Charlotte Dujardin is an Olympic level equestrian. A video has been leaked showing her viciously whipping a horse in training at least 24 times in under a minute. This appallingly cruel woman’s apology and that from British Dressage are self-serving and mealy-mouthed, the latter saying that “equine welfare must always be paramount” – that word paramount is always a giveaway when used like this by farmers, hunters, and the shooting and horse racing industries and indeed all those who exploit and abuse animals for ‘sport’ and, primarily, profit.
As I said in Animal Wild, where I have written about the horrors of horse racing at some length, “As for racing, I have no idea or understanding of what pleasure people get out of it, but it is obvious that it is hugely popular, even amongst people who would describe themselves as animal lovers and would hate to see pain inflicted on any animal in other circumstances. There are none so blind …” I completely fail to understand what is even interesting about seeing which of a group of animals happens to be able to run the fastest. Dressage, Dujardin’s speciality, I find particularly abhorrent, since it is nothing more than a cruel human inflicting pain and fear on an animal in order to force him or her to perform unnatural and undignified behaviours. She describes her actions as an “error of judgement”. Twenty-four errors of judgement surely. Clearly this is how she trains her horses, no one is just going to randomly start this sort of sadistic behaviour. She is pretty much screwed I am delighted to say. She has pulled out of the Olympics and is being dropped by sponsors like shit off a shovel. She can kiss her expected damehood goodbye too.
The full statement from the British Dressage CEO is as bad if not worse. He is firstly sorry for members upset by the footage, but neither his nor Dujardin’s statement makes any kind of apology to the horse. The main concerns seem to be ones of image, whether dressage will continue to be an Olympic sport, and whether the video was leaked by the Dutch Olympic team to improve their chances, as if that mattered one way or the other. The relevant article in the Daily Mail quotes the CEO further with my comments in italics:
‘”Charlotte Dujardin has done the right thing by accepting responsibility and expressing remorse,” he added. She could hardly do otherwise, there’s a video, with, to make it even worse, someone laughing in the background at the horse’s suffering.
“While we do not condone her behaviour, we must remember that there is also a human element to this – and, regardless of what has happened, she still deserves our understanding.” Feels for her but, again, not the horse.
“Please be kind and bear in mind that we have a duty of care in our interactions with one another.” This seems a bit Messianic and weird. “One another” should surely include all animals, all life, not just humans.
He went on to probe the motives behind the complaint.
“I do find claims that this was done to ‘save dressage’ somewhat disingenuous, given that it was timed to cause maximum damage to our sport,” he added. No comment needed.
“However, what will save dressage is how we all respond to this crisis by demonstrating our love and care for horses.” Too late, mate.
A Facebook post by a fellow equestrian called Holly Sharp is no better. It is so badly written that I wonder if it is a fake, my apologies to Ms Sharp if it is. We all need, she says, to give our heads “a wobble” (what?) “and look at the bigger picture.” She does not condone the methods used by Dujardin, she says, but how could she? She worries about the future of the sport, already “not helped by the punching debacle with the German rider”, whether brands will stop sponsoring, whether the ‘sport’ will still be an Olympic event at all. She points out that showjumping, dressage and eventing bring millions to the economy, therefore she wishes that people would stop posting and sharing images and reactions to the event. In other words, it should be brushed under the carpet. Otherwise it will be giving ammunition to the “pony patters”. Whatever does she mean? People who care about animal welfare I suppose. “There are very real groups trying to get horse riding banned completely…” Of course there are. I absolutely support them.
Here comes the clincher, showing that my views on this are neither absurd nor extreme. Proof from the horse rider’s mouth: “I think we need to look at how polo handle themselves [sic]. I’ve worked in the industry [sic] and while im [sic] all for the sport, they aren’t known for their happy mouth snaffles and bubble wrapped ponies. But yet [sic] we very rarely hear anything negative.” In other words, this is a request to keep schtum, hide the truth and hope no one finds out. Again, too late and again the actual horse gets not so much as a mention.
A quick google brought up a firm called Millbry Hill offering a huge variety of “Riding Crops, Schooling Whips & Lunge Whips” in an assortment of colours, materials and, presumably, usefulness in inflicting pain. In Animal Wild I recounted knowing a former jockey and a racehorse owner: “Both confirmed that it was innately cruel, talking of horses being punched in the face to persuade them into the starting gates and, out of public sight, being trained with the use of vicious bull pizzle whips, designed to inflict maximum agony. Within public sight, horses are the only animals in the UK allowed to be beaten for entertainment. There are at least some restrictions on use of the whip now, but even those are often exceeded (on 600 recorded occasions in the UK in 2014) and the rules are lax and poorly enforced, being a matter at the discretion of the stewards.”
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