07/24/2024
A long, but worthwhile read. We cannot allow abusers to remain at the highest levels of equestrian sport, but we can learn from their mistakes and advocate for improved horse welfare across all disciplines at all levels.
So, when Charlotte (Dujardin) was in London 2012 Olympics with Valegro, she got my attention. Because Valegro was the first competitive dressage horse I personally saw in recent memory, in recent records, compete and win without an abundance of overtly obvious calming signals and signs of stress. Valegro did show stress, lots and lots of it. But in an environment to his left and right, horses showed stressx100000, and he showed stressx100, he appeared relaxed by comparison. Not relaxed according to what I prefer and try to practice. Putting myself in the shoes of an other, I saw an exception in Charlotte then. I do not see an exception in her now.
So she got my attention.
In subsequent years, when Valegro (Blueberry) retired and I saw her riding of other horses, it became clear to me that Valegro might have been an exceptional animal and an anomaly, and then digging a little deeper into personal research, I tried to find quotes from Charlotte herself talking about her champion horse.
A person always tells you exactly who they are, if we believe them.
I heard a rumor, that Charlotte described Valegro as "Hard Mouthed". I am not sure if that is true. Because much of their press is glossy and idolised. Like this article, still on the FEI website, attributing Charlotte and Valegro to inspiring a whole new generation of dressage riders. https://www.fei.org/stories/sport/dressage/5-things-learn-charlotte-dujardin-valegro
So if a Gold Medallist is describing her champion horse as Hard Mouthed, what does this mean for the training process that horse went through when nobody was watching? I guessed, wildly speculated for myself, that Valegro might be a horse who tolerated more pressure, than perhaps other horses would. Perhaps a horse who was predisposed to working under an enormous amount of compression, without feeling emotionally off-kilter about it. And was therefore able to demonstrate high level competitive riding with her, without an abundance of signs of stress (not no stress at all, just drastically less than is typically seen in those contexts). And actually win. Valegro actually looked... sort of happy... with her. By comparison to the horses around them.
But in subsequent years watching her ride Pumpkin and others, I personally did not like what I saw. I saw too much of the modern, Continental Euro-Dressage culture in the horses body. I felt quietly she needed to listen more to Carl Hester, and less to the Continental Hyper-Mobile style that is so rewarded now across the board.
So in recent years I waned my interest in Charlotte, after initially feeling pleasantly surprised at how much I found an affiliate image in her public body of work that I felt I could... maybe, just maybe, enjoy watching and supporting.
Charlotte is currently under-going the effects of Cancel Culture. Cancel Culture is something I would like to cancel. Let us not throw the baby out with the bath water. Here is a competitor who demonstrated at the Olympics that once in a blue moon, 1 horse in a million could compete -and win-with a drastically minimised output of overt signs of stress. Charlotte showed that to us. She also popularised and brought into fashion the era of helmets in competitive riding. Before that, it was all tuxedo's and top hats. And now helmets are popular and normalised at upper levels. She was the first to really popularise that. She, together with Carl, also used her enormous platform to advocate for the ample turn out of their horses. They even hack their top horses on country roads. At a time when some competitors horses never saw light of day, or had a chance to roll in a field, or play with their buddies, this person was returning from world championships, and instead of posting a photo of her ribbons and trophies, would post of video of turning the champion horse out in a field with their buddies.
And then we see a video of her abusing a horse with a whip. In my opinion, the video is egregious. Her actions in the video are horrific. They appear well practiced. They appear to be perfunctory, like she had done them before. There is NO EXCUSE for what she did. It is bonafide abuse.
But there are explanations why. And understanding WHY is crucial for us right now if we are to avoid the pitfall before us. The pitfall of making camps on the left and right, while we hurl abuse at each other. Let us have enough self restraint to pump the breaks on our outrage, and understand why. We must, if we are to use this moment as a crucial turning point in the development of horse welfare.
I have made mistakes with horses. So have you, yes you. I have done things with horses out of frustration. So have you. Nobody is immune to that. All of us have sinned. But I have never whipped a horse like was shown in the surfaced video. I have never done that. To the laughter of those filming? Sickening. And the inaction of the rider. And the entitlement of Charlotte.
And yet, I do not agree that now is the time to cancel Charlotte.
It would not occur to me to blame the victim. The timing is perhaps suspect to speculation. But perhaps the timing has nothing to do with it. I know what it is like to wait years, 10 years in fact, to blow the whistle on my abusers. I have abusers who I am still waiting for the right time to blow my whistle on them. Now is not the time. I waited for a time when the groundswell of support was such that I could blow the whistle and not stand alone. Perhaps Charlottes whistle blower waited until they had enough support around them, so they COULD be brave. I do not know. But we must not make this about the whistleblower that is the lowest hanging fruit here today.
