Abuse in other disciplines

[brunanas]

i was debating whether or not i should post this here given it's not racing related, but my final thought was that people need to hear about this. here in Brazil it's spreading like wildfire in the equestrian community (and i'm sure that whenever the tests are made public, we'll hear about it in other medias. i remember our biggest news broadcast did a piece on Medina Spirit's positive back then — and i surely hope there will be a story on it because then maybe he will face actual punishment). it's obvious judging by the title and by what i've said so far but this is a case of animal cruelty, so if you don't want to hear about it skip ahead.

horse soring in show jumping is unfortunately a BIG thing in Brazil — but it's one of those things we just knew about without having video evidence. well, now we do. i know this isn't as common in the USA but in the show jumping world, it causes horses to feel the burning sensation when they knock poles so they teach themselves to overjump.
a few days ago there was a big National show jumping competition at the São Paulo Equestrian Center, which i'm pretty sure is the biggest EC in the country. the rider in the footage (Google Drive link below, the Instagram page that had originally posted it deleted their video) is MARCELLO ARTIAGA, a multiple champion and Panamerican medalist. horse is his own (at least according to the studbook registry) IMPERADOR MÉTODO, a 13yo Brazilian Warmblood by Diamant de Semilly. according to some people i know in the jumping world, he is known to sore but just had never been caught in the act. witnesses said that a few minutes before his round he quietly took the horse to this isolated stall to apply the acid to his legs. you can clearly see the horse trying to get his leg away as he applies it. the video was sent to the responsible staff and he was stopped after his round and the horse was inspected. vets stated the horse was sore to the touch and that the area smelled terribly. infrareds were taken and showed a temperature of + 90°F to the coronet area as seen below:



Marcello claims the touch tests done were not done properly and sent this to an equestrian news website to show the horse had "no reaction" to the tests. according to him this was done 10 minutes after the first one. he is denying all soring allegations, but the contents of the cream and also hair from the area were sent to testing so that will obviously be a problem for him.

anyways, not much has been done other than big ECs and federations posting notes against him. the EC this happened in said he isn't allowed in their premises until authorities solve the issue — which to y'all not familiar with Brazil animal cruelty laws, basically means "see you at the show next weekend!". i'm beyond disgusted. there is no hell big enough for this man.

finally, here is the link to the video, you can skip to about 00:57 in it.

[Squeaky]

So sorry to hear this -feel so bad for this horse and any others in his care. There was a very famous and high-profile show jumping trainer who quite awhile ago was accused of raising up poles to knock horses’ legs to get them not to touch poles ( a common practice then hopefully not done anymore) . Something went awry, the horse fell and impaled his chest on the pole and died. This “win at all costs” mentality is so distressing. A talented horse with the correct patient and expert training with a confident rider who sets him or her up with the correct stride while pushing from behind and making a nice bascule will not have many poles down when properly ridden and prepared to do what is asked. That being said there are horses who are just not careful. Then show jumping is not for them. Don’t get me started on the use of GABA and other sedating agents (“calming cookies” ) in the equitation and hunter worlds to create the slow and robotic head down look the judges seem to want these days.

[brunanas]

i haven't heard about the one you mentioned Squeaky, but i know Ludger Beerbaum was caught poling a while ago. and i agree with your take. my mare was... very likely... sored as well, it's the main theory her vet has about some issues she has, and i purchased her as a dressage prospect and even her old owner's kid told me she is thriving and looks happier than ever in her new life. i wonder why.

[MySaladDays]

I think it is fine to inform others about animal cruelty, esp. if it's about horses on a horse-related board.

Many people really don't know some of the things done to animals by humans who are desperate to "win" stuff. I saw some of that in field trials with retrrievers. Left a very bad taste in my mouth and I stopped going to the practices, because there are always bad apples in the bunch and nobody would say anyhing. ......everyone would just walk away feeling sorry for the dog who would exit their truck with tail tucked, instead of being excitied to do their work. You could always tell who those guys were. .

