Charlotte withdrawing from Olympics?

[Ponyplusaninch]

This was my first thought. Any general public member (outside of horse stuff) that reads that statement is going to balk and now wonder when they’ll see her do something shady. It would behoove her to get someone to help manage her statements.

Who knows, however. Maybe it’ll be a good thing she’s under scrutiny. The Helgstrand thing makes my skin crawl, and it’s gross to me that some folks are still happy to be connected and state as much. It’s like those who still proudly state their ties with George Morris in HJ land. Like it does not land the way in these times the way some people think it will land.

[Annie_Burton]

@DownYonder

There have been whisperings for years about her own training methods

So, it might be worth recalling (once again) that she openly co-authored Rollkur in the 1990s with Uwe Schulten-Baumer as her trainer (she trained daily with him on only his horses for 15 years until 2001), having zero qualms showing off their methods:

Bill Woods dressage video: Aachen 95 schooling - Isabel Part 1.mpg

With Uwe, and with his tools, she soared to the top of Dressage, and has stayed there ever since, without interruption. An amazing career for an athlete. So, WHY… WOULD… SHE… CHANGE… HER… RIDING… if it has led to her uncounted and unparalleled successes. She rides matter-of-factly and… heavy-handedly. She has kept winning, and continues to win.

Why would the Helgstrand training abuse affect her, concern her, or fluster her? Those are his problems. She studied law and surely understands all the nuances of abuse. She doesn’t need good PR, or even be liked by anyone, as her successes on the world stage speak for themselves.

[AwiUsdi]

CDJ made it to the NYT weekly news quiz. The good news is that the quiz links readers to the nicely written Becky Moody article

[Davignport]

I would LOVE to see videos come out of Werth and Kittel. They just don’t care how much unpleasantness they subject their horses to as long as they get that coveted first prize. Both of them make me sick to my stomach.

[DownYonder]

@be-here-now

In addition to those atrocious statements, has Werth ever had a day of PR training in her life?

My sense is that because she has been the Queen for so long, she is used to saying whatever she wants and doing whatever she wants without any kind of blowback. And because she is German, she says what she thinks. (And no, that isn’t a slam on German people - heck, I am descended from them!).

I also do not expect her to ever change - it is her innate nature to be forthright and direct - and again, her long reign as Queen has reinforced her sense of imperiousness.

[DownYonder]

@LadyB

What I’m reading is, the judges keep rewarding this behaviour.

Why aren’t we holding the judges accountable? Why are they not being discussed to the extreme of these riders?

The $64,000 question!

[HoolieB]

Like you, I doubt she’ll change. Without having to depend on sponsors, riders in training, owners, etc., the only pressure on her would come from her conscience. Even with the readily-available blue tongue images and past rollkur footage, any SM uproar has rolled off her without acknowledgement. As Werth has said, "Everything is said. And I got a fantastic mare, and a very great, beloved mare, and I got super other horses from Helgstrand Dressage, so there’s nothing more to discuss.”

[Manni01]

Not Uwe Schulten Baumer… that was his son. I.W. trained with Dr.Schulten Baumer, the father

[Annie_Burton]

Dr. Uwe Schulten-Baumer -
father + son had the same first name

[Manni01]

Ok you are right…

[Manni01]

Sadly agree

[chestnutmarebeware]

With my TBs, who in general have hated being micromanaged for dressage training and much preferred h/j work, it was actually “horse sprinting” the way we often did it!

[wanderlust]

@be-here-now

Wow. In addition to those atrocious statements, has Werth ever had a day of PR training in her life?

For the record, she has been this person as far back as I can remember, which would be all the back to the early 90’s. I’m going back 30+ years now, but I specifically recall her being a very poor sport when Nicole Uphoff beat her in the '92 Olympics. I’ve always had a really poor impression/opinion of her, and she’s done nothing over 30 years to change that.

Was really hoping to stop seeing her on the international stage at some point, but she’s only 55 so we have at least one more WEG/olympics cycle to go.

[Old_Mac_Donald]

The instructor screaming at this horse and rider is the owner of the horse in the video of CDJ (Dynamic Hit). She is Alicia Dickinson’s “business partner”.

Natasha Althoff

[Kyrabee]

I have a half Andalusian mare and in her early days, she was pretty tense (I did eventually find a physical cause for most of the tension). My instructor said we were doing Flamenco dressage .

[Mersidoats]

I watched her ride at the last World Cup. The wheels absolutely came off and Quantaz basically told her to pound sand. The look on her face was murderous and the ride was…ugly. She is extremely competitive and has a win at all costs mentality, it appears.

[FitzE]

What a disgusting position to take: I got good horses (meaning horses that will do certain stuff) from him and won with them so who gives a how they were produced? Not me!

She doesn’t just sound blunt/direct, she sounds entitled and rude and utterly, utterly self-involved to a level at which no other person or animal exists that she’d give a first thought let alone a second thought to.

What a truly repugnant way to go through life.

[cardinale]

@Mersidoats

I watched her ride at the last World Cup. The wheels absolutely came off and Quantaz basically told her to pound sand. The look on her face was murderous and the ride was…ugly.

Well, Satchmo “told” on her in the 2008 Olympics with major disobedience during the ride for the individual medals, costing her gold, so there’s been some equine karma.

[Laurierace]

I was at the Isabel Werth demo at Helgstrand this winter. It was very surreal. They were walking a tightrope for sure but she made some comments that definitely made you think she thought it was all BS

[Knights_Mom]

I say let Isabel Werth keep talking.

Just so no one misses exactly how much she respects the horses who work their asses off for her, under her rule. Under her oppression.

I say let Janet Foy keep on talking.

She’ll do a much better job at ending Olympic top sport than any of us could ever do.

🫡