So Charlotte Dujardin is disqualified for 12 months for what most riders would regard as a distasteful, but not outrageous offence – I would hazard a guess that a normal training session with the horse’s regular rider – or worse, her pal who took the video – would be more distressing for the animal. I doubt there is one of us who can honestly claim that they have never lost their temper with a horse and done something they later regretted. I can’t. For mine, Charlotte’s real crime was that her training technique was so wrong.
I’ve seen some absolute artists with a long whip working from the ground, and they all stressed that you had to make sure the horse was not afraid of the whip, or you would lose the relaxation and beauty of the movement. Trouble is, once again, that the FEI judges are rewarding tense and ‘spectacular’ movements, so they are complicit in the crime. They are encouraging this sort of ‘training’.
Charlotte and Freestyle at Tryon
It should have happened at the 2018 WEG in Tryon when Charlotte Dujardin rode Freestyle so aggressively that the work was horrible, nothing free or stylish here, and did the judges mark her down for it? No way, instead they gave her a Bronze Medal.
At the time, I wrote: “She scored 8s for the big trots, but 6s for the piaffe and that was generous, and the passage looks a bit manufactured. Lovely big canter, but a mistake in the ones. For mine, Carl’s test on Delicato was far nicer. Still the judges go wild, a score of 77.764%, it makes the Ground Jury look like a gaggle of star struck schoolgirls.”
After that WEG, Freestyle was so shattered that she needed a long long period of TLC with her breeder, before Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour could put the mare back together again, and show her to be the best in the world, I suspect that is really punishment enough for Charlotte.
Back in the days when the FEI was run by horse people, not by bureaucrats who see their role as pandering to animal liberationists who really believe that the horse should never be asked to do anything it doesn’t want to do, Ms Dujardin might have been given a quiet talking to, and be advised to pick the people she associates with more carefully.
The real problem is that we lack judges who can recognize negative tension or if they can, have the guts to punish it. It was great to see the Germans fast track half a dozen real Grand Prix dressage riders into their judging program, if something is not done soon, then the liberationists will have their way and equestrian sport, and with it horses, will disappear…
Christopher Hector
PS Back in 2016 I had the privilege of watching Charlotte Dujardin train two horses – Valegro and Barolo – for about two hours a day for five days in a row, at the Sunshine Tour show in Jerez. The training was exemplary, tactful, logical, wonderful to watch.
with Barolo
and Valegro…
Great article, thank you. Logical and not bullying. Personally I think Charlotte was appalling in the video and could never understand why everything she rode got astronomical marks. I also think she was scapegoated somewhat but if she didn’t want the criticism she didn’t need to read it. So she gets pregnant, gets time out and we’ll see what happens next, but I will never applaud her again.
This article scores a 10!!
I’m not sure what has happened to dressage. When I watch professional ride, it is so sad to see how tight the horses appear. Perhaps ego has gotten into the act of dressage- the need enforce the rules, command the horse, place the horse in a commanding frame, and in training whip him to submission. I don’t believe for one minute that Charlotte only made one mistake. She was just caught practicing a training technique that she has done countless times before. If one is capable of whipping a horse once, most definitely it’s not the first time. I think FEI was right to suspend Charlotte , a message needed to be sent to the rest of the equine business. FEI is watching.
I don’t know Charlotte. For me she represents the injustice that many riders practice. There has to be a hierarchy who protects both rider and horse from abuse, and not be afraid of reprimanding the wrong. I’d like FEI to take a look at western dressage. It’s sweeter, kinder. The expectations are much more in line with the natural gates of a horse.
You hit this on all cylinders. ty
I can honestly say, aged 71 now, that I have never in all my 54 years as a professional equestrian trainer, that I have ever beaten a horse. Even when training in my teens, and being told to repeatedly hit a horse round a cross country course, I refused to do it. I wouldn’t dream of hitting my dog like that, so why would I hit a horse? The horses downfall throughout history is that he is relatively mute. Unlike a dog, he does not cry out in pain, so he endures it stoically or, if he retaliates is then usually further punished for being ‘disobedient’. It’s no wonder that Social License to Operate has reared it’s head in the horse world, and it’s high time we got our house in order if we want to continue to ride horses.
Even if FEI judges do not have the balls to mark down tense riding – or (who knows?..) even think this is what it should look like – shouldn’t the riders know better? You know, stand their ground, continue riding correctly and set an example.
Or are they only after the medals?
Some comments from a German who trained in the seventies and eighties with Fritz Tempelmann and national coach Willi Schultheis for more than six years on a daily basis up to Grand Prix level and who did some judging later: firstly big compliments to Christopher Hector for his continuing fight to improve international judging and for stressing the partially forgotten wisdom that a dressage horse can be trained in a fair and successful way.
Secondly, a few remarks on developments in German dressage. Between the sixties and eighties of last century former riders and officers who where trained at Kavallerieschule Hannover had an immense influence as instructors and judges, e.g. Lörke, Wätjen, Albert und Paul Stecken, Niemack, Katzmann, Donner, Kurth, Wibbeling, Viebig and many more. They had the German training scale in their spinal cord. And they knew by their own view and experience how important a relaxed horse with a wide frame is for good and successful riding.
In training sessions with Tempelmann and Schultheis (both former corporals) it sometimes happened that riders started being rude to their horses. They were strictly asked to stop it or in some cases asked to leave the arena immediately. A Charlotte Dujardin beating up a horse would have been unthinkable under the supervision of these horsemen. They considered horses as precious partners even if their lives did not depend on them anymore in peace times.
These times are over, but – as Christopher Hector continues to write – the basic training principles that were developed over centuries by smart and experienced horse people are still valid in times when successful dressage horses are sold for amounts that probably exceed life times´ incomes of German officers decades ago.
So, if judges would apply these principles consistently and reward riders with relaxed and trusting horses, dressage would have a fair reason to survive. And – other than some commentators seem to think – there are still riders and coaches who train according to these principles and are successful, e.g. Carl Hester or Cathrine Dufour.
Very well said! I agree. If something is not done to correct high scores for tense and incorrectly moving horses, dressage will disappear, due to strong pressure from PETA and their ilk.
Exactly; we are depriving the dressage horse world of its best rider and trainer… yes trainer…the fact that so many of her colleagues casted stones while sitting in glass houses will have detrimental repercussions to the horse sport at large that might make it unsustainable.
The true crime is with a coward anonymous video taker abusing trust and privacy of their trainer, years after the incident, timed just right to damage a career opportunity (Olympics). If you have something to say show your face.
I disagree with Julia about the whistle-blower being a coward. Do anyone honestly think anyone would honestly say “film me I’m stupid and do this all the time and it’s fine”. The film had to show the offense as it really happened not sugar-coated. Congrats to the person filming it more people should report things as they happen. After all she was ashamed she got busted.