I have a circus trainer in my own immediate family! We have hosted traveling circus trainers at our place when they are traveling, too. My point with the circus comment was “tricks” instead of classical training–and the rest of the post was directed at how the dressage people are developing those tricks. Does anyone on this board think that Glamourdale looks like a pleasant horse to hack across a field, or does it look more Big Lick novelty action to you? How many upper level dressage horses look happy, content, and relaxed in their work to you? If you had a foal you raised and cared for, would you want them sold into this lifestyle? Or would you cringe at the heavy handed, unyielding control?
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Why? It’s just a tactic. Trying to get ahead of it with faux tears. If she felt so bad she wouldn’t do it in the first place.
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You’ve never done anything in your life that you were sorry for?
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Another article says it’s a younger rider (sorry I can’t provide the article, I’ve read too many to remember which one) who was afraid to submit it earlier. 
Ok we havent even seen the video.
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Let us recall that Charlotte and Carl burst onto the international dressage scene with their kinder, gentler training methods and essentially embarassed everyone who was crANKY yanking around the warmups in rollkur. Not only did they embarass everyone, they broke world record after world record while doing it. None of the rollkur folks changed their ways until they repeatedly got their asses kicked and all of their records broken.
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Tapping a horse repeatedly on the legs sounds like completely standard piafe passage training to me. I mean, sure, maybe Charlotte lost her mind and started whaling on it abusively but I would need to see it to believe it.
2a. Whatever horse being tapped is probably booted up to the eyeballs with seventeen layers of eskadron wrapped covered in polo wrap with bubble wrap sauce.
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I am also going to guess that a significant part of the reason this could even be characterized as abuse is because Carl and Charlotte so thoroughly revolutionized international dressage training mehods for the better. They played a huge role in making it better for everyone. Seriously, have we seen anything like that Anky & Idool video in ages???
Now we dont have example after example of aggressive tension from every warmup arena to contend with so now introductory pipa work where possibly the horse temporarily overreacts can be ululated as abuse. -
This is one of the most closely watched training programs in the world. Has there ever been circulated an unflattering picture or video from their barn before? Nobody standing by a warmup arena or watching a clinic in ALL OF THIS TIME has ever come up with anything and now we are supposed to believe that a video we have not seen, which by all descriptors available at this time sounds like completely standard PiPa work, is shamefully abusive?
And this video is shamefully abusive but has not been released? Perhaps because when we see it we will see how ridiculous this all is?
And the country that reported it is the one that got knocked off its pedestal and isnt allowed to roll the horses up like curly Q’s anymore?
Folks, I’m prepared to eat my hat if this video shows them laying into a terrified and stressed out horse in an aggressive or unfair manner but they’re going to have to release that video before I spin myself into outrage.
But I swear to god if this video shows like 5 seconds of the horse misunderstanding or overreacting after which everything is copacetic again I am going to be back here crowing I told you all so.
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Self immolation is pretty much the only thing that the outrage machine will accept.
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as someone else suggested earlier, I wonder if she just fell on her sword to stop this hellishness. Look it has only been from this afternoon, and look at how many posts are going up about it. I understand a lot of people that are arrested for felonies will agree to a plea bargain. I didn’t realise untill recently how often the prosecution uses them, and that sometimes, people agree to not be bancrupted. That is slightly OT but I wonder if something like that has occurred. I am going with the ‘I will believe it when I see proof’ crowd.
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Usually if there will be help from the ground the request is made by the trainer that the horse appear bare legged behind. But even if not bare legged behind there are a myriad of uncovered parts of the hind end on which to touch (or whack if one is in the mindset to whack).
Do we all hope this is blown out of proportion? Yes. Can we assume that it is? No.
No country reported it. The lawyer is Dutch. That is all we know. We don’t know the nationality of the client nor of the rider yet.
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I have a hunch that the Dutch equine lawyer (who rides and is a judge) who brought the video to the FEI’s attention knows what he’s doing.
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Ugh. Courtesy of the Guardian. I don’t think even a harness driver could hit a horse hard that often. Taps maybe…
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Charlotte herself said she was “deeply ashamed” of what happened in the video. And yet you’re defending it with no idea about the content.
