Horse photo by Sergii Kumer. There is no suggestion it has been attacked with a whip.
For the first time in living memory, dressage has been in the news after footage emerged of one of the sport’s British Olympians, 39-year-old Charlotte Dujardin, repeatedly whipping a horse while training a junior rider. Dujardin was quickly banned from this summer’s Olympics by the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI), while she’s been deserted by her sponsors.
Stephan Wensing—the lawyer representing the 19-year-old who filed the complaint, several years after the footage was filmed—said six-time Olympic medal winner Dujardin had treated the horse like “an elephant in a circus.”
“It’s not fun to ruin a career,” he continued. “[The complainant] doesn’t feel like a hero. But she told me this morning this had to be done because she wants to save dressage.”
Now, the act of saving dressage from itself may be a very noble aim. But across the reporting, one curious detail has stood out to us. Namely, the repeated detail that Dujardin had whipped the animal “over 24 times” in the space of a minute.
It’s a stat that begs one obvious question, which as yet we haven’t seen answered.
Just how many times is it acceptable to whip a horse in the space of one minute?
Twenty three? Eight? Three? Or really just none at all, because attacking a sentient creature to help you win a competition it could never agree to enter is kind of a lame thing to do?
I hit the phones and after multiple rejections, found someone who agreed to help me answer this tricky question: Claire Bass, senior campaigns director at the Humane Society International.
VICE: Hi Claire. First up, what is the HSI position on the video of Charlotte Dujardin?
Claire Bass: The video clearly shows cruelty being inflicted on that horse, which is exhibiting fear behaviors. It’s kicking out, it’s got no escape, it’s trapped in this ring, being whipped to coercively train it into behaving in a certain way.
When you put it like that, it doesn’t sound great.
My understanding is that Charlotte Dujardin has what’s called a lunge whip, which is meant to be used behind the horse to encourage it to travel in a certain direction. But in this case, it’s being used to strike the animal on his or her very sensitive legs.
Are there instances where hitting a horse with a whip could be justified—like, if the horse is being badly behaved?
We would never believe there’s a justification for inflicting pain on an animal. Dressage claims it’s meant to be about creating a sense of harmony between the horse and rider. If the only way that can be achieved is by putting the animal in a state of fear—that it might be physically harmed by a whip,