Heath Ryan, 2008 Australian Olympian, suspended

[HoolieB]

Heath Ryan suspended for whipping a horse

Australian Olympian Heath Ryan has been suspended by Equestrian Australia after a video emerged that appeared to show him repeatedly whipping a horse.

Ryan, 66, represented Australia in dressage at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

The video - said by Ryan to be about two years old - shows a man striking a horse around 40 times. Ryan issued a statement to say he was acting in “the horse’s best interest”.

Ryan said the horse, named Nico, came to him after an accident which resulted in a female rider needing hospital treatment.

The Australian said that Nico “had always been a problem child and would just not stop” and after the video he was able to rehome the horse.

Ryan said: "I am so sad this was caught on video. If I had been thinking of myself I would have immediately just gotten off and sent Nico to the knackery.

"That video was a life or death moment for Nico and I genuinely had to try my very hardest to see if Nico would consider other options.

“All of this transpired sincerely with the horse’s best interests the sole consideration. Unbelievably it was so successful for everyone except me with the release of this video.”

Britain’s three-time Olympic champion Charlotte Dujardin missed the Paris Games last year after a video emerged of her repeatedly striking a horse around its legs with a long whip. She was subsequently banned for a year by the FEI, equestrian sport’s world governing body.

After the Ryan video drew attention, Equestrian Australia said it had received a formal complaint about one of its members and had imposed a provisional suspension from all competitions and events.

The national body said: "Equestrian Australia is extremely alarmed and concerned by the treatment of the horse shown in this footage.

“Our policies include high standards to protect all participants and their horses against any adverse physical, social, and emotional conditions.”

[steelerino]

That’s an angle no one has used yet, beating him saved him from the slaughterhouse.

[HoolieB]

There is much of what he said that makes me feel sick.

[Quincy]

And of course blaming it on a pesky unhappy former employee for the video…what a pos.

“Was it worth it?? Well, not for me, however, I am very happy for Nico. I need to add that this happened about two years ago and the video has been posted by an unhappy ex-employee. All I can say is that this awful video was collateral damage of me from the bottom of my heart launching a rescue mission.”

[HoolieB]

Link to video in this article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/bb33c1e7092cf9ab

There’s a mention of that Dressage Axis* website in this article.

*An attempt on my part to not name she who lives for clicks.

[OverandOnward]

Old school as a professional trainer, it would seem.

From his statement, he sees it as a last resort to turning the horse into a useful citizen with a good future and a good owner.

Not for what it is – pointless abuse of an animal that is merely reacting to something. That doesn’t have the mental capacity to grasp “consider other options”.

It’s horrifying to remember that, once upon a time, resorting to such tactics was not uncommon, by professionals and amateurs who could ride out the consequences. Before we understood more about physical problems and behavior issues generally.

It would be carried out “behind the barn,” out of sight of owners, clients, and students.

Even today, obviously, by no means are all people who ride horses understanding of better ways to get better results.

[Texarkana]

I guess I’m going to be the old crone here and say I was expecting to see something much worse.

It looks like he is trying to get the horse to go forward. The horse is saying no, so he’s not letting up.

Can we do better? Absolutely. And I’m glad he didn’t get a pass when others have also been sanctioned.

But are my panties in a wad over this? No.

[AMWookey]

Seriously? I was expecting something more like Charlotte’s, this makes Charlotte’s look like a walk in the park.

There is a million other options then 42 smacks here. Like, after the first 2, use your brain it’s not going to work. I also don’t see any sign of “violent and unsafe” horse here like he claims. A violent and unsafe horse would have gone over or exploded.

[Texarkana]

@AMWookey

Seriously? I was expecting something more like Charlotte’s, this makes Charlotte’s look like a walk in the park.

There is a million other options then 42 smacks here. Like, after the first 2, use your brain it’s not going to work. I also don’t see any sign of “violent and unsafe” horse here like he claims. A violent and unsafe horse would have gone over or exploded.

I agree the horse doesn’t appear to be violent or unsafe.

But this is mostly an emotionless “thwack thwack thwack” on the hind end. A few times Heath seems to get a little irritated and put more “umph” into it.

A repeated “tap tap tap tap” on the hind end until the horse responds is pretty standard when dealing with a horse that refuses to go forward (which often escalates in going up into a rear). If I was a betting person, I’d bet Heath started with that, but the horse, who seems to be shut down, refused. So Heath increased the pressure. But the shut down horse still said no, and started kicking at the whip.

Ideally, Heath probably should have said “this isn’t working” and reevaluated. But having been in similar situations myself, sometimes we mess up. We think we are doing the right thing by “not letting the horse win,” but the problem is we the human isn’t fully perceiving the whole situation for whatever reason. Maybe our ego is in the way, maybe we can’t appreciate how confused the horse is, etc. Is it ok? No. But it’s a mistake.

I’m not saying I condone this. I’m not saying I disagree with the suspension.

All I’m saying is that I was expecting to see something much worse, because to me, this looks like a moment in training that went downhill with Heath making misjudgments and going overboard with force. This is not someone emotionally beating a horse or whipping them for no reason.

[Quincy]

@Texarkana

A repeated “tap tap tap tap” until the horse responds is pretty standard when dealing with a horse that refuses to go forward

I wouldn’t describe those actions as a “tap.” And emotionless or not, an adult man can cause a lot of pain with a whip.

[Texarkana]

@Quincy

@Texarkana

A repeated “tap tap tap tap” until the horse responds is pretty standard when dealing with a horse that refuses to go forward

I wouldn’t describe those actions as a “tap.” And emotionless or not, an adult man can cause a lot of pain with a whip.

I didn’t describe them as a “tap.” Read the rest of the paragraph.

