Charlotte Dujardin GBR on Mount St John Freestyle. | Photo: FEI/Liz Gregg

“I’m obviously absolutely devastated,” Dujardin said in a statement from the championships, in Rotterdam, Netherlands. “Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. The health and welfare of my horses is always my No. 1 priority, but of course I accept the decision.”

Roly Owers, MRCVS, CEO of World Horse Welfare, in Norfolk, U.K, supports the FEI in eliminating Dujardin. “This is unfortunate for the British team, but that’s the reality of the sport,” he told The Horse. “Responsible horse sport requires regulation, and it requires regulation being enforced. I haven’t seen the horse, but even if it’s only a superficial wound, blood is blood, and damage has been done. What’s important is that the FEI have taken clear, quick, and appropriate action and that Charlotte has accepted that.”

The presence of blood doesn’t necessarily suggest the horse was intentionally mistreated and is more likely to be the result of an accident, said Natalie Waran, PhD, equitation science fellow and professor of One Welfare at Eastern Institute of Technology, in Napier, New Zealand. But this kind of injury could also indicate that the leg aids were not as light as they should have been