For me, having the entire community hold McConnon responsible for what we have seen is reasonable. There is no context that makes his actions tolerable. There is no doubt that that is actually him on the video and sufficient witness testimony to support taking the videos at face value. Not an AI creation. It is important that outside our insular community, people understand horsemen find this reprehensible. And yes it is appropriate for it to “go through the proper channels” and we will need to wait to see what the final penalty will be. No, I have no empathy or sympathy for McConnon. He committed purposeful and repeated acts of abuse. I have empathy for the rider who makes a mistake that harms a horse and the armchair pundits pile on.
The witch hunt begins as people start to ask who knew and how much to blame them. Obviously, no one blames the working students. The SO/vet? How about the farrier? Body worker? Braider? Owners, students being coached? Old Boys Club? Yes they all probably carry a portion of guilt. But you don’t make anyone more willing to come forward in the future by crucifying people without hard evidence. Much has been said about ULR not making statements. An ULR risks their livelihood by pissing off the wrong person. They have families and employees that rely on them. Should we all speak up? Absolutely. But we should offer empathy to anyone that doesn’t feel it is safe to speak up. And let’s do what we can to make it safe for others to speak out. This is social media’s strength. If the Old Boys Club wants to sweep it under the rug, they can’t anymore. The cell phone may just be the horse’s best friend.
It is a noble sentiment. Practically, however, our actual governments do this all the time, due in part to budgetary reasons. It’s against the law to drive drunk, to steal, to sell marijuana to your neighbour. But there aren’t enough bylaw officers, police, prosecutors, and judges to catch, report, and prosecute everything that’s contrary to our social code of conduct, i.e. the laws governing us.
But I am not even talking about censuring him.
I’m talking about AM sitting down with two or three key people in USEF leadership, and discussing the fact that this abuse complaint had moved forward to the FEI, and the video and photographs involved looked AWFUL, and given all the concerns about social license to operate in this sport, and concerns about the future of eventing as an Olympic discipline… PERHAPS for the good of the team and the sport… he should quietly withdraw from Burghley while the investigation plays out, so that USA Eventing could avoid a potential PR DISASTER.
So no public suspension. No official censure. Just a quiet private discussion with TPTB that it’s best for the team and the sport and probably AM himself to voluntarily take a step back and hit the pause button while this investigation takes place.
People do have these sorts of practical discussions in difficult situations like this in an effort to get ahead of potential public relations issues…
I hope that makes some sense.
In theory, yes. In actuality, no. Some Stewards and TDs only report what they want seen by USEF.
Burghley is done. USA already has a PR disaster. He is from my area and I was very surprised and angered to see this about him. He was always nice to me when I volunteered at the Horse Park. I guess as he got more rides and went up the levels he let it go to his head.
You don’t think they’re already making decisions behind the scenes?
I think that’s the way of the world. Like it or not. Leadership at USEF are in those roles because wealthy patrons of the sport support those people being in those leadership positions.
It is what it is. We are where we are. We now have a PR disaster for the entire sport. And it seems like it was probably avoidable to a significant degree. Or at least could have been better mitigated.
As for the PR disaster people are mentioning.
I am a firm believer things happen for a reason. These abuses have been swept under the rug or kept behind closed doors for long enough it appears. Maybe, just maybe it takes someone like CDJ and some ULR to fall from grace to finally open peoples eyes to what actually has been going on. The whole world needed to see. I do not believe for a second that any of this is happening by chance. The universe has a way of revealing evil intent and bringing it to the light, no matter how hard some people try to keep it a secret. I am hoping now that pandora is out of the box, and outside eyes have been opened it will finally bring about some hope or change for these poor souls that continue to be abused in the name of sport. Or at least it might cause everyone to do their own reflecting and soul searching and be kinder to their own horses. I know it has for me.
PAUSE for a minute: In the meantime, and while we’re all discussing this sad and horrid situation: What about the horses?
How many horses are still in Mr McConnon’s “care”?
And since the powers to be seem to be taking their own sweet time, I can’t help thinking about them.
We’ve heard about sponsors dropping him and, thank god, about of his owners involved, taking her horse(s) back to safety, but what about the others (if any)?
