We are wondering how you got from there to here? I have not seen anything that indicates she was laughing, nor anything that indicates there were only three people present, he trainer, the rider, and the person recording.
So we’re kind of assuming a lot of things if we think she was the one laughing. Reasonably speaking there could have been somebody else present. I imagine if a person of CD’s stature was teaching, it’s more than likely that several people were watching/auditing. It’s also possible that the people laughing were distracted by something on their cell phone and not in response to this. Less likely, but again, everybody’s making assumptions with very little in the way of facts, so that’s another possibility out there.
There is also a real thing called nervous laughter - it seems more likely that this person was nervous laughing rather than genuinely finding the situation humorous and at a minimum we could give them the benefit of the doubt.
Well, i have to say it added a whole additional layer of creepy hearing the giggles in the background of the video. Regardless, point is the horse abuse, let’s not get sidelined by the riff raff surrounding the abuse. (In the video)
There were four people present according to the lawyer.
Definitely chuckling, probably at the realisation of catching CDJ red handed on video
I don’t think so.
To me, the laughter is not malicious-- someone laying a trap for a BNT that it will take them 4 years to bother to spring.
To me, it sounds like an on-looker who isn’t comfortable with the ethics of the horse training technique, but is joining with the pro in thinking of the horse as earning what he is getting. That is, by far, the easier psychological position to take.
I will bet that any number of people reading this has been a rail bird watching some pro give some horse whom everyone watching has deemed a POS or “a puke” a hard time for his lack of effort. That’s not different from this.
Still, I think “nervous laughter,” while being a real phenomenon is a sign of immaturity.
Yeah, she was a teenager. It may have been developmentally appropriate behavior at that age.
I agree that this is nervous laughter. I’m appalled at all the comments on line that are harshly criticizing the person laughing. I keep wondering if these people have really never been in an uncomfortable situation where they have laughed even though that was not appropriate. I also know someone that has been in this situation - watching their child in lessons, totally uncomfortable with the situation. That person was triggered by the laughing in this video. It brought all their guilt back to the surface. So I really have such a hard time with the judgement towards the person laughing. Why can’t we have a bit of compassion?
How do you know the videographer was a teen?
The voice doesn’t sound young to me.
Because horses require adults. They are at our mercy. One of the great things about horsemanship is that it helps people grow up well and faster than they would have otherwise. I think it is unethical to put people in charge of animals whose M O is to plead helplessness.
ETA: While we don’t know the “chain of custody” that goes from the videographer to someone who wants to punish Dujardin to a Dutch attorney to the FEI, here are some facts to consider:
The blameless, giggling videographer didn’t get in harm’s way and stop the lesson (Fair enough, I don’t think most people I have met in the US horse scene would have stood up that way. I’d love to think that our betters in Britain and Europe would have done so.)
They didn’t take this to the FEI immediately. If this is a huge problem in their estimation, they feel guilty, why let the horse endure that for years?
They were a person who hired the lawyer and strategized this, or they were friendly with whoever did.
Those folks did pick the eve of the Olympics and, according to a quote from the Dutch lawyer “couldn’t stand to see Dujardin win a medal.” I believe the rest of the quote is about deciding belatedly to protect the horse.
And so, this doesn’t look to me like someone who was guilty of innocent immaturity or a quirky psychology. There’s a bunch of self-control and planning involved. You can’t have it both ways-- blameless and innocent where you’d like and orchestrating an expulsion from Olympic competition as well.
I don’t know that the person laughing is a teenager. I don’t know that the laughter is coming from the person who is filming.
However, we know that the person filming was 16 years old when they recorded the video 2.5 years ago, because their lawyer made that statement.
This event was filmed on European soil by Europeans or possibly a Brit.
How are the Americans to blame for failing to pipe up?
The person filming was 16 years old? I have not read that. Is that 16 year old (presumably 18-20 now depending when this was filmed), the one that hired the lawyer?
Yes, he said that his client is now 19 and that she was 16 years old 2.5 years ago when she recorded the video.
If you believe Charlotte Dujardin about the video being 4 years old, the person taking the video would have been 14. I can imagine why she’d think that more years would distance her from the abuse, but if Dujardin lied in her statement, that’s a PR nightmare on top of a PR nightmare.
Initially before the video was released that first day, I read articles that stated the client was the sponsor of the lesson. It’s so confusing.
The initial details were murky (trot vs. canter, etc). Maybe some of it is/was a translation problem. I don’t know.
The RIDER was 16, the person filming sponsored the ride and, I assume, is an adult. It also sounds like the rider’s mother was there.
Assumptions that the ride sponsor was an adult and assumptions that the rider’s mother was present do not negate the quoted, published statements that the whistleblower was 16, and a student of Dujardin, at the time that she recorded the video. More than one person in an arena can be 16.
We can assume and speculate all we want but we won’t ever fully know why they laughed.
Personally, I can have this trauma response laugh thing at times. It’s weird but uncontrollable. It only happens when I’m like extremely upset or scared. If people saw it they might think I’m nuts or psychopath. Which is very opposite of how I actual am. It’s just a weird trauma thing for me I think.
Editing to add, I of course hope they didn’t find it funny. But I have no idea.
