THE STATEMENT FROM Ludger Beerbaum TO THE TV-REPORT RTL EXTRA, Regarding the accusations against HIM and HIS team

The RTL Extra report is demonstrably false, defamatory and libellous n numerous points. Of course, we will take legal action against it. It is unacceptable that it was secretly filmed on my private property.

Regarding the accusations against me and my team:
The welfare of the horses is my and my team's top priority. Only a horse that is treated appropriately, professionally cared for and fed, trained and managed, can deliver sporting performance. The horses are our capital, which we take care of day in and day out.

The scenes in the riding arena shown in the report have nothing to do with the illegal practice of "Rapping". Instead, experienced and most routine professionals applied the permitted method of touching. The tool seen in the video met the German Equestrian Federation's specifications for permissible touching: no longer than three meters, weighing no more than two kilograms.

I lead my stable as an open stable, where groups of visitors come by every day, customers pick up the feed for their horses, and "interns" are also welcome. Here, riding and daily training is done in openly visible areas. Nothing hidden, unauthorized is done.

The fact that the alleged two-year "research" was only able to reveal four scenes showing the touching of a horse makes it clear that even the permitted training method is only very rarely used here and is not part of the daily work.

The "polygonal poles" found in the barn by the alleged trainee are wooden poles used exclusively for the construction and repair of our pasture fences. Well visible in the film are the insulators attached to the poles for the fence bands. As far as it is claimed that these are used to “rap” horses, this is false.

The same applies to the poles with the "nubs" that are shown in the attic. All I can say about this is that these elements have been lying there for years. They come from a purchased stock of obstacles and were sorted out so that they would not be used. And hence they are also not used in training. How one of these pieces, a shiny and clean one at that, ended up between the common obstacle poles all of a sudden, I can only speculate. For me it is obvious that one of these poles was put there explicitly for the TV report. We will make further investigations into this.

Furthermore, I record:
- The disqualification of my Olympic gold medal in 2004 was not based on doping, but on medication that was forbidden at that time.
- The part on the training ground referred to as the "Styrofoam plate" is a regular show-jumping stand that is in daily use. The fact that it is shown, is also an indication that the report lacks sufficient expertise.

Source: ludger-beerbaum.de