CANTER Mid-Atlantic no longer exists. 
There are MD, WV, and DE affiliates listing horses but no adoption/retraining program anymore in those areas. (Michigan, Kentucky, California, and I think Ohio are the only affiliates doing adoptions now, I think)
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SafeSport may be more helpful if he was abusing (verbally or physically) his working students - assuming they were underage? From reading the above it sounds like he was not nice to humans either. May help further cement the case against him if people came forward for that!
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Yes, there many comments on line about his abuse of humans as well. Hopefully thatās another line of reportage to take to, as you say, cement this case.
Iām surprised he hasnāt made a single statement yet and that his socials are still up and active with people commenting. Again, recognise heās overseas and just after an event, but youād think with sponsors bailing and SM blowing up heād have at least a preliminary response.
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SafeSport is so backlogged with abuse reports from all Olympic Sports, and has such an inconsistent track recordā¦ I concur with others who feel it is not the most effective oversight authority to reach out to concerning this particular issue.
It seems FEI, USEF, and USEA are the most relevant organizations to reach out to with concerns and feedback.
And though I understand people reaching out to sponsorsā¦ the reality of most of these sorts of sponsors is that they supply the rider with discounted or complimentary equipment and apparel. Pulling the sponsorship is embarrassing for the rider, but doesnāt pack much of a financial impact.
If the grant was pulled, however, that would have a significant impact.
Just my thoughts on it.
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Again, Safe Sport is for human abuse, not equine abuse. Thatās what USEF is supposed to be for.
From the USEF website regarding Safe Sport:
. What is the U.S. Center for SafeSport, what is their jurisdiction and how is the Center empowered?
The U.S. Center for SafeSport (Center) is a major partner in our efforts to combat abuse. Their jurisdiction is exclusive as it relates to allegations of sexual misconduct and it retains discretionary jurisdiction over non-sexual misconduct allegations, i.e. bullying, harassment, physical and emotional misconduct. Created in March of 2017, the Center is an independent organization which was authorized by Congress on February 14, 2018, through S. 534 ā Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017. The bill amended the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act of 1978 by designating the Center to serve as the independent national safe sport organization, with the responsibility for developing policies and procedures to prevent the emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of amateur athletes.
The Center receives reports, conducts investigations, determines sanctions, and informs National Governing Bodies for sport, such as US Equestrian, of sanctions against any persons for violations of the Centerās Safe Sport Code. The Center employs specially trained personnel to conduct its work. This partnership enables US Equestrian to bring you consistent and reliable reporting processes, resources and support.
Please note - Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017. This refers to humans and not equines as animals are not involved in all Olympic sports. Our sport is unique and supposedly why we have USEF to protect the equine partners.
And please note, I have reported to Safe Sport for sexual misconduct in the past and have reported animal abuse to USEF. Iām doing much more than many to improve our sport.
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If a situation is serious and you care about it, you contact all relevant organizations. Fastest response I ever got from SafeSport was over a horse-related incident. They were concerned about the human conduct in the situation. The response was almost immediate.
Donāt forget about USOPC. They have the oversight role over USEF. I explained the certification criteria upthread. NFs are put on notice with that.
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I think losing sponsors results in a loss of credibility for the sponsored party; marks them as bad and wrong enough to lose a sponsor.
I agree, having the grant pull or making him repay what heās used would be the ultimate consequence here. I would be shocked if there was not language in all these grants about the recipient upholding certain standards. Violation of those standards could and should result in clawback of the funding so that it can be used to support more deserving recipients.
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Interesting thought about possible clawback language.
Sadly, I predict that rather than any attempted clawback , there will be a much more āostrichā type response from TPTB at USEAā¦
I hope I am wrong.
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This is where irate donors can come in and be livid that their very generous gift was given to someone known to the USEA, etc. to operate in this way which in turn has the potential to tarnish the name of the giver just through name association. Thus there should be character language in these grants and awards and transparency that a clawback mechanism will kick in upon credible reports and proof of behaviour like this that violates the character and fitness standards of the org and the stated goal of the donor in giving the funds.
Giving funds as generously as this family clearly does should entitle them to insist such language accompanies distribution of their funds for the protection of their own good name and their continue participating going forward.
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Even if there isnāt any clawback language in the grant at this time, donors making noise at how outraged they are to have their money supporting such an individual is effective. They can certainly remind people that they have no control over where the money goes (rightfully) but also that USEA has disappointed them by giving the award while knowing about the abuse. Itās one thing to award someone a grant and then abuse comes out, another for the organization to ignore reports - reports with video and plain proof - and award that money.
