AUSTRALIAN HEATH RYAN REPEATEDLY WHIPS HORSE
By CNN
Published: June 13, 2025 at 2:23PM EDT
Australian dressage rider has been provisionally suspended and will be investigated, according to Equestrian Australia (EA), after a video emerged on social media that appears to show him repeatedly whipping a horse.
Heath Ryan, who represented Australia in dressage at the 2008 Olympics, can be seen in the video – which the rider said is about two years old – hitting a horse around 40 times.
Ryan said in a lengthy Facebook post defending the incident that everything in the video “transpired sincerely with the (horse’s) best interests the sole consideration.”
Did you ‘get’ that?
Ryan said in a lengthy Facebook post defending the incident that everything in the video “transpired sincerely with the (horse’s) best interests the sole consideration.”
Really?
Seriously?
The suspension comes as the international dressage world is still trying to restore its social licence following another horse whipping scandal involving Great Britain’s three-time Olympic champion Charlotte Dujardin, who received a one-year suspension from international competition after video of her whipping a horse was released on the eve of the 2024 Paris Games.
What do YOU think?
Join the conversation on our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/@NoAussieHorseSlaughter
#MOHM THREATENED?
We’ve been threatened by those in the horse racing industry and those who benefit from horse slaughter more times than we can count.
But we are not going away.
We are going to persist until horse slaughter no longer exists for any purpose within Australia -- and until the horse racing industry makes drastic changes.
We are going to continue our hands-on work to offer lifelong sanctuary to as many horses as possible. We generally have 20 at just one of our locations - at any given time.
We have the acreage to take on more horses as financial support allows.
THANK YOU NAYSAYERS
TO OUR CRITICS: THANKS FOR THE FREE BOOST!We’d like to take a moment to sincerely thank a special group of people: The naysayers. The scoffers. Every time you take the time to leave a snide, dismissive, or downright angry comment on one of our social media posts—you...
THE BROODMARE LIE
THE HORSE RACING INDUSTRY WOULD LIKE YOU TO BELIEVE...WHAT REALLY HAPPENS TO BROODMARES IN THE AUSTRALIAN RACING INDUSTRY?It’s a comfortable lie racing fans tell themselves — that broodmares, once they’ve finished churning out foals for the industry, are retired to...
Join us on social media and become a keyboard warrior.
