There may be one North Star on the Olympics, one inalienable fact that guides this motion via unsure occasions. Athletes measure success in gold, silver and bronze however the Worldwide Olympic Committee is a little more brutal about the true backside line.

With out sponsors and broadcasters, the Olympics could be a shell occasion, which is why the Worldwide Federation for Equestrian Sports activities (FEI) might quickly be pressured to make some tough choices about the way forward for dressage.

The whistleblowing lawyer who reported Nice Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin to the FEI insists the incident is simply the tip of the iceberg – and the game merely can not afford any extra destructive headlines.

Dujardin has now been suspended from all competitors for one 12 months, with the four-time Olympic champion admitting on the time that she was “deeply ashamed” of the video which noticed her whipping a horse’s legs throughout a coaching session.

The footage confirmed her utilizing a protracted whip at the least 24 occasions in a single minute throughout a lesson at her personal steady in Gloucestershire.

Dujardin’s Video games had been prematurely completed – she withdrew from the staff hours earlier than she was handed an preliminary six-month provisional ban earlier than the FEI concluded its report. Her future past the suspension and the street to LA28 stays unsure.

Six Olympic medals have translated into vital monetary success, with a string of organisations as her official sponsors, together with high-end equestrian manufacturers Charles Owen and Le Mieux. For 9 years, she has labored as a worldwide ambassador for animal welfare charity Brooke. These endorsements look on extraordinarily skinny ice at the moment.

Much more unclear is the way forward for dressage on the Video games – and there’s precedent for the game’s concern, the FEI is already on the watch listing, with Olympic organisers extremely involved about reputational harm, particularly of their bid to steer youthful audiences to have interaction. The game is ready for LA28, but the venue is pending the town of Los Angeles’ approval.

“What it’s essential perceive is what occurred right here with Dujardin is just not an remoted incident on this sport,” Mr Wensing instructed The Unbiased this summer time. “That is actually the tip of the iceberg and I don’t count on this story to be the final, extra riders will likely be watching this involved, I’ve little doubt about that.

“There’s a concern tradition in dressage and that’s why my shopper needs to stay nameless however issues want to vary – this isn’t sport, it’s merely animal cruelty.

“It’s unacceptable that dressage as a sport needs to be accompanied by animal abuse – how may we watch this particular person (Dujardin) perhaps gather one other Olympic gold and keep silent? If top-level sport can solely be carried out in such a manner that the welfare of the horse is compromised, then top-level sport needs to be abolished, it’s that easy. That’s the query dealing with the FEI and the Worldwide Olympic Committee now.”

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Dujardin was eager to emphasize the video confirmed an remoted incident, an “error of judgement” from a number of years in the past. Nevertheless, the harm she has achieved to her profession and model is incalculable and the influence on her sport even perhaps better. Now her suspension has been confirmed, the game should rebuild at first of a brand new Olympic cycle.

And maybe there needs to be no shock, earlier this 12 months seven-time Olympic dressage champion Isabell Werth wrote to FEI president Ingmar de Vos and FEI secretary common Sabrina Ibanez to precise concern in regards to the sport’s future after a string of animal cruelty instances.

“Our sport is in critical hazard,” she mentioned. “The present scandals and the dangerous popularity threaten its existence and will imply the tip of dressage as an Olympic self-discipline.”

Equestrian circles will be famously nepotistic and high dressage horses can value as much as £200,000 – usually making the game the protect of the rich and well-connected, a pattern that Dujardin bucked. And with this amount of cash comes big strain to carry out.

Final 12 months, a Danish tv channel broadcast an undercover investigation from the using college of Andreas Helgstrand, a former Olympic dressage bronze medallist. Horses had been exhibiting bleeding from their mouths and flanks after coaching periods and the rider was banned till 2025.

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Earlier this 12 months, graphic movies had been launched from the stables of American dressage rider Cesar Parra. He was proven repeatedly whipping and even kicking his horses.

It’s greater than a decade for the reason that FEI banned the controversial dressage coaching methodology often called Rollkur, which includes a rider pulling the horse’s mouth far down with the reins, in order that the animal virtually bites its personal chest.

Nevertheless, there’s a perception that behind closed doorways the apply stays. German worldwide Matthias Rath was pressured to disclaim utilizing the Rollkur on his horse Totilas throughout a coaching occasion 4 years in the past, the horse dying later that 12 months.

Equestrianism has high-profile supporters throughout the Olympic motion, together with Anne, Princess Royal – a European champion and Staff GB Olympian in eventing. However the sport is conscious about the strain that may very well be utilized if welfare scandals proceed.

It’s not low-cost to stage and each aspect of each sport on the Video games is ruthlessly scored by the IOC, together with press protection and social media sentiment.

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Two years in the past, double Olympic eventing champion Mark Todd was pressured to apologise after a video posted on TikTok confirmed him repeatedly putting a horse with a department.

And in Tokyo, German fashionable pentathlon coach Kim Raisner was suspended from the Olympics after punching a horse in the course of the present leaping aspect of the competitors.

IOC president Thomas Bach made his emotions identified in no unsure phrases this summer time that the game should get its home so as with using not a part of the trendy pentathlon in Paris, having been changed by a Ninja Warrior-style impediment course.

The FEI might quickly come underneath related strain and dressage, which delivers a lot much less business income than different equestrian disciplines, might pay the value. And Dujardin will finally share the blame.

A model of this story was initially printed on 25 July