It’s been interesting to see a posters words create such a storm of indignation. I didn’t take ao’s posts the way many of you did. But I understand that when you think someone is looking down their nose at you it can sting.
If I hadn’t left the hunter world years ago I certainly would if I saw sharps containers in every barn. 
Those that blithely say their horse needs all these meds to be comfortable to compete, do you also give your kids IM shots so they can play soccer five days a week?
I honestly am not the person I’ve been made out to be. We are NEVER better than those around us regardless of who it is. To be honest I feel attacked but it’s ok, I know who I am as a person. Just doing my best in life 
Not sure how to resolve the issue of drugging horses for performance. Larry G. flaunted his violations and the judges rewarded him. I place a lot of the blame on the judging.
What we can do in our more humble barns is mentor young people.
I keep coming back to this, across disciplines. I understand judges are human and in a bit of a pinch sometimes with TPTB, but until The Judges stop rewarding rounds that ask so much of the horses that people reach for drugs and abusive training, I don’t think a lot will change. At least not fast. This change can come from the judges themselves, from the organizations, and from vocal members and Vote With Your Dollar methods by the majority.
Along the same line, if USEF wants people to be reporting abuse, there needs to be confidence that the accusations will be PROPERLY investigated and fairly prosecuted- and that the consequences will match the violation. I don’t think certification for trainers will do much for this, but I DO think that suspensions and bans and fines need to hit where it counts.
I wonder if setting down the horse AND trainer that was found in violation would help. This way the horse wouldn’t just be passed to Trainer B and continue showing. From my understanding, this is not the case at this time - happy to be corrected. I also support setting down the owners in kind.
Then contact USEF and out them. Get it stopped. That’s all it takes to start the ball rolling in the other direction, but complaining on a BB won’t make that happen. DiAnn publicly outed what is happening. If you have first hand knowledge of what she discussed or other abusive practices and you haven’t informed the proper authorities, you are complicit in letting it happen. If you did report it, follow up and good for you.
Back to the “good old days” that everyone waxes nostalgic on, the first question you’d ask would be “Does it go on its own?”.
I don’t think we can place as much blame on the judging when the problem has been the same since the dawn of time. Only the drugs have changed in reaction to drug rules and testing. Everyone would still use acepromazine if they still could rather than reaching for increasingly dangerous substances trying to stay one step ahead of the testing.
I just wanted to echo this. In general.
We have seen it here ALL the time. Lots of griping about “oh all the top trainers are corrupt, you’d be shocked if I told you what I saw, etc etc”, but rarely do we see any REAL action. Say their names not initials, report to the proper authorities, document and save receipts and follow up, and go to social media if the orgs stay silent. THAT is how Kocher and McConnon were outed, as well as others.
It feels really good to be “in the know”, to feel superior because you left, and it is scary to speak up. But all the vagueposting in the world won’t enact change. Neither will unsubstantiated claims - document everything, report when you see things happening.
I do remember the “good old days” when ace was so prevalent that a fad was started (that still persists) of tying the horse’s number around its neck.
Frustrating, we can agree!
Wait, can you elaborate? I never knew where that practice came from, we just did it to keep the numbers on the horse they belonged to (or so I thought)?
How is that a fad? Don’t horses need to be wearing their numbers whenever outside of their stall?
I don’t have a business, but I work full time, have 15 acres and do all my own care, no grooms.
Shrug.
Just a thought @aohunter0629, it works better if you do not say you are leaving and then keep posting.
You are free to post all you want, and all that stuff, it just looks weird to announce a flounce and then not flounce.
Isn’t the tangent something you brought up?
I am sorry if your trainer took advantage of you and your horses and I do hope that you are able to simply enjoy them now that they are at home.
Yes a rule now. But in the good old days it was done here and there to cover up the little droplets of blood on the neck.
Woah that is so dark. That is really sad if that’s true 
I believe the idea is to hold your spot in as many classes as you might do, and scratch as needed. I like this, instead of an upper limit on entries. HOWEVER, I would like to see a limit on how many classes a horse can check out with, per day and per week. Yes, this would not stop the 20++ classes/week at first, but if you know it isn’t allowed and there will be consequences, it will stop once it is enforced. Our local shows limit to 7 over fences/show day and are able to enforce it.
(I haven’t thought much about what a feasible penalty would be for showing in too many classes, or how to allow enter/scratch but not allow the horse to actually jump that many.)
That’s so sad, if true. Not saying it isn’t, but I would like to live in a world where it isn’t…
…
EDIT: appears that I may have misread the post that was deleted while I responded, and for that I am retracting the above statement except for the fact that I have no interest in PMs from this poster.
I have to say I’ve been tying numbers around horses’ necks for most of my life, and it has never been for that reason.
It’s always been the safest method to make sure that the horse and his number both got to the ring at the same time.
Far superior than getting to the ring with the horse and finding out that his number did not come up with the rider or the golf cart or the groom box or whatever, setting off a mad scramble to get the number from the barn up to the right ring in time for the horse to show.
Yes these people know where you live and I’m not stupid. This can be a very very cruel world, which we obviously have all seen by the recent articles and experiences people have had. I realized after posting that it’s just not worth it to write anything to you because you’ll just attack me.
That’s what I was thinking and hoping it’s really not true…
To be fair I read it (before deletion) as @aohunter0629 saying she feared retribution against herself if she outed the bad actors in her life, not that you should fear retribution from her.
Perhaps clarification is warranted?
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