Horse Punching Incident Sees Olympic Coach Disqualified

The Tokyo Olympics were a very serious time, especially for the horses. The games also protect those four-legged friends and don’t tolerate abuse.

One German coach found out the hard way that you have to be nice to the horses. After all, those horses do all the work, but the humans get the medals. German coach Kim Raisner punched a horse named Saint Boy, and that was not a saintly move at all. TMZ reports that the Olympics have now taken action against the German coach.

Rider Annika Schleu was having big problems controlling Saint Boy, who was a bit spooked. Then German coach, Kim Raisner, tried to help Annika, but the horse wasn’t going with the plan.

Riders only have 20 minutes with the horse prior to the competition. She had never ridden Saint Boy and he didn’t want her to giddy-up at all. He even bucked at her when she tried to trot him.

Annika punched Saint Boy, but it’s unclear exactly what her motivation was. Nevertheless, the Olympic committee saw the footage, and they were not happy. She was then disqualified from the Olympic Games.

In case you’re wondering, Saint Boy didn’t do all that well for Annika. He refused to do a couple of jumps, and despite her trying to whip the horse into submission, he didn’t comply. That took Annika from first place to last, but her coach was in even more trouble.

Annika left the arena in tears after the entire event, because it was quite a traumatic experience for everyone all around.

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