'I can't watch anymore' The case for dropping equestrian from the Olympic Games : an open letter to the International Olympic Committee

Julie Taylor

Book - 2022

Passionate, yet rigorous and meticulously researched, this eye-opening book holds equestrian sport up to Olympic standards and finds it sadly wanting. Doping agents that used to cost Olympic medals, rebranded as benign "medication". Shell federations with no riders or horses, propped up to make the sport seem "global". Judging that favours spectacle over the rules. From the failure to prevent rollkur, to the easing of the "blood rule" to appease riders, to horses competing with the nerves in their legs cut to numb the pain of injuries : this is a tale of entitlement, privilege, and spineless regulation, always at the expense of the horse. This compelling book challenges the reader to confront the reality of hig...h-level equestrian competition today and say, along with many others, "I can't watch anymore". more