24 July 2024

Statement on Charlotte Dujardin Incident

We have today (24th July 24) issued a statement following the release of a video involving Charlotte Dujardin and her withdrawal from the Paris Olympic team.

Redwings Head of Welfare and Behaviour, Vet Nic de Brauwere, said:

“The behaviour shown by Charlotte Dujardin in this video is unacceptable and is especially upsetting given what a role model she is for riders everywhere.

“It confirms our worst fears unfortunately, which is that training practices which do not align with a horse’s ability to understand what we want from them, or what we are trying to teach them, run through every aspect of horsemanship and training.

“Here at Redwings, we are proud to be known for our behaviour work, working especially with nervous and unhandled horses, and a horse’s positive mental wellbeing is at the core of what we try to achieve with our training methods. We advocate for acknowledging a horse’s mental experience, and welfare, in any training situation and using appropriate methods.

“For a long time, we have been concerned that role models have failed the ‘average’ horse by setting bad examples or failing to speak out on such issues. Change has been long overdue across all equestrianism and whilst there has been good progress recently with better leadership, there is still a long way to go.

“We are supportive of the content of the FEI’s charter, (PDF 183 KB) and their top-down approach to address these issues and push for fundamental change in equestrian sport.

“Perhaps today can help the discussion focus on how horses feel and cope with what we want from them and allow us all to become better advocates for our horses.

“What matters is the horse’s experiences, and their wellbeing must come first, not people’s aims in the sport.”