“These people have done us a terrible disservice”… How equestrianism suffered from the images of the pentathlon at the Tokyo Games

For several years, the animal rights movement has been targeting horse riding, to the point of wanting to have these events removed from the Olympic Games.

Bay coat, wide eyes, head raised, jaws clenched, paralyzed by the blows of his rider’s spurs and whip. The images of Saint Boy had gone around the world in 2021. This horse remained in the memories because he accelerated the evolution of one of the emblematic events of the Olympic Games: the pentathlon. Helpless and in tears on his back, Annika Shleu had seen her dreams of a gold medal fly away. And the criticism had multiplied.

A few days after the images, a German animal protection association (Deutscher Tierschutzbund) announced that it was filing a complaint against the athlete and his coach, who was seen striking Saint Boy. The charges were later dropped by the German courts.Of course, an athlete focused on Olympic gold is under enormous stress at that time, but that is no excuse for animal cruelty.“, asserted Thomas Schröder, president of the complainant association.

These images have become, for some animal rights associations, a symbol. Some have gone so far as to call for the removal of equestrian events from the Olympic Games, especially since other images in Tokyo had caused uproar: the euthanasia of Jet Set, the mount of the Swiss Robin Godel, who had been seriously injured after a fall during the cross-country event. Or the blood dripping from the nostrils of Kilkenny, the horse of the Irishman Cian O’Connor, during the show jumping event.

“Fines and suspensions are not enough to protect other horses from trainers who might commit similar offences.“, wrote the association For Ethics in the Treatment of Animals (Peta) in August 2021 in a letter addressed to IOC President Thomas Bach. “The Olympics are about human athletes, not the ability to terrify and injure horses who don’t choose to compete but do all the work, sometimes at the cost of their lives.“, added Ingrid Newkirk, the president of the animal rights association.

The decision to cancel the equestrian event of the pentathlon has finally been made. However, the association regrets that the Paris edition, which is about to open, is not affected: “We still wonder why it had to wait until 2028 when it could have been as early as 2024. These are animals that do not know their rider, who are used a bit like objects. But we also have examples that show mistreatment in other disciplines..“

For Alexandre Ayache, rider in the French dressage team, it There is a real difference between pentathlon riders and professionals. “This woman [Annika Schleu] is not a rider. She lost her temper, but you can’t say she’s a rider. It hurts riding. She arrives ten minutes before the event, she does her relaxation [préparation à l’effort] and she never sees the horse again. It’s not the same thing at all.”

“These people have done us a lot of harm. And it’s hurting high-level riding because everyone is putting us in the same basket.”

Alexandre Ayache, dressage rider of the French team

to franceinfo: sport

Unlike the pentathlon equestrian event, where competitors ride a horse chosen at random and only discover it a few minutes before, riders in equestrian events work their horses for years before reaching the desired level. A relationship is formed between the human and the animal, and the latter is treated like a top athlete.We have been working on the well-being of our horses for years.laments Jean Morel, coach of the French dressage team. People have confused our sport with the pentathlon.”

So much so that certain scenes have become common in competitions: “We have 20 animalists around the track now. This morning, as I was leaving the track, after I had restarted, a lady had her phone with which she was secretly filming. I got out and told her: ‘Wait, I’ll show you’. I opened the mare’s mouth so she could check that there was no blood.“, described Alexandre Ayache last May in Fontainebleau.

“They feel that top level horses are all tortured while they have a life of peace compared to club horses.assures Alexandre Ayache. A horse that is in a pony club on Saturday does four, five, six hours with different riders who have quite low levels.. We are wrapped in cotton wool, groomed like divas. Jolene [son propre cheval] returns from the Aachen competition, she is on her third day of thalassotherapy, with her carrots, her paddock all day long.” Far from enough for Peta, who highlights the exploitation of horses and calls for the elimination of all equestrian events from the Olympic Games. “We have people who really use horses just as accessories. In all these disciplines which are at a very high level, we have much more exploitation, much more pressure on the animals.”

The footage of Ludger Beerbaum, the four-time German Olympic show jumping champion, being filmed mistreating one of his horses in 2022, did not help matters. “We cannot be blamed for not working on the welfare of our horses.Jean Morel also protests. It doesn’t look like that, but for example, Pauline Basquin’s horse [cavalière de l’équipe de France de dressage]it took us two years to create a back musculature that allows him to stand. We try to ensure that the horse has the optimum physique to handle what we are going to ask of him.”

“The problem is, we’ll never know what’s going on until they get to the event.says Peta. The only way to find out is through whistleblowers.“ Too radical, even ineffective for the rider of the French team: “ThatIt becomes extreme and it goes against their fight“, asserts Alexandre Ayache.