Andrew McConnon horse abuse

I am also curious who these people are on social media that are calling for empathy as it relates directly to the the pictures and videos shared of AMC.

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I disagree with this part of your post. It was only until the outside world started looking in a few years ago that real changes started to be made in the equestrian world outside of racing, Ć  la George Morris. And I think from USA Eventings own statement, having been aware of this situation from the beginning of the summer, they have had plenty of time to get their strategic Plan in place to address. Which they have obviously blatantly done nothing about.

Honestly, their statement makes them look a lot LOT worse.

Let us remember that CDJs video did not take place at a formal event either and look at the fallout from that one both within the horse world, and without. I never saw so much reporting on equestrian events, and that particular incident on the major news streams.

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At the risk of sounding sexist, I would postulate that maybe one gender has more sense of moral responsibility than the other.

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Good points I didn’t think of!

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I’m sure you’d rather this was done properly, rather than simply posted as an embed of the social media post with no additional useful information or due diligence. Rest assured, it is being worked on extensively.

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Poor Mark Todd. That ā€œsinā€ was understandable to me, and he dealt with the aftermath (I felt) quite graciously. This is different.

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Firstly, many apologies because I can not remember the source, but I do recall reading that A Mc said that he had learned from WFP that eventing was a business. Looking at horses as $ signs while ignoring that they are sentient beings could lead you into some devious behavior.

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Exactly

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This^^^^^ x 1000!

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That is a very important, pointed and powerful question.

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I sat on my hands because I was mostly sure that USEF rules didn’t extend off show grounds. Even FEI rules are rather recent IIRC (I think it was rolled out in one of our driver briefings this winter). I know everyone wants to move fast, but I think the normal course of events is much longer. If you want to successfully prosecute a case, you need witness statements, corroboration, you need to go all Jack McCoy on the problem. Remember how long it took to deal with Andy Kocher and he had freaking electric spurs?

My suspicion with Charlotte is that there were a lot of conversations between her team and the FEI, she saw the writing on the wall and the damage that drawing out the disposition of her case would do to her country’s Olympic team and their efforts (or the British team made it clear to her there were not any other options at that late date) so she wisely stood down. But that’s not how the normal case moves through the system. And that’s incredibly frustrating for those of us who are genuinely horrified by the actions of this rider, but unfortunately, that does not mean the FEI is dragging its feet, it just means these things take time. Or rather if the FEI is dragging its feet, it’s a little too soon to declare that as fact.

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I wonder if some of the owners can press charges/sue him for this behaviour.

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Thanks for sharing this. This is a better statement, in my opinion. A step in a healthier direction.

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Again, exactly. Thank you. It was so nice to wake up and see this and other statements after the repeated pushback I got yesterday. We need people like big donors to leverage their positions to demand change at the org level.

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I’ll tell you who I will never buy feed from, and that’s cryptoaero. And I was just looking at them over the weekend.

What a garbage ass response.

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I bend over backwards and pay significantly more for many things (currently building supplies which are big money these days) to support small and local businesses in my area. I am super committed to this.

This response is so BSC that this company actually deserves to go under. I cannot fathom who on their payroll would have typed this up and hit send. Were they sober? I mean, that’s the only reason I can imagine for this statement to have gone out.

Also, do they understand the term blackmail? It would appear not since the message only requested they withdraw support because of abuse, no threat of any type of retaliation whatsoever if they did not.

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Can you message this to someone with a boatload of horse followers? Their response needs to be widely known.

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I am replying to @FitzE’s recent post, because I think it’s important to be factual about what happened.

Yesterday:

You wrote this to another poster. And I agreed with the sentiment. But then:

This was 19 hours ago, meaning, you posted on Sunday night. The allegations went viral on Saturday.

As others pointed out, making a public statement can take some time and due diligence. You screen-shotted a FB post where RF made some quick comments in response to being tagged.

On Sunday night, you were already calling out RF for not ā€œdoing betterā€, ā€œleaving it at thatā€, and ā€œa simple throwing up of their handsā€. But you literally only had the information of comments on a Facebook post - you did not enquire further. And once you learned of my personal anecdote, you turned around, saying:

I stand by my ā€œpushbackā€. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt to RF at this stage, given what we currently know.

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Long time reader but first time I’m commenting. Crypto aero has a reputation for being abrasive and confrontational. I am sure this is the owner who responded.

Not only that but I have researched their feed extensively and it’s basically 80% oats with no actual proper fortification backed by any nutritional analysis.

Basically, don’t buy their feed. Just buy some oats and add a couple supplements (Vermont Blend?) and call it a day.

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The PTB have had these reports and materials since ā€œthe beginning of the summerā€ and not only is he still operating as a rider/trainer, he’s received a grant and represented the US internationally.

Two words come to mind to describe the PTB: Impotent. Opaque.

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