When things get swept under the rug it just gives PETA and others an opportunity to present the information instead. Then of course, they blame PETA.

Transparency is important. If you believe most caring human beings would be *repulsed" by what you are doing, then maybe you shouldn't be doing it.

I remember quite a number of race horses who were pinfired and you could see the scars it left on their legs, etc. I was not a big fan of that, either.

[brunanas]

bringing my own thread back. this one hits extra hard being a dressage rider who looked up to Charlotte Dujardin for many years.

Charlotte Dujardin ‘beat horse excessively with whip’ in video that forced Olympics withdrawal
https://metro.co.uk/2024/07/23/charlott ... -21281878/

In her statement, Dujardin claimed she made an ‘error of judgement’ during a coaching session four years ago and is ‘deeply ashamed’ of her actions.

The video has been sent to the FEI and the British Equestrian Federation, while a complaint of animal cruelty has been filed against Dujardin by Stephan Wensing, a Dutch equine lawyer, this week.

Wensing, who is acting on behalf of an anonymous client, has revealed that in the video which was recorded during a training event in the UK, Dujardin ‘hit the horse many times’ in order to ‘lift its legs further’.

from other sources, she supposedly hit the horse over 24 times in under a minute.

for y'all not familiar with other equestrian sports and/or how the FEI works... someone (especially at her level) getting punished means this was beyond bad. like super ultra mega bad. just "average" hits (obviously horrible, it's just that the FEI does not care about animal abuse like ever, see Charlotte Fry) wouldn't have resulted in this. in short. trust no one. fuck you Charlotte Dujardin.

[Cigarillo]

It makes my blood boil when I hear about abuse of animals. I echo your sentiment.

[TapitsGal]

bringing my own thread back. this one hits extra hard being a dressage rider who looked up to Charlotte Dujardin for many years.

Charlotte Dujardin ‘beat horse excessively with whip’ in video that forced Olympics withdrawal
https://metro.co.uk/2024/07/23/charlott ... -21281878/

In her statement, Dujardin claimed she made an ‘error of judgement’ during a coaching session four years ago and is ‘deeply ashamed’ of her actions.

The video has been sent to the FEI and the British Equestrian Federation, while a complaint of animal cruelty has been filed against Dujardin by Stephan Wensing, a Dutch equine lawyer, this week.

Wensing, who is acting on behalf of an anonymous client, has revealed that in the video which was recorded during a training event in the UK, Dujardin ‘hit the horse many times’ in order to ‘lift its legs further’.

from other sources, she supposedly hit the horse over 24 times in under a minute.

for y'all not familiar with other equestrian sports and/or how the FEI works... someone (especially at her level) getting punished means this was beyond bad. like super ultra mega bad. just "average" hits (obviously horrible, it's just that the FEI does not care about animal abuse like ever, see Charlotte Fry) wouldn't have resulted in this. in short. trust no one. fuck you Charlotte Dujardin.

The incident mentioned happened four years ago. I've seen people question why was the video released now? And not at the time of the incident? I also can't grasp hitting the legs as a training method. I know it's outdated but there's got to be less abusive methods out there to get the results one wants

[brunanas]

bringing my own thread back. this one hits extra hard being a dressage rider who looked up to Charlotte Dujardin for many years.

Charlotte Dujardin ‘beat horse excessively with whip’ in video that forced Olympics withdrawal
https://metro.co.uk/2024/07/23/charlott ... -21281878/

In her statement, Dujardin claimed she made an ‘error of judgement’ during a coaching session four years ago and is ‘deeply ashamed’ of her actions.

The video has been sent to the FEI and the British Equestrian Federation, while a complaint of animal cruelty has been filed against Dujardin by Stephan Wensing, a Dutch equine lawyer, this week.

