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PARIS — Dressage, the centuries-old horse art that evokes images of elegance, nobility and precision, arrived at the Paris Games in the midst of a crisis that has left it virtually unknown outside the sport’s world.
It all began late last year when undercover documentary filmmakers exposed the abusive training methods of Andreas Helgstrand, a famous Danish dressage rider and billionaire horse dealer, showing horses with spur scars and whip marks.
That’s when a video began circulating online in February of former U.S. Olympian Cesar Parra whipping his horse to perform a move known as a “roll-around,” a now-banned technique that forces a horse to bend its neck in an uncomfortable, unnatural way.
“Then it all started to hit hard,” one top-level dressage rider told USA TODAY Sports, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly about the state of the industry without risking retaliation.
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Soon, more shocking videos began appearing on social media, allegations of horse abuse and mistreatment were filed with governing bodies, and calls from within for the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) to take decisive action, with warnings that the perception of systematic cruelty could lead to dressage being removed from the Olympics.
Then, as the athletes began arriving in Paris, new, shocking news broke: A former student of British triple gold medalist Charlotte Dujardin blew the whistle and submitted a two-year-old video showing Dujardin repeatedly using a long device called a lunge whip as her horse backed away to avoid a collision.
“What happened is completely out of character for me and uncharacteristic of how I train horses or mentor my students,” Dujardin said in a statement after withdrawing from the Olympics on Tuesday, “but there are no excuses.”
For an already stressed equestrian industry, the Olympics is a rare opportunity for horses to perform in front of large domestic audiences, so the timing couldn’t be worse and the shock couldn’t be greater. Asked to compare Dujardin’s excellence to athletes in other sports, the athlete, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said it would be fair to call her the LeBron James of dressage.
Having someone like Dujardin embroiled in an abuse scandal, especially at a time when animal rights activists are targeting all sports involving humans riding horses, could either be the ultimate wake-up call or lead to dressage eventually being removed from the Olympic Games.
It’s no secret by now that the stakes are high.
Days before Dujardin’s allegations became public, the FEI announced a new “Be a Guardian” initiative, committing more than $1 million in funding and an action plan to not only codify more specific standards for horse care, but also to change the way people in the sport think.
“Until now we’ve always talked about a partnership (between humans and horses), but it’s not a partnership,” FEI president Ingmar de Vos said this week. “In a partnership, both parties are equal, but you should be the guardian of the horse. You’re not a partner. You need to be the caretaker.”
The microscope on dressage and other international equestrian disciplines is, of course, a by-product of a trend we’ve seen in thoroughbred racing in the U.S. At some point, the sport’s gatekeepers, whose instincts are to downplay or ignore questionable horse behavior or treatment, found themselves unable to escape a flood of public pressure brought on by a combination of activists, widespread sharing of incidents on social media, and modern society’s general aversion to anything that seems like animal suffering.
American horse racing finally saw major change in the form of the creation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Administration (HISA), a federally chartered regulatory agency with broad powers over issues such as drug testing and racetrack maintenance.
The question for dressage, as for thoroughbred racing, is whether the sudden shift to reform came too late.
“This footage is disturbing to watch, and when combined with other high-profile cases that have come to light recently, it certainly points to a possible underlying problem with how dressage is trained that warrants closer scrutiny,” said Chelsea Perez, who has competed in dressage for most of her life and is senior program manager for horse protection at the Humane Society of the United States.
“I understand that when some of these complaints were initially made there were concerns that they were not being taken seriously. The FEI and racing’s other governing bodies now appear to be more positive.”
What is Dressage?
For those unfamiliar with dressage, the easiest comparison might be figure skating. During competition, specially bred horses must perform a series of tests and moves of increasing difficulty. In freestyle, horses perform choreographed movement patterns set to a medley of music. Every element is judged on a scale of 0 to 10 by expert judges who look for specific points like technique, balance and artistry.
Developing a horse to compete at the highest level of dressage, especially at Grand Prix level, typically requires seven years of careful training and muscle development to reach that stage, followed by another three to four years to reach peak performance. For example, the ideal age for an Olympic horse is 12 to 15 years. These horses typically live to be 25 to 30 years old.
“Historically, people have said this is like watching cement set,” Perez said. “It’s a long, deliberate process.”
But as time went on, the demand for competition levels below the Grand Prix increased, and young horses, which were bred more scientifically and more highly valued by buyers, were able to begin earning profits sooner.
“Prices have gone crazy,” said one competitor, who asked not to be named. “It’s not unheard of to spend $100,000 on a horse that’s barely in the saddle. That’s not a lot of money for a racehorse, but it’s a lot of money in the world of sports. A lot of the people who have the money to buy these things are results-oriented. They want to see the prize money and the return on their investment.”
