I agree that while we can discuss all day long, nothing will change. Why don’t we start a petition online? Promote the hell out of it. Get as many thousands of signatures as we can, and send it to USEF. Let’s point out that they do in fact have standing to do something about this, and kicking the can down the road to FEI is a blatant copout. Let the FEI do what they will, USEF and certainly toss AM out on his ass and let the chips fall where they may. I’m happy to write it if I can get some assurance that those on this board complaining will share it far and wide.
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Well there I go volunteering for something that I can’t do - I’m not a member of USEF and haven’t been for over 20 years since I stopped showing. I have no standing (other than my strong opinion) to create such a petition. And, FWIW, I will sign one if someone else creates it.
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They want US to care about social licensing and not ruin the sports image….but they can sit in their hands.
The more time passes the more pissed
off I get.
Has anyone notified the police regarding the abuse? What are animal abuse laws like in his state?
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It’s really not as anyone with a history with USEF or who has been involved in the PV mess or any other similar messes or with the current or previous proposed rule changes can tell you. That’s what several of us have tried to explain to FitzE but they are just so insistent in their simplistic viewpoint. I wonder if they are truly an attorney tbh. Obviously it’s the internet and people can say anything but the history of USEF wrestling with this stuff is not a secret and it’s well known and documented online.
Sounds like USEA has a much more robust enforcement system so maybe all complaints should first be submitted there going forward until USEF gets the rules changed, if that happens.
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Wow. This just underlines the hypocrisy of the way they’ve handled this situation. I agree from a “social license” (if not necessarily legal) POV it would behoove them to provide a more sincere public statement about this.
When I got the email response from USEF’s Emily Pratt copied x number of posts ago, I did write back asking why no action could have been taken given their COC. So far, no response. And I did CC DOC on my emails.
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I do not know her personally but I have interacted with her through other channels, and it is my firm belief that she is indeed an attorney, and a quite experienced one at that.
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Yes, the wording and tone was over the top but I do not believe her intent at first was to belittle you but rather to try to get you to understand that USEF has its own attorneys, and that they have undoubtedly looked at this type of issue multiple times, and they have reached a different conclusion than you did. She also wanted to impress on you that a strong opinion on an internet bulletin board is not going to outweigh the opinions of those attorneys. IOW, the only avenue is to go directly to USEF, and if you can’t get a satisfactory response, you may have to resort to legal action and let it be decided in the judicial system as to who is right and who is wrong. Which of course takes $$$$…
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Why on earth has this thread devolved to attacking @Fitze? This is an important conversation to have but the snark and rudeness is going to sabotage any real conversation.
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And I get it about @FitzE feeling insulted - we are all so passionate about this issue and it is easy to react emotionally about various posts. Perhaps everyone needs to take a deep breath and step away from the keyboard for a while before firing off a kneejerk response - and that comment is not aimed at any one particular person but at all of us (me included!).
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No-one is attacking FitzE, they are disagreeing with her take on the situation and in my case at least thinking she must not be as familiar as she says she is because there is a looooong and easily discoverable history there of the problems USEF has had enforcing anything off showgrounds. Disagreement and pointing out that someone is factually wrong is not an attack, despite a recent social shift to make us think it is.
FitzE otoh has felt pretty free to call other posters names and accuse them of sympathizing with horse abusers and of being mean to her. Which is particularly ludicrous as the people she’s attacking are often the ones who have had actual involvement in trying to change rules.
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I would not doubt that part.
You might not agree with them, but I have no doubts that @FitzE is an attorney.
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I own mare who “electrified Spurs” were used as the “order of the day” in her training, I heard about air bags being blown off as well, I can’t imagine what else. This is sick stuff. My mare has taken over two years to dig out of this training trauma. It is the horses who suffer ultimately. So sad for our four legged partners who truly want to do their best.
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Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if when this hit the USEF desk the response was we don’t want to touch that! Throw it upstairs! No need to argue about what they could or could not have done. That is what they did. Passed the buck.
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This is a great post. With regards to the first paragraph, which I really agree with, the example I hope people keep in mind is the difference between getting frustrated and snapping at your spouse, compared with someone who has created an abusive relationship that turns someone’s home life into a nightmare.
Should you be snapping at your spouse? No, of course not, but I think most people would be lying if they said they hadn’t done it ever in their entire relationship. They probably feel shame for doing it, and it probably isn’t anyone’s favorite moment from the relationship, but because the overwhelming majority of the time together is a positive partnership there is still a strong bond and trust there that creates room to forgive the rare imperfect moments. When I read riders saying “we ALL have instances that we regret” this is the kind of moment I think of. Times where you’ve tried another kick or another pull in a situation where the horse didn’t understand what you wanted and instead needed you to take a step back and explain. Times where you’ve gone to your stick first instead of getting a lead or putting the horse on the lunge. Times where you’ve asked the horse to try to perform, only to later realize there was a physical issue making that performance difficult for them. Times that you regret, but in most cases have learned from, and if anything have contributed to the development of a pattern of behavior opposite to that moment. A better pattern of behavior that keeps the trust between you and your horse strong.
That is, as you say, wildly different from what we see here. There is a massive difference between those examples, and someone who is intentionally striking fear into the heart of their horse, and then once they have done so they are escalating or repeating that action. It is someone deliberately choosing to cause significant physical and mental pain. It is someone trying to ensure their horse always feels like the weaker partner, with no say over their own actions or what happens to them. It is someone who has no regard for what injuries or impediments they may be causing or exacerbating as long as they get their result.
That is not how most riders (or human beings) conduct themselves. Our community should feel no shame, and no fear, about sanctioning those people as severely as is necessary, because I strongly believe from my decades of experience that they do not represent us. And, as Eventing Nation says:
it’s exactly those of us inside it who have the greatest responsibility to protect the future of the thing we love
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Super post!
And I will add that it is someone who is so addicted to the endorphin kick they get from domination of another being that they let it dictate their actions to the point of escalation to actual physical abuse.
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Someone above said words to the effect, “if you have mental health issues you wouldn’t be able to ride around Burghley.” I rebutted that with examples of top-level athletes that perform at the highest levels, and have done so with mental health issues. This was because I don’t think we should fall into categorizing those with mental health issues into black and white dichotomies, such as by falsely claiming they can’t ALSO function in other spheres of their lives. Mental health and illness is a very large spectrum.
A person who consistently mistreats animals may also have mental health issues or a mental disorder. They can be held responsible for those actions without painting all people with mental health issues with the same brush.
It feels a bit like some posters want to create a dichotomy of top level riders = can’t trust them not to abuse, and lower level riders = love their horses and would never do anything to hurt them. We all know that’s not accurate, and it doesn’t serve us to create these false categorizations when figuring out how to deal with these situations.
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I hope it’s not the person who covered the Barisone situation and seemed to favor LK in that mess.
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But “tbh” you doubt their credentials. 
And a “looooong” history of problems doesn’t make them “factually wrong.” They are 100% correct in their assessment that the actions demonstrated by AM on the videos and photos are against the USEF CoC and the USEF could, very easily, suspend or ban him or eject him from their ranks if they so chose. The idea that they don’t usually do that is proof of nothing.
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I don’t normally like to reply until I’ve read the entire thread, but here is my question. If I’m reading everything right, USEA did not learn about this until last Saturday. (I think USEF and USEA acronyms are getting conflated on this thread). Why did USEF report this to the FEI and not inform anyone at USA Eventing if the published responses are true?
*Edit to correct USAE to USEA
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It is not. That was Sarah Maslin Nir.
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