Federation temporarily suspends top rider who whipped horse – and appeals disciplinary action

Gold medal-winning dressage rider Carina Cassøe Krüth has been temporarily excluded from the Danish national team over behaviour shown in a training video.

It is understood that the Danish federation became aware of the video, which shows Carina whipping the horse she is riding multiple times during training, before the Paris Olympics. The video appeared publicly on social media on 9 August.

Carina has been a key part of the Danish squad in recent years; she rode at the Tokyo Olympics, was part of the gold medal-winning team at the World Championships in 2022 and was on the team that won bronze at the 2023 Europeans. It is understood that Carina had been due to be a reserve rider at Paris, but she withdrew ahead of the team announcement for “personal reasons”.

In early July, before the video was made public, the Danish federation confirmed to Danish television broadcaster TV2 Sport that the federation had been sent the video and as a result, had reported Carina to its disciplinary committee.
Carina told TV2 Sport the video was from a training session in 2022 and showed a “clear error on my part, which I am very sorry for and deeply regret”. She also confirmed that she withdrew from the Olympics while the federation’s disciplinary committee dealt with the matter.

The federation reported a disciplinary case of an unnamed rider on its website on 8 July for a “breach of common provisions”. The disciplinary committee found “after a concrete and individual assessment that there is a serious violation of the code of conduct that applies to the handling of horses”.

The sanction was a fine of 5,000 Danish krone (£571), which the disciplinary committee said was based on the fact the video occurred more than two years ago, the person who submitted it “has not found reason to further justify the background for this” and the respondent had no previous sanctions.

On 12 August, three days after the video’s appearance on social media, the unnamed case on the federation’s website was updated to state that the federation had appealed the decision. Then in a statement on 14 August, the federation announced Carina’s temporary exclusion.

“The exclusion is temporary and applies provisionally until the appeal committee’s consideration of the case, after which the length of the exclusion will be reassessed according to the committee’s decision,” it read.

The statement added that the decision had been taken “as a result of the rider’s behaviour in the video being incompatible with the federation’s sports plan”, which acts as a benchmark for national team riders and trainers – and is based on “cooperation, commitment, integrity, development and wellbeing”. The exclusion includes activities, gatherings and auspices under the national team.

Danish federation director Morten Schram Rodtwitt told H&H the appeal committee will review the case in full, “with a view to assessing the sanction awarded by the disciplinary committee”. He added that this could either be confirmation of the current sanction or a tougher one.

When H&H went to press, Carina had not been suspended by the FEI. An FEI spokesperson told H&H it had been in contact with the Danish federation since the disciplinary committee’s original decision was issued. And the federation had confirmed it was appealing this decision to its appeal committee.

“The FEI does not want to prejudge the outcome of those appeal proceedings. Therefore, the FEI will await the outcome before deciding what further steps (if any) the FEI will take,” said the spokesperson.

H&H has contacted Carina for comment.

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