It may be you that has trust issues, not that people can’t be trusted.
I am almost always the last out at whatever barn I’m boarding at. Lights get turned out. Communications are made if I’m not sure whether heat should stay on or get turned off.
On occasions where I’m not the last one, this also happens, as if expectations are laid out, and we adult boarders are able to live up to them. So weird! Lol
I guess I don’t understand why people think abuse happens at USEF shows but not at unrated/local shows? There are trainers who take their horses to unrated shows because they can stick them before a round for “educational purposes” and not have to worry about being tested.
Who ever said that?
Only one of them is collecting money to supposedly put a stop to it.
And, it’s a classic kiddy move to try and point your finger at someone else when you’re in the wrong.
“But what about Suzie??” This thread isn’t about unrated shows, it’s about McConnon and the mishandling of the allegations by the USEF and FEI.
Minor quibble…
At the risk of sounding find like an FEI apologist…
We don’t know just yet if the FEI has mishandled the McConnon complaints. We just know that things aren’t happening fast.
Hopefully they are going slow because they are doing a thorough job of investigating and ensuring that the eventual ruling and sanction can stand up to any potential legal challenge.
I’m answering another poster, who doesn’t do USEF shows due to the abuse and thinks that unrated shows are cleaner, and this thread has moved far off McConnon as many threads do. I mean, we’ve been talking about lights at shows for like a week.
My intent is not to further derail the thread…but as someone who does both local shows and USEF events, I want to add everyone here has a point, depending on circumstances. As a barn owner, I’ve had people actually leave and forget their horse was in crossties. One person can’t turn lights off for love nor money…
Slightly playing devils advocate although I do agree with you: many of the rated shows I go to Every winter would have lights left on if somebody didn’t take it upon themselves to do it. I’ve never seen an official steward or anyone up the sorts walk around and turn them off and as a groom I’m there pretty late. I wish they would and it should be A duty given or something of the sorts but just because it’s rated doesn’t mean it’s happening. I’m not talking cap challenger Washington but these are still A circuit shows
Edited to fix spelling lol
Neither of these are true
WEC Ohio has staff that does just that, so not a steward. They even had someone at their schooling series. I can’t remember what time, but he goes around and turns off the lights at X . They have no control if someone comes back through but efforts are made.
This makes me happy to hear!! I definitely don’t wanna speak for all shows
Welfare and other issues happen at local schooling shows too. At USEF shows there is at least a system in place to catch them. How effective that happens to be is another story.
“because of welfare and other issues”
but those SAME THINGS happen at local shows.
I’m not going to continue to derail this thread talking about my specific gripes with USEF and why I prefer schooling shows to USEF shows. If you want to discuss it more, feel free to PM me.
No, and I don’t want this comment to get lost in the ongoing back and forth re: USEF Shows … @Baybaybay765 can you provide additional information or a link?
Hopefully this link works, I’m usually a lurker! It was weird, various copies of these videos kept coming up on my reels/insta but mostly from animal advocate pages with zero reach. Then it vanished, I had to do some digging to find something that wasn’t just the same clip repeated over and over in slow mo on tik tok. It seems like a bit of a vendetta from an angry owner but her business page has been radio silent since June.
Is the horses head tied down that low or what is she doing there?
That’s certainly horrible, but (sadly) that video has been around.
Why was she whacking the bay horse so much and for so long?
And why does he keep his nose on his chest in so many pix, it’s not tied down. Someone will have a hellava time getting him to reach forward after this sterling training. 
It’s good that USEF corrected its rules to include out of competition abuse within its sanctionable offenses. The FEI has had that option in the past and has used it, but USEF doesn’t seem to have had the legal wherewithal until now. Hopefully A.M. will have his comeuppance if they find him responsible.
Nothing can stop the abuse of horses in the U.S. in backyard barns or schooling shows. I don’t know who she is, but if the woman shown in that link isn’t competing in USEF or FEI shows, nothing can be done about it.
Abusive riding, drugging horses, and the riding of lame horses by people (not necessarily purposefully but by people who don’t know what they don’t know, and don’t seem have a qualified person on the ground to let them know their horse is NQR) are unaddressed issues that can’t be solved by USEF.
At a schooling show where there are no rules, there is no accountability.
There is no keeping Safe Sport banned sex offenders from the schooling show grounds, nor the people banned or suspended by USEF or the FEI for abusing horses, or for medication violations from competing in the “fun” schooling show.
I remember the schooling shows put on by our riding club fondly, but they went under AHSA rules and no one would have dared to cheat. They were the essence of a schooling show, fun and schooling. No one was there to win.
What I have seen of schooling shows recently was not that. 
It’s too bad that we don’t require “trainer” credentials in the U.S. as does BE and the German system. In that case the trainer credentials could be removed as part of the sanctions and put abusers out of business, though I guess that NFs everywhere hesitate to do that for legal reasons.
It’s good though, to see the advent of horse welfare rules in U.S.
TB racing, with the HISA rules, and USEF along with the FEI becoming more serious about setting down members for horse welfare issues, in and outside of competition, are welcome and a long time coming.
I wonder how much the time needed to verify the date, time, and place of photos and videos slow down the investigations. With the advent of AI, photoshop etc…it must be a lengthy process to verify, and expensive to boot.
I hope that the people stepping up, and our NF cracking down, will result in people, whether in the National or local USEF levels, being held accountable for their actions.
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