According to the EN article timeline, for the period of June-August:
Though we have not been able to confirm that Andrew has yet received a formal notification or charge letter, during this period of time he did become aware that the FEI was looking into the matter…
The witnesses expressed concern to the FEI about the time the investigation was taking, as by the end of August Andrew was preparing to compete at Defender Burghley. The witnesses also requested additional clarity from the FEI in terms of the investigation process and what would be needed to open a formal case. The next reply with an update on the investigation was provided from the FEI on September 11, though we are not privy to what that step is.
Doesn’t say by whom/how he was informed. So yeah, pretty ballsy.
She was also a fire fighter and paramedic so could have suffered from PTSD and I also recall her having a prescription opioid addiction?
I had a horrible experience as a working student too although not as bad. I will always remember the woman I worked fors mother one day came in and threw all our tack outside in a huge screaming raging fit because there was a couple of grooming boxes left in the aisle (only us at the barn, not messy, just in the aisle). Same place where I didn’t have a single lesson and horses didn’t get turned out. Didn’t stay long.
Amy’s death was ruled an accidental overdose, she did not commit suicide. She had some pain from major injuries that she was dealing with.
You are completely misinterpreting. Go back and read the EN article posted earlier. USEF turned over the investigation to the FEI promptly. The FEI has been in regular but arguably slow contact with the accusers, developing a case.
I’m assuming that was not recently, but rather well before SLO concerns became party of USEF’s governance? If so, it’s unfair to compare old rules to new situations.
You still have to pay $ to challenge ammy status, and that does make sense otherwise USEF would just be a clearinghouse for ammy grievances, but you actually have an obligation to report animal abuse on the showgrounds.
Was it really regular contact though? The EN reporting on this particular point was noted just a few posts ago, and it sounded like the reporting parties didn’t even hear any status updates from the FEI until September 11th… AFTER videos leaked on social media…
Allow me to clarify – USEF has been aware of this since May. So in regards to Amberley’s opinion on them not being able to provide a statement because it “happened over the weekend”, seems patently false. They have had ample time to respond and prepare a statement and, frankly, as I noted, should have had a statement set in case it did get publicly released.
FEI did actually correspond with the reporters, but yes very slowly and sporadically. This was from an earlier section in the article for the same time period:
Throughout this period of time, the witnesses verified, the FEI took several days or even up to nearly two weeks to respond to emails, prompting the witnesses to follow up inquiring about the status of the investigation.
Gotcha! Thanks
I feel for you. I too have a horse that suffered some of the worst abuse as a young horse in the hands of Andy Kocher. She was ridden with electric spurs. The damage that was done to this lovely young mare has taken so long to undo. The horses are the ones that carry the internal scars from systematic abuse. We didn’t realize who had done the initial training from ages 3-5 on her, and wondered why she was so reactive to the leg among other things. We will keep her for life. We cannot imagine this horse ever having to go through abuse by anyone else in her life. They don’t ask for this. The videos trigger something deep inside me as well.
I think some people have been confused about the USEF - which knew in May - and the USEA, which Rob Burke stated learned of this in Sept (this past weekend).
I don’t believe for one second that USEA only learned about this a few days ago when the rest of us did.
The thing I continue to struggle to understand is why all of these organizations “appear” to have closed ranks to try to protect this guy. I follow eventing, but not super closely. I never heard of this guy until a few days ago. Yeah sure he’s competing at five star but when you read the entry lists at badminton and Burghly, there are slew of English riders I’ve also never heard of. I’m not trying in anyway to diminish their accomplishments to get to the badminton level but at the same time there are also a lot of people playing in the NBA and the NFL and MLB that would not warrant the protection and closing of ranks as some of the superstars.
Someone said up thread that perhaps these types of reports are becoming more and more common and they just don’t have the resources to deal with them. That I actually understand. But at the same time, as someone else said you can’t ram social license to operate down everyone’s throats and then not even uphold your own stated objectives.
It’s so hypocritical my eyeballs hurt from rolling them
ETA- the powers that be in the organizations can’t have it both ways. If they want to do lip service on. SOCIAL license to operate- then they darn well better be ready that if they do not address situations in a timely and transparent fashion - that the SOCIAL ability for the public to disseminate this type of information will supersede their ability to control the internal narrative.
