Conspiracy theories about the timing of the leaked Charlotte Dujardin video have abounded since Monday. Even the mainstream media has suggested the Dutch were behind it as revenge for Britain displacing them on the podium since 2012.
The truth appears closer to home. The whistleblower has been widely named on social media, and this morning British newspaper The Sun, as the facilitator of the session where Dujardin struck a horse repeatedly with a lunge whip: expat Australian Youtuber Alicia Dickinson, formerly Fielmich, who settled in the UK a few years ago and befriended Dujardin, sending her clients.
Alicia Dickinson posted this statement on her Instagram account.
She has denied being the whistleblower to The Sun, but her lawyer confirmed Dickinson was present. Only two other people were present, it is understood; the then-19-year-old rider and her mother, who filmed the session.
Stephan Wensing – who is the whistleblower’s lawyer but has not confirmed whether Dickinson and the whistleblower are one and the same – has previously explained the delay in reporting the abuse to feeling it must be okay if an Olympic champion was doing it, and being pressurised not to act.
He says that as the Olympics grew closer, the whistleblower increasingly felt Dujardin should not be feted or allowed to win more medals. She drew confidence from recent action taken against other high-profile equestrians for alleged horse abuse.
Such a stance would be hard to square with the confidence 40-year-old Dickinson exudes on her numerous Youtube training videos and in the motivational writings on her website. She has long experience in interacting with industry professionals on both sides of the globe.
As well as teaching and buying and selling, she imported sport horses from Europe to Victoria. There is also a history of standing up for herself in Australia in litigation from a disgruntled client, according to publicly available court records. Whether or not she is the person represented by Wensing, if present at the training session she could have intervened at the time. Interestingly, Dickinson has stated on Instagram that she ended her business relationship with Dujardin after that lesson, without giving a reason.
Those naming Dickinson on social media include industry professionals in Australia, and the Van Olsts, backers of world champion Charlotte Fry, who would have been one of Dujardin’s team-mates this week in Paris but for Monday’s bombshell.
A connection of Dujardin posted a video allegedly of Dickinson herself giving a lesson by apparent way of riposte. It was swiftly removed by the original poster when it emerged the instructor was not Dickinson, but is still in circulation.
Wensing was hired to maintain the whistleblower’s anonymity. Not surprisingly, he has not responded to requests for comment on Dickinson from HorseSport.com.
Many comments on social media are conflating some very complex issues over the timing of the leak and the actuality of what the video exposes: let us not forget that it is Dujardin who is the offender, and it is she who was always going to damage the sport whenever the video finally emerged.
However, while the whisteblower did the right thing, in my view they should have done the right thing much sooner. Dujardin has since been able to win other accolades, sell horses and maybe misuse a whip again behind closed doors; a ban from competing 18 months ago would have received a lot of attention, but not the saturation coverage of an Olympic Games.
The CEO of British Dressage, Jason Brautigam, wrote to members yesterday to condemn Dujardin but also to say the timing was aimed at causing maximum damage and that the whistleblower’s aim to “save dressage” was disingenuous.
Certainly, any attempt to “save dressage” has backfired. A collective reset about core training principles may save the practice of dressage as a craft. But the shocking headlines will surely accelerate the sport’s ejection by the IOC, despite FEI president Ingmar de Vos’s press briefing yesterday that he was sure equestrian was in until at least Brisbane 2032.
The world’s media is still hungry for new angles on Dujardin. All the main British newspapers have their top sport writers on Dujardin – journalists who would normally by now be ensconced at the main Olympic Park interviewing Simone Biles and LeBron James. The FEI and also the specialist equestrian press have lost the narrative.
Another high-profile Dutch equine lawyer Luc Schelstraete has also argued that the delay in reporting the whipping incident could lead to a disciplinary case being dismissed on that technicality or at best, sanctions reduced.
Reporting abuse to the FEI may be done at any time and by any person, but must also be done “without delay.” As we report here, the FEI Tribunal has considered historic video to be admissible up to now – but the very high-profile team Dujardin is likely to assemble could make convincing legal arguments to the contrary.
However, a sporting ban from a regulatory body seems academic. Right now, it’s hard to see how Dujardin can return to any kind of livelihood in equestrianism.
