He should get a much longer suspension than Charlotte and have to go to therapy for his anger issues.
If he was a women, he would be suspended for many years and completely hung out to dry.
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My understanding of Ericâs reversal of his lifetime ban Mr. Southern put on him was that the FEI told the Southerns that they would no longer be able to host FEI classes if Eric remained banned from Spruce Meadows. Lamaze had been reinstated by the FEI and EC, so he had the right to ride in FEI sanctioned events.
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That is definitely possible! It was a few years back so my recall may be a bit off. 
I usually try to remember to add that disclaimer to my posts. Forgot on this one.
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And that is EXACTLY why it progressed so quickly. And by âquicklyâ it still took over 4 months. There was no resistance, just a person who effectively pleaded guilty.
AM hasnât done any of those things. Yes, heâs cooperating, but thatâs legal talk for a slow roll. You comply with requests but you did donât give up any info until youâve been asked, you take your full allotted time, you offer up nothing that hasnât been specifically requested.
It shouldnât be hard to understand why - once the ball got rolling (slowly) - that it still isnât progressing at the same speed. Men may get treated differently than women (of that I have no doubt), but in this instance, at this point in time, itâs an unfair allegation. I would have to wait for actual judgement before Iâd want to saddle up that particular horse. And donât get me wrong, the tack is on standby.
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Part of it is a CYA move by the FEI. Sheâs very high profile and the complaint was made to the FEI less than a week before the Olympics began. I am sure they felt a real sense of urgency to notify her and do a provisional suspension ASAP, because if sheâd competed/won at the Olympics and it was later found out that the FEI was sitting on a horse abuse complaint submitted prior to the games, that would be a PR disaster for the FEI.
In contrast⊠Andrew McConnon isnât even well-known in the States. If he competes at Burghley while the FEI has a complaint against him, itâs not going to be international news.
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I totally agree, but that also feeds into why she didnât push back at all. Iâm sure even if she thought that might be an option both Carl and her NGB were saying otherwise.
However, once that dust Olympic debacle dust settled, the allegation still had to go through the normal adjudication process. And that process was greatly sped up by the fact that the FEI didnât have to build a case that proved the allegations were true, just like if you are accused of a crime thereâs a world of difference in the speed things progress if you plead guilty vs not guilty.
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Hi all!
I used to be a member here but have lost my login info. Signed up for a new one to clarify some info but was put into posting limbo as a spammer 
â:dizzy:
I wanted to reiterate what I wrote on my Facebook pageâthe FEI is continuing to investigate this case. Itâs an incredibly frustrating and slow process. From submission of witnesses to signing of witness statements is taking roughly 6 weeks each.
One major problem is that people who had submitted info against AMC in the past either to FEI or USEF were not contacted, so none of those witnesses were known to the investigators. I canât be sure of this as everyone is so close-lipped but it seems like communications between the organizations could use major improvement.
Another issue is that in the past it appears that people who have come forward with eyewitness accounts were basically told that there was nothing to be done without video evidence. This is absurd, if true.
Another issueâthe refusal of anyone in the UK stepping forward. Rumors have it that he was well known to have gotten the boot from The Billy Stud for abusive behavior. They refuse to speak out on this caseâeven statement saying they didnât witness anything. There is also speculation that he was removed from WFPs farm but invited back for excessive beating on horses. Nobody will confirm if that is the case or not, but the silence speaks imho.
Anyhow, just wanted to say thank you for the support, provide a little info to the thread and remind people that we are all our horses have to protect them against sociopaths.
ETA: Iâm Allie conrad in case wick would like to know 
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Welcome back Allie. And thanks for the update. Possibly @Moderator_1 can help retrieve your original sign in.
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Welcome Allie and I very much appreciate your persistence on this issue and your willingness to be vulnerable in this situation by speaking out. It is heartbreaking to me that so many protect abusers in the sport by keeping closed lips and I applaud you for not being one of those people. You are clearly an advocate for the horses and that is hero level stuff in my book. Thanks again.
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I find this interesting that 2 folks have mentioned this disparity in the FEIâs handling of these 2 cases. When I said exactly the same thing on the Charlotte thread (re Parra) I got my ass handed to me by quite a few posters.
