Australian Olympic dressage rider suspended after video appears to show him repeatedly whipping horse

Heath Ryan has been provisionally suspended by Equestrian Australia, pending an investigation. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

An Australian dressage rider has been provisionally suspended and will be investigated, according to Equestrian Australia (EA), after a video emerged on social media that appears to show him repeatedly whipping a horse.

Heath Ryan, who represented Australia in dressage at the 2008 Olympics, can be seen in the video – which the rider said is about two years old – hitting a horse around 40 times.

Ryan said in a lengthy Facebook post defending the incident that everything in the video “transpired sincerely with the (horse’s) best interests the sole consideration.”

CNN Sports has reached out to Ryan for comment.

EA said the provisional suspension will last until “a thorough investigation of this matter” has been completed, adding that it had also received a formal complaint about the incident.

“Equestrian Australia is extremely alarmed and concerned by the treatment of the horse shown in this footage,” the governing body said in a statement.

“Equestrian Australia has this afternoon imposed a provisional suspension of this person’s membership of Equestrian Australia and their rights, privileges and benefits associated with their membership.”

EA said it “takes matters of animal welfare very seriously.”

In his Facebook post, the 66-year-old equestrian rider said the horse was brought to him on the way to the “knackery,” where animals go to be killed, after a riding accident had left his owner in intensive care.

Ryan described the horse, Nico, as a “problem child” that got “worse and worse until the accident.”

“I felt obliged to the horse to just have a look and see if it was possibly salvageable,” Ryan wrote on Facebook. “Well did I get a shock and so the video. I have never ridden anything like it. I am so sad this was caught on video.

“If I had been thinking of myself I would have immediately just gotten off and sent Nico to the knackery. That video was a life or death moment for Nico and of that I was very aware.

“I felt I genuinely had to try my very hardest to see if Nico would consider other options. Anyway by the end of that initial ride I did feel Nico was responding. I rode Nico for another couple of days and he responded very well and started to go without the use of excessive driving aids.

Alongside his statement, Ryan posted a new video, which he described as Nico “thriving in a loving and competitive home with an exciting future.”

Ryan said the video which prompted the EA suspension was posted by an “unhappy ex employee.”

“All I can say is that this awful video was collateral damage of me from the bottom of my heart launching a rescue mission,” Ryan added.