I’m sure many young girls and boys have read, “The Girl On The Dancing Horse,” an autobiographical account by equestrian, Charlotte Dujardin. It ranks in the top ten best seller list on Amazon.
I have not read it. Nor would I.
As an Inspector for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals based in and around Birmingham from 1975 until the mid-eighties I attended numerous show jumping and dressage events involving horses and their often brattish, ego-based owners.
When a horse and rider had performed badly during such an event I made it my business to follow them back to the stabling at a discreet distance. I had occasion to caution a number of riders who took out their anger on the animal with the aid of a whip. I was generally a much hated figure at events like the Horse of the Year Show at Birmingham’s mammoth Equestrian Centre.
Of course, it was always the fault of the horse when things went awry, never the rider, but that was according to the riders. In fact, it’s untrue. More often than not the rider mistimes the approach to a jump, making it impossible for the animal to clear the jump successfully.
There are exceptions to every rule, of course, but in Britain the horsey community are in the main a snooty, pretentious, and somewhat unbearable group of mostly younger people from well-to-do families – known as the County Set.
There are many young children who dream of owning a pony and perhaps one day winning a gold cup in an event like the Horse of the Year Show, or even the Olympics. The reality is frequently very different from the dream.
Charlotte Dujardin won’t be competing with her horse, Valegro, at the Paris Olympics this year, as video has surfaced of her ill-treatment of a horse while coaching a young rider at her stables.
Dujardin has been provisionally suspended by the FEI (Fédération Équestre Internationale) and the BEF (British Equestrian Federation) pending further investigation of the alleged incident. As Dujardin has admitted to being the person in the video there seems little that is ‘alleged’.
Of course the ‘horsey’ mags are quick to her defence, This from Chevalmag:
“The commotion was sparked by a complaint filed by a 19-year-old through Dutch lawyer Stephan Wensing. The video, which is now circulating on social media , shows the British rider repeatedly touching her student’s horse with what appears to be a whip.” [Translated from French. My bold).
The video is quite clear, it IS a whip, not even a crop. As for TOUCHING, watch the video and judge for your self. The horse is patently up against the wall in an effort to avoid the whiplashes.
When faced with the video evidence she called it, “an error of judgement,” on her part. To use a long whip so skillfully proves she must have made this ‘error of judgement’ many times.
Unfortunately, smartphones and videos were not available during my years with the RSPCA. I wish they had been. There may have been a few more riders hauled over the legal coals had video evidence been available of what I saw well out of sight of the audiences, at the Horse of the Year Show, and other similar show-jumping events.
A dancing horse, or just to avoid the whip?
I leave comments but alas they vanish. Let me know if you get this one.
XO
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WWW ~ I found this one in the spam folder, but no others. Of course, they get deleted after thirty days so older ones wouldn’t be there. Why they suddenly decided you were spam after all these years is beyond me. Oh, the joy of computing! I will keep a good lookout in future.