COTH Article on Eq Horses

[asterix]

All’s well (that) ends well?

This “sport” is an echo chamber. It’s always someone else’s fault. It’s the judging, or the shows, or the trainers, or absentee owners, or parents who don’t know or care, or spoiled teenagers.

Yes, yes, yes, and yes. It’s sickening. It would just be another American freak show if it weren’t for the horse abuse - and that is what it is - that makes it all possible. Staggering to see the greed and narcissism that has led so many people to pretend this isn’t true for so long.

[PhoenixFarm]

I’ve read this piece 4 times, and I don’t get all the hew and cry here? I was expecting an exposé naming names, ie “Jane Doe drugged the horse I was riding and made it jump 100 fences a day.” Instead I read a fairly thoughtful meditation on why a particular young rider has decided to change her manner of participation. I honestly didn’t see anybody getting thrown under the bus, but this isn’t my world/discipline.

I will say, I’m more than a little disturbed by the idea that a rider who isn’t the owner should shut their mouth and do as their told?! Tact is certainly a good skill, but what if a horse is lame? Or you’re catch riding a horse and its connections have “prepped” it in such a way that its barely leaving the ground and landing wobbly legged? What sort of value is that teaching? Certainly not valuing the horses?

Can someone explain why this piece is so inflammatory? Cuz honestly, as an outsider, I didn’t see it.

[Jsalem]

I just read the article, and I don’t get the controversy either. I thought it was well written and I got the sense that this rider was raised by horsemen who taught her to love the animals. She enjoyed pursuing the equitation goals until she woke up and thought about her partner(s).

I personally don’t promote big equitation goals for my students. I think unless you have multiple horses and the budget to compete all over the country and in multiple rings (Jr Hunter, Junior Jumper, Equitation)- you really can’t be competitive with the top of the game. Those kids are amazing and I enjoy watching the Finals, but the pursuit of that goal is a specialty- and an expensive one. Plus, I think that many of the Equitation kids get burned out on riding, which I think is a darn shame.

I for one look forward to seeing what happens with the author. I wish her the best with her riding.

[hunterjumper25]

[QUOTE=PhoenixFarm;7644150]
I’ve read this piece 4 times, and I don’t get all the hew and cry here? I was expecting an exposé naming names, ie “Jane Doe drugged the horse I was riding and made it jump 100 fences a day.” Instead I read a fairly thoughtful meditation on why a particular young rider has decided to change her manner of participation. I honestly didn’t see anybody getting thrown under the bus, but this isn’t my world/discipline.

I will say, I’m more than a little disturbed by the idea that a rider who isn’t the owner should shut their mouth and do as their told?! Tact is certainly a good skill, but what if a horse is lame? Or you’re catch riding a horse and its connections have “prepped” it in such a way that its barely leaving the ground and landing wobbly legged? What sort of value is that teaching? Certainly not valuing the horses?

Can someone explain why this piece is so inflammatory? Cuz honestly, as an outsider, I didn’t see it.[/QUOTE]
In response to you and Jsalem, if you guys read the commentary, it seems the Chronicle had a lot of pressure and many people calling in asking them not to publish OC’s article. I wonder if COTH edited out names? It seems like a lot of what Champ is saying is edited down. But ditto that I expected it to be far more shocking as there was so much fuss before it came out.
BTW-not blaming COTH for censorship here, just curious as to what other people think

[SnicklefritzG]

[QUOTE=Jsalem;7644329]
I just read the article, and I don’t get the controversy either. I thought it was well written and I got the sense that this rider was raised by horsemen who taught her to love the animals. She enjoyed pursuing the equitation goals until she woke up and thought about her partner(s).

I personally don’t promote big equitation goals for my students. I think unless you have multiple horses and the budget to compete all over the country and in multiple rings (Jr Hunter, Junior Jumper, Equitation)- you really can’t be competitive with the top of the game. Those kids are amazing and I enjoy watching the Finals, but the pursuit of that goal is a specialty- and an expensive one. Plus, I think that many of the Equitation kids get burned out on riding, which I think is a darn shame.

