Britain’s Dujardin, a six-time Olympic dressage medallist, withdrew from the Paris Games on Tuesday after the video emerged, saying it showed her “making an error of judgement”.
The video, obtained by the BBC, shows Dujardin repeatedly whipping a horse around its legs during the session.
After her withdrawal from the Olympics, the 39-year-old was provisionally suspended by equestrian’s governing body the FEI, which received the footage on Monday.
Dujardin said in a statement: "What happened was completely out of character and does not reflect how I train my horses or coach my pupils, however there is no excuse.
“I am deeply ashamed and should have set a better example in that moment.”
Speaking to BBC Sport, the whistleblower’s lawyer, Stephan Wensing, said his client had mixed feelings about the reaction since the news broke, but she believed it is a widespread issue in dressage.
“It’s not fun to ruin a career. She’s not celebrating; she doesn’t feel like a hero,” he said.
“But she told me this morning this had to be done because she wants to save dressage.”
On Wednesday Dujardin had her UK Sport funding suspended pending the outcome of the FEI investigation, while she has also been dropped as an ambassador for horse welfare charity Brooke, which said it was “deeply disturbed” by the video.
“Our whole ethos is around kindness and compassion to horses, and to see the opposite of this from someone with such a high profile is beyond disappointing,” it said.
Two of Dujardin’s sponsors, equestrian insurance company KBIS and Danish equestrian equipment company Equine LTS, have removed their backing.
Equite LTS said they are “shocked and saddened by the video” and “do not condone this form of behaviour”.
KBIS said they “cannot and will not condone behaviour” that goes against providing the “best care possible” for horses.
Dujardin had been set to compete in both the individual dressage and team event alongside Carl Hester and world champion Lottie Fry, on horse Imhotep.
She needed a medal of any colour to take the outright lead as most-decorated British female Olympian from now-retired cyclist Dame Laura Kenny.
On Tuesday Dujardin said the video was “filmed four years ago”, but Wensing said it was from two and a half years ago.
“When she filmed this and was aware of this two and a half years ago, she was thinking everything this superstar, the best rider, is doing, must be OK. This must be the way to train horses and how to deal with it,” he said.
"Charlotte Dujardin was explaining during the lesson that she wanted the horse lifting the legs up more in canter.
"Later on, [the whistleblower] was thinking ‘this is not OK’. She had spoken with several people in the profession and they all warned her ‘don’t fight’.
“She was really afraid. There was a sort of fear culture and she was also thinking ‘when I do something, it will be victim-blaming’.”
The timing of the release of the video has also been questioned, with Madeleine Hill, a former dressage reporter for magazine Horse & Hound, telling the BBC Radio 4 Today programme it felt like “sabotage”.
She believes the FEI should have waited until after the Olympics before imposing any sanctions, adding that “top riders are being persecuted” on social media by people who are against the use of horses in sport.
However, Wensing said it was the recent removal of a rider from the Denmark dressage team that encouraged his client to report Dujardin.
Earlier this month Danish TV station TV2 reported, external that Denmark’s reserve rider Carina Cassoe Kruth had been replaced in the Paris squad on the eve of the team announcement after a controversial training video was sent to the Danish Riding Association.
Kruth told TV2 she “deeply regretted” her “clear error”.
“Because of the Olympics, [the whistleblower] was thinking if I don’t do anything now [Dujardin] will probably win medals,” Wensing said.
"On the other hand, people are thinking wrong that she could have done this during the Olympics, and that would destroy the whole British team.
“Now the team can organise themselves and use the alternate. It’s not like the whole British dressage team has gone now. There could be a worse timing.”
what are horses doing in the olympics anyway, is there a hamster category too? give me a break
Posh untalented people need to feel included.
Sailing is already in the Olympics, though.
Earth bases posh people vs water based posh people
There’s probably an overabundance of posh sports out there.
i will not allow this slander of my beautiful boats
Do they though?
competitive horse sports are always packed with absolute freaks, but horse dancing (aka “dressage”) always takes the fucking cake.
they remind me of cold stage and pageant moms, except their child is like 1000 lbs and the moms sit on it and parade themselves.
like I was in a situation where I learned to tack, brush, lead, ride etc horses. it’s not a hobby or anything, but between that and more general experiences working alongside animals, I get the appeal of it. the vibe of an ancient connection. I also feel about it like it’s a skill that may come in handy out in the sticks if things go teats up, lol.
but competitive animal sport and dressage in particular have always seemed perverse, like an already fraught relationship gone way wrong.
I also feel about it like it’s a skill that may come in handy out in the sticks if things go teats up, lol.
