THE Charlotte Dujardin scandal is said to “smell of sabotage” after a video of the Team GB star whipping a horse was leaked just days before the Olympics.
Six-time Olympic medallist Dujardin sensationally pulled out of Paris 2024 in disgrace this week after being suspended.
A disturbing video of Dujardin whipping a horse which led to her Olympic exile was also released.
The footage showed Dujardin hitting the horse with a long whip during a lesson with a 19-year-old female student at her private stable – with the whistleblower being a sponsor of the girl who was riding the horse in the video.
Britain’s greatest horsewoman said she was “deeply ashamed” by her “error of judgement” in a coaching session “from four years ago”.
Now, Madeline Hall, former dressage correspondent at Horse & Hound magazine, has told the Daily Mail that the leak “smells of sabotage”.
She said: “The timing of this video days before the Olympics smells of sabotage.
“To me it is suspect.”
The FEI, the sport’s governing body, launched a probe into the incident and handed Dujardin a provisional six-month ban.
She has also been stripped of her funding and her chances of getting a Damehood have gone up in smoke following the scandal.
And she has been axed as an ambassador by horse welfare charity Brooke.
Had Dujardin won an Olympic medal of any colour next week, she would have seven on her CV from four Games, which would have overtaken Laura Kenny’s cycling record of six.
The Enfield-born competitor would have been all-but-certain to be handed a Damehood in the King’s New Year’s Honours List.
But Whitehall sources said any such honour is now off the table.
And the CBE that she received in 2017 for services to equestrianism could be under review by the Honours committee – though there is a high bar to strip someone of a gong.
A Dutch lawyer claimed that the anonymous whistleblower “couldn’t stand to watch her win a medal at Paris 2024”.
Stephan Wensing, who shared the video, had previously compared the treatment to that of “an elephant in a circus” and claimed it happened in 2022.
