Bullying

[Jealoushe]

Pepperoni is also a compulsive liar, which is really what started it on him. Claiming skills and results which were lies, awards, clients, training etc all lies lies lies. Posting about that to warn people and discuss is not the same as bullying.

Bullying is posting a picture of a certain rider winning and saying she only won because she got laid and got pregnant and going on and on about how awful her horse was when in fact, the rider and horse are talented. Then replying to every comment in GIFS and memes. I would hardly compare that to forum users who use this place as a chat room, discussing someone whose a liar, with endless proof of those lies available.

This lady clearly needs help. Can safe sport not get involved?

[Jealoushe]

@skydy

Robert Dover has had issues with this guy in the past. I wonder if he is aware of this? I don’t know him and I am not a member of Facebook so I don’t see what happens there, nor do I communicate with people on that medium.

What I have seen online written by Robert Dover, has been the writing of someone who seems to be a nice guy.
Hopefully a friend will give him a “heads up”.

I believe they all read the forum, so they will be aware.

[LiberalSnowflake]

@BigMama1

I have no idea what her You Tube numbers are like but on Facebook the amount of engagement on the DH page is shockingly low for the number of followers she has. So either a large percentage of the followers are fake, or a large percentage doesn’t remember that they even followed her and / or are not interested in engaging with the content she posts.

From a social media marketing standpoint the lack of engagement is a huge negative. I would never advertise with her or hire her to do any social media management - the results totally contradict her claims to be an expert in that area.

About a year ago, I saw a post by an online media rep who’d figured out how much money she actually made from DH, and it was well under $2K a year. So she might be talking a good game, but the facts didn’t pan out. There’s only so long you can steal content, re-wrap it, and post it as your own before people get bored with that.

[smoofox]

@ladyj79

NP called women in the middle of the night at their homes in other states to threaten them. Similarly SW physically stalks and harasses people in person. These are not just internet bullies, nor are they simply threatening people’s “livelihoods”.

Shhhhhh… we are not supposed to discuss these bullies… shame on you…

We must just nod and smile and be in tacit approval of their words and actions. Even when NP posted a Craig’s List ad soliciting sex using the phone number of a woman who had the unmitigated gall to not agree with him or to not see him as a gift to the dressage world…

[netg]

@Jealoushe

Pepperoni is also a compulsive liar, which is really what started it on him. Claiming skills and results which were lies, awards, clients, training etc all lies lies lies. Posting about that to warn people and discuss is not the same as bullying.

Bullying is posting a picture of a certain rider winning and saying she only won because she got laid and got pregnant and going on and on about how awful her horse was when in fact, the rider and horse are talented. Then replying to every comment in GIFS and memes. I would hardly compare that to forum users who use this place as a chat room, discussing someone whose a liar, with endless proof of those lies available.

This lady clearly needs help. Can safe sport not get involved?

He actually first made himself known in the horse world by posting on a group I moderate and cussing out people who tried to object to his professed love of rollkur. He had previously tried to advertise himself and been told that wasn’t allowed.

He proceeded to complain about being banned in my group and got himself banned in others. Therefore, when his website full of lies was posted, the horse community appeared to be primed to react and call it.

[alibi_18]

@skydy

What I have seen online written by Robert Dover, has been the writing of someone who seems to be a nice guy.
Hopefully a friend will give him a “heads up”.

I did.

Regarding the article, I’m not surprise she’s attacking Canadian riders again…

But I was surprised to hear about Maier’s suicide who, like someone else said earlier, was left out from all major equestrian publications.
He had received death threats and all.

There are ways to express our opinions.
Some are fine, some are bullying.

I wonder how Shelley Browning is.
She surely didn’t deserved whatever she got either.

[Joanne]

@alibi_18

I wonder how Shelley Browning is.
She surely didn’t deserved whatever she got either.

Her horse didn’t deserve what he got either.

[alibi_18]

@Joanne

Her horse didn’t deserve what he got either.

Does she deserves death threat? Does she deserves to die? Did she deserved to be vilified and crucified for 1 incident around the world? One benign tamper tantrum from an amateur. Have you always been so perfect?

I’ve seen and heard about way more abuse around here than from what I saw of both her rides.

How many riders here have ill fitted tack?
Talk about long term damages, daily torture and oblivious neglect.

[Joanne]

Calm down.

[skydy]

No one deserves death threats. I think that every sane person would agree that threats are unacceptable and that the people who make them have serious issues.

[BigMama1]

DH claims to have gotten death threats too, which I do not believe for a minute.

If what she were doing was just pointing out incorrect riding / abusive riding in the sport, that would be one thing. But it’s not. Nobody who supports and promotes Helgstrand can claim that moral high ground with any credibility.

Her site isn’t about dressage. It’s abour revenge for people who she feels have slighted her. Going back through years of footage and editing together every moment of resistance or naughty behaviour in a warm up? That’s crazytown. Yet she keeps posting the same video of All In over and over again.

Never mind the nasty posts about Brittany’s perfectly normal pregnancy announcement, or the photos of the “Brittany sex doll” or repeatedly referring to her as “BJ Brittany.”

That has nothing to do with dressage. Neither does cyberstalking ordinary amateurs who disagree with her posts on line - sharing their videos and asking her viewers to critique them, emailing their employers and accusing them of “bullying” her online…there’s so much more.

You have to visit her personal page to see her cackling with glee every time she posts something that will cause an uproar on the DH page. It’s truly the sign of someone mentally unbalanced. Whether she was born that way or was injured in her alleged “home invasion” I have no idea, but she clearly needs professional help. None of that means any of us should support or tolerate her behaviour, however.

