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Australian Olympian, Heath Ryan, has been suspended from national and international equestrian competition after a video emerged that appears to show him repeatedly striking a horse with a whip.
Ryan, who represented Australia in dressage at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, acknowledged the video in a post on his Facebook page on Thursday. The 66-year-old defended the incident in his statement as part of a “rescue mission” in rehabilitating a problem horse.
“The most awful video of me on a young horse has just surfaced,” Ryan said, going on to add that the six-year-old horse, Nico, had been “dropped off at my place on his way to the knackery” after his former rider had an accident on the horse which resulted in them going to intensive care.
Ryan said the incident was filmed two years ago and added that he “felt obliged to the horse to just have a look and see if it was possibly salvageable” and had “never ridden anything like it”.
“I am so sad this was caught on video,” Ryan said. “If I had been thinking of myself I would have immediately just gotten off and sent Nico to the knackery. That video was a life or death moment for Nico and of that I was very aware. I felt I genuinely had to try my very hardest to see if Nico would consider other options.”
Ryan said the video was from that first ride, and that over the next few rides Nico “started to go without the use of excessive driving aids”. The horse was then sold to another Grand Prix dressage rider.
“All of this transpired sincerely with the horse’s best interests the sole consideration,” Ryan said. “Unbelievably it was so successful for everyone except me with the release of this video.
“What can I say. If you think I did that flippantly you are wrong. I hated reaching out in those moments to Nico and asking the hard questions. That was the last place I wanted to be. I have never before ridden a horse that reacted like that and I certainly will never do it again. Was it worth it?? Well not for me however I am very happy for Nico… All I can say is that this awful video was collateral damage of me from the bottom of my heart launching a rescue mission.”
Ryan was suspended from Equestrian Australia, the national governing body, on Thursday, after it received a formal complaint. The suspension was mirrored by the international sporting organisation, the FEI.
Equestrian Australia said that it was “extremely alarmed and concerned by the treatment of the horse shown in this footage”.
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“Equestrian Australia is aware of footage posted on social media showing a person repeatedly whipping a horse,” it said. “The person depicted in the video is a member of Equestrian Australia.”
The governing body said a provisional suspension had been imposed pending an investigation by its integrity unit. It also denied claims it had requested the footage be taken down.
“Equestrian Australian takes matters of animal welfare very seriously,” it said.
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.
