Stay classy, dressagers.

As a kid, I read a couple of those pre-teen girls' books set in a fancy boarding school where all the students are beautiful, well-to-do Southern girls with their jodphurs, their shiny boots, their velvet jackets, their peaked riding caps. With their horses. 

Even though pre-teen girls are supposed to be gaga for horses, I was never all that interested. 

The whole thing just struck me as a bit weird.

The only horse I'd ever been on a merry-go-round, and if there were any other choice - lion, tiger, bear - I'd pick that animal rather than a horse. 

Most of what I knew about horses came from TV Westerns. Trigger. Buttermilk. Champion. That and Mr. Ed. 

And I've never been particularly drawn to horse-related sports, either. Sure, I've been to long-gone tracks - Suffolk Downs, Naragansett - a couple of times, where I bet a couple of bucks on horses based on their name and their jockey's colors. But the Kentucky Derby? Meh. And Olympic horsey sports - jumping, eventing, dressage. Meh to the nth. Especially dressage, which seems to me to be a bit too much about forcing horses into unnatural acts and then preening around to show the judges you could do it. 

Anyway, if you know little else about dressage, and if you kept up with any Olympic news during the Paris games, you might be aware of the scandal involving Charlotte Dujardin. She's the British Olympic gold medalist who withdrew from the games once a video emerged of her whipping a horse during a training session a couple of years back. Maltreating horses is, of course, a big bad no-no that's probably gone on for years before everyone with a smartphone became a videographer. (Other videos of horse abuse have come out over the past few years. And a German dressage coach had been kicked out of the Tokyo Olympics for punching a horse.)

An anonymous whistleblower released the Dujardin video in order to "save dressage."

Turns out the dressager (dressagist? dressagite? dressagerian?) who is rumored to be the whistleblower doesn't have the most squeaky clean record herself.

Australian Alicia Dickinson has not been accused of animal cruelty, but she has been in the news when it comes to her suspect business practices.

Dickinson had been planning an "unsanctioned [by official dressage entities] dressage 'extravaganza'" at the leading Australian show center. 

Willinga Park canceled the show, claiming that Dickinson's promotional materials were misleading and "misrepesented [their] brand," and put that brand in a negative light.

One thing that raised Australian dressage eyebrows was the 620K Australian dollars worth of prize money that Dickinson's event was promising. But that big prize pot wasn't exactly cash on the barrelhead. 

Her “Willinga Park YRS Triple Crown” brochure said the show gave “non professional riders the professional experience.” The prize pool was largely “in kind,” with unusually high values. Prizes include “$40,000 training holidays” in Europe, FEI dressage horse “sponsorships,” and $10,000 “competency-based memberships” (of Dressage Institute, whose own literature is similarly worded). Prizes also included items from Dickinson’s own “LuxeofLondon” saddlery range. (Source: Horse Sport)

(Hey, could I just set up a Pink Slip Prize contest, with the winning blogger allowed to post on Pink Slip, which I would value at 620K Australian dollars? I know I've never monetized my work, but if I charged entrance fees...)

Dickinson is also accused of overstating her coaching and performance credentials, while charging high rates for coaching sessions. 

Berni Saunders is a respected Australian dressage rider, journalist and co-founder of the long established Cyberhorse portal. She told HorseSport.com that many people around the world feel fleeced by Dickinson.

Saunders said, “The Dressage Institute and Your Riding Success [Dicksinson's outfit] relies on attracting people with little experience and huge dreams and sell programs that promise unrealistic and non-deliverable success.

Sounds like those groups that rope in kids with marginal singing talent, putting them in showcases and kinda-sorta promising that they're going to be the next Beyoncé or Taylor Swift. 

Then there's Dickinson's involvement with Dujardin which, if it had worked out, would have earned some pretty good coin for both of them. (Until the whipping controversy, Dujardin was about as big as it gets in the wonderful world of dressage.)

Anyway, Dickinson was definitely there at the training session in which Dujardin was filmed whipping a horse - interestingly, Dickinson prohibits phones and any videoing at her own training sessions - but has said she's not the whistleblower. Her name remains on the short list. And Dickinson admits that, given how widespread abusive practices have been in dressage, there may well be "historic footage of herself being 'not nice to horses - because I was told to.'"

Whatever Dickinson's motives, outing animal cruelty seems like a good thing, and something that dressage should pay attention to if it wants its (dubious) sport to survive. And, sure, the Willinga Park cancelation may well have been payback for Dickinson's presumed whistleblowing. But if you're the whisteblower, it sure does look a lot better if you're not yourself a huckster.

Stay classy, dressagers. Pink Slip will be keeping an eye on you.