The publicity we don’t want 
https://x.com/nypostsports/status/1815836782967271522?s=46&t=qudc1pNuKDtAiFcdwWcHyw
Get it together, dressage people! You can disparage PETA all you want, but I am here to say that there are HORSE PEOPLE in the HORSE INDUSTRY who are very uncomfortable about what upper level dressage has become. It feels like circus tricks, with too much force, too may unhappy/stressed horses, and overdone aids. I have even had Saddlebred people tell me they don’t like to watch upper level dressage because of the horse discomfort. When the Saddlebred people think you are overbitted, over flexed, and creating artificial expectations and movements, you’re in trouble. If you can’t even think of an acceptable role model to hold out as demonstrating proper care and compassion for the horse (and we thought that was supposed to be Charlotte, because she at least turns her horses out, which gets held out as revolutionary), you don’t deserve to be in the Olympics, on a public stage, or soaking up accolades. Go pick a nicer goal for your horse.
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Lol. From the sport that brought you gingering, leg bungees, and tail sets.
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Right? Like if Joan Crawford thinks you are too hard on your kids…Sit up and take notice!
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this article says while galloping. How/why would you do that? That makes no sense at all.
I’m responding to a article posted up thread that I don’t think is related at all.
While I agree that it’s good PR, I think it’s only fair to also recognize that there’s probably no one who’s been involved with horses for many years who hasn’t had interactions that would elicit an honest response in this vein. She’s human, she says she screwed up, and she’s doing the right thing. At this point there’s nothing else an upstanding rep of the sport can do. She may not even have known the video existed.
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Uhoh, hearing it out loud instead of just reading it helped me find the one hole in the statement. The totally out of character bit. If there are more videos out there, that should definitely make them surface. Which - great if they do, another abuser stopped, but damn it, I was really hoping she was better than that.
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There are plenty out there who would not have got it as right as she/her team did. I mean, we see it all the time with drug infractions and recently with the human doping whereabouts thingy.
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The video is 4 years old. Submitted to FEI by a Dutch attorney on behalf of a Dutch rider.
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How do we know the rider was Dutch? Did I miss that somewhere?
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From one of the articles:
On Tuesday night a Dutch equine lawyer, Stephan Wensing, said he had made the complaint to the FEI on behalf of his client, who is the sponsor of a young rider, a 19-year-old girl, who had attended a lesson with Dujardin 2½ years ago. She had filmed the lesson when Dujardin struck the horse while doing a slow trot; a piaffe. Wensing said his client had previously been “warned” not to make a complaint because of Dujardin’s standing in the sport.
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Not sure which is correct but my guess is to engage the hind end more.
Where has the video been “hiding” for the last 4 years?
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the articles say 2.5 years old, not sure which is correct.
I do not understand why a 4 year old video is released before this Olympics when the last Olympics was 3 years ago.
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Yes, which says the lawyer is Dutch and says nothing about the nationality of the client or the young rider.
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From https://www.dehoefslag.nl/nieuws/dressuur/103417/olympische-spelen-charlotte-dujardin-trekt-zich-terug-na-ophe
This link was already posted.
There is a video in circulation from two years ago, which has not yet been released, but which shows horse suffering during a guest lesson. Stephan Wensing, lawyer, responds: “It was a sponsored guest lesson, of which my client was the sponsor and went to watch. A girl was given a lesson with her horse, in the presence of her mother. During the lesson, Charlotte hit the horse of the student many times in the gallop to lift its legs further. This while the horse was more than well-behaved.”
“My client already thought at the time that it was actually impossible, but Charlotte was an Olympic champion, so she would know how to do it. Charlotte also acted as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Later she realised that this was unacceptable. When more eliminations followed after similar videos with other riders, she decided to do something with it. It was only on Saturday that I got the green light to send it to the FEI. She didn’t dare to do that before, because there is an enormous culture of fear. She also has no interests in other riders or teams, but couldn’t bear Charlotte to win medals at the Games.”
Hope this clarifies the issue a bit.
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Presumably with the person who finally decided it was offensive enough to produce it anonymously.
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Thank you, young rider, for being brave.
It’s time to clean up horse sports.
The abuse should be career-ending.
The FEI does very little, so much for fines and suspensions. Throw them out.
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