Forgive my ignorance - but were any reports made to USEA? Or just FEI and USEF? Iām assuming USEA does not need approval from those organizations to grant money. Iām asking in case thereās a chance that USEA didnāt know and held no reports before granting the money, in which case my paragraph above is a bit irrelevant.
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His IG is gone as is his website, which I looked at yesterday to see who his sponsors were and to then look for their statements to disavow him. When I looked earlier his fb was still live and there were a lot of comments on his recent post from Burghley calling him out on his abuse.
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I can see his insta but not his website which was up as recently as a few hours ago. Iām also seeing FB still live.
And still no responseā¦
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If we want to make a difference then all must write to USEF, especially David OāConnor - he is Chief of Sport USEF doconnor@usef.org, on the USEA Safety & Equine Welfare Committee and Chair of the FEI Eventing Committee. A leg in each camp. If USEF knew before Burghley did they inform USEA? If they did, then why did USEA not react. If they did not then USEF are guilty of a massive cover up. USEF Members all sign a Code of Conduct why will USEF not enforce it. Also write to Tom OāMara tomara@usef.org, President of USEF. Both of them have spoken about social license to operate but actions are bigger than words.
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As someone who used to administer grants and scholarships for a large institution, believe me, there are ways even without specific claw back language if something is egregiousā¦spirit of the intent and all that.
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You can Google his background, there are plenty of feature stories on him. But my read on his career is that he was basically a Preliminary level rider when he was handed the ride on a stepping-down FEI horse. Horse had been produced through 5* by his ammy owner who had accomplished her goals with him, but horse still wanted a job so she let Andrew have the ride. Andrewās record through 4* on that horse gave him the resume to get the job with WFP.
This raises a couple of questions about how commonly known the extent of his behavior has really been until now. That horseās owner is in my experience a pretty stellar human and at least until recently she would always happily talk about how her horse helped Andrew as up-and-coming rider. Granted he may never have felt the need to abuse that horse since he was already obviously trained ā¦ and the horse has gone on to do some pretty cool things with other riders in the last 10 years. Itās really unnerving how affable and even-keel Andrew comes across in light of what heās capable of.
Either way this sends out the window the idea that horses donāt perform well at the highest level when theyāve been ātrainedā through abusive methods. I saw that rationalization a lot as an attempt to brush off or mitigate the implications of Charlotte Dujardinās video. That said Charlotteās video still appears to be the kind of one-off weāve all committed with horses (if weāre honest) that we intensely regret 20 minutes later, while Andrewās systematic abuse is in another league entirely.
Also this may be a wild tangent, but since thereās a lot of discussion of āTeam Rebecca:ā this feels germane to the subject of putting people on pedestals because of their success/wealth without really knowing how they got thereā¦
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Ah I spelled his name wrong when searching on IG. Itās set to private, wonder if thatās new?
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I was already following him on IG and his real account his gone. There are now several that appear to be bot/clone accounts set to private.
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Yep. I did a little more googling after that post on this thread.
I hear what you are saying - a talented athletic rider gets the chance to have the ride on an experienced FEI horse like that, and it can certainly launch a career.
Butā¦ it can also mean there are significant gaps in skill sets related to training younger horses, etc.
I still am scratching my head about the fact that his tendency for abusive behavior has apparently been well known by many people for over a decade, and squaring that with the handful of big name people he is closely associated as having ridden with. And then, there is the awarding of the grant. Itās just really disappointingā¦
I have seen these comments on how he comes across as very likeableā¦ but social media is also awash with comments from people who have seen him out schooling and competing, and claim heās well known for being exceptionally rough with his horses, and a jerk towards others at competitions. 
My gut reaction is that many people who have issues with impulsive rage also have Jekyll and Hyde type personalities.
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The Broussard family is just an extension of USEF/USEA. Iāll never forget when Sarah Broussard was the chair of (or at least on) the USEA safety committee, she was on a podcast and interviewed about what the USEA is doing to improve Horse and rider safety on course. She was pretty blasĆ© about the whole thing and pretty much said well you know itās a dangerous sport and weāre only gonna be able to do so much. Yeah, with an attitude like that youāre right. Not at all surprised that they have little concern about their money going to support an abusive rider.
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Iām assuming Broussard is the owner of Rebecca Farm?
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