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.
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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.
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We have the acreage to take on more horses as financial support allows.
THOROUGBRED HORSE RACING STUDY
THE HORSE RACING "CHURN" MODEL01 AUGUST 2012: A study profiling the careers of thoroughbred horses racing in Australia between 2000 and 2010 stated... "Currently little whole population data exists for horses racing in Australia." This study was cited internationally...
AUSTRALIA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
AN EXTREMELY USEFUL TOOL FOR ADVOCACYAdvocates for horses and the banning of horse slaughter within Australia (and elsewhere) were thrilled to learn in June of 2023 that horse slaughter for human consumption was to stop at the Meramist facility. Of course, there were...
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