Charlotte DuJardin banned from the Olympics for animal abuse | Animal Rising's Alistair on GB News

well six-time Olympic medalist Charlotte dardan's career is in tatted tonight after she was forced to withdraw from Paris 2024 and handed a provisional six-month ban after a video of her whipping a horse during a lesson four years ago emerged you watch so the sports governing body was sent that video on Monday when a Dutch lawyer raised a grievance on behalf of his Anonymous client and since then djan's career has been in freefall she's also now expected to lose out on a Dame hood and has been dumped by numerous sponsors but is the punishment too harsh let me know your thoughts go to GB news.com yoursay tweet me at GB news while you're there go and vote in our poll but first going head to-head on this are the uh former uh British army officer and animal Rising spokesperson Alistair Stewart and the Royal commentator lady Colin Campbell both of you thank you very very much um lady C I'll start with you on this that clip does look quite shocking to a lot of people where do you stand on whether or not it was right that djan's career and essentially life now is in tasses well first of all Patrick good evening and may I say one of my closest friends knows her very well Charlotte dardon used to ride her ponies when she was seven years old when Charlotte was seven years old this friend of mine is one of the leading dressage judges in the world she says that Charlotte even as a little girl was absolutely wonderful with horses and if you listen to that clip she is actually complaining about what she is doing she was obviously made to do it for most likely a very good reason and did not enjoy doing it and I think it is an absolute disgrace that first of all we as a country should lose our chance to have somebody possibly bring home a gold medal for us because of what is basically uh evidently the the friend of mine said she thinks that the greeneyed monster is responsible for this okay and but whatever the reason is the fact of the matter is when you are training horses and she didn't injure the horse okay let's be I I get that I get that I'll come I'll come back to you LC I will come back to you alist I'll bring you in now so animal Rising spokesperson I assume you have a different view on this do you think it's right now that dardan has basically lost everything uh good evening Patrick thank you very much for having me on um I'm not I wouldn't say I'm particularly interested in in whether or not the punishment for Charlotte D jandan is an appropriate one I think I think I speak for the majority of the British public when I say I was sickened um but and shocked to watch this footage um where you can you clearly see dujan whipping um this horse causing them you know stress and and pain and fear and it's just not right and I'm very surprised to hear Lady c um defending her and defending this kind of activity um I must say I'm pretty confused by it okay well well ladies see I mean I I could you off before but from what I'm hearing from you I don't want to put words in your mouth but you seem to think this is this is part of training a dress AR horse is it well you know I mean I'm surprised that anybody is that surprised first first of all dress dressage is a very unnatural thing horses are supposed to be running free and well I come from what I come from a family that was Jamaica's leading racing family for 40 years I'm very familiar with how horses need to be trained you know it's yes they they do have to be uh in they you do have to at times inflict pain there's a difference between inflicting pain pain and injury you don't injure a horse and nobody who is an equestrian of any description would ever try to injure a horse they love their animals and also it's quite clear listen to it that she is doing something that she is reluctant to but there are most likely very good reasons why she did it and I'll tell you what one or two of them could be uh you know the person who was riding the horse was most likely the owner of the horse and if the horse wasn't going to live up to its purpose the horse they would have lost the horse they most likely wanted to keep the horse okay they and and often in with in in situations like that horses are just not put out to to the field to graze they are sold on to the nappa's yard realities behind this that that nambi pambi bleeding hearts don't seem to understand yeah okay fair enough I I get that that's that side of it um alist I just wonder if if there's an element to this which maybe you might latch on which is if this if this whole thing is a bit unnatural are you making a horse do dressage I suppose as far as animal Rising are concerned that that suggests that really we shouldn't be doing this thing at all that's exactly right Patrick um if um you know looking at this footage and condemning it makes me a bleeding heart n nambi pambi liberal um then I'm proud to be one and I'm afraid to say you this this is called a head-to-head debate I think I agree with Lady c and a lot of things she said um dressage is unnatural this is not what horses um have naturally evolved to do um and you do have to inflict pain that that is how dressage works but beyond that [Music] that even beyond that that is how um Industries for food clothing and labor entertainment experimentation this is how all of these in Industries work um they're all exploitative um they all inflict pain and suffering and it's not good enough we can do better um okay I mean I suppose Alis I'll just stick with you because I'll give lady C the final word on this but you know is is there an argument Alis to say that actually we're just a little bit soft you know people like us maybe who are a bit detached from what life is like you know at Stables or at a farm or in the wild dare I say where nature is quite brutal I mean how do we know that that horse was actually really suffering I mean I would not like to be repeatedly you know struck like that obviously not but you know this is this is an animal we're talking about a big animal and this is a training process I mean is it actually that bad it was four years ago this lady's you know a Serial winner high level you would have thought that if she was genuinely really cruel to animals or evil that something like this might have come out at some point in her career before aler well Patrick I mean when when you said you wouldn't like to be whipped like that I agree age with you and that is the basis of animal rights it's just treating animals as a sentient beings worthy of all consideration that they in fact are um horses deserve not to be used as a means to an end um they don't deserve to be to be you know bred into existence bought and sold um broken in trained whipped like this they don't deserve to be hurt simple as that okay I mean I think that's and I think that is a massive point of difference cuz alist and you perfectly entitled to this view obviously but you know essentially doesn't think that the these sport should exist or the really I don't want to put words in your mouth alist but really the animals like that should be kept in captivity and all of that stuff whereas lady C you you just think that this lady should should keep her job and that she's what the victim of some kind of woke Animal Rights Campaign first of all anybody who knows about horses knows that they have very thick skins you know they they're not human beings they don't have very thin skins that's the first thing the second thing is they wouldn't exist people don't seem to understand farm animals race horses uh dressage horses they wouldn't exist if the sport didn't exist they're not they're being bred for a purpose without the purpose they wouldn't exist are we seriously suggesting that we should be so loving towards animals that they should never exist and also uh you know to say that dressage is exploitative the Way say say children in India being exploited in the clothing industry is just Preposterous I'm sorry it's it's a leap too far it's a horse and and she didn't injure the horse she she clearly didn't enjoy what she was doing and the alternative could have been that she and her the owner were trying to save the horse from the NAA yard let's have a sense of proportion here you know nowadays everybody is very happy to condemn out of context let's have things in context and why should her career be destroyed it's ridiculous all right look both of you thank you very very much definitely got both sides that so that is a former British army officer and animal Rising spokesperson there alist Stewart and Royal commentator lady Colin Campbell thank you so in a statement charlot dadan said a video was emerged from four years ago which shows me making an error of judgment during a coaching session under the International Federation for equestrian Sports is investigating and I have made the decision to withdraw from all competition including the Paris Olympics while this process takes place what happened was completely out of character and does not reflect how I train my horses or coach my pupils however there is no excuse I'm deeply ashamed and should have set a better example in that moment I'm sincerely sorry for my actions and devastated that I've let everyone down including team GB fans and sponsors quite a m couple there it must be said so who do you agree with that video um ended should charlot dardan's Olympic dream do you think the punishment was too harsh Kenneth on X has been in touch H there is a Dutch sex offender who raped a young girl competing at the Olympics but J jardan gets banned for whipping a horse Madness that is a very good point I must say Kenneth that that is that is a fact there is a Dutch sex offender who raped a young girl competing at the Olympics whereas a woman who whipped a horse uh is not so there we go Louise says not harsh enough as the punishment and great name on X says the punishment didn't go far enough being cruel to an animal for her own gain is disgraceful right 36% of you think the punishment is too harsh 64% of you say it is not so you're definitely on the side of the horse there