Ludger Beerbaum can now occupy himself with at least one less worry. Since Thursday, the show jumper has been in hospital in Qatar's capital Doha with a fractured thigh that he suffered in a fall from his horse in competition. With a plate and a screw, the bone had been stabilized, reported the 59-Year-old from the hospital bed. He can now breathe a sigh of relief in another matter: The German Equestrian Federation (FN) has discontinued proceedings against him.
Julia Basic
Sports editor.
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It was about the question of whether Beerbaum violated the rules of the association and caused a horse in his stable "considerable pain". The termination of the proceedings was announced by the FN on Tuesday. The association justifies: "There is no evidence that the horse was inflicted significant pain in the video sequence on which the procedure was based."
Said video sequence comes from a pixelated and blurred recording of the private broadcaster RTL, which had secretly filmed the training in the stable Beerbaum and claimed that the forbidden so-called bar had been practiced. In January 2022, RTL broadcast the report. Beerbaum countered the accusations with the statement that it was rule-compliant touching, which was still a permissible training method for jumping horses at that time.
"No initial suspicion"
The field of tension in which the FN and Beerbaum found themselves as a result of the contribution, however, was shown, among other things, by the fact that the association set up a 27-member expert commission, on whose recommendation touching was banned in March 2022 – among other things on the grounds that the images of it were becoming increasingly difficult to convey to society. When touching, the front legs of the horse are touched above the jump with a light wooden bar to encourage more attention and caution when jumping. In contrast to the bars, the horse should not suffer any pain. After the broadcast of the RTL report, the public prosecutor's office in Münster began preliminary proceedings on the allegation of a criminal offence under the Animal Welfare Act, but discontinued it in September "for lack of sufficient suspicion".
The equestrian association has now come to the conclusion that there is no initial suspicion of a violation of the rules, the so-called performance test regulations (LPO). "Although several video sequences were submitted to the FN, only a single sequence was the subject of the proceedings," the association said in a statement. And further: "In the remaining sequences, either the acting persons could not be identified or there was no initial suspicion of a violation of the LPO from the filmed behavior."
FN legal advisor Constanze Winter said: "This was a very difficult legal case. It was only a question of whether the video sequence resulted in a violation of the performance test regulations (LPO) and not whether the now prohibited method of touching was used as described in the guidelines. The disciplinary committee did not make it easy for itself to answer this question." Immediately after the broadcast of the RTL report, the association had come to the conclusion that "parts of the documented processes clearly do not correspond to our description of touching".
The four-time Olympic champion Ludger Beerbaum evaluates the termination of the proceedings "as a clear acquittal. The whole process took far too long, and this decision was foreseeable." The show jumper criticized last year the lack of backing of the association, but now wants to put the matter on file and look to the future. This year, two major equestrian events will take place at his facility in Westphalia. In July, the highly remunerated show jumping series "Global Champions Tour" stops there. In September, the European Championships in dressage and para-dressage will take place.