What event was the photographer excluded? And are you talking about whip use in racing?
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Johannessen had hoped to be in London before Christmas for the London International Horse Show. When he applied for accreditation for the event, he was rejected on the grounds that the event had ālimited capacityā even though other journalists were still being waved in.
Itās all from the Times piece @SillyHorse linked. Yes, some of the discussion is the manic arbitrariness of whip rules in racing. If we cannot get it right there, what chance do horses have in the future?
UK racing: the whip may be used a maximum of six times in a flat race, seven in a jump race. Any more will prompt a review by the Stewards.
The Whip Review Committee will consider the force used, whether used from above jockey shoulder height, if the horse was given time to respond, the purpose for the use of the whip, whether the horse was in contention or clearly winning at the time and whether the whip had been used in the correct place i.e. hindquarters. Contravention of these rules will result in a period of suspension. Three suspensions in a six month period will be referred to the Judicial Panel for penalty.
Should the whip be used four or more times above the permitted level, the horse and rider will be disqualified from the race.
Curiously enough, after a period of bedding in, whip abuse has become unusual.
So it can be done.
ETA The whip is a unique, heavily padded design and it is examined by Weighing Room Stewards before racing to check itās in good condition.
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The U.S. has a similar rule under HISA;
āHISAās federal regulations now follow the state regulations that came before: a six-strike limit on the horseās hindquarters with no more than two in a row without giving the horse a chance to respond for at least two strides. Jockeys are allowed to tap the horse on the shoulder if they are holding the reins in both hands as well. HISA also has regulations about the size and material that can be used for a riding crop. It cannot leave marks on or injure the horse.ā
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Why are we comparing apples and oranges? Dressage whips, lunge whips, racing bats, jumping bats, barrel crops, etc. all have different design and effects. Letās stick to dressage, please.
(I hate when horses are beat for being a bit tired and giving their all, so I agree with Norway on racehorsesā¦)
Charlotte used a lunge whip inappropriately. I donāt think there is any evidence regarding whether she left welts or not, but certainly she did some mental damage to both the horse and rider.
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Because the conversation evolved, as discussions sometimes do. Deciding when a thread wanders too far from the subject is the job of the moderator.
Itās nice to be able to express an opinion on the subject isnāt it?
Times are changing. In the past Charlotte would not have been suspended by either the FEI or BE.
The advent of new whip rules in racing is another reflection of changing views by organizations, horse owners and the public, regarding what is, and what is not, appropriate use of the whip.
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One thing this article DOESNāT mention (and may be why only 1 year of suspension) is that NO other examples of abuse by Dujardin have surfaced. It appears whipping nor any other forms of abuse (at least in public) is not a routine occurrence. And if it was happening behind closed doors on a regular basis, SOMEONE somewhere would have reported it.
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I feel like too much emphasis is being placed on the timing of her pregnancy. Is the author trying to imply that if she hadnāt been pregnant, she would have disputed the claim and be suspended for longer? Or that she timed the pregnancy knowing something that the public did not?
Iām not sure what else she was supposed to do given the situation (obviously she should have never touched the horse with the whip, but she did). Was she not supposed to admit fault and apologize?
Otherwise the article does make some good points, but Iām not sure all of them are relevant to the decision by the FEI.
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That may change.
Would they? Is there a set time humans take to report abuses? Is there a set time for humans to realize behaviours that they have been assured are normal are in fact abusive?
Me too. She may not be the sharpest knife, but Iām pretty sure she has decent PR people behind her who were smart enough to say, āThis is how you limit the time you have to take off. And hey, lucky you, youāre pregnant anyway. We can probably use that to gain some empathy from some of your followers. Everyone loves a sports star who takes time off for a baby and then bounces back to the top again.ā
In terms of admitting fault and apologizing - that was absolutely the BEST decision anyone in that position could have made.
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This, exactly. You know, when someone does the right thing, and admits fault, it helps to be gracious about it. The proper response from everyone else is to accept the penance, at least until such time that a repeat offense has happens.
It really doesnāt do anyone any good to keep on about all the ways it āisnāt sincereā, or enough, or whatever.
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re: pregnancy
As I understand it the new addition to the family was planned ahead of time, for after the Olympics where she was slated to compete.
It seems fair to assume that any misgivings would have come out by now, as people like nothing better than to kick a person when they are down and to heap on the pile!
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I donāt know if I would classify it exactly that way. I think sometimes people are afraid to come forward for whatever reason, but after the first person does it, the others feel less restricted about sharing their own experiences.
Obviously itās an entirely different subject, but after the first person came forward to report an assault by Sean Combs, it didnāt take long for others to do the same thing.
And now the reports are up to something like 140 people? Or 150 people? With new ones still coming forward all the time. I think there were three or four men just within the last couple of days.
But to your point, I think if there had been other people with similar stories about CDJ, they would have come forward by now.
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Except thatās not the way it works all of the time. Although Iām absolutely no fan of āthe outerā of CDJ, look at how social media and bulletin boards like this one treated her before anything was even known about her. She was pretty much villified for sitting on that video. Imagine being a more upstanding character who had sat on a similar video. Would you want to risk that same treatment? Not everyone is going to jump on the bandwagon just because itās been done once. People may take years to decide they can handle all the nonsense that goes along with it, or may decide to never reveal what they know.
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No I donāt think soā¦ nobody will come out with any story unless he is forced to do soā¦
so far every story which came out was treated by everybody else as if this was simply an unfortunate incident and very very uncommon.
I wonder how many more incidents have to happen until this way of arguing will be given up.
Most of the riders in these circle will never blame anybody else and keep their mouth shut if they are caughtā¦
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Manni and sascha, with all due respect, you two (as are we all) are viewing this through your personal lens. In these types of situations, 99 times out of 100, if there are other āvictimsā (for lack of a better word) out there, you can bet theyāll start coming out of the woodwork. In many instances, people make stuff up just to be part of the victim crowd. Iām a little surprised that hasnāt happened in this instance. As for āvilifyingā the reporting person, thatās also often what happens when a public figure is outed for bad behavior - the whistleblower is the one who suffers most. And, whether we like it or not, the timing was extremely suspect. If it were me, and my goal was to damage her reputation (because really what was the goal beyond that?), Iād have sat on it until AFTER the Olympics. Then any medals she earned and those of her teamās would have been stripped from them, causing substantially greater damage. So, if this personās goal was simply to report abuse they could have come forward at any time. And, since they had the luxury of that time, why not wait just a few weeks longer to really make an impact?
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Mondo, with all due respect, sometimes our āpersonal lensā can be valuable if not swept under the rug. Years of observation, years of personally not reporting things I knew would only label me as an aggressor, many experiences with reporting things (not in the horse world) and not getting believed and worse - donāt throw these experiences away as solitary and belonging to a couple of outliers. Iām not special. I canāt speak for Manni 
I mean, Iām not special in the sense of having lived totally different experiences to everyone else.
Another thing that bears thinking about is how the BNT dressage community rallied around CDJ. That can be daunting to someone thinking of coming forward.
I am not saying there are a bunch of people in the woodwork - I donāt know. And neither do you know the opposite.
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I had not thought of that angle.
It might make me wonder if there was somebody a little lower down the Olympic list that the whistleblower really wanted to see on the team, since the withdrawal of CDJ opened up another Olympic spot.
I donāt know enough about the assorted players to know if that might have actually been the case.
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We donāt know. So we all can choose to believe the best or the worst of the situation, depending on our inclination.
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I donāt think that hitting a horse that is not in any way in the Olympics, would cause a team to forfeit their medals.
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