Dressage Daily.com

[grayandbay]

Doesn’t it surprise anyone else that DressageDaily only writes about people that support Mary Phelps, either by her Insurance Business or Who’s Who or whom buys the most of her pictures ??? !!!

Shawna Harding had a SUPER PSG …nothing written…Lars Petersen wins the largest class of the weekend and nothing written and Ashley Holtzer gets an AMAZING score in Sundays Grand Prix and nothing again…yes…I am sure one of their responses will be that “they are still writting about the show” and maybe they are, but this is not the first time this has happened.

I am not sure why this bothers me so much but I just think that writting about the “winners” is what is most important.

And this is NOT against Lisa and her beautiful ride on Saturday. She had a wonderful ride and it is great to see that combination developing so well.

That is why I support Mason Phelps and PhelpsSports and Ken Braddick and HorseSport USA !!! They write about who wins and not just the clients that they represent.
Worldly news is worldly news…we just don’t want to hear about the clients that support her livelyhood.

[DownYonder]

Uh, I believe that Mary Phelps OWNS dressagedaily.com, so of course she is going to show preference on that site to people who support her businesses.

[grayandbay]

yeah I know that fact…so does that mean that if you do not have a publicist or the money to support others businesses …you do not deserve to be written about when you win classes with amazing scores ???

[Anselcat]

Dressage Daily “is offered to the equine world FREE with the support of our sponsors, and is owned by Phelps/Hathaway Ent Inc, Deleon Springs, Florida, and Columbia, Kentucky.” (on the bottom of dressagedaily.com)

In other words, DD is not pretending to be the official voice of Dressage. It’s a free website that clearly states who it is run by. It’s ultimately a marketing/PR device that gives bits of dressage news.

Do people who get great scores deserve to be written about? Yes.
Does DD have an obligation to write about them? No.

IMHO

[grayandbay]

“gives bits of Dressage news” - that might be a long shot

I guess I just think it is sad, when I first heard of Dressage Daily I thought it was better than sliced bread. Full of information, covering all the shows, highlighting every detail and just a super fun site to always check out.

Oh well…all good things must come to an end…

[yaya]

I feel the same as you G&B. I’ve come to call it “Dressage when we feel like it”

[grayandbay]

LOL

That is the PERFECT name !

[hsheffield]

sorry, guys, but the Chronicle of the Horse can be just as bad:

they ‘covered’ the Heidelberg Cup in 2006 and there was NO mention of the rider who won the Heidelberg Cup.

there was however, lots of copy about Anne Gribbons who just happens to write a column for COH (she didn’t even compete in the HP classes btw)

[grayandbay]

You might be correct about COH, but I do not look at them for being a “strickly Only Dressage Website”

Dressage Daily is or should I say WAS. And some where along the way the mighty American $$$ took center stage and …it went down in flames…at least in my eyes.

And for Anselcat - EuroDressage is FREE and Astrid ROCKS !!! She writes about EVERYTHING and EVERYONE !!! And times she has put things in that may have gotten her in HOT water and she still writes about it…Maybe EuroDressage could give Dressage Daily some pointers.

[hsheffield]

Astrid rocks!

totally agree that Astrid rocks. I love her candor and hope she’ll continue to write her truth.
IMHO she’s good for the sport.

you may not know that she and mary phelps are very close and spend time together. the 2 websites often share stories.

I respectfully disagree about comparing Dressage Daily with COH. DD is a privately owned, free website with a thinly veiled promotional component. I don’t see them as true ‘journalists.’ However, COH is a longstanding publication with real editors, writers, etc. I expect them to act as journalists and tell the story as it is. Perhaps I’m mistaken? I would appreciate feedback from those who’ve been around more than myself.

[grayandbay]

I do know that Astrid and Mary are close friends. I guess that is why I am even more surprised the Dressage Daily has gone down hill so fast.

And as for COH, I have had a subscription with them for many years but I, personally, have never turned to them for my “Up to date info.” on the Dressage world. I use them as a great tool for selling and buying horses and housing and stabling, up and down the East Coast. So I do not disagree but I don’t use their site or magazine the same way I always used Dressage Daily.

[rebecca_yount]

Ummmm…

I guess someone was listening again. There is now a story on DressageDaily about Ashley Holzer and also one about Amy Stuhr, who won one section of PSG at Wellington. Also mention of Shawna Harding.

[grayandbay]

a little too late for me …I still think Shawna and Lars should have had something already Sunday, since their kick butt rides and scores took place on Saturday…and this is FAR from the first time they have done this. I can name at least 10 other times that they dropped the ball on IMPORTANT scores and rides. Young Rider Qualifiers, USET qualifiers, etc…I have already removed Dressage Daily OFF my “favorite” list Ok…maybe that was a little childish…but I just couldn’t help myself

[Sara_Lieser]

Just popping in to reply about the Heidelburg Cup story on behalf of the Chronicle. When we send a freelancer out on assignment, we don’t tell that person who to interview. So he or she arrives at the show and decides who would make the best story. Sometimes we don’t write about the obvious candidate because it’s someone we’ve written about often before. Sometimes we just miss someone by accident.