Nah, bikes are basically horses but with extra upsides and none of the downsides.
graded bike trails and an inexhaustible supply of tires, tubes and parts be literally everywhere these days I guess.
Which do you think you’d have a better shot at salvaging and installing in a modern city. A bike tire, or a horseshoe?
imagine reading my post where I specifically said “in the sticks” is where the skill might come in handy.
In German, Hinterland is sometimes used more generally to describe any sparsely populated area where the infrastructure is underdeveloped, although Provinz (analogous to province) is more common. In the United States, and particularly in the American Midwest (a region of German cultural heritage located far from ocean ports), it is this meaning and not the one relating to ports that predominates in common use. Analogous terms include “the countryside”, “the sticks”, “the boonies”, backcountry, boondocks, the Bush (in Alaskan usage), the outback (Australia), and the sertão (Brazil).
If you think horses are better at dealing with rough terrain than bikes then you are simply wrong. And unless you’re literally a blacksmith you’re still not going to be able to shoe your horse in the apocalypse. And if you come across something you can only cross on foot, you can always pick up your bike and bring it with you. Good luck picking up a horse.
Bikes are simply more practical in every situation that isn’t a race across flat ground. Horse would win that one, I admit, but that’s not exactly a common concern for me.
it’s become clear to me that you are just arguing to argue and that is not why I come here or participate.
I invite you to consider others ways of living and being exist than the ones you contend with.
telling someone else that a skill they have will be useless for them in a speculative future, based entirely on your own life experiences and the limited imaginings afforded by your positionality is an unconstructive way to communicate with others.
telling someone else that a skill they have will be useless for them in a speculative future, based entirely on your own life experiences and the limited imaginings afforded by your positionality is an unconstructive way to communicate with others.
Believing that a skill you have will be useful for you in a speculative future when it most likely will not is unconstructive also.
Anyway, I’m opposed to making up excuses for unnecessary exploitation of animals. If there’s a serious reason you have to exploit horses to survive, sure, but when bikes exist and would serve your purposes better I will push back against the idea that using living creatures as tools is good.
Hey Britain, thanks for taking the media pressure off Canada’s Olympic fuckup scandal!
The timing of the release of the video has also been questioned, with Madeleine Hill, a former dressage reporter for magazine Horse & Hound, telling the BBC Radio 4 Today programme it felt like “sabotage”.
She believes the FEI should have waited until after the Olympics before imposing any sanctions, adding that “top riders are being persecuted” on social media by people who are against the use of horses in sport.
Oy they don’t got a loicense for making a ruckus do they crumpet? Sometimes you have to beat the animal to make it high step and common folk don’t understand how stressful a job these nobles have.
I guess my question is; Is that excessive? Or is that just how you get a horse to run weird? Did this lady take the L because the broader implications?
Yeah, this is really not normal. I grew up on a farm and when I heard about this on the news I kind of rolled my eyes - people can be freaked out by how you interact with horses because it can look a little rough, but they’re massive fucking animals with stone/metal fists and will kill you if you actually hurt them. Almost always, a horse is fine. And then I saw the footage.
This is really not the way to do things. What she’s doing is both excessive and incredibly unprofessional. Straight up amateur shit. In my village the tradition was that you don’t give a kid a whip until a) they’re 13 and b) they have proven that they can ride without it. You never need them if you know what you’re doing. Whips/crops are supposed to be used to surprise the animal and get their attention, not to hurt them. The type of whip she’s using in this video (a lunge whip) shouldn’t really even make contact with the horse, you use them to either make noise behind them or to shock them a little from the corner of their vision.
The insane part is that at one point, she’s hitting the horse from the front. That is something you never fucking do (partly because you’re increasing your chance of getting fucking killed lol)
Like, this is something that you might expect of someone who has never handled a horse before and is particularly mean. This would never be called for under literally any circumstances. To see this from someone who’s been riding their whole life and absolutely knows better? She was pissed off and actively taking her frustration out on that poor horse. I doubt she could really do much damage with a lunge whip, but she meant to hurt the horse.
Firing squad for this freak immediately
EDIT: i’ve just watched it all the way through and she’s using two fucking hands??? also at one point i think she’s literally impacting the poor thing with the handle of the whip at some point??? she’s doing so many things that are unnessecarily and unprofessionally cruel and also could get you fucking killed. like, surprisingly enough, forcing a massive animal up agaisnt a wall is a very very bad idea. it almost kicks her and she still doesn’t back off. evil shit.
almost kicks her
that looks like it might be fairly routine the woman is very casual and doesn’t snap the whip every time, the comment that the whip isn’t hitting hard enough probably took it over the line and the sport has to save face. i’d definitely put money on this being accepted practice