I for one look forward to seeing what happens with the author. I wish her the best with her riding.[/QUOTE]

I created a thread earlier this summer about what made the BNT equitation trainers so good. Several people wrote in to describe what the typical program was like in barns that always had people in the top 10 at the misc. finals. I can see now why a lot of them would need multiple horses. It is very intense and it could be difficult if not impossible to do everything they do with just one horse.

[MIKES_MCS]

So perhaps the answer to this would be to limit the number of qualifying rounds. No more every show has a qualifier, 3 qualifiers in each Zone from March through July with a points system , top ten in points qualifies for finals thats it or something along those lines

[leyla25]

Smart idea Mike but what about the business part? Trainers make a lot of money taking people to horseshows and grooms, trailers, etc.

[alittlegray]

I am going to cut out much of what I had written and just say this - in more than one barn now I have seen the child of head trainer or “top” student of said trainer given rides on horses that were nice to very nice but had been sent there to be sold. This enabled especially parent trainer to put kid on nice horses for months at a time to show at no cost to lease or buy while out of area owners were under the impression that clients were coming to see horses and in the mean time kid was showing it to keep a good record on it.
The sad thing is that the people doing this could easily afford to buy or lease.
Once owners find out this is going on, horse gets yanked out of barn and sent somewhere else.
Why do I care?
Because it makes it really so much harder for those of us on the lower end of the $$$ spectrum to find something nice that is for sale that we would agree to pay to free lease until it sells and ACTUALLY allow clients to come see/try/show it. Those who are willing to be a little shady are getting rewarded with nice rides, while those of us who aren’t willing to do ANYTHING fraudulent or behind the owner’s back just have to watch talented kid get left behind. Too bad, so sad.

We have no backup network of folks that would send us a sale horse behind the owner’s back, so even though she could be showing this week the schoolie she usually rides is off a little and we are sitting the show out. Because the horse comes first and the ethics are right there holding hooves with the horse.

I honestly feel like Ms. Champ is throwing under the bus those who have provided her horses to ride maybe out in the open with the permission of owners or maybe a little under the table hoping owners would say nothing about how long it is taking horse to lease/sell. I doubt she is doing it for the welfare of the horses she has happily been riding week after week without having to money where her saddle sits.

I could be wrong, and I hope I am. I hope her motivations are pure and I am completely misreading things because otherwise wow she has a lot of nerve.

[PonyPenny]

[QUOTE=alittlegray;7646822]

I honestly feel like Ms. Champ is throwing under the bus those who have provided her horses to ride maybe out in the open with the permission of owners or maybe a little under the table hoping owners would say nothing about how long it is taking horse to lease/sell. I doubt she is doing it for the welfare of the horses she has happily been riding week after week without having to money where her saddle sits.

I could be wrong, and I hope I am. I hope her motivations are pure and I am completely misreading things because otherwise wow she has a lot of nerve.[/QUOTE]

I see it exactly the way you see it.

[poniesinthenight]

Thats why there’s Rate My Horse Pro. Bring the dishonest ones out of the woodwork, they need stopping, the horse world has enough dishonesty without adding more to it.

[Zuri]

I wonder if this article had been written by some other junior, would the message and intent be received differently?

[Lix_Tetrax]

[QUOTE=Zuri;7647290]
I wonder if this article had been written by some other junior, would the message and intent be received differently?[/QUOTE]

If it had been a trainer, or heck, even an adult, this would have gotten only glowing reviews!

[michaelwatkins]

Exactly. Ungrateful. If she really wanted changes made, writing an exposé in a magazine is not the way to do it. Most people would talk to the owner, the trainer, the show steward, the vet, etc. Writing an article which proclaims that the only reason she will never ride in the Equitation or Medals again is for some greater purpose of saving the horses, or whatever her message is, is disingenuous. Yes— discussions about the welfare of horses, animals that everyone on this forum adore, are always appropriate. But the OC article was a thinly- veiled attack on people she resented. Most folks on this forum have had no problem figuring out the people she is either subtly or outright trashing. That was wrong. She was wrong to write it, even with family help, but she is 16. It is the COTH who should be ashamed. We’ll see what happens with those in the article who were roundly discredited.

