Social media is awash with the news that British Dressage rider, Charlotte Dujardin, has withdrawn from the 2024 Olympic Games because of a video that surfaced, showing her abusing a horse.
Let’s be clear. What we see in that video is abuse.
At the same time, we should be cognisant of the fact that there is a real human being behind all of this. Getting on our high horses (pun intended) and crucifying the woman on social media is not helpful – not to her and not to equine welfare. We should really approach the situation with compassion and empathy. If we resort to trolling and online bullying to voice our own anger, we too, are only perpetuating abuse, albeit in a different form.
So, let’s all calm down to a mild panic, put down our pitch forks and fiery torches and talk about the real issues.
As the saying goes: “Those who can do; those who can’t, teach.” Everyone forgets that especially in horse riding, the inverse also holds true. Those who can, can’t necessarily teach. I have seen over and over again how riders that reach top level of competition want to spread their knowledge and teach others their skills. But sometimes, ability comes so naturally to them, that there is no way for them to put into words how they do it, and therefore they simply cannot transfer it to others. On the other hand, if you come across a rider who has really struggled to achieve success, they are often the people who can really teach the skills that they themselves learnt through shear hard work. Perhaps that once in a lifetime horse-rider combination with Valegro made people believe that Charlotte could transfer that “magic”. Perhaps she simply couldn’t. Do not misunderstand me, I am not saying that top riders don’t work hard!
Now, let’s talk about the video itself. There is no doubt in my mind that Charlotte wanted to hit that horse. She can clearly be heard saying: “This is so shit to hit them hard!”. My problem is that I can’t figure out why she was hitting the horse. I’ve watched that video over and over again and I can’t figure out what it is she is trying to get the horse to do. And if I as a human can’t figure it out, how was the horse supposed to?
When Mark Todd came under fire for a similar incident in 2022, it was at least clear what he was trying to get the horse to do – he wanted it to move forward into the water. Ill-conceived as it was, hitting a horse repeatedly with a stick, at least there was method to it. In Charlotte’s case, I am left very confused as to what she was actually trying to achieve by hitting the horse.
This brings me back to my previous point. Not everybody can train horses, even if they can ride them very well. Not everyone can train other riders, even if they ride very well themselves.
So, while I think that we are all in agreement that abuse as seen in this video should not be tolerated, we owe it to ourselves and our horses to ensure that wherever we come across bullying of people or horses, we should stand up and say something.
Choose your trainer carefully. The best trainers are not always the ones with the most ribbons.
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