Charlotte Dujardin, Britain’s three-time Olympic equestrian champion,has been shown repeatedly striking a horse on the back of the legs with a whip in distressing footage shared with Telegraph Sport.
The video, which also appears to capture Dujardin saying “This is so s--- at hitting them hard” in an apparent reference to the whip, reveals the six-time Olympic medalist aggressively striking a horse being ridden by another woman despite the horse growing increasingly uncomfortable.
The leading dressage star, who could have become the country’s most decorated female Olympian, has been banned from the Paris Games over the video, in which her treatment of the horse has been likened to whipping an “elephant in the circus”. Dujardin can be seen using the whip on several occasions against a horse she is training. The full video, which has been shared with The Telegraph by the whistleblower’s lawyer, is alleged to show Dujardin striking the animal 24 times.
Dujardin is understood to be teaching the horse the ‘piaffe’, the slow-motion trot technique dating back to the Renaissance. But those giving instruction in the piaffe typically do so by tapping the horse very lightly, just to encourage it to lift its legs.
Dujardin admitted she made an “error of judgment” during a coaching session involving a 19-year-old rider in Gloucestershire. The 39-year-old immediately stood down from Team GB before being provisionally suspended for six months by equestrian’s governing body, the FEI.
She said she was “deeply ashamed” on learning that the footage had been sent to authorities.
‘I just don’t understand how she got into that situation’
Reacting to the release of the video, former eventer and current ITV Racing presenter Alice Plunkett said: “It’s not a video that makes anybody feel comfortable watching, it is not appropriate and it is not something that I’ve ever seen in terms of the years that I’ve been working with horses. It’s not standard practice. That is not a standard way of training your horses for top-level dressage, she knows that and I just don’t understand how she got into that situation because she’s somebody who has made her life from horses.
“She’s made her life from horses because she manages them in a way that they work for her. Valegro would not have performed in the way that he did for her if she was treating him like that.
“She’s in a systematic training session, she’s training someone else’s horse in that video and she’s made the wrong decision in how to solve the problem. It is not acceptable.”
Plunkettadded: “People may think that [the ban] isn’t enough, but in terms of reacting to it, she’s taken herself out of the Olympic Games before the sanction came through.”
As shock waves spread through the Team GB camp in France, Dujardin admitted she had made “an error of judgment” during a coaching session involving a 19-year-old rider in Gloucestershire.
How the world reacted
Animal welfare group PETA, a long-time opponent of equestrian and other horse sports, reignited calls to remove the event from the Olympics. PETA’s US senior vice-president Kathy Guillermo said: “The message to the International Olympic Committee should be clear by now: remove equestrian events from the Olympic Games.
“Yet again, an Olympic rider has been caught on video abusing a horse to force the animal to behave in an entirely unnatural way, simply for her own glory. Horses don’t volunteer – they can only submit to violence and coercion. It’s time for the Olympics to move into the modern era.”
World Horse Welfare chief executive Roly Owers, meanwhile, says the Dujardin episode is a “massive wake-up call for anyone who thinks this is not important”.
Owers said: “This story is another salutary reminder of how vital it is that equestrians put the welfare of the horse first, all of the time, whether in the competition arena or behind closed doors.
“We welcome Charlotte’s decision to take full responsibility and withdraw from the Paris Olympics, and British Equestrian and the FEI’s [the International Federation for Equestrian Sports] swift action.
“Horse sport rightly has high standards, as illustrated in the FEI Code of Conduct and British Equestrian’s Charter for the Horse, but it is a collective responsibility to maintain these standards.
“Respect for the horse must be at the heart of every equestrian, and every equestrian sport, and their actions must demonstrate that respect all of the time.
“World Horse Welfare actively supports horse sport, but there cannot be any tolerance for unacceptable practices, no matter how experienced the rider or coach.
“We know that a successful future for horse sport has public trust at the centre of it, and this requires equestrians to be caring and to always treat their horses with respect, compassion and understanding.”
