I’m a nobody, I have no insights beyond what’s been posted and linked. My musings are my own. I’m as astonished as anyone here about what has transpired.
Yes, it is overly simplistic and of course there’s much more happening below the surface on both sides, and in-between. I don’t mean to imply there’s some civil war brewing within US eventing by any means, but it is clearly a division that exists across the 12-15 riders who would feasibly be in the running for team positions, and the reactions have largely been along party lines. Not to mention, just being at the shows and/or watching the livestreams, it’s not hard to see who spends their time with Erik and who spends their time with David.
I do recall Will Coleman being very vocal about being left off the list post WEG, and having a minor tantrum about the team not sticking up for him regarding his flag penalty at Kentucky in 2019. He was a guest on US Eventing podcast after his Aachen win and, to me, actually came off as fairly critical of the program. He’s also not been shy about saying that he and Will Faudree going to Aachen pre-Olympics was a waste of time.
So there are riders out there who clearly weren’t 100% satisfied with what the program was doing for them. I thought Liz’s comment around some riders struggling with the program being rider driven (aka ask and you shall receive, don’t ask and we’ll leave you alone) was an important detail.
And Doug may not have posted anything on social media, but there’s a pretty long list of sound bites from him over the years singing Erik’s praises.
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Please elaborate 
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Exactly. I used the word suspicious not as a bad thing, but to suggest that there is likely more trouble brewing beneath the surface than is apparent. It is suspicious that someone who is normally very vocal, even on controversial topics is now playing things very low-key.
I think Doug is generally a nice guy trying to do the right thing. the fact that he is now silent says a lot.
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I’m comfortable being totally not cool.
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Doug has been anything but nice since May selection.
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Don’t hint around that you think you understand the “tea leaves” and then not explain what you mean. Plenty of us here are explaining our thoughts. If you don’t want to, then please just don’t say anthing.
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Interesting about Will Coleman. I wasn’t aware of that podcast. Is there a link to it somewhere?
Do you recall what specific things he might have said about the program?
I know first hand that there are people unsatisfied (as from my earlier post). I’m curious what Will might have said.
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who?
Idk. I think it could be more fairly and honestly divided into groups of people who have a strong buy in to the ‘team’ approach, the ones who prefer to be left to their own devices, and maybe a third group who is just happy to finally be noticed and could go either way.
I think that third group is a super important detail to call out. Riders like Sydney Elliot, Jennie Brannigan, Ariel Grald, even Tamie to an extent. The ones that were either not on the radar or not very prominently on the radar prior to Erik’s arrival that have really really come on in the past four years.
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I’ll do as I please, thanks.
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@HorseAlter : What the hell?
If you are going to come on COTH and hint hint hint … why not just say it. Being all anonymous and everything. Whatever the hell it is you really want the great unfranchised to know.
Jus sayin’.
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I think you meant that for DJones who is hinting and not saying anything.
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No. I won’t create or suggest a rumor based on my own musings. Full stop.
This is a message board. I am sharing what I feel comfortable sharing re: my opinions. They are only that: opinions. I don’t owe anyone anything; I’m just a musing nobody. You are worrying too much about me, I assure you. Let it go.
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@Jealoushe. thanks for posting this.
That makes it very clear now that Will has some sort of concerns about the program. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks. With the departure of 2 key individuals, I wonder if that is what is causing a delay in posting the 2022 high performance list. Normally this gets posted around thanksgiving, give or take a few days.
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I’m very curious if it will be addressed publicly or just stepped over and ignored.
Well the USEA convention starts today and there’s a USEF High Performance Athlete’s Open Forum from 11:00-12:00 on Friday and a Tokyo Olympic Review Panel from 3:30-4:30 on Saturday . Can’t imagine they’ll be able to avoid this topic…
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I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, if I were the owner of a horse that competed at the highest levels, it would be explicitly said to the rider and PTB that the horse would not be available for anything to do with The Team. This kind of crap and the fact the team events don’t represent the pinnacle of the sport is what would drive my though process. The focus would be on the ***** events.
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