Top U.K. rider out of Olympics after horse-whipping video surfaces
Global News
One of Britain's most decorated Olympians is out of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games as she faces an investigation into alleged animal abuse.
One of Britain’s most decorated Olympians, Charlotte Dujardin, has pulled out of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games after a shocking video emerged showing her repeatedly whipping a horse.
Dujardin has won six Olympic medals in dressage, an equestrian event in which horse and rider perform a series of artistic movements. She is tied with retired cyclist Laura Kenny for the most Olympic medals won by a woman athlete in the U.K.
Dujardin may have been able to pull ahead of Kenny at this year’s Olympics, but instead, she will serve out a provisional suspension from her sport until an investigation into her alleged abuse is completed.
The international governing body overseeing equestrian sports, known as FEI, suspended Dujardin a day after it received a video of her “engaging in conduct contrary to the principles of horse welfare,” the federation wrote in a press release. The video was sent in by a lawyer representing an “undisclosed complainant.”
An investigation was immediately initiated and the FEI reached out to Dujardin, who confirmed that she was the individual in the video and “acknowledged that her conduct was inappropriate.”
The footage was allegedly taken several years ago while Dujardin was coaching a rider at a private stable. The rider’s identity has not been released.
The disturbing video, viewed by Global News, shows Dujardin in an indoor riding arena appearing to train a rider on horseback. Using a long whip, Dujardin can be seen whipping the horse’s legs and rump dozens of times over the course of a minute as it trots around the arena. Dujardin struck the horse so hard at some points that loud cracks could be heard echoing through the building.
Dujardin called her behaviour in the video an “error of judgement” in a statement posted to Instagram.
