The video of Sir Mark Todd whipping a horse resisting water has resurfaced.
TikTok apparently removed the entire video. A two year old video of abuse is still relevant if the abuser has not addressed the issue. How many other abuse situations were not caught on video?
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Hate to say it, but everyone is acting as if theyāve never seen a BNT/BNR abuse a horse. Not saying it excuses his behavior, but letās not pretend it doesnāt happen with US event riders. (And Iām not talking just about EDH.)
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Unfortunately true x1000.
I think eventing and the horse world has gotten a lot kinder and gentler over the past couple decades. Ubiquitous cameras probably helped facilitate that as much as anything.
But the video could have just as easily been of much of the āold guardā of US eventing, unfortunately. Thankfully most have changed their ways.
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I have the screen recording if this doesnāt work.
Whewā¦.Iām absolutely speechless. Firstly that people think this is normal or common, Iām glad it isnāt something I have seen often. I have seen similar once or twice but it was all the same trainer. 2 actually, one at a hunter show and one is an event trainer.
Anyways, Mark Todd has been my hero my entire life. Heās one of the nicest men I have ever met. I even named my horse Charisma as a teen. But that video is awful. A little piece of me has died inside tonight.
Anger and emotion like that have no place around horses. The man is a multiple Olpymic medal winner. Heās been knighted. He has fans around the world. Heās at a clinic fcs! I just canāt believe he would act in such a way.
He has sooooo many riders looking up to him. He was the face of Eventing.
The horse learns absolutely nothing but to fear and Iām sorry, Itās 2022. Abusing animals is no longer an acceptable training method.
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I agree with you! But I donāt think this was 2022, and things have changed exponentially in the last few years. Video is also quite out of context ā was horse just being recalcitrant all day? Was this the last element they were working on?
Even if I were up in the pantheon where Toddy sits ā I wouldnāt want to solve a ton of problems in a day. I donāt think we need to ācancelā him 
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Longer video below with lead up to the incident.
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Wowā¦he actually had the branch in his hand in the beginning as he walked up, stripping the leaves off as be walked forward. He must have assumed he would need it. Wonder if there had been earlier balks that he felt he would need the branch?
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Thanks for the longer video. There is more to it.
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@Jealoushe I feel the same way. While Iām hardened to the fact that even riders whose riding/training/horses I admire probably have a dark side, this wasnāt a trainer perhaps giving a horse a bit of a too-hard smack on the rump for encouragement. Itās just crazy and unhinged to go after an animal like that with a tree branch.
I agree, I have many questions. What led up to this in the lesson? What was the riderās reaction after it happened when the lesson was over? What is the history of the horse? Nothing would excuse it, but it seems not only nuts, but unwarranted by what looks like a typical ho-hum disobedience of a horse not wanting to go into the water. Neither the horse nor the rider seems particularly out-of-control or upset beforehand, either.
Iām not a great rider, but Iāve audited clinics with Joe Fargis and Lucinda Green, and there were certainly lazy and disobedient horses with under-confident riders in those clinics (much more so than in the posted video). Their advice was pretty typicalāriding the horse more forward, a tap of encouragement from the rider with a crop, some adjustment of position to drive the horse forward/keep a more consistent rhythm. Iām sure people on this MB have been in some. I donāt even understand from a self-interested perspective why someone with a great reputation would risk it all to do stuff like this.
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While I donāt think itās acceptable, I have certainly seen recognized event trainers use flexible tree branches for really sticky/unwilling horses into water. (Not really smacking however; rather to create noise/touch from behind. Not an actual whip to cause pain, nor a solid stick/āhardā branch either.)
That being said, I feel like at any horse show around the country, there are far worse things of a similar nature in the trailer parking lot than during a riding clinic.
Iām glad these sorts of incidences are being recorded anyways, particularly to discourage copycats and reduce abuse.
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What difference does 2 years make? There is literally no context that makes this OK. Sad you think so.
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Where are you seeing this in trailer parking? Are you reporting it to the show? I hope you are.
I canāt believe making excuses for this.
He flat out whipped the sh*t out of that horses legs. Same thing could have been accomplished with some wet shoes and a few treats.
Disappointed in the incident and those excusing it away.
