Dujardin's mentor says she's 'paid heavily' after video release
Carl Hester says his protégé is 'strong enough' to come back, after a video emerged of her whipping a horse during a training session
Carl Hester says his protégé Charlotte Dujardin has "paid very heavily" following the publication of a video which resulted in her withdrawing from the Olympic dressage competition and being handed a provisional suspension from the sport.
Dujardin, who was raised in Bedfordshire, dropped out of Paris last week and was suspended by equestrian's governing body, the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI), pending an investigation into a video from four years ago which showed her repeatedly hitting a student's horse with a whip from the ground during a coaching session.
Dujardin embarked on her dressage career under the tutelage of Hester, who part-owned Valegro, the horse that propelled the rider on to the front pages when the duo secured team and individual gold in London back in 2012.
Hester, who's from Cambridge was speaking publicly for the first time about the controversy, admitted he was shocked by the video, but insists it is not reflective of the Dujardin he knows.
As the dressage competition got under way at the Chateau de Versailles, he said: "The video was a huge shock to me, I didn't know it was there - it's not from my property.
"Charlotte has made her statement, she has apologised and given her thoughts on it, I respect she has done that. It's now an ongoing investigation with the FEI and I'm not going to go any further with it.
"It's difficult, of course it is. I have known her for 17 years, she's a mum, she has a small child. She has paid very heavily for this in a way that you wouldn't believe.
"She will have to accept what the FEI gives her and she will, and I just hope she is strong enough to be able to come back from that."
Hester was a signatory to a statement from the board members of the International Dressage Riders Club last week that "universally condemned" Dujardin's actions and he underlined the importance of horse welfare.
He said: "In the UK you don't see that sort of video, I have never seen that before.
"We were all in shock and we are all making an effort now to show how much we love our horses, how we train them.
"Isabell (Werth) is the head of the Riders Club, she's absolutely right and we all know it needs to change if this is out there, we are going to have to do that but as we have seen from the last few days of sport (eventing) here, we've seen the care, the grooms who work incredibly hard, how they love and look after the horses and I hope that starts to show how that works."
When asked about Dujardin, Hester said: "I'm here, I haven't seen her and I know things are very, very difficult but she's surrounded by people who are trying to help her.
"She obviously accepts what she did, which she had to do and I am glad she has done that, for her. This is four years ago, people do make mistakes - what do we do, never forgive people for all the things that have happened?
"Right now, it's going to be a long road for her and a lesson, for everybody really in the horse world. We have got to put horses first and show that.
"That is not my opinion of Charlotte. That video is fairly obvious and nobody is going to support that, you can't, but my personal opinion of Charlotte over 17 years, I have not seen that, that is not her."