FEI has the time and resources to design, produce and release a tool to measure noseband tightness in the name of horse welfare, but still nothing on how they plan to address the blatant and well-documented decade+ long campaign of abuse from Andrew McConnon, who is yet to be suspended. Brilliant.
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The gauge, which coincidentally is almost identical to the taper gauge launched by ISES in 2016âŠ
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Sheâs a nutjob. As soon as she started onto hating ALL professional riders, she lost all credibility.
The governing bodies, FEI & USEF definitely have issues, but thatâs a completely different discussion than claiming that all professionals donât love horses.
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Do you mind sharing the context for posting this article in this thread?
Correct me if I am wrong, but McConnon has worked with Costello at least in the past and it has been speculated that Costello probably knew of McConnonâs dirty deeds.
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Interesting. Maybe heâs stepping down to spend more time with his family. 
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It was noted on FB that it wasnât his choice.
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Coach, mentor, career advocate, landlord, etc. etc. which begs the question of where supporting young athletes ends and where conflict of interest begins. A person in such a powerful position at USEA leveraging that power to, hypothetically, campaign for/make elite, career launching, connections for a rider who is a client of their coaching business can go very wrong.
"Proximity to champions has defined Andrewâs education. When Marc turned his eye toward course design, Andrew moved his small operation to Robert Costelloâs farm. âBobby had a shed row barn where I could be partly on my own and partly under his watchful eye,â Andrew said. âI had a client or two and I was teaching lessons. I took the interim step of being on my own, but still having his guidance.â
"Ultimately, Andrew decided that finding a place where he could ride and continue his education would make the most sense, an idea that his coach, Bobby Costello, agreed with wholeheartedly: âBobby told me that it would be a great move, and that I could never do anything better than that.â
"While working for Costello, McConnon determined that he wanted to reach the elite echelon of international three-day eventing. To that end, he moved to Europe in 2016 to work for British Olympian William Fox-Pitt. It was there McConnon saw first-hand the work that Fox-Pitt put in to become the FEIâs world No. 1-ranked eventer, a distinction Fox-Pitt has achieved multiple times.
McConnon today applies the philosophies and practices he absorbed from Fox-Pitt, Donovan and Costello to forge his own path. "
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This is very interesting, reading between the lines.
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Looks like one of Andrewâs rides FVF Top Gun has gone to Ema Klugman. She had him out at Waredaca this weekend and won the open preliminary. Canât be sure if this is why, but Andrew last competed him at Ocala in mid August.
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What an absolute disgrace. He should be prosecuted for animal abuse. My heart breaks for any horse in his âcareâ. It is heartbreaking to see the horse try, only to be ârewardedâ with abuse and confusion. It just turns my stomach. I spent a summer working for a bnt in college while trying to decide if I wanted to switch my major to Equine Science. After seeing what he did to a horse one morning, I quit and got out of horses completely for a year, and decided that running a professional barn was not for me. I had idolized that professional and it was such a shock to see the results of a meltdown he had in the saddle. I still feel weepy when I think of that horse, truly broken in spirit. It was way before the internet and we were all told to keep our mouths shut at the barn. It was clearly implied that we were not to speak of it and nobody would believe us anyway because we were barn help and he was a big cheese. Itâs sad to see that horse abuse is alive and well in some corners of eventing. Really discouraging.
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Awesome for Ema!
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I have had an update that BCâs leaving has nothing to do with AM
My apologies for my speculation
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FVF Top Gun, owned by a syndicate, competed under Ema Klugman this weekend.
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and won! Go Ema!
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Exactly how does a person âcash inâ by reporting animal abuse?
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So what is the status of this investigation, FEI/USEF/USEA? Multiple videos from multiple parties, radio silence and CDJ banned immediately off one video and no woodworks?
Tangential, but why is Rich Fellers who is literally rotting in jail for a REAL conviction in a REAL court still on the suspension list and not permanently banned? Far lessor no-names are on that permanently banned list. Dare I bring up the Eric Lamaze situation?
I think (IMO) what FEI fails to recognize is that the greater populace here are quite educated. In real life. We may not be able to get a horse around a 5* but we sure know obfuscation when we see it in, dare I say, more real world applications than an increasingly niche sport.
The also-current Md 5* thread has quite a bit of convo on sponsorship of riders. I actually currently sponsor an FEI horse in a different sport. Not a better sport, just the one I ended up in with this particular horse. But I sponsor the RIDER with my horse. Someone on the MD thread made a comment that owners care more about their horse and the individual goals and that is 100% true. Why should I put my horse and his pathway subservient to a leadership I donât believe in?
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Lots of social media influencers do it. They get paid for views (and YouTube i believe is the biggest pay out) or they have a patreon, or sell an e book etc.
The moment I clicked on that personâs YouTube video you could tell it was about sensationalized view counts, not about the real story.
Itâs the same with all the body workers, positive training internet gurus that rope you into buying their ebook or e-course. They get you there by convincing you that every well known trainer, vet, previous way of doing business is evil, but for 99$ they will teach you a better way to be kind.
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IKR? I have been a practicing lawyer for 20 years, I have seen more S&^$ than FEI can possibly imagine. My ability to smell a rat far exceeds my talent in the saddle, a hobby pursuit. Iâm far from the only one with such real world experience.
FEI simply doesnât care. They donât think they need âusâ â and in part, they are right. Theyâve got their Saudi princes, etc. to fund them. But I donât think they know we know how corrupt they are.
When they need us in the court of public opinion, which eventually they will, I personally will not be there for them. Iâm not a stooge, ready to repeat whatever talking points they have in their crisis management plan. They lost my trust a long time ago.
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