This is why people don’t come forward with allegations.
I have been an admirer of Charlotte’s riding for a long time and was heartbroken when I saw her post this morning, for the sport and for her own Olympics this year. But I strongly believe in withholding judgment until we actually have evidence. Idle speculation is not useful - though I understand it’s easy while we wait for more information.
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well, I am sure the IOC is looking for a way of getting rid of equestrians at the Olympics. I am convinced the want the eventers to go. It is expensive, takes a tremendous amount of land and volunteers. I had thought the Dressage and SJ might be saved, but the rollkur people have ruined the dressage, and now I am sure ome PETA types are prowling around SJ barns looking for trouble. It does look bad, but I want to see the evidence.
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We can absolutely withhold our pitch forks and maintain a high level of skepticism until we see this video. Not the other way around.
And by the way, can’t wait to hear all the excuses for the rider whose ASS WAS IN THE SADDLE while these allegedly abusive training methods were being employed.
Let’s hear all the reasons why they are capable of riding an international caliber horse but couldn’t possibly be expected to advocate for their horse and refuse to participate in something they thought was so abusive.
They were literally PARTICIPATING THEMSELVES.
I am sick and tired of all the riders and owners absolving themselves of any responsibility and blaming the trainer as if THEIR CHECKBOOKS aren’t paying for this WHILE THEIR ASSES ARE IN THE SADDLE.
You want to report a trainer for abuse you better ALSO be on video leaving the session immediately.
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More detail here – 23 whacks, evidently, in a video less than a minute long. Doesn’t sound much like a “reasonable” correction.
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Ugh is right.
I was among those thinking, ok, piaffe work going badly (or just looking bad).
Gotta say, using a long whip to get a horse to increase articulation in the canter is, well, a “novel” approach. 
I think Charlotte knows she is legit busted here.
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Wouldn’t be me 
Wasn’t making any assumptions to anything just pointing out she has admitted she behaved poorly and the video was legit.
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If the rider was young enough, not knowledgeable enough, starstruck, timid, worried about their career, I totally understand why they didn’t say anything sooner. Let’s not blame the rider just yet.
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I am not sure based on the Hoefslag (EDITED spelling error) article whether she was 19 at the time of the training session or now. Either way, you’re expecting a teenager to speak up to one of the top trainers in the world.
I’ve had some situations where I was skeptical of what was being asked of me and my horse. Sometimes I just needed to trust and see it through, sometimes I should have stood up for my horse and put a stop to it. I wouldn’t tolerate it now, but I have the benefit of hindsight and a lot more experience than a teenager who (if to get in front of Charlotte in the first place) probably has or had high aspirations for her riding career.
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23 hits in under a minute really makes me wonder if it was a drilled full minute of piaffe, which is absolutely excessive and unrealistic for a young rider and their horse. It’s something that I would expect Charlotte to recognize as not fair and would feel ashamed about. Unless she’s holding a bridle and beating a horse or sprinting after it with a lung whip it’s hard to imagine how you could make contact every 2-3 seconds if it isn’t for a controlled position of the horse from the rider like in a piaffe.
I don’t know her personally but I’ve sat through a lot of clinics of hers and it would genuinely shock me if it was something more than an over drilling.
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“Whipping a horse 24 times”
Is “whipping” any time a whip touches the horse? Or does it only mean when the whip is used forcefully to cause pain rather than a mildly annoying light flick or tap?
This headline was clearly meant to give the general public a very specific image. And maybe it’s the correct one … who is to say when the video can’t be viewed. But it certainly says “look everybody, the most celebrated dressage rider in the world abuses horses, so probably everyone else who rides does too.”
These days, it’s no longer just radical animal rights, PETA type wingnuts … the general public has become so citified and distant from livestock and farm life that many otherwise ordinary, reasonable people think that any use of animals beyond keeping dogs and cats as pets is unethical. And in the day of social media it’s much easier to be one accusing others of terrible things than it is to be the one defending against such attacks, regardless of whether or not they’re warranted.
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