He really needs to pick up literally any book on animal behavior and motivations written in the last 20 years.
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Denny is a human d!ck measuring contest. I find his rhetoric to be encouraging of divisiveness and judgement between riders.
I was over him after his “You’re not a real horseperson until you have…” posts. Not only are just simply arbitrary lists of things he has done, they disregard the obvious fact that people in other disciplines have different milestones and definitions of achievement. They are also incredibly ableist. There are lots of riders with physical, neurological, and intellectual disabilities that limit what they can do with horses. Their experiences are no less valid. Are we really going to say that a Para Olympic dressage rider isn’t as “real a horse person” because they haven’t jumped a fence their own height?
Nobody gives a fig that you’ve ridden by the light of the moon Denny. Get a grip.
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Are you guys serious? I’m honestly asking, as someone who doesn’t know him at all but have had friends/riders go train with him, and have never heard a bad word?! After the whole George Morris fiasco, i didn’t think it could get worse. I have followed Denny, don’t always agree but usually like his posts.
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I’m only finding out about the sexual harassment allegations now, but Denny has a long internet history of dismissive and condescending remarks regarding riders who are trying to balance full job times, families, etc. and riding. Evidentially we are lacking motivation and work ethic because we aren’t all riding in the dark after work, lit only by the light from our car’s headlights (as he did, of course). He sounds like a narcissist who proclaims his own actions and achievements to be the gold standard that everyone should aspire to regardless of their own goals or barriers.
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I also do not know him at all. This is what i have gotten from the tamarack farm page: put things in the horse’s perspective, have patience and empathy to the horse, do not let your goals cause stress on the horse or expect the horse to have the same goals or ask the horse to do what it is not phyically able to do, (everything is done in steps,) within an impossible timeframe ,have a horse that is suitable to your skills that you can enjoy etc. I dont see a emphasis on top level competition just how to be a better rider or horseman regardless of your level or time commitment and with that, for those with upper level goals the need to put the (incremental)work in to prepare yourself and horse and to get the neccessary skills to keep both you and your horse safe as you have an obligation to yourself and your horse. But i only am familar with the facebook tamarack farm page.
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I still follow both the Tamarack page and his personal page. He is a curmudgeon; and seems to enjoy his self designated curmudgeon status.
I completely acknowledge and agree with the criticisms leveled against him in this thread; however, that doesn’t render all his training advice useless or his experience invalid.
So I follow his pages, look past the 'tude and sometimes use the whole shaker of salt.
If there was someone with similar expertise and experience without all the troublesome baggage that also posted training advice on social media, I’d follow them instead.
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Like many old school horsemen he is grouchy and dry, sometimes a stick in the mud and doesn’t really appreciate anything “new” that’s brought to the table, but I enjoy maybe 70% of his posts. He seems to be able to mobilize and work lots of novice-type riders into a frenzy about stuff they don’t understand, but that’s social media as a whole too, so I just ignore it.
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Because it was a working student, just one, who was let go very quickly because they weren’t worth keeping around. So in retaliation the claim was made. This comes from people who were there at the time and know what was going on. Had there been anything to it safe sport would have handled it but there was nothing to handle.
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Because it was a working student, just one
That has spoken publicly/on COTH. I wouldn’t be quick to assume that there’s just one. Particularly with the circumstances the one reporter laid out; it seems to suggest a possible pattern.
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The victim blaming is so predictable you could set your watch to it.
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It doesn’t render his advice useless, which is why I followed him on fb for as long as I did. But the holier than thou rants against the younger generation of pros reeks of jealousy. Why else the bitterness and nastiness? It’s ugly and I don’t like it. And it was never more ugly or nasty than when he lashed out at Boyd over the death of Crackerjack. I can’t read anything of his without that incident in the back of my mind. Easy enough to unfollow and move on.
I’ve heard fairly recent first hand accounts that make me question if Denny is still 100% sharp mentally. And take that with the whole salt shaker because it’s just speculation. But still, it makes me wonder about the lashing out in recent years and where it might be coming from.
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The amount of times I have sat on this thread since it opened, typed something, deleted it, and retyped it – well, it almost isn’t worth my time… But this comment really got to me.
Take it from someone who knows (knew) Denny quite well, had actual real life experience with him, worked in his barn, showed with him (sometimes against him if I was especially unlucky!), sat at dinner with him, knew him for years before and after my stint at his barn - where there is smoke, there is fire.
I was hesitant to post in here dogpiling on someone who isn’t here to defend himself, but this comment really got to me. It is never “just one”. I am so incredibly fortunate for my time with him and all he taught me (he really is a tremendous teacher face to face) – but that does not mean that others were so lucky.
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I’m very sorry to hear that @beowulf , but glad you spoke up. It may be of some help to the people who weren’t as fortunate as you.
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And since the one that tried to cause the issue actually was NOT one…
Unless you know for a fact there actually were others, I’m not buying it. Because there wasn’t even smoke. There was a very disgruntled working student that was trying to cause trouble because she was let go, and that particular one is a non-starter. Safe Sport doesn’t mess around, and had there been even an inkling of truth, he’d have been put on at least temporary suspension while it was investigated further.
If there truly are some, they should be piling on and reporting to Safe Sport, right? Crickets.
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Maybe they would rather stay silent than deal with the inevitable victim blaming that will fall down on them like an avalanche? Freaking disgusting that people would rather put these dusty old men up on a pedestal than believe the truth, I would stay silent rather than be victimized by the likes of you as well.
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Does he have any relationship with usef anymore? Isn’t that the only way ss can go after someone?
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And you can’t prove there is no “smoke” from other individuals/events that Beowulf is clearly referring to.
One false or unproven report does not negate the possibility of previous or future incidents. Ask anyone with experience working in child abuse/neglect cases. Parents will run up multiple unfounded reports before someone finally catches them in something that is objectively breaking the law.
Even Jeffrey Dahmer had the police walk away after being IN his home after a victim of his abuse pleaded for help. They never checked the fridge.
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He is still a USEA member. I can’t recall my eventing rules to remember at what point ine has to also obtain USEF membership.
If he is not a member then USEF cannot do an SS investigation.
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This is a bit much. Seriously, it has no place in this discussion.
If someone has a SafeSport complaint, you can report it anonymously. Your complaint will be investigated.
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