Liz Halliday Sharp
ML: Marilyn Little
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I’d be wary of attributing thoughts to riders who choose to not post them on social media.
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Liz has said her piece supporting ED, so that rumour is laid to rest.
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The word was when Erik was hired, PD was egging for the job and was glanced over, which rerouted him from expected retirement from elite competition back to finding horses to ride on teams. He apparently was really not happy about that but being the guy he is he accepted it and moved on.
I wonder if the USEF has finally decided to give him a chance.
My recollection of the PD situation with respect to the last round of Chef selections is along the lines of him wanting the job but also to be able to continue competing.
The Mars angle is interesting.
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This seems like 100% BS. If what you are implying was at all true, why let DOC go in the first place?
Also, I like Phillip as a person well enough. So, nothing against him personally, he would be a terrible choice for the job.
Hopefully, USEF has some grand plan to hire Graeme and combine the two jobs with continued coaching from rider’s personal coaches and top dressage and show jump coaches. Jennie Autry always seemed superfluous to me anyway.
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PD said he was disappointed ED was let go. I don’t think PD is the reason.
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It certainly doesn’t seem that way based off of what Phillip has said regarding the situation.
In my opinion, there’s always been two camps.
- Team O’Connor: Lauren Nicholson, Hannah Sue Burnett, Will Coleman, Lynn Symansky (to a lesser extent)
- Team Everybody Else
Will Coleman is the only O’Connor loyalist who really produces results and I think that’s been more apparent than ever since 2019. Yes, Lauren occasionally gets top ten placings at 5*, but I’ve never seen her really outperform on XC… ever. HSB is something like 0/5 out in her recent 5*'s with multiple run outs and retirements on XC. Lynn has one horse who she really hasn’t done anything of note with since the Pan Ams.
I say all this because if you take an inventory of rider reactions thus far, pretty much everyone that’s part of Team Everybody Else has been very vocal that they wanted Erik to stay. And Karen always seemed a little salty toward Erik & Team Everybody Else across all the livestreams she now commentates on. Just sayin…
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Maybe KOC was jealous of ED if you go off old threads here 
Ok tasteless joke but couldn’t help it.
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She said she “fought hard” for ED and JA to stay. Very interesting statement, sounds as if she was in on the debate over the future.
She and PD both made comments that indicate they think some re-organization of the job is needed, not a change of heads.
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I caught that too, that both PD and LHS seemed liked they knew something was coming, had been involved in the conversation, but were shocked by the outcome.
ED said he had heard from “nearly all” of the high performance riders. I think there is our clue. 
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OK but specifics?
Not an insider, here, must read last chapter first to know what is going on. 
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Yes. I think I understand the tea leaves. If I’m right, it’s an awful reason to let them both go.
My comment here has nothing to do with Duvander. This is pure speculation as I wander off into the question about Mrs. Mars and her “stable” etc.
In the last few years, the Mars brand has been putting its name on a lot of horsey/eventing things explicitly. Of note is that Mars is now a major sponsor of both TIEC and Badminton. The latter is HUGE.
When that happened, I wondered what the overall marketing strategy was, and whether there was going to be any correlating increase in trying to get Mars-backed riders in top-place finishes at major events.
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Nor am I an insider. All I have are inferences from articles and social media and public knowledge. But I did find the combo of PD, LHS, and ED’s accounts of the situation in the article very interesting. I was ready to chock this all up to workplace drama and move on, but now it appears there are deeper, systemic issues that go beyond the office.
I have a couple crackpot theories of my own, but no evidence to substantiate them. There’s a good chance they are wrong. 
So it’s best not to add likely innocent folks’ names into the conversation.
Among the riders who were on the Tokyo stage, Doug Payne has been notably silent (from what I see). As far as I know, he would be Team Everybody Else, but maybe he is just astutely avoiding the politics…
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Yes, I noticed that as well. Even if he is “team everybody else”, what is the harm in thanking Duvander or finding some small positive thing to say about him? It was obvious that Boyd and Phillip expressed very strong opinions of disappointment.
If Doug Payne doesn’t want to get involved in the politics, I can understand that, but by staying silent, he puts himself under suspicion. Even if Doug doesn’t personally like Duvander, he could at least say something positive about what he has done for the program in general.
And @Djones, if you are going to insinuate that you know the tea leaves, then by all means, spill it out otherwise it’s totally not cool what you are doing by saying that “it’s a terrible reasonm to let them go” and then not explaining what you mean.
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This…is overly simplistic.
I guess I can understand why someone would think that. However, I think there is more going on in both of those ‘teams’ than may be immediately obvious.
I don’t disagree with anything you said about the results LBK and HSB have (or haven’t had) in recent years. But, for example, KOC has thrown some amount of shade on PD since he rode Mandiba for a brief time a decade ago. Possibly not a popular opinion and reading too much into the situation, but I think a lot of what KOC says and does nowadays is a struggle to stay relevant in a sport that she kind of finds herself out of place in since she doesn’t compete anymore. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised that Lauren or Hannah wouldn’t comment on the coaching situation, as they haven’t really been on a team. Especially, HSB.
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He’s only suspicious to people like you, who think staying out of politics in public equals guilt. While I commend Boyd for being the first to be bold and speak out, I don’t accuse Doug of anything for choosing to not comment either way.
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Doug’s only suspicious to anyone who knows him or anyone who knows anyone who knows him. He’s not quiet.
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