After the scandal over the video
Serious allegations: Olympic champion speaks out
November 14, 2025 – 2:25 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
One clip caused a stir and harsh criticism. Now show jumper Christian Kukuk has reacted – and admits mistakes.
After a controversial training session with draw reins, show jumper Christian Kukuk spoke out publicly and admitted wrongdoing. The Olympic champion regretted the situation and took responsibility.
“I understand that and I totally see it,” said Kukuk before his first start at the tournament in Stuttgart. “I am extremely sorry that I brought the people, our sport and also myself personally into this situation and that I disappointed some.”
The trigger was a video from the World Cup tournament in Verona, which shows Kukuk training with his mare Just be Gentle. In it you can see how he rides exclusively with draw reins – a practice that is not permitted in Germany. The national association FN pointed this out. The officials of the world association FEI did not react on site.
Draw reins are one of the so-called auxiliary reins. In addition to the regular reins, they are attached to the bit, run through the bit rings and lie in the rider’s hand.
Kukuk described that his mare was very tense during training. “It was a challenging situation for me,” he explained. “But these 30 seconds do not reflect at all what happened in the 45 minutes in which I worked with the horse. Unfortunately, my gut feeling overruled my head feeling. For me it was the best approach to get the tension out of her.” In retrospect he judged this decision to be wrong.
He was aware that his behavior was not compatible with his role model role: “It makes me look very bad in my role model role, there are no two opinions.” After the incident, Kukuk finished third in Verona. The mare showed that she “ultimately forgave him for what was portrayed”.
In addition to clear rules, empathy is also crucial, emphasized Kukuk: “At the end of the day, it also comes down to feeling and empathy – that can’t be done with rules.” For him personally, it is now crucial to find a different way of dealing with such situations in the future.
The incident sparked strong reactions on social networks. Kukuk spoke of great stress: “I also think it’s dangerous to reduce a relationship between two living beings to 30 seconds. In a way, you’re being targeted, you’re being branded – and I have to live with that now.” The reactions surprised him: the messages were “terrifying”.
Kukuk received support from national coach Otto Becker. “On the one hand, I usually make sure that things like this don’t happen. On the other hand, it’s also about me standing in front of my riders – and Christian said it, mistakes can happen, we try to avoid them. It’s not a given that he stood up – respect.”