- This topic has 52 replies, 20 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 6 months ago by
.
- Posts
Regards protesting at dressage LD. Won’t happen because there’s no betting on it. The people against racing they can’t seperate out being against animals used in sport and people betting on it and it all becomes a big mess.
Having now seen this with sound, you can hear someone laughing in the background and also a complaint that the whip ‘is so sh*t at hitting hard’. How would someone not used to using such implements know?
This is seriously damaging to all equestrian sports imo. The Man on the Clapham Omnibus will be asking himself what goes on behind closed doors if that’s what happens when the cameras are rolling.
I suspect this is common practice. Horses being asked to do unnatural movements are likely to need a bit of “encouragement” to temper them.
The more I know the less I understand.
This exposure smacks of something that PETA would do. They don’t believe that animals should be used for anything other than living in the wild. Eg not even used as pets. I’m not condoning what she did but something doesn’t seem right about the timing of this if PETA aren’t involved.
About 40 years ago now, I witnessed a high profile trainer in Newmarket strike a recalcitrant horse two very sharp blows with a bull whip. An old boy standing near by said to me “The RSPCA would have this fellow locked up if they knew”.
I don’t know if that sort of thing goes on in Newmarket today but if it does it runs the risk of being recorded. People did not have recording devices so readily to hand 40 years ago.
All equestrian sports, including racing, need to realise there isn’t really any such thing as behind closed doors nowadays. Any hint that horses are being mistreated is not going to be well received or just shrugged off in the social media age.
The only thought I will add is with dressage and racing, we are not comparing like with like. I do not know much about dressage other than seeing it every four years at the Olympic Games but I do know that abused horses are not going to be able to run fast enough to win horse races.
Likewise, the whipping carried out by Dujardin is not the same as the way the whip is used in a race. Any jockey who struck a horse that often would be heavily fined, receive a lengthy suspension and the horse would be disqualified.
This is a point that has got lost in some of the discussions online – but I fully accept the video is very damaging for equine sports and nuance does not really have much chance of getting a hearing in these sort of situations.
That is exactly the point Cork, Joe Public doesn’t see past ‘horse being used for sport’ and unfortunately tars them all with the same brush.
It has now been reported that it was slightly more recent than four years ago which would explain why it was not brought out before Tokyo.
I haven’t a clue if this is common practice
I’d have thought something like this would have reared it’s head before now if it was.
Either way it’s very unsavoury and a bad day for equine sport…😕
Charles Darwin to conquer the World
Sadly the video gives the impression of what was happening being unremarkable to everyone present.
Anything like this tarnishes all equine sport. It is all very sad and dispiriting.
While I appreciate the delay in the video’s release raises questions about the motivation, if you want to maximise damage to the sport you do it when the most eyes are on it.
Extremely bad look for all equestrian sports I think.
I’ve never personally seen any what I would term cruel treatment of racehorses but we shouldn’t lose sight of the high profile exposure of what you might term a ‘casual’ approach to the racehorse after its racing days are over.
Nor should we lose sight of the fact that racehorses are repeatedly hit with whips, albeit foam padded, as a routine aspect of daily competition.
You could argue that there is a line somewhere differentiating the two. I’d agree the Dujardin incident is on an altogether different level to what you would see in a race. But I’d also argue the line should be drawn at no strikes of any animal. Not sure how you could logically condemn one (rightly so) while routinely accepting the other.
“Not sure how you could logically condemn one (rightly so) while routinely accepting the other.”
As I said earlier, I appreciate nuanced arguments tend to have no chance in this sort of situation. But I do think there is a difference.
What Dujardin did does not bear any relation to a jockey using (as you note) a foam padded whip three or four times at the business end of a race when a horse has adrenaline pumping through its system.
Having said that, I do think this incident has probably brought forward the day the whip, or pro-cush, or whatever you want to call it, is banned.
Plunkett just can’t stop herself can she? ITV obviously wanted to interview someone “horsey” and, understandably, asked someone already on their books. If she had any interest in racing, she’d have refused. Instead she jumped at the chance to defend her mate, thereby destroying any chance of racing distancing itself from this shameful incident. I think I recall her defending Mark Todd after he was caught beating a horse with a branch too (though could be mistaking her for someone else). If ITV Racing producers have any sense they’ll avoid using her until well after the Olympics.
Even so, damage is done.
Agree, I can’t think of anyone less suitable than Plunkett to get involved. Posh Alice defending Posh Charlotte is the last thing equine sport needs.
‘What Dujardin did does not bear any relation to a jockey using (as you note) a foam padded whip three or four times at the business end of a race when a horse has adrenaline pumping through its system.’
Agree CAS, different ends of a spectrum, but still the same spectrum.
The ITV racing team will be having a lot chat about Alice.
The more I know the less I understand.
People on another non racing forum I’m on are already mentioning the use of the whip in racing. PETA were interviewed on TV this morning about Charlotte but no one questions what their long term plan is for animals in general.
This article from The Graun does concentrate on dressage specifically, racing is mentioned only in terms of the whip limits and that stewards reveiw any ride that breaches them.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.