Update 2. Details have emerged of another incident in 2016 recorded by an allegedly shocked steward. For daring to raise her head, Dujardin shouted at the horse she was riding “you bitch”. So not exact the perfectly harmonious relationship between horse and rider she and her i lk would have us believe. It has also been reported for those who did not already know that our former queen was a huge fan of dressage and Dujardin in particular. She said, “I have to tell you two that there is no other girl that rides like this young lady” and invited her to a private lunch. Smaller wonder that she was so successful given her methods.
Any notion that the cruelty recorded in the video that started all this was a one-off error of judgement has also been completely blown out of the water. One witness it seems was trainer Alicia Dickinson. She says she has been “thrown under the bus” by Dujardin. The lawyer for the anonymous whistleblower has now said: “My client saw Dujardin abusing a horse several other times. Charlotte told her, ‘This is how we do it, this is how we train the horses’. “At first my client thought, ‘Oh, she’s an Olympian, who am I to question her?’ But she knew it was wrong and wanted to stop it.” He added that his client was warned that people would “come for her” if the footage was released.”
Both PETA and Humane Society International have spoken out. PETA has renewed its call for the event to be removed from the Olympics and has initiated a petition and an HSI spokesperson points out that this is not the first video to be released of this kind of abuse. “The [governing body] FEI [Fédération Équestre Internationale] suspended Colombian dressage competitor Cesar Parra over videos showing alleged animal abuse earlier this year. Danish rider Carina Cassoe Kruth was forced to withdraw from the Olympics and faces disciplinary proceedings from the national equestrian body over similar allegations, and last year an undercover documentary revealed what the Danish Riding Instructor Association called “systematic violent riding” at a prestigious dressage stable in Denmark.”
The queen’s son Harry who pretends to care about animal welfare and conservation was also accused of cruelty during a polo match in 2010 when a photograph was published showing the pony he was riding with a bloody injury clearly caused by his spurs. He was “very upset” though when another pony he had been riding collapsed and died of a heart attack. PETA reports that a guest at the match told The Mail on Sunday that “[i]t was very lucky that Harry rode her off because we were spared the gruesome spectacle of watching the pony die”. Oh well, that’s all right then.
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