Let us make this about WHY the top competitor in our industry, so completely failed. Why we cannot sanction almost any competitive riding in 2024 through an ethics lens? And why we need to stop cancelling peoples mistakes, and instead learn from them. So we never-ever- repeat them.
Two things can be true at the same time.
Someone can be abusing horses. And in the same breathe, make great choices for them. It is the human-problem. We have a heavy, clever, abstract brain that needs another 50 millions years of evolution to refine this new bio-computer and de-bug some of its glitches. The human brains most common glitch in my opinion, is the glitch of incongruence. Say one thing. Do one thing. Next minute contradict that entirely. It is almost like somebody left the paddock gate open in the human psyche and all the horses got out. Running chaos across the road. It is the reason why we so wholly engage in acts of abuse, torture, murder and systematic annihilation of others. Just like cancel culture is the annihilation of others we abhor, the same way abusive horse training is the annihilation of the horses well-being in real time. Be careful, outraged or not we may be, be careful to track the threads of aggression and hostility through our bodies, lest we make hypocrites of ourselves.
To use hostility and aggression and lack of listening to others and lack of compassion of others to cancel another, is the same human trait of lack of listening, hostility, aggression and lack of compassion shown to the horse in Charlotte's scandal. To weaponise the same weapons of the person we cancel... is by definition incongruent. The best way to no longer sanction the sort of abuse Charlotte engaged in, is to eliminate those same urgings from ourselves... wherever they show up. Yes- even when directed at Charlotte.
The human brains most common glitch in my opinion, is the glitch of incongruence. Our brains have not fully re-connected recent complex brain developments into our body, our ancient wisdoms, our empathy and our kindness.
I mean, we can. But it takes a Herculean effort to do so. In order to live a congruent life, one must be actively anti-social to the mainstream. Because mainstream living requires incongruence to fit in, survive and be successful.
Charlotte, like tens of thousands of top equine professionals, is part of this problem. Stuck in a system where she must force performance, force compliance, by any egregious means necessary, so that she can maintain her safety, her success, her image and her acceptance. Imagine being an Olympic Gold Medallist, training someone elses "lesser" horse, and the horse is not doing it the way your Valegro did it for you. Imagine doing that in front of an audience.
"I saw Charlotte at a clinic and actually, she couldn't get the results. It must be Valegro, not her"
Such nasty phrases are common place and directed everyday to all trainers, everywhere. Trainers are under enormous pressures to prove not only competency, but competency RIGHT NOW, and the means necessary are not important. This is a dynamic I work hard everyday to counter. It is so hard to do.
If we cancel Charlotte now we risk the following
1. Not learning from this. WHY did the TOP COMPETITOR in that industry still fail at horse ethics 101. If she is failing, we all are.
2. We risk covering up the positive impact she did make towards helmet culture, turn out culture and showcasing, 12 years ago, a relaxed horse. Even if he was one in a million. She still showcased that.
3. We lose an opportunity to understand the popular culture of training and how we need to double our efforts to reform it.
We actually need new parameters of competency. New parameters of success. We don't need to cancel Charlotte. She will get what is coming for her.
Cancel Culture in my opinion is the epitome of a diversion tactic. It is also hostile, and aggressive. And eye for an eye and we are all blind. Someone grappling with their own conscience in what they did or are currently doing to horses, can redirect their internal turmoil onto another and heap their own self loathing onto a scapegoat. They get an adrenal hit out of it. They feel better about themselves. The Germans call it "Schadenfreude" direct translation is Crappyfriend, or happiness at the misfortune of others. It is a toxic trait in my opinion to cancel an other.
We cannot talk a storyline of holding space for misbehaving horses, for troubled horses, if we cannot hold space for misbehaving and troubled people.
I see someone like Charlotte whipping a horse the way she did and I want to throw up, but I also acknowledge how troubled she must be. Troubled and damaged, before, during and after the abuse. not an excuse, I hold no sympathy for her. But damn, how damaged must someone be, to do what she did. How damaged must someone be to believe they can cancel another. Deny their existence, like a death. The same way horses are denied their existence.
Be careful, outraged or not, to track aggression patterns through our bodies and stop them in their tracks.
I have been saying for months:
"S**t is going to hit the fan this Olympics. We need to be ready to catch the people who are abandoning ship"
Olympics hasn't even started yet, and here we are. S**t-fan-ship.
