I am very sorry sir, but there is no excuse for what your son did. You can say it’s not punching all you want, but honestly it doesn’t really matter the shape of his hand or exactly what angle he hit at. The horse was terrified and confused, it had absolutely nothing to do with good training or building the horse’s confidence, it doesn’t teach the horse anything other than to be afraid of the rider. So let’s say it’s not “abuse,” it’s still extremely bad riding and unfair training and your son should know better. I think you need only look at the reaction of the owners of that horse and how upset they are to realize that gaslighting is not going to get you far. They are owed an apology, not “it was an open hand, it doesn’t count!” (ETA: That whole line of “defense” is incredibly tone deaf in this day and age - how long was that line used to excuse abusing women and children? “well officer I only used an open hand!” as if it’s ok to terrorize someone because you could have hurt them worse… )
Now, on to PR stuff: I am replying before reading about 40 posts, so it’s probably too late for this, but I’ve been on these boards a long time. Coming here to insist that what we all see is not, in fact, reality, never goes well in a situation like this. Friends and relatives rushing to the aid of a subject of one of these conversations, saying the sky is green, not blue, when we’re all looking up at it, generally only serves to increase the general sense of anger. If you are at all tempted to collect other friends and relatives to post here, or to invent multiple screen names in your son’s defense, this is a very bad idea.
In the meantime, Andrew can do a couple things to get ahead of this:
Take a voluntary suspension and issue a press release that he is cooperating with any investigation into his conduct and that he’s apologizing to the greater horse community and to the horses themselves. IT is essential that he NOT try to minimize or explain away the videos or insist that it was not abuse or say it was “one moment” that is out of context or character. That will not help if he seeks to rebuild his reputation.
I am not much of a rider anymore but I have seen plenty in my time, and plenty shocking situations being discussed here. The only way forward is to take one’s lumps. Too many people (who do use their full names on fb) have receipts, because the videos that are out are very likely not the only ones.
I would think much better of your son if he handles this without attempting to gaslight us all. The horse world can actually be fairly forgiving, hell, people who killed horses for insurance money apparently still make a living in it.
(As a side note I used to work with Allie Conrad at CANTER mid Atlantic, I remember sending horses there and how excited she was at first to be working with Andrew. I was never told particular details but do remember very much how much trouble she had with her personal horse after Andrew, and the many years of work she’s done with him. I haven’t ridden in years but this is personal to me- I knew some of the horses that went there and it makes me ill to worry if they were mistreated, but also, whatever went on there with her horse was an enormous source of stress and anxiety for YEARS for a friend I care about.)
