Equestrian star Werth urges better horse welfare but bristles at questions over a suspended rider

PARIS (AP) — Equestrian star Isabell Werth has been advocating at the Paris Olympics for better horse welfare.

But even she bristled when attention kept shifting from the competition to suspended riders.

In the wake of the Charlotte Dujardin video scandal that dominated coverage of the sport ahead of the Paris Games, Werth and other riders were vocal about equestrian needing a significant culture change to stop violence toward horses.

British rider Carl Hester went as far as saying the sport's Olympic survival was at stake.

Werth won a gold and a silver in Paris, extending her equestrian-record tally to 14 Olympic medals — including eight golds — and all in dressage.

The 55-year-old Werth addressed the issue of horse welfare again Sunday after her events ended, when the video of three-time Olympic dressage champion Dujardin whipping her horse’s legs was still a talking point.

“We have (seen) some really bad videos, we all know, and we have to be aware. And the most important thing is that we all be really open minded, we have to be,” Werth said. “If something happened in the wrong way, we have to stop it immediately. This is a responsibility of all of us. If we love the sport and if we want to keep it going, this is what we have to do.”

When equestrian competition got underway last week, horse welfare was immediately highlighted when Brazilian rider Carlos Parro received a yellow card warning for potentially causing “unnecessary discomfort” to his horse Safira. This took place before the Games.

The warning for Parro was issued after equestrian's governing body, FEI, received photos from animal rights group PETA. One photo showed Parro hyper-flexing Safira’s neck in a movement called “Rollkur” — which compromises the horse’s breathing and, which PETA says, can damage the horse’s spine and cause distress.

Werth's horse

Connections run deep in equestrian. Werth rode on a horse called Wendy at the Paris Games. She acquired Wendy in January from the stables of Andreas Helgstrand — an Olympic bronze medalist in team dressage with Denmark at the 2008 Games.

Helgstrand is suspended until Dec. 31 after a documentary — “Operation X: Secrets of the Horse Billionaire” — was aired last November on Danish channel TV 2 detailing horse abuse at his training facility.

An undercover reporter posed as a groom to secretly film inside the facility, and claimed horses had deep cuts and whip marks. The documentary alleged grooms hid cuts — resulting from the metal spurs of riders’ boots — with shoe polish and covered up whip marks with blankets to conceal them from prospective clients.

The Danish equestrian federation's suspension, which Helgstrand did not appeal, also prohibits him from coaching students. The FEI also suspended him.

After the second day of the dressage test event in Versailles last Wednesday, a Danish reporter asked Werth to comment on Helgstrand’s suspension.

She bristled.

“I don’t discuss this here. Not more Charlotte, not more Andreas, not more Parro, nothing more. Everything is said,” Werth said. “I got a fantastic mare, and a very great, beloved mare, and I got super other horses from Helgstrand Dressage, so there’s nothing more to discuss.”

In January, Werth thanked Helgenstrand “for facilitating this partnership” with Wendy.

“I am very proud and grateful to welcome this outstanding horse as a new addition to my stall,” Werth said on Helgenstrand dressage’s website.

Later that month, Werth held a masterclass at Helgstrand Dressage USA in Wellington, Florida, riding on Helgstrand’s horses at Windsome Farm.

The TV 2 documentary did not suggest any harm had been caused to Wendy at Helgstrand’s facility.

Dujardin fallout

Dujardin was expected to be among the medal favorites in dressage, where horse and rider perform set movements over several minutes inside a ring.

One of the most well-known movements is a trotting technique called the piaffe, where each diagonal pair of legs is raised and returned to the ground alternately in a kind of springing motion. Piaffe became more widely known when the video of Dujardin's horse-whipping emerged.

Dujardin was strongly criticized, including by the 57-year-old Hester, who has known her for 17 years and signed a letter by the the International Dressage Riders Club condemning her actions.

Touchdown's Painface

Swedish dressage rider Patrik Kittel, who competed in Paris, was investigated for excessively using rollkur.

The FEI examined him using it over an extended period of time on his horse, Scandic, during an event in October 2009.

Kittel was exonerated, but received a warning and informed his actions would be monitored.

Earlier this year, Swedish newspaper Sportbladet's website published photos of Kittel at a World Cup event in Amsterdam, where Touchdown's tongue appeared to turn blue as it flopped out.

A horse's strained facial expression when suffering is known in equestrian circles as “Painface.”

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games