In this week’s column, MSPCA General Manager Juana Warburton discusses the footage that has shocked the equestrian world and the impact the footage could have on the sport of dressage going forward...

You don’t have to be interested in horses to be aware that the equestrian world has been rocked by the news that Charlotte Dujardin, multiple gold medal winning Olympian, world and European champion, has been suspended from the sport of dressage.

She had been due to compete in the Paris Olympics and was aiming to become Britain’s most decorated female Olympian by winning a medal there.

But these dreams came to an abrupt end last week when the sport’s governing body, the International Federation of Equestrian Sports (FEI), provisionally suspended Dujardin for six months on the grounds that she had engaged ‘in conduct contrary to the principles of horse welfare’.

The FEI had been sent footage of Dujardin striking a horse’s legs with a long whip 24 times in the space of a minute, and reportedly using words along the lines of ‘this whip isn’t good at hitting them hard’. She was coaching a teenage pupil on the girl’s horse, and had a small audience (one of whom was filming the session, as is normal), and so this was not a covert ‘sting’ or set up.

The incident took place several years ago, and so there is some suspicion that the timing of the release of the video has been manipulated in order to cause maximum impact.

But whilst there is some uncertainty over motives, there can be no doubt as to the seriousness of Dujardin’s actions and the wider impact these will have on the sport of dressage.

She has issued a formal statement in which she says she is ‘deeply ashamed’ and that the incident ‘was completely out of character’, but given the dressage world’s reaction to the video it seems likely that her competitive career is over.

The longer-term impact on the equestrian world, though, need not be a negative one and the video could be the catalyst needed to truly improve horse welfare. The CEO of British Dressage, the UK’s governing body for the sport which has also suspended Dujardin pending the FEI’s investigation, has issued a statement: he emphasises that horses should be trained ‘through harmonious education, by establishing a confident and secure partnership that is based on mutual respect, care and understanding’.

He also encouraged anyone with evidence of equine abuse to come forward at the earliest opportunity. This is a sentiment that applies to all levels of horsemanship, and not just the top level of the sport.

On the Isle of Man, whilst we don’t have direct British Dressage representation, we do have several organisations that investigate equine welfare concerns: the ManxSPCA endeavours to work hand-in-hand with Island Horse and Pony Aid to assess the validity of concerns. It also liaises with The British Horse Society’s welfare officers on the Island, and with the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture.

In most cases, welfare concerns are misplaced, with the most common one being that a horse or pony looks like it may be dead in a field – whereas they are just deeply asleep, with the odd twitch of a whisker to indicate that they are breathing.

Where there is cause for concern, it generally involves ignorance rather than cruelty, and every effort is made to work with the horse or pony owner to make the necessary improvements.

That said, the ManxSPCA has been involved in two cases of horse and pony cruelty in the last four years that have led to the police prosecuting the respective owners.

The result was a fine for the owner in the first case; and a custodial sentence in the second one.

Let’s hope that some good can come out of the ‘Dujardin incident’, and that standards and expectations are raised and maintained across the equine world.