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If I had seen it, I would have defended you. There are probably other factors but gender seems to be a strong one based on history.
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Thank you! It certainly comes with riskâI live in the same community and itâs shocking that more people here havenât spoken up publicly. But people here all know what he is. If they didnât know, they would find out in short order.
The culture of professionals protecting one another is going to be the ruination of horse sports.
I know people are worried about stepping up because they themselves have had âbad daysâwith horses and run the risk of witnesses coming forward and calling them out. But we have to be brave and stand up to say âIâve been too hard on horses in my past. Iâve made mistakes. Iâve taken discipline too far, but I learned from it and work to never to it againâ.
Nobody is without fault. Iâve personally done things Iâve looked back on and thought WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!? Flat out heavy-handed, nonsensical abuse delivered inappropriately in times of frustration and anger that did exactly NOTHING to help educate a horse.
The difference is that I look back and am horrified by my actions and vow to do better by animals and I work hard at it everyday. Andrew finds new and better ways to inflict pain, trauma and âsubmissionâ and he is not alone in his methods.
There is a difference.
Violence begins when education ends. Unless you are a deeply disturbed human with behavior along the lines of a sociopath.
He still has 5 horses on his farm and is riding. He still reportedly enjoys the patronage of one of his ownersâthe owner of one of the horses who is featured in many of his whipped pictures and punching in the head videos. Deplorable.
Anyhow, word on the street is that we will have news within 3 weeks.
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Where did he learn this from? Who else is doing this?
Key questions.
McConnon didnât arise from nowhere. He worked for some very big names, for significant periods of time.
I donât want to unfairly blame them for his actions, however, the whole situation is troubling. Very troubling.
And⊠itâs heartbreaking that there is one particular horse - one seen in many of these pictures and videos - still in his care. Top tier eventing horses⊠ones that have the heart and courage and talent to compete at the 4 star level and beyond⊠they are special. Not always easy. But really special animals. It just makes my stomach turn a bit to think of a horse like that⊠one who gives so much and tries so very hard⊠to be in a situation like the horse apparently is in.
Very sad.
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What kind of person sees their horse being abused in a video and leaves the horse in his care? Do people just not care anymore? I hope karma comes visiting this individual one day.
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Not to mention, this abuse goes beyond bad horsemanship. Itâs criminally prosecutable to beat an animal in the way he does. Did? Nah, does.
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I recognize the irony in these words but itâs not my place to say because itâs all just been reported to me third-hand. Before his name was released I was getting a crazy amount of âguessesâ privately. Many people guessed correctly, but there are five other people of prominence who had five or more reports from people to me for horrible and abusive behavior. They fell into two camps:
âwithholding food/water and creative restraintsâthis seemsâby reports I gotâto be incredibly popular method among a few top professionals. Withholding food and water for more than 24 hours before dressage, for instance to make a horse âquieterâ (WTF??). The creative restraint comes into play and used in conjunction with withholding food/water after a âbadâ ride to teach them a lesson. For instanceâyou have a ride where the horse is disobedient. You finish your ride and short tie them in a stall with head up, or tied to their tail, or tied to their own legs for several hours. Get back on the horse and repeat the ride. Bad ride again? Rinse and repeat the previous routine. Repeat all day until the horse âsubmitsâ.
The other camp are the horse beaters. We have people on teams who think things likeâŠ.taking a stirrup and leather off of a saddle and beating a horse in the head and body with it from the cross country field back to the barnâyou know so you can really use the momentum at the end of the stirrup leather because it wouldnât jump a ditch? All ok.
These are the people with tempers, and I was shocked to hear that most in this camp reported to me are women.
Theses are only anecdotes for me to tell. I have not witnessed this behavior and donât know what is true, but each of these type of things were reported to me by separate people multiple times. It is up to the witnesses to come bravely forward and the organizations to take them seriously.
This stuff is happening, and if you start looking around for those really good riders who started shining near the top of the sport then quietly walked away? Youâll find interesting stories about how they couldnât watch what horses are put through to get there anymore.
â
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