Ben Maher horse cruelty allegations, bad press again....

[Lord_Helpus]

This is the original report of the Ground Jury’s response to the incident:

Following your comments, we can confirm that Ben Maher (GBR) was officially reprimanded by the President of the Ground Jury and the Foreign Judge after the incident at the Horse of the Year Show. The horse was also given a thorough veterinary examination after the incident and was given a clean bill of health.

With best regards,

Corporate Communications
Fédération Equestre Internationale
Chemin de la Joliette 8
1006 Lausanne
[I]Switzerland

And this is the statement made by the Secretary General of the FEI:
[/I]FEI Statement
“The FEI Secretary General has now investigated the incident concerning Ben Maher at the CSI3* Birmingham (GBR), which was addressed by officials at the time. He has clearly established that no reprimand, no warning nor any other sanction has been imposed on Ben Maher. On behalf of the FEI he apologises for the inconvenience an earlier statement from FEI Headquarters might have caused for the athlete and his entourage.”
[I]
You are right. I cannot say that an official protest was filed, but it is not normal that the Secretariat General of the FEI is asked to review and overturn decisions of the Ground Jury. Something was done (perhaps only a phone call?) to alert the SG of the incident and request that the ruling be overtured. After all, the ruling was made against Ben Maher, Golden Boy of British showjumping (even though he cheated his patrons out of 700,000 pounds of money).

Pish Posh. Something is not right here.

[/I]

[bingbingbing]

The horse looked quite content to stop and be done after the bad distance. It looks to me like he was legged on and then yanked in the mouth. He was not running off with the rider.

[Victorious]

Now I remember reading about the ownership disputes! Thanks for the articles. Sometimes this sport can be so disheartening. I have to say that it is impossible for me to judge what happened from that terrible video, but every time official announcements and formal apologies are made…I get suspicious. I’m beginning to get a feeling that my beloved sport is going in directions that I don’t like. Truthfully, it has for years. But that sounds like just another rant from an old "time was"er. So I’ll stop.

[MonterStables]

Oh come on guys, really? I don’t know about you guys, but Ben is not the first person to have a horse throw a temper tantrum. As well, when you reprimand a horse, they will react any way that they will. They can either just take it, or completely over react which is what this horse did. I’ve had a young horse flip over while being lunged as well, and I will admit that unless it has happened to you before, you will not understand and take it as abuse.