Wensing, who is acting on behalf of an anonymous client, has revealed that in the video which was recorded during a training event in the UK, Dujardin ‘hit the horse many times’ in order to ‘lift its legs further’.

from other sources, she supposedly hit the horse over 24 times in under a minute.

for y'all not familiar with other equestrian sports and/or how the FEI works... someone (especially at her level) getting punished means this was beyond bad. like super ultra mega bad. just "average" hits (obviously horrible, it's just that the FEI does not care about animal abuse like ever, see Charlotte Fry) wouldn't have resulted in this. in short. trust no one. fuck you Charlotte Dujardin.

The incident mentioned happened four years ago. I've seen people question why was the video released now? And not at the time of the incident? I also can't grasp hitting the legs as a training method. I know it's outdated but there's got to be less abusive methods out there to get the results one wants

from my understanding it was because the girl involved was a minor at the time and thought it was normal behavior because she had been to many training sessions with similar trainers.
piaffe/passage is trained with a dressage whip gently tapping the legs, NOT like whatever the fuck she was trying to achieve. i don't even understand the point of hitting a horse that hard to get it to perform a move because i don't think any horse can focus enough on whatever they have to do when that amount of pain is being inflicted upon them.

[brunanas]

https://youtu.be/HDYg34YnJFM?si=S-Ai0EbtvW2qBXdz the video. obviously... content warning.

and the way she's doing it so naturally tells me this is just another day in the office.

[Squeaky]

Equally upsetting to me were the 2young girls laughing in the background while watching thinking it was funny when he kicked out etc. To become desensitized to abuse is hard to watch and sad.

[brunanas]

i left many years ago but i used to ride at this big jumping barn run by the trainer of the Paraguay jumping team. i saw/heard so many things i'll never forget, both of him and of the people that also coached there under his guidance. i knew it was fucked up and would never do it myself but i remember for a long time being so quiet about it bc it was all i knew. fast forward a few years, there's a video of him (i guess since deleted, i tried to find it and couldn't) smacking the shit out of a 4yo in a young horses show because he refused a scary jump.
my trainer at the time (who i guess is still best friends with him) has since been charged with neglect that resulted in the death of 3+ horses and he is still giving lessons like normal, my current trainer cut ties with one of her students (who also trained with that guy) because his dad kept trying to find excuses to what happened. he has a 29 year old pony who is doing weekly 3ft3 classes living solely off injections and no one does anything about it. when i still rode with him he had this mentally fucked up pony who was obviously a mess to ride because he was terrified of everything. he reared up with me and while i sat it my trainer said i didn't "correct" it so he made me get off and proceeded to smack the shit out of the pony as he galloped around the arena. i left that same day, last fucking straw. i regret never having gotten proof of what was going on and not leaving earlier but i guess at 14 i didn't know better.

[lurkey mclurker]

I was waiting for the details of the CD video, since all I saw at first was the vague lead story and some speculation that it was leaked by a competitor nation, that maybe it had to do with using a whip to enhance the piaffe...

I had admired her so much because she seemed like one of the few doing dressage RIGHT, and this is just sickening and infuriating to see. That poor horse was learning NOTHING.

And now I can't help but wonder about Carl Hester, too - he was her mentor, did she learn this from him? What this part of Valegro's daily training??? And the lovely young horses she's been bringing along and having success with???

Just UGH.

[Northport]

The social license of horses in any sport is hanging by a thread. There have been multiple video leaks and scandals this year alone of dressage riders hurting horses as part of training, including the Helgstrand scandal.

As someone who has competed in (amateur level) hunters and showjumping my entire life, I am almost certain that there will be no horse sports of any kind at the next Olympics.

[sweettalk]

i worry peta is slowly winning the "humans should never interact w animals ever" war as far as social perception goes =\

[Gemini]

I hate to open yet another can of worms, but abuse in these closely-knit disciplines hasn’t been limited to horses. Sexual abuse of minors has occurred too.

[BaroqueAgain1]

I fear almost any of these sports whose stars tend to be young girls (like gymnastics?) hide too many stories of controlling and abusive coaches.
I do take heart that many of these stories are being told ...finally...and the abusers are having to face consequences.