[Dee-Vee]

…also, never mind the distorted view of self-image. All part of a very skewed perspective on the world.

[Tyrus_Mom]

@MsM

I am one of those people who unwittingly boosted her utube numbers. I was looking at dressage videos and watched some of hers before I knew of the issues. I never read comments and never saw any of the nasty stuff. ( I guess it’s on Facebook?)
I appreciate knowing the background so I can make informed choices. BTW, I still have to be careful as utube will volunteer her video when the one I was watching finishes…

Ditto for me. I am not on Facebook very often so I didn’t have a clue about the bullying. I don’t often watch her videos on YouTube, but I will unsubscribe now. The sport of dressage is very difficult and people need as much support and positivity as they can get. Isn’t it the ones that cannot do that tend to judge the ones that can as often and as loudly as possible!

[Scribbler]

Yeah, I think she has a separate FB page in her own name where she threatens and brags that she will destroy people with what she posts on DHub. That might not be visible to casual viewers of DHub.

As far as death threats, this is a wide spread internet phenomena and a range of public figures get them, ranging from people I agree with and support to people I disagree with.

Death threats also run a spectrum from credible threat to “you deserve to die for what you did to that animal” comments.

My own public comments on things I support and things I oppose are reasonably measured and rational. I am not going to be persuaded not to make those comments because there is a tier of internet users who are out of control nut cases and make threats against people that I might be discussing.

Generally the death threats are not going to be coming from anyone with a platform to speak from and a credible voice.

Anyhow, DHub and the personal FB page are clearly in the world of trolls. The horse world doesn’t have a lot of dedicated trolls, but other areas like politics and celebrity certainly do. Trolls lurk in the dark under bridges and try to bite your ankles. I agree she is a disgrace but I am not sure if what she is doing is “bad enough” by general internet or even FB rules to get her actually banned by TPTB of internet access.

There were also long discussions back a few years ago about how hard it is to actually protect your own videos from piracy.

I gather she is pretty much shunned by the horse community already.

BTW when I looked at her Facebook pages way back when, there were only a couple of “mutual friends” and they were very positive thinking mainstream dressage fans and riders. Surely people that started following when DHub was set up as the Voice of Wellington. Not people that would be on board with slagging off national team members. But also probably people that follow a lot of stuff and may have had no clue that it’s degenerated.

[devvie_continued]

I too was very saddened to read of Maier’s suicide. I’m very sorry for what happened to him.

[BigMama1]

Sweet Jesus now she’s offering to pay people to film warm ups for her at Global, since she’s banned from the property.

[LiberalSnowflake]

@BigMama1

Sweet Jesus now she’s offering to pay people to film warm ups for her at Global, since she’s banned from the property.

She only wants the footage so she can shred it on her page. Such a shame that a woman who claims to be anti-bullying is so hateful towards others.

[enjoytheride]

@LiberalSnowflake

She only wants the footage so she can shred it on her page. Such a shame that a woman who claims to be anti-bullying is so hateful towards others.

Yep, offering to pay people for footage so she can bash them is a new low.

She’s also trying to stir a scandal for Diane Creech’s elimination. I follow Diane’s FB page and it seems she was wrongfully eliminated for a bell boot rub. She has a letter from the FEI stating “whoops our bad” but that since she didn’t protest in the first 30 minutes the elimination stands.

[Angela_Freda]

@LiberalSnowflake

She only wants the footage so she can shred it on her page. Such a shame that a woman who claims to be anti-bullying is so hateful towards others.

We’re seeing a lot of that lately, people crying that they’re being bullied, while being the biggest bullies on the playground themselves.

Being a professional will leave you open to criticism. That’s how it goes. Your claims of achievement, your work will be scrutinized. Which a professional should welcome as a chance to highlight your skill.
Whining that you are then being picked on or bullied, because your own piaffe video is evidence of a lack of understanding the basics that go into the piaffe for example, is the only evidence one needs to prove your lack of professionalism.
Tearing others down to raise yourself up, another ugly thing we see it lately, also negates a claim of professionalism.

[BigMama1]

@Angela Freda

We’re seeing a lot of that lately, people crying that they’re being bullied, while being the biggest bullies on the playground themselves.

Being a professional will leave you open to criticism. That’s how it goes. Your claims of achievement, your work will be scrutinized. Which a professional should welcome as a chance to highlight your skill.
Whining that you are then being picked on or bullied, because your own piaffe video is evidence of a lack of understanding the basics that go into the piaffe for example, is the only evidence one needs to prove your lack of professionalism.
Tearing others down to raise yourself up, another ugly thing we see it lately, also negates a claim of professionalism.

I don’t know of any riders who are offended at videos fairly criticizing a performance, in the genuine pursuit of education and improving the sport.

Publicly mocking somebody’s birth announcement, giving them a nickname which starts with “BJ,” attaching their name to a photo of a sex doll, stating that they are only receiving high marks because they are pregnant, editing together every mistake, moment of resistance or naughty behaviour into one video…those have nothing to do with the sport and are clear examples of personal, vindicitive bullying.

It’s sad that anyone can claim to be an “expert” online and that people will believe what’s posted, even when it’s refuted by actual experts. And that the so-called expert whines about her “haters” and “bullies” when it’s abundantly clear who the bully is. Nobody should have to tolerate this behaviour. Kudos to the riders who ignore it, rise above and prove the bullies wrong by putting themselves out there and performing well each week.