I agree an adult man can cause a lot of pain. So can an adult woman or a child.

[Quincy]

@Texarkana

I didn’t describe them as a “tap.” Read the rest of the paragraph.

My bad, you’re right. I read the post quickly then get distracted by my dogs and posted afterwards.

[Quincy]

From his facebook page:

“ The owner of Nico and my friend is a diminutive lady and 100% not capable of being physically aggressive in any way. Nico before he came to me always had the best of best homes. He wanted for nothing. He was in wonderful condition, he was always rugged, he had his own paddock, he was regularly ridden and he was loved.”

He makes a point that the horse had a wonderful home, yet doesn’t mention if the horse was thoroughly checked for physical pain. I wonder if all possibilities to see if there was physical pain were exhausted, or if Ryan just thought the horse was problematic that needed an attitude adjustment through physical force.

[Texarkana]

@Quincy

From his facebook page:

“ The owner of Nico and my friend is a diminutive lady and 100% not capable of being physically aggressive in any way. Nico before he came to me always had the best of best homes. He wanted for nothing. He was in wonderful condition, he was always rugged, he had his own paddock, he was regularly ridden and he was loved.”

He makes a point that the horse had a wonderful home, yet doesn’t mention if the horse was thoroughly checked for physical pain. I wonder if all possibilities to see if there was physical pain were exhausted, or if Ryan just thought the horse was problematic that needed an attitude adjustment through physical force.

There are people who still believe in “attitude adjustments,” unfortunately.

And in Heath’s era, those people outnumbered people willing to consider the horse’s POV.

Now we know better. So we try to do better.

It’s a good thing that these outdated practices are being called out and action is taken. But, maintaining my stance, I still see a moment of training gone wrong and not the horror I was expecting to see when I initially read he struck a horse 40+ times.

[Texarkana]

I have to say two more thoughts:

1. I’m “only” in my 40s. Yet I’ve seen trainers beat horses upside the head with a 2x4 in the stall for doing things like misbehaving during a ride earlier… and I’ve seen people, even on COTH, vocally support and praise those trainers for having great horsemanship because they conduct themselves better in public and fool the masses. Top competition brings out the absolute worst in people, so I’m never particularly surprised by much anymore.

2. I’m not even a fan of Heath Ryan. He comes from an era of “git ‘er done” eventing that I do not care for. I clicked on this thread fully prepared to reinforce my already negative view of him. Instead, I saw a moment where a human made a mistake when trying to fix something. To me, as someone who has seen a lot of , this doesn’t seem like a behind closed doors moment of abuse. It seems like someone wrongly thinking increasing pressure would get the desired results when he needed to change tactics.

[Incantation]

@Texarkana

I saw a moment where a human made a mistake when trying to fix something.

Except he does not see this as a mistake. He does not think he did anything wrong except get it caught on video.

[Texarkana]

@Incantation

@Texarkana

I saw a moment where a human made a mistake when trying to fix something.

Except he does not see this as a mistake. He does not think he did anything wrong except get it caught on video.

Which is the reason we hand down suspensions for these things now.

We have to change mindsets and practices somehow.

We have hundreds, if not thousands of years of training horses with excessive pressure to overcome.

[cayuse]

What he says sounds like a version of “this is for your own good” and “you asked for it” lines that abusers use.

[SusanO]

The crazy thing is that the horse does not seem to be that upset. I suppose that a lot of that is being shut down and probably because this balky behavior is deeply ingrained. BUT - this approach is not working. No reason to keep whipping the horse and thinking that the horse will somehow understand what he wants it to do. Talking to it rationalizing that the horse will understand what he is saying is not going to enlarge the horse’s cerebral cortex. Better to take another approach - maybe breaking down the behavior into smaller pieces and trying for smaller goals. It’s like trying to beat a horse into a trailer - sure you might get it in once but there are smaller questions that need to be solved. No I am not a great horse trainer but I have been around good trainers that know when to stop and take another approach.

I am ASSuming the owner has enabled this behavior from what he has posted. You are not going to fix that in one session. As they say “No point beating a dead horse”. Or a shut down one either.

[beowulf]

A six year old with zero respect for leg and kicking out at pressure is a dangerous horse. There are many layers to what makes a horse dangerous; bolting, rearing, or misbehaving aren’t the only ones. Horses that show the behavior in the video do end up in bad situations. Some well meaning/intentioned person thinks they can get a nice project for cheap, realize they are way overhorsed and dump it – or worse, they get hurt and get other people hurt in the process. Eventually that horse ends up in a bad situation and or on dinner plate. I actually don’t disagree with Ryan there. This is exactly how I’ve ended up with several nice but dangerous horses.

I was actually typing out a response similar to Texarkana’s but I liked hers better than what I wrote.

Would I have taken this approach? No. I’d involve a veterinarian and give the horse the benefit of the doubt that there is something physical going on, breaking it down into small asks that don’t result in a shutdown horse like that video demonstrates. But like dogs, there are thousands of horses out there that don’t maul or kick their owners. And like with clinicians, trainers are under enormous pressure to fix problems in one session, with very little medicinal or therapeutic support in terms of investigating physical issues or causes. Sometimes, owners don’t or won’t pony up the $$ for diagnostics, and want a Git-R-Done Now approach.

I’m glad Nico’s days like this are behind him, and I’m glad that Ryan is handed a suspension. This is exactly what they are there for. But… I also worry about how social media will influence training in the future. I do not ever condone beating a horse. However, there are (Non-horse) people out there who would call it abusive for popping a horse in the face for biting you, or popping a horse on the shoulder for drifting right before a fence. As with everything, I believe the answer is somewhere in the middle.