope there was more evidence than a single grainy video still from an animal rights group used as proof of abusive riding.
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Same could be said for this whistleblower waiting til before the Olympics to share this vid.
Dressage, Equestrian sports have had a heads up that things need to be better for a while. But what’s actually been done?
Maybe that’s the “nefarious” reason to release this video before these Olympics?
Because the sports have had warnings, people have expressed concerns, and what has been done about it?
.
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2 wrongs don’t make a right! And I hate the commentators saying ‘we’ve all done things we regret’ actually no, I’ve never in 45 years taken a whip to a horse in any situation, stop trying to make yourselves feel better!
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??
Then why were so many show jumpers considered to be “young” at 8 - and were jumping well at the top levels in their teens? Also Grand Prix dressage horses showing at that level in their teens?
The farm I work/live on borders a huge watershed with equestrian trails that are well used - and one major trail runs along two of our fencelines.
It saddens me to see extremely thin horses silently packing their chatty happy riders along - one with a major sore/rub from his ill-fitting breast collar. This horse lives just down the road by the mailboxes and I always see him standing in the same corner of his paddock, head down, depressed. Without his saddle on, the marks from poor tack fit are obvious. His feet are terrible. I see extremely overweight horses struggling in the heat heading into the trails, knowing there are some hills and switchbacks ahead of them. Or horses dealing with hard hands and harsh bits - with tie-downs on so tight that if they snapped, the horse would flip over backwards. Some riders may be having fun - but their horses certainly aren’t.
The extremes exist in all facets of the horse world.
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