Carl Hester has signed a letter “universally condemning” the actions of dressage star and protegee Charlotte Dujardin.
Dujardin withdrew from the Olympics in Paris on Tuesday after a video emerged of her repeatedly hitting a student’s horse with a whip from the ground during a coaching session.
The video, which was from four years ago, was described as “an error of judgement” by Dujardin with he equestrian’s governing body imposing a provisional suspension into the incident.
Dujardin famously embarked on her dressage career under the tutelage of Hester, who part-owned Valegro, the horse that propelled the rider on to the front pages when the duo secured team and individual gold in London back in 2012.
Hester, who will compete for Team GB next week, is a signatory to a letter from the board members of the International Dressage Riders Club and posted on their website.
The letter read: “The IDRC universally condemn the actions of Charlotte Dujardin as seen in the video footage which was made public this morning by Stephan Wensing from European Equine Lawyers on behalf of his client.
“The Board members are resolute that equine welfare must always be placed uppermost and at all times. They promote only ethical training methods and practices and strive to encourage all their members to abide by the ‘International Equestrian Federation (FEI) Code of Conduct for the Welfare of the Horse’ together with all FEI regulations which support and protect equine welfare standards both in and out of competition.
“The IDRC Board supports the actions taken by the FEI, the British Equestrian Federation and British Dressage to provisionally suspend Ms Dujardin.
“It notes that Ms Dujardin has stated she has no excuse for her actions and has also expressed her shame and regret. Due to the live and on-going investigations the Board will not make any further official announcements on this matter until the investigations are concluded.”
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