Andrew McConnon horse abuse

[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...

[Virginia_Horse_Mom]

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.

[FitzE]

@clipper

The rules really only apply to middle class and lower people.

I agree with this and it makes me think they’ve applied those rules but we don’t see it b/c it is applied to the nobodies, not the big names. Really frustrating.

@HalcyonFarm

Sooooo… we now see this one social media post by MCB being shared and reshared by multiple well established 5* riders, a post which involves non specific statements about abuse (meaning they don’t want to identify or call out anyone in particular) … and in this case it’s left to the grooms and former clients to do the actual reporting and suffer the associated retaliation.

I like your whole post, but this bit especially. It is tragic it falls to the people with the least power to enforce this stuff and all the while people are shouting about ‘why didn’t you report it sooner’. I cannot imagine being a WS or groom or student and going up against an Olympian who even other Olympians won’t speak up to.

[millerra]

And I think this list of yours is a pretty slippery slope. And your list, while I understand the potential nuances, would be very hard for a non-horse person to discern: Example: free choice alfalfa = abuse; not free choice forage = abuse.

While your list does have some abuse (punch in the face), bouncy rider w/ bad hands? Define bad and bouncy. This is where we absolutely have to be careful otherwise everything we do will be viewed as abusive.

[Old_Mac_Donald]

You missed the last one:

• Names and photos for the file!

Oh wait, wrong narcissist.

• Names and locations as you are all just internet trolls and probably did worse than my poor boy, and if you are anonymous you have no right to criticise him.

[wanderlust]

All high performance sport and national teams are run by USEF. USEA is the affiliate for running eventing horse shows and related things.

[wanderlust]

@millerra

And I think this list of yours is a pretty slippery slope. And your list, while I understand the potential nuances, would be very hard for a non-horse person to discern: Example: free choice alfalfa = abuse; not free choice forage = abuse.

While your list does have some abuse (punch in the face), bouncy rider w/ bad hands? Define bad and bouncy. This is where we absolutely have to be careful otherwise everything we do will be viewed as abusive.

Right? As someone who has kept her 24 yo semi-retiree happy and very sound on daily equioxx for the past many years, wouldn’t it be more abusive to see her hobble around? Or am I supposed to put her down instead of keeping her comfortable?

Same with the whole “stays at shows with hand walking and no turnout for 6 weeks” uh if you’ve ever lived in California that’s how a lot of the horses are managed year-round but especially in the winter when the ground is so slick it’s dangerous to turn out (and truly add any place that gets a lot of ice or soaking rains in the winter).

No free-choice forage is abuse? I love mine to get as much grass/hay as they’ll eat, but at some point they get fat and it’s a trade off between belly issues and metabolic issues.

Weird list of “abuses.”

[AmmyHour926]

Apologies the list was a bit hyperbolic.

[Virginia_Horse_Mom]

Well… you had a point. As of yesterday, PETA’s official social media account up and shared the video of McConnon.

The reactions are entirely predictable.

[Virginia_Horse_Mom]

@wanderlust

All high performance sport and national teams are run by USEF. USEA is the affiliate for running eventing horse shows and related things.

This is true.

But… when it comes to this story, USEA was the organization that awarded AM the $50,000 International Developing Rider Grant.

If they had been informed back in June about the abuse complaint and the subsequent FEI investigation, then PERHAPS something could have been done by USEA and AM withdrawn from Burghley. It’s uncertain, but from RB’s comments in Eventing Nation, it seems like they might have had some avenues to explore.

[Impractical_Horsewoman]

The bad rider with bouncing hands=abuse is something I’ve heard said at many barns, usually criticism of older women learning to ride or older women who own horses and aren’t perhaps in the best shape. The idea that every person who gives their horse a less-than-perfect ride every time is an abuser would pretty much mean that no one should ride (except for the very athletically and naturally gifted) because anyone learning to ride was abusing the horse.

I guess maybe you could say that the old skool “learn on the lunge until you’re skilled enough to touch the horse’s reins” wasn’t abusive by that standard, but few lesson barns and even private instructors have the time to teach people in that time-consuming a fashion. Looking back, maybe that’s how I wish I’d been taught, but that’s a pretty narrow definition of how many people should be allowed to ride.

Regardless, I think a lot of people who give their horses less-than-perfect rides can also feel intimidated to challenge trainers who get aggressive in a way that makes them uncomfortable with their horses. Making ammies feel ashamed of the way they ride and telling them they are abusive and on the same continuum as people who are whipping and punching horses is not productive.

[CuriosoJorge]

@DMK I’m sorry about Lido. I remember when you got him. Big hugs.