Seriously. I think I was taught at age 5 or 6 while riding lesson ponies and participating in little lesson barn home horse shows that you NEVER blame your pony/horse when things go poorly. You just stuff your feelings in, and take proper care of the animal after riding it.
I have zero respect for adults who can’t seem to manage that. Give me a break.
I’d like the hear the reasoning behind this as well. Also, the season may be very different in NV, but where I’m from, there are no competitions between Nov. and Apr. It seems a suspension should correspond to the competition calendar otherwise it’s meaningless.
Typically, suspensions are timed to coincide with the time of year in which the offense took place.
Do you know the reasoning behind that? Is it to ensure that there are, in fact, competitions taking place then? I’d like to see the punishment be swift (not that TPTB care what I think).
The idea is to not allow the person to compete where the issue happened - not sure if that’s good or bad.
Interesting. I mean, sure that’s good, but shouldn’t they not be able to compete anywhere? I feel like giving them a few months before the suspension starts allows them to line up catch riders, etc, so it’s not as much of a hardship as if they were suspended immediately. 🤷
So this amateur refused out of SJ and beat the crap out of her horse on Saturday, April 14th, 2024.
USEF completed an investigation and made their ruling on Wednesday, June 26th, 2024.
74 days. Two and a half months.
Read the suspension.
It covers the horses as well.
At the speed they move, I would consider that pretty fast.
There have been times where I’m not thrilled with the performance, dead silent, putting away tack, and a quick half-hearted “good job, if the job was to make us look bad” pat, followed by not wanting to see said horse for at least half an hour - but to tear into him, going as far as to close the stall on his hips? Come on. That’s kiddy immature tantrum stuff. Grow up.
Perhaps AAEP membership is also voluntary. Their Code of Ethics - C2b - states: “A veterinarian has an ethical responsibility to report suspected animal cruelty and/or abuse.”
Yes, I saw that. I still think that it should be an immediate suspension.
That’s the thing that really got me. What a child. Poor horse.
It is. The only required membership is a license from the jurisdiction in which the veterinarian is practicing. Many vets are members of their state veterinary medical association, the AVMA and/or the AAEP or the state’s Equine Practitioner’s association and those organizations have governing principles and suggested or model rules, but each state’s disciplinary rules are different.
IIRC, and I don’t have my rule book handy, but I do have a pretty good grasp of all the rules 
in Florida, a licensed vet is a mandatory reporter of other veterinarians infractions, and that is particularly clear when it is an impaired practitioner. There is also some situations where a licensee can report animal cruelty or abuse or cooperate with an investigation without being in violation of the requirement that the animal’s medical records are confidential. Additionally, section 828.12(4), Florida Statues provides immunity in criminal and civil actions if a vet does participate in an investigation or makes such a report.
However, Florida does not have an ethical obligation, or perhaps I should say, it is not a specific violation of the disciplinary guidelines to fail to report animal abuse or cruelty. It appears, based on Flightcheck’s comment above, that North Carolina is similar in that their licensees are also not mandatory reporters.
One of the many things that really need to be changed. Only horses owned by the suspended person are also suspended - a pro can just line up a new rider while they take their vacation. If the horse and owner were suspended as well, people would start to think about who they send their horses to and whether it’s worth risking a suspension. Also, so many of the rulings have mitigating circumstances to lessen the penalty - how many times can one person use “the groom mixed up the buckets” defense and be believed??
Read the last paragraph. Any horses of hers are suspended as well. There will be no catch riders.
This reminded me of an incident with my daughter and her pony… Flame was a little spitfire and it took a bit for her to learn to ride him, but after that he would do almost anything for her. She was having a bad day once and got a little too strong with him, and he took off at a gallop in our rather large arena and she couldn’t stop him. He must have taken almost 20 laps flat out, and the expression on my daughter’s face was priceless! She learned her lesson about not taking your mood out on your horse that day, lol. To bad everyone doesn’t have a pony like Flame to school them on containing their emotions!
There is a person who used to board at my barn who would have fits of temper. I walked out of the barn in tears over seeing it twice. She moved and I didn’t report it as I don’t think she’s a member of any of these governing bodies and most people at my barn realized she was not humane in her reactions/treatment of her horses. One horse was recently found dead in the pasture due to storm (keeping this vague), and honestly I felt mostly relieved that the horse wouldn’t be living under that tyranny anymore. We all know she is a bad horsewoman but reporting to local authorities will do nothing because on paper those horses are well cared for. It’s a conundrum for sure.
part of the problem is animal cruelty laws for dog/cats are lax in most places of the US, for horses, if they’re not being starved (and sometimes that’s ok too depending on the state) you’re not gonna get a prosecution. It’s a real problem.
Prosecuting animal cruelty is tough, because the “evidence” (the abused animal) needs to be held somewhere. Shelters are incredibly full these days throughout the country, and there are only so many places to hold a horse.
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