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Seeing the longer video, Iām not overly bothered by this incident. I donāt see MT being emotional or over the top. I see him addressing a horse who has been taught that forward is optional (taught that by his rider). Clinicians are tasked with the near impossible: address issues in 3 days or less that have been months or more in the making.
The rider has learned they can insist on forward and the horse has met a Go Forward they couldnāt wiggle out of. Meh.
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Nope, Iām sorry, I canāt agree here. I donāt care who the BNT is, what accreditations they have, etc. If the problem canāt be appropriately addressed in the 3 days of the clinic, I sure would hope that the clinician would have the integrity to be honest and realistic about what can be done in the time they have and give the students the tools to keep working on it after the clinic. Rather than cause the horse to suffer at their hands so they can deliver a quick result for the client. Horses first, always.
Maybe Iām the odd man out here but I truly believe there is a better way to encourage a willing, confident XC partner than literally beating them with a stick when the going gets tough. Iām with you, @Jealoushe , shame on MT.
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In the longer clip, with sound:
watch the brown horse shying away when #marktodd launches his round of ten unwavering beatings. Horses are sympathetic to each other, get confused together, suffer together. How would this possibly be ok?
āHold him there!ā Mark calls to the rider, meaning, hold the horse in place so that there is only water in front and beatings behind him. The water is scary but less painful, so the horse goes in, and everyone cheerfully claps and applauds the Olympianās success with his āmethod.ā
Bah! Gross and medieval. As far away from horsemanship (also in the chuckling bystanders) as can be. The oldest method in the world is once again validated by getting quick āresults.ā = Brute force.
But it has to end. We have all seen enough already, thanks to whistleblowers, not to trust our champions, even: Hall-of-Fame jockey #garysteves laughingly discussing having used electric crops at a dinner party (on YouTube as āHorse Racing Exposed: Electro-shock Devicesā); #andykocher being caught using electric spurs in jumping competitionsā¦ #ludgerbeerbaum being filmed poling his horses and admitting to it. And āchampionā #ankyvangrunsven wrangling her horsesā rubber necks into sweaty pulp in the warmup ring, in public, before riding and winning in, what she calls, ācompetition frame.ā And #edwardgal and #patrickkittel and #andreashelgstrand, all those big shots at the top using rockbottom #rollkur #ldr cruelty for decades to get ahead with tense and high- high- high- stepping creatures that seem to dazzle but fail to genuinely shine.
And the āchampionā reining and western pleasure trainers that āhangā their young horses off the rafters for hours to teach them a lesson of submission, and use insane (!!) curb / spade / āsignalā bits to āsoftenā their rides. The saddlebred and TW Big Lick people who use chains and weighted shoes and chemicals and fake barbie tails on top of broken tails pulled up in bags day and night.
And horse racing: the master tricksters with the highest rewards if the tricks are cleverly concealed.
Endless streams of patient horses stuck inside the prestige- and $$making.
But, whistleblowers are everywhere now. The A B U S E H A S T O E N D.
#forthehorse 
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Thank goodness for video and whistleblowers!
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Maybe PETA is right, then. If thereās no middle, itās 100% a black and white issue.
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I hate the black+white approach catering to non-riders, non-breeders, non-professionals, but if WE donāt step up against abuse, PETA gets more traction with that approach. Abuse should be most harshly condemned, without delay, by those INSIDE the industry.
In all disciplines thatās incredibly tricky since everyone is connected and dependent on one another. Well, it need to be done. Andy Kocher got a 10-year ban. And yet, he is still selling all his fancy auction horses, and those are surely trained behind closed doors, btw.
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Honestly, to me the issue isnāt that he was driving the horse from behind with a stick but that he crossed the line and got way too forceful with it.
Itās a nice thought to say that all horse training should be done by coaxing the horse to do the right thing with a carrot and reassuring him, but in reality there are times when you need to apply a little pressure to get a response. When I watched the video and saw the first time he used the stick (when the horse goes down the beach into the water, not off the drop) it looked like he made some noise and stepped aggressively toward the horse but made little to no contact. Iād be very hesitant to call that abuse.
The second time (when the horse took the drop into the water) was where he crossed the line, hitting the horse forcefully. If heād stuck to making noise and maybe a few annoying-but-not-painful taps on the bum I wouldnāt have an issue with it.
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