[michaelwatkins]

You are correct Cannonball. It is one of many reasons folks who know the truth are unhappy about this national article. So easy for the COTH to have checked on some of these facts, but they just didn’t do it. Those facts make it obvious there are factual inaccuracies in what OC wrote, just on its face, but they chose to publish it despite clear evidence it was inaccurate in significant ways. Very foolish to allow a teenager to have a national platform to write scurrilous material that, with a modicum of research, could be discredited. Quite sad.

[dags]

Don’t know parties personally, but even if all said is true it shouldn’t damn the kid for all future google searches. OP, perhaps you could change the title of this thread so it doesn’t include her name?

[Coreene]

[QUOTE=PonyPenny;7646833]
I see it exactly the way you see it.[/QUOTE]PonyPenny, totally different subject, but just a quick OT post to say how handsome your guy looks with the gal who is doing the dressage lease - he is such a hunk!!!

[Nickelodian]

[QUOTE=dags;7647990]
Don’t know parties personally, but even if all said is true it shouldn’t damn the kid for all future google searches. OP, perhaps you could change the title of this thread so it doesn’t include her name?[/QUOTE]

Her name is listed so many times in this thread that would be for naught. Not to mention the article and commentary itself. Put yourself on a stage like that and be prepared for the onslaught both good and bad.

I think that if the article had been written by a judge or a trainer it would have come across as insightful. But throwing trainers/owners under the bus just sounds like sour grapes regardless of if intentional or not.

[dags]

^^ Yeah, I know. Just thought maybe it should be considered. As others have said, valid points were raised, and then over shadowed, and it’s kind of become more than just a Kudos Kid! thread, which I believe was the OP’s original intent.

[Tiramit]

What’s really sad is that the article’s message is being bogged down by those who clearly have an axe to grind and want to push a personal agenda.

When I first read the article, it struck me as terribly sad that I wasn’t surprised by its topic. When I later read this thread, I thought, yep, par for the course. Here’s another round of posters who have bypassed the big picture issue and decide to wallow in the scum of “who did this to whom and why” rather than thinking, yeah, maybe there’s a horseman’s point in all of this?

That some people have posted that yes, some eq horses are overworked on this very thread and don’t seemed troubled by it is disturbing. I remember the days when horses didn’t show in as many classes and took breaks over the winter. And golly if we rode those horses for years and passed them along to others who did the same… The horse in the article’s 2014 show schedule is just sad - makes one wonder about the many “DNPs” later on…

Whether or not Olivia Champ is the right person to present this message is rather irrelevant, don’t you think? We don’t need to embrace “her”, leading her white, well-rested steed, to think the article has a point! As horsemen and women we should take the time to consider anyone’s concern about our horses’ welfare. Sometimes it’s a quick consideration, and other times a task force is created.

I applaud the COTH for having the guts to publish the article. Ms. Champ may not have a universally liked reputation, but she was the one who publicly wrote on a controversial topic. Whatever her motives, the article should make us all pause and consider what’s best for our competition horses.

[Darkwave]

[QUOTE=alittlegray;7646822]

I honestly feel like Ms. Champ is throwing under the bus those who have provided her horses to ride maybe out in the open with the permission of owners or maybe a little under the table hoping owners would say nothing about how long it is taking horse to lease/sell. I doubt she is doing it for the welfare of the horses she has happily been riding week after week without having to money where her saddle sits.

I could be wrong, and I hope I am. I hope her motivations are pure and I am completely misreading things because otherwise wow she has a lot of nerve.[/QUOTE]

I do note that she describes herself as “silently walking away.” (p.52, 2nd to last paragraph) Publishing a multiple page piece on why you’re not doing the big eq anymore isn’t really “silently walking away.”

But I also agree in parsing the message from the messenger.

As for fears of this article and discussion haunting her in google searches from now to the end of eternity, I think she accepted that risk. Writing and publishing a lengthy opinion piece in the Chronicle is not some impulsive action. A lot of time and thought went into it, and I’m sure she had plenty of opportunity to rethink it, and guidance from adults during the process.