Charlotte withdrawing from Olympics?

Good for her and Dean. I wish her a safe pregnancy and look forwards to Charlotte 2.0 returning to the stage in the future.

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I’ve seen similar statements made when men were welcoming a baby in the family, though to be fair it’s the woman who can’t see her feet or sleep on her stomach near the end so she’s slightly more impacted on the daily and thus reminded of what’s cooking :wink:

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I applaud her for owning the whole thing, accepting the suspension and moving on.

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https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/charlotte-dujardin-suspended-for-one-year-by-fei/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1dmpTcpMv8OyC9IBa-k0892Js-WfX-Pcw40FY2mV4NI8g-yHQRu-Miifk_aem_4sL8T4_gliC4WlZp1cQfsQ

Yes, she can ride and train at home, she just can’t participate in anything the FEI or British Equestrian is involved with.

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Interesting take on the situation in horsemagazine:

https://www.horsemagazine.com/thm/2024/12/crime-and-punishment-the-fei-gets-it-wrong-again/

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I’m confused by this author.

Back in 2016 I had the privilege of watching Charlotte Dujardin train two horses – Valegro and Barolo – for about two hours a day for five days in a row, at the Sunshine Tour show in Jerez. The training was exemplary, tactful, logical, wonderful to watch.

But in 2018, she should have been punished by ā€œriding Freestyle aggressivelyā€? Does the author like Charlotte’s riding or not?

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I take it as he had enjoyed her work in the past, so watching her and Freestyle at WEG was a disappointment.

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I took it to mean that her riding/training style has changed over the years. The implication being that she has gotten more greedy and less focused on horse welfare.

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I took it to mean that he recognizes that she’s riding for the judges - who turn a blind eye to bad riding and tense horses in favor of fancy gaits.

I also agree 100% with this statement:
ā€œBack in the days when the FEI was run by horse people, not by bureaucrats who see their role as pandering to animal liberationists who really believe that the horse should never be asked to do anything it doesn’t want to do, Ms. Dujardin might have been given a quiet talking to, and be advised to pick the people she associates with more carefully.
The real problem is that we lack judges who can recognize negative tension or if they can, have the guts to punish it. It was great to see the Germans fast track half a dozen real Grand Prix dressage riders into their judging program, if something is not done soon, then the liberationists will have their way and equestrian sport, and with it horses, will disappearā€¦ā€

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Meh.

Does this mean that you don’t think the problem is the judging?

For sure the judging is part of it.

I also believe CDJs statement to be insincere. I just don’t believe it. I’m sure she regrets getting caught. I’m sure she will ban cameras/phones from lessons. But to my mind, if horse beating isn’t in your heart, you don’t do it.

Sure we all can succumb to a jerk on the reins MAYBE but prolonged whipping? I’m hoping as you folks consider your own actions, you come to the conclusion that you, yourself, couldn’t do what she did.

I hope.

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I, personally, would not have been videoed in this situation because it wouldn’t occur in the first place. I’ve put horses in unfair situations before because I didn’t know better or I didn’t have the tools to deal with the problem the way I would today, but nothing ever as bad as this.

AND if I were her, I’d be her.

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You have a good point, KM. But I don’t think she’s insincere. Nothing else has surfaced about her: no more videos, photos, disgruntled (former) clients, nothing. I think she’s not that person and that she truly regrets her actions. And I will be brutally honest when I say that while I think her treatment of the horse in that video was awful and unprofessional, I also don’t think it should be the end of her career. A 1 year suspension is appropriate punishment, IMO.

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An interesting, and somewhat disturbing article about CD, horse welfare, and the spinelessness of the FEI.

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Big (huge) differences between the situations, but interesting comparison to Dujardin by the author here:

For those who have not seen the incident, he struck the colt in the neck at the walk, after the race was over and the colt had won, despite lugging out.

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I’m sure that colt thought, ā€œWell, I’ve certainly learned my lesson!ā€ /s

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2 Y/O colt for god’s sake. Lopez knows better. He needs anger management classes, and not just in regard to horses.

Nice that a prominent racehorse owner who had Lopez scheduled to ride one of his horses that day demanded that he be allowed to take Lopez off his horse or he would scratch his horse from the race. Stewards said OK. Sometimes big shots use their position for good.:+1:

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Meanwhile, in Norway, it is zero. No whip use at all.

Johannessen, a British-Norwegian equine photographer [whose high speed photo technique exposed blue tongue as too common in dressage]…was rejected on the grounds that the event had ā€œlimited capacityā€ even though other journalists were still being waved in.

I’m with Norway and, until the Norwegians are proved wrong, anyone doing actual evidence-based research on this topic.
[Narrator: that would be no one because there’s no money in that kind of research.]

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