OK, I’ll remove de Leyer’s name. I’ve never seen the movie & have no interest in doing so. Doesn’t change my main point – people were running around riding horses in plain hunter nose bands, snaffles, & spurs that you’d see on a short stirrup kid nowadays.
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People used to defend GM, JW, etc too. I doubt he will have many leaping to his defense.
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You can see the scarring on the corners of the horse’s lips in the pictures
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The part where he said the device was also used to “force a tired horse to continue at a certain pace” makes me want to cry.
There’s got to be a special room in hell for people like him.
Add all this to the goat story and AK sounds like a depraved and dangerous individual.
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Not to minimize any of the other disgusting and demented activity, but what was the motivation for smothering the poor goat?
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If it was stolen with those ponies, I wonder if it was being hidden somewhere and needed to be kept quiet to avoid detection? I imagine a goat would make more noise than a pony.
It’s sickening just to think about the potential reasons.
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@Knights_Mom - please don’t take this the wrong way. But… if you specifically know of someone who is abusing horses with electric spurs and you don’t say anything about it, to the sanctioning bodies, then isn’t your silence actually condoning it?
I am assuming that you factually and personally know it (as opposed to hearing someone tell someone tell someone.) And, I’m assuming you can prove it. If you are afraid of personal ramifications, you should file a complaint through an intermediary to protect your confidentiality.
But, remaining silent is sort of like saying, yeah it’s bad but not bad enough for me to do anything about it.
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No worries - I didn’t mean to come off so cranky and I don’t think it’s super well known, I only know because a friend rode with the family as a kid. My intended point was just that abuse has, sadly, always existed at all levels of the sport.
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I haven’t searched the forums but I can’t imagine he has ever had much of a fan club. Almost everyone will have supporters along the way, and almost anyone can get customers of some sort, but actual admiration from people who know? Nope. I keep hearing he was well admired. @LexInVA and a few others seemed to think he was a favorite, but I don’t know where they got that idea. He was of those lucky people who’s grasp far exceeded his reach and most horsemen recognized that.
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I remember being in the stands for this atrocity of a round, and everyone sat there and saying out loud “he needs to stop”….people were gasping and horrified! It was an absolutely disgusting display of complete disregard for a horses welfare
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He’s not bad looking and I can see why a certain stripe of shallow, vapid woman (like the Eye Candy owner) would fling herself and handfuls of cash at him.
Rumor at one point is that Eye Candy is the one who blew the whistle; if she knew the entire time she employed AK that it was going on, she should be sanctioned as well.
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I just read quickly through the document and must’ve skipped over the goat thing. Disgusting!
I had a pretty fried horse that he had at one point. The electric shock thing would make total sense because the horse would never stop but would loose it’s mind even approaching a cross rail. I had never sat on something so worried!
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He split from Eye Candy (to go into sales with his brother apparently) rather recently. So her blowing the whistle would make sense timewise. She may be covering her own butt now. She was certainly vocal in her support of him at Spruce Meadows, and posted the videos of the Eye Candy team laughing at the ‘tired’ horse and his crashes. All old news but bears repeating. She is complicit in my eyes.
Where does he get all his sale consignments? The horses listed are located all over the country, some outside the country. I wonder if he takes only take a 5% commission or something.
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That was a strange read.
How did people miss that he did jail time for stealing two ponies and a goat and suffocating the goat?
USEF needs to institute their own ban and not depend on the FEI to keep this guy out of the horse business. 10 years isn’t enough in my opinion.
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That was awful, and frankly, just a bit frightening, to read.
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USEF will follow FEI sanctions. If the violations were in FEI Event division only, USEF is poweless to push further.
I know that many of you are wondering why nobody knew about the criminal charges. The answer is simple. In 2002, he was a nobody when it happened, so nobody who was somebody of importance in the sport would have known much, if anything, about him at the time. According to his own words, he was a small-time rider back then, going from place to place, living day-to-day on his own ambition and getting by on the goodwill of people who knew his family and saw his work ethic. It wasn’t until some years later that he became someone that would have been noticed.
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that was awful; the dude is sick
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You do you, I’ll do me.
I always take the proper action.
USEF Bylaw 205 section 2. The board of directors upon a two thirds vote of those members present…may suspend, fine or terminate the membership of any member…if the hearing committee determines that 1. The conduct of the member is adverse to the best interest of equestrian or the Federation…
I think Kocher’s behavior easily qualifies as “adverse” to the best interest of equestrian and the Federation. I sincerely hope that USEF members will make their feelings known to the Board and encourage them to invoke the bylaw in this case.
Why would USEF want him back, even after 10 years?
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