Dhe German show jumper Ludger Beerbaum defends himself with legal means against allegations from RTL that illegal training methods are being used in his show stables. On Tuesday evening, the private broadcaster broadcast a television report claiming that a blurred video, on which the people involved cannot be seen, proved that Ludger Beerbaum was using the prohibited “parallel bars”.
In addition, square bars and bars with plastic knobs were shown in the RTL report, which were stored next to the riding arena and in the attic of Beerbaum’s facility in Riesenbeck, but not their use. “RTL extra’s contribution is demonstrably wrong, defamatory and defamatory in many respects,” said Beerbaum in a statement. “Of course we will take legal action against it.”
“Touching” is allowed
In the videos shown by RTL, while jumping, the horse hits a pole that an employee has pulled up with its forehand. How heavy the bar and how hard the blows are cannot be seen. The permitted version of this training method, “touching”, serves to remind a horse of the optimal jumping technique. Rough blows with heavy bars, the “parallel bars”, are prohibited.
One of the long-term problems of the associations is to make the border between touching and bars transparent, as only experienced practitioners can judge this. A commission of the German Equestrian Association has been working on a reassessment of this method for a year.
Got to show jumping: Ludger Beerbaum
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Image: imago / Chai vd Laage
“The scenes shown in the article on the riding arena have nothing to do with parallel bars,” explained Beerbaum. “This is a permitted touching that was carried out by an experienced, experienced horse specialist.” The pole used was compliant with the rules: “No longer than three meters, a maximum of two kilograms.” The polygonal poles shown by RTL next to the square are wooden poles that would only be used to build and repair the pasture fences.
In fact, devices can be seen on the poles that Beerbaum calls insulators for fence tapes. According to Beerbaum, the poles with the studs that were stored in the attic came from a purchased inventory of obstacles and had been sorted out. “How one of these parts, polished and clean, gets between the common obstacle poles, I can only speculate. For me it is obvious that one of these poles was placed there explicitly for the contribution, ”claims Beerbaum.
Both the German Equestrian Association (FN) and the World Federation FEI announced investigations. Sönke Lauterbach, General Secretary of the German Association, explained: “In order to be able to make a serious assessment of the facts, all the video and evidence is required.” As early as the beginning of 2021, RTL had contacted the FN to assess the videos. At that time Lauterbach had requested all of the material. He now repeated this request.
On the other hand, the world association went as far as possible in its statement: “The training methods shown in the RTL video material are completely unacceptable from the perspective of horse welfare and violate the FEI regulations.” The FEI did not mention the name Beerbaum.
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