Andrew McConnon horse abuse

[Jealoushe]

I don’t believe for a second USEA didn’t know. The many times Chef d’equipe is AMs coach, no?

[SaddleFitterVA]

Lido? I’m so sorry.

[DMK]

Yeah, it was time. But I know you know the lyrics to that song…

[Angela_Freda]

Thanks, I could not recall her name

[IPEsq]

I skipped ahead in these posts, but I wanted to chime in on a couple of points. Hopefully this isn’t repetitive…

I think it’s smart to remain silent in the face of an FEI investigation. This situation is different from Charlotte. Charlotte could not risk being on the team in Paris and being the reason a team medal was stripped once the FEI got around to deciding to suspend her. Plus, they would want to get their alternates settled as well by relevant deadlines. The timing was critically important to her needing to do some PR for herself and protect the British team.

We don’t have that here, and the primary purpose of the public sharing of the videos is to get the FEI to stop delaying, not to get an apology.

How many times do people come on here in the middle of a controversy when they should probably stay quiet? It is usually not a good look.

USEF can’t reverse course on this compared to their policies and decisions on jurisdiction. If they decide to find a code of conduct loophole now, then that means they were wrong on Parra and others. That is why we have the new rule making, and so I think they are going to maintain this policy until the new rule takes effect. Meanwhile, for FEI registered riders, USEF will reciprocate any suspension handed down by the FEI.

I do think USEF should have clued in USEA. The decision to put him on teams when an investigation by the FEI was recommended (and presumed to be in progress) is a WTF moment even if not for the Olympics .

[Syrynx]

I am so very sorry to hear about your retiree.

[DownYonder]

Good post, and I am very sorry to hear about your retiree. Been there, done that - and it sucks.

[Jenerationx]

@Blugal

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.

Agreed.

[Jenerationx]

I’m sorry for your loss.

[AmmyHour926]

@Blugal

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.

THIS! Abuse, mistreatment, un ethical care comes in ALL shapes and forms and honestly has 0 correlation to level in which you compete.

I’d argue both groups can claim to love their horses and yet both groups can intentionally or unintentionally participate in abuse. Two things can be true at once.

Abuse can and does look like:

Fluffy being punched in the face for a run out.

Fluffy who spends 6 weeks at a show with only hand walking and no turn out.

Fluffy who is getting free choice alfalfa and close to foundering

Fluffy who doesn’t get hard feed leading up to a show

Fluffy who really isn’t sound in any leg, but gets constant injections and “maintenance”

Fluffy who tolerates a bouncy rider with bad hands

Fluffy who is left in side reins in a round pen

Fluffy who is forced to adjust to barefoot without boots

Fluffy who does not have free choice forage

Fluffy who is denied friends or social interactions

Fluffy who is so backed off a fence but is kicked around anyways

Fluffy who is iced up until the minute they jog

Fluffy who lives on previcox just to be pasture sound

Obviously there is different size and scope of these grienvances, but it is unfair to say unsightly things ONLy occur at the top of the stop. These things happen in nearly eery single boarding barn in the US if you (general) open your eyes.
List goes on and on.

[jcc813]

Skeptical as I am about USEF and FEI, I’m willing to believe Rob Burke’s statements that USEA wasn’t informed based on his more detailed and specific responses to EN’s request for info–even down to the exact time they notified USEF. (Copied that section from the article below)

Even if Bobby Costello somehow found out given a personal relationship with AM, doesn’t mean he shared that with USEA officials.

Also, as I reread the quoted section below, I’m wondering why USEA would have the power to suspend a member based on their by-law but USEF allegedly does not despite their CoC? Is it because USEA’s oversight is not specifically limited to competitions?

Now, the USEA is a little different. Despite the fact that the USEA is not actually a governing body – they are an affiliated association that contracts with USEF on regulation – their by-laws do state that they have the power to suspend a member.

The USEA by-law Article 1.10 reads:
“Censure, Suspension or Expulsion of Members: The Board of Governors may censure, suspend or expel any member for cause after a hearing at any meeting of the Board of Governors, provided such member has been given twenty-one (21) calendar days notice of such hearing in the manner set forth in Article VIII, herein. Any member suspended, expelled or dropped from membership pursuant to this paragraph may only be reinstated by the affirmative vote of the majority of the Board of Governors at any regular or special meeting.”

In terms of the USEA, CEO Rob Burk confirmed that his staff had no prior knowledge of the allegations and investigation against Andrew prior to September 7 and therefore could not have suspended Andrew on these grounds prior to obtaining this information.
“As stated in the statement we put out, the first time that, to my knowledge, this information was brought to our attention about the videos of abuse was Saturday evening,” Rob told EN. “Saturday evening, as we say in our release, it was literally about one hour and 15 minutes later that we had notified the Federation about the information we received. I have checked with our staff, requested info from our Board of Governors, and as of right now I have no information showing that we received these videos earlier than Saturday.”
Rob stated that a request will be brought forward to the USEA Board of Governors this week to hold a hearing on this matter.
Had the USEA and USEA Foundation been made aware of the investigation sooner, Rob says, there could have been more action taken. However, he admits this is rather unprecedented territory, given that the Association has not historically had to deal with a case like this involving a grant recipient.

[sascha]

@DMK

one should stay away from the keyboard when one puts down their early retiree

So sorry about Lido

[jcc813]

On further research, the Chef d’Equipe role is actually under USEF, not USEA.

https://www.usef.org/forms-pubs/VMWD7CTbHQI/2024-eventing-team-staff

US Equestrian Announces the Appointment of Robert Costello as Eventing...

[anon6923113]

I’m sorry about your retiree. That’s never easy, no matter the circumstances.

[alicen]

@wanderlust

Upper level dressage, well, we’ve seen what that looks like and it isn’t pretty.

So you’re trashing all of upper level dressage?

[Tackpud]

@DMK

AHSA really suffered even in their minor victories and no one needs another glefke debacle.

That was actually USEF making a mess of the Glefke case.

[DMK]

Understood! I was getting sick of acronyms plus I get a little ill when I type that name so it doesn’t lend itself to proofreading

[Tackpud]

[volvo_240]

@Ghazzu

So Dad’s response seems to be along the lines of:
–There’s no proof he did that thing!
–How do you know it was him?
–OK, so there’s a video of it, but it’s really not a bad thing!

It’s the Narcissist Prayer ‘didn’t do it but if I did it’s not my fault you made me do it’

[clipper]

@FitzE

It’s like a puzzle and I just cannot see how they get from A to B given what I can read of their org docs. I’m really curious about the whole thing.

The people at the top do whatever they want for their friends. Americans and Canadians are always surprised at how these things play out. Rich stick with rich. The rules really only apply to middle class and lower people. Just look at the Bob Baffert and the Kentucky Derby.

FitzE you are completely correct that the USEF has the “rules” in place to do something. They just do not want to.

If it cost money that does not benefit the top riders/coaches/directors running the club they have no desire to change anything because after all it could be them next.