The tension between traditional dressage, which was practised purely as a hobby, and competitive sports, which encourage the breeding of horses with more athletic traits and faster development processes, has inevitably led to changes in the way horses are trained.
Some might call this a shortcut, and some of these shortcuts involve using whips, spurs, or other training implements, but when used repeatedly and aggressively to get a horse’s legs to lift higher or to make a more expressive face, as Dujardin did in his video, it crosses the line into abuse.
But determining where that line is isn’t always easy, especially for the layman, and those who work with horses would argue that some of these tools, if used correctly and carefully, are not only appropriate but necessary for training a horse.
After all, it’s worth remembering that these are 1,200-pound animals that can be wild, aggressive, and even dangerous if not taught certain behaviors. They need to be trained and, in a sense, made a little docile just to be safe around humans, let alone perform in a sport like equestrianism. And what if that one ugly incident caught on camera wasn’t organized, but simply a moment of frustration, like a parent losing patience with a disobedient toddler and yelling at them in the middle of a crowded shopping mall? Where do you draw the line?
It’s often the case that those who live in the horse world and love them deeply become defensive against critics from the outside looking in. With increased scrutiny from untrained eyes, the lines between what is and isn’t acceptable can become blurred. At the same time, one highly publicized case of abuse usually leads to others coming to light. Looking inside, you descend into a feeding frenzy and full-blown crisis with no solution other than confronting the problem head on.
As one rider, who asked not to be named, said, this puts sports like dressage at risk of losing their social license to operate, which is why governing bodies like the FEI are facing a make-or-break moment.
Everything is on the table. From working with behavioral scientists to clearly define acceptable training methods, to drug testing, to giving race officials the power to issue warnings if a horse shows signs of distress during warm-ups, racing is promising changes that have little choice but to follow through.
“One of the most important things is the recognition that we are the guardians of the sport and that everyone has a responsibility,” FEI Secretary General Sabrina Ibanez said. “Now we have a more holistic view of what we need to do more.”
“Such atrocities will not be tolerated.”
It is unclear why the whistleblower waited two years to come forward against Dujardin, choosing to release the video just days before the opening ceremony for maximum impact.
Perhaps this was simply a natural endpoint for the recent proliferation of abuse allegations, or perhaps other motives were at work. (There is no evidence to support this, but conversations in the sports world this week have focused on a possible link between the whistleblower’s Dutch lawyer and Dujardin’s withdrawal, which could improve the Netherlands’ medal chances.)
FEI President De Vos said he was surprised by the video and disappointed that it wasn’t submitted until two years later.
“It’s probably no coincidence that this has happened so close to the Olympics, but it reinforces my belief that we are doing the right thing,” he said. “It underscores that this plan that we have now put together and our philosophy of ‘Be the Guardian’ is exactly what we need.”
But what’s puzzling is that Dujardin is one of the last people in the sport to be suspected of such offences.
When dressage experts look for signs of abuse, they’re not just looking for obvious cuts or scarring, but also for easily recognizable signs like a tense mouth, a discolored tongue or a tail signaling stress — things that were not characteristic of Dujardin’s horse.
“If you had asked me five days ago who the best trainer in the world was, I would have said Charlotte, not only because she’s so good, but because her horses are happy athletes,” said a competitor who asked not to be named. “Her successful horses don’t have those issues.”
Still, everyone in the sport would agree that what Dujardin did in the video was completely unacceptable. She may have lost her mind for a moment, but an experienced trainer would have known she was crossing the line, so why didn’t she stop her? Nobody has a good answer for that.
“Such cruelty is unacceptable under any circumstances and underscores the need for meaningful welfare standards to protect horses,” Perez said. “Whistleblowers are key to exposing these abuses and we commend their courage.”
Whether the video, in which Dujardin is seen repeatedly cracking his long whip at a clearly frightened horse, was coordinated or, as the statement asserts, out of character, is of little importance at this point, as is the whistleblower’s motive.
As the Olympic dressage events begin Saturday in the shadow of the picturesque Palace of Versailles, the entire sport is being targeted, fairly or not, with thoroughbred breakdowns and the controversy over cruel “horse-salling” laws that have been linked to the exaggerated gait of the Tennessee Walking Horse.
That makes these Olympics a dangerous moment for dressage, a sport that usually appeals to a niche audience, but now has the world’s attention on it for all the wrong reasons, and any further revelations or violations would only add fuel to the fire.
“We’re all going to have to be on our best behavior for a while,” said a contestant who asked not to be named.