We definitely do not aim to interview our columnists. It does happen occasionally because many of our Between Rounds writers are accomplished competitors. But our general rule is to try and seek out new stories as often as possible.

If you’ve got a story idea, someone we’ve missed repeatedly, or just a really good story that we’re unlikely to know about, please let us know! Send your story ideas to editorial@chronofhorse.com

[Sabine]

I think you can find fault with any publication or accuse them of being influenced in a certain direction…that’s just part of journalism. Astrid is no different then Mary- the only difference is that you know this (american) scene better than the european scene.

I think as long as you don’t pay for it- you should be happy getting free photos and news at your fingertips. If you pay for it- you can stop your subscription and choose something that suits you better.

I think as long as it’s free and has good up-time and relative interesting coverage- there is very little to complain about.

[snoopy]

[QUOTE=rebecca yount;2936728]
Ummmm…

I guess someone was listening again. There is now a story on DressageDaily about Ashley Holzer and also one about Amy Stuhr, who won one section of PSG at Wellington. Also mention of Shawna Harding.[/QUOTE]

Funny how that works…

[RonaldGroen]

DD and ED

[QUOTE=Sabine;2936915]
I think you can find fault with any publication or accuse them of being influenced in a certain direction…that’s just part of journalism. Astrid is no different then Mary- the only difference is that you know this (american) scene better than the european scene.
I think as long as you don’t pay for it- you should be happy getting free photos and news at your fingertips. If you pay for it- you can stop your subscription and choose something that suits you better.

I think as long as it’s free and has good up-time and relative interesting coverage- there is very little to complain about.[/QUOTE]

Very true :yes:

Astrid is a journalist with the biggest agenda in the world.

[Mary_Phelps]

A response from DressageDaily.com

In response to the comments of a few here on this blog, DressageDaily.com is a free website that has long sought to provide interesting stories and news to the dressage community. We have been providing this service for 10 years.

A large part of that effort involves writing about the people who may not be the “big winners” at horse shows, but nevertheless are an interesting story. Although our readers do like to be informed on the activities and winnings of high-performance riders, they also have a great interest in reading about riders who otherwise do not receive much press time, such as adult amateurs and the many hard-working, professional riders and trainers who are excellent at what they do, but are not household names.

When covering events, we do purposely seek out riders – amateurs, professionals and young riders – who are deserving of media attention. Sometimes, these riders are not the big winner at the show, but rather someone who may have had to overcome many obstacles to make it to that show or someone whose story can inspire others. Feedback from our readers has shown that while they find the high-performance riders interesting, they very much like reading about riders just like them.

With regard to straight “news” coverage of events, our regular readers do know that should they desire to know the outcome of competitions we cover, we do provide daily scores right on our websites whenever possible. It is also the custom of DressageDaily.com to run one main feature a day. As a result, when we cover events, we can’t fit all of the articles from the event into the two or three days of a show. Hence, we continue to run articles on those events for several days past the show. Anyone who views our archives section, would easily see that very often the articles on the high-performance riders, who are generally the FEI-level winners, will run two, three or more days after the show, which is when we post our wrap-up article on the big winners.

Regarding the Welligton Classic Dressage coverage which still has more stories of interest to post, you will see an article on some of the winners mentioned. This is going to be a long season where top riders will be performing in upcoming CDI competitions. A search of our websites DressageDaily.com and HorsesDaily.com will show that we have written on the mentioned riders on many occasions in the past, and I am sure as we go forward in this big year to come, there will be additional coverage on their successes in the future.

In closing, we certainly welcome feedback of any kind – both positive and negative – as this helps us produce a website that better serves our readers. And as always, we welcome any story ideas our readers have, particularly of interesting people in the dressage community who have a great story that has not yet been heard.

And most of all, we thank all of you for reading our websites! Happy New Year!
Mary Phelps-Hathaway

[hsheffield]

Sorry Sara, but IMO the COH really missed it on the 2006 Heidelberg: the winner was an unknown that had never been featured in a COH story. He was riding an 8 yo horse that he trained by himself from a 4 yo. The crowd hooted, hollered and whistled after his freestyle and Betsy Steiner gave him a standing ovation. 2/3 of the judges are American ‘O’ judges.
Anne Gribbons has had tons of copy in COH and didn’t really make an impact at the show and was not judged by the HP panel.
I appreciate that you don’t tell your freelancers what to do and as a former editor, understand. However it would seem to me that the biggest story at a ‘titled’ show would be who won the title! If there’s a more interesting story that should supercede it, so be it. I don’t believe that was the case in this instance.

thanks for listening.

[Selleconn]

Thanks, Mary!

I love DressageDaily and have been a fan for years. I’m not sure why anyone would complain about it if there were somewhere better to read dressage news, but I’d like to show my support and gratitude to Mary and her staff for keeping me up to date almost from the time I knew what the internet was. I love the stories and don’t even mind when they take some time off for their own lives and don’t update it (which hasn’t been happening so much lately). I think it’s a world class site run by the some of the best in the business.