The wait continues for NZ's first Olympic medal after Sam Gaze finished 6th and another medal-less campaign for the eventing team. Video / Chereè Kinnear
THREE KEY FACTS
British three-time dressage champion Charlotte Dujardin was banned from the Games after footage emerged of her whipping a horse.
Kiwi former Olympian Sir Mark Todd was caught on film striking a horse in 2022.
A crowd of 150,000 attended the cross-country competition at the Olympics.
Kris Shannon has been a sport journalist since 2011 and covers a variety of codes for the Herald.
In the late 18th century, the Palace of Versailles came to be seen as a symbol of royal decadence, as the French Revolutionroiled.
Marie Antoinette soon lost her head – seen recently introducing a metal band at the Olympics opening ceremony – while the chateau would be abandoned.
On a sunny Sunday afternoon some 230 years later, the expansive grounds at Versailles witnessed another symbol of human hubris, a sign perhaps we all have lost our heads.
Equestrian at the Olympics is a joyous spectator experience, one relished on day two of the eventing competition by 150,000 who made the trip from Paris and much farther afield.
Man and beast combine for our collective amusement, performing feats of daring and restraint, majesty abundant long after the guillotine fell.
Much like royal patronage, though, should it really still exist?
That question was unavoidable once twin scandals rocked the sport on the eve of the Games, when allegations of awful animal mistreatment were levelled at two leading riders.
First, footage emerged of three-time dressage champion Charlotte Dujardin whipping a horse 24 times during a training session at her private stable. The Brit was summarily banned from Paris when poised to become her country’s most decorated female Olympian.
The following day, Max Kuehner was accused by German prosecutors of hitting his horse’s legs with a bar to make it jump higher, the second time the Austrian had faced allegations of animal cruelty.
Equestrian advocates will argue these were isolated incidents. Dujardin said in a statement her behaviour was “an error of judgment”, out of character, and did not reflect how she trained horses.
But only the naive could believe the one time Dujardin whipped an animal – 24 times – it happened to be caught on camera. She and that poor horse must share the same rotten luck.
Dujardin has likely lost a chance of a damehood owing to the video. It’s a good thing that Sir Mark Todd had already been bestowed his honour when, captured on video striking a horse with a tree branch, he was handed a ban from training in 2022.
The Kiwi said – and this might sounds familiar – it was an isolated incident, entirely out of character. Cursed, it seems, with the same misfortune as Dujardin.
It’s easy to disassociate from all that nasty business when watching horse and rider gallop around the green fields of Versailles, a thrilling sight akin any other athletic endeavour at these Games.
Kiwi Jonelle Price riding in the shadow of Chateau Versailles. Photo / Photosport
Cross country, in particular, is freeing for both fan and animal, almost as liberating as the revolution was for France.
It can still go horribly wrong – as evidenced by the dive squad waiting lakeside at Versailles – but the discipline is closest to horses acting the way they may without a pesky person straddling their back.
Dressage appears a little less natural. And in showjumping, when a horse refuses an attempt to clear a railing, thoughts wander to what happens in private for the public’s entertainment.
How, exactly, have the animals been trained to perform these abnormal tasks? Were they simply asked nicely?
It could be worse, much worse. Racing, after all, asks for horses’ pain and occasional death to serve a gambling industry that extends the suffering to fans financing it.
But it could be so much better. During the long walk to the venue from Versailles Chateau Rive Gauche station, a number of fans paused to snap photos of horses roaming free(ish) in a nearby field.
They looked to be enjoying life: no forced jumps, no restrictive movements, no one on their backs. Liberte, egalite, fraternite.
Hear it as it happens with live commentary of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on GOLD SPORT & iHeartRadio, plus comprehensive coverage on Newstalk ZB.
