Stream schedule (Mountain Time);
So, personally, the situation doesn’t read to me as ED did anything wrong. His statement struck the right cord of “wtf, I was not expecting this” for me. As opposed to some carefully crafted statement that was neutral enough to make sense if something odd or fishy did come out later, if that makes sense.
The statement that I actually found most interesting was PD - it read to me a bit like “I had been pushing for change in the high performance program, but I was happy to see ED kept on in some sort of new structure”. Almost as if some riders had been pushing for big change, and the organization’s response went much further than they anticipated. Instead of tweaking the ED/JA roles, they threw the baby out with the bathwater and decided to start from scratch - perhaps even believing that would make key people happy. Personally, that makes more sense to me than the theory that an influential owner thought that getting rid of ED would magically change the entire landscape for team selection/training.
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Were any members able to watch and report what was said??
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Found this comment on Boyd’s public post. Debi and Kevin are Vandiver’s breeders/part owners. So that answers the question about DP’s opinion of Erik.
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I think your point is valid about ED’s response.
As mentioned prior, I recall PD bringing forth some ideas re how to restructure the high performance area at the time DOC was being replaced. The curtness of the USEF’s response (or lack thereof) really doesn’t match a thoughtful approach to the change in the structure/model or explain why all three needed to go.
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That’s good to know!
Yep. Lots and lots of words, and very little information presented by Bill Moroney. An article was written covering it here that states they will be appointing a task force. :sigh:
USEF to Appoint Eventing Task Force to Address Concerns (horsesport.com)
Several people in the audience asked questions, and that was sort of interesting, but no answers other than as CEO he makes all decisions and he wasn’t going to say why.Though he did claim that “all stakeholders” were consulted. But, KOC and Chris Desino (as an owner) pointed out that not everyone was consulted. Apparently some of the emails “never arrived” and others went into people’s spam filters.
Supposedly the recording will be available, because the first 10 mins was inaudible and several people asked if that was going to be made available and the USEF answer from Christina Vaughn was that it would be.
I’m not holding my breath that it will be.
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Kind of the job description, I guess. As he and past “CEO’s” have seen it.
This is why I don’t bother to go to conventions. The shopping and hoopla is sorta fun … but the information isn’t exactly worth the price of travel.
KOC was not consulted? And/or pointed out that some were not consulted?
That’s very interesting, given the working theory in this thread.
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I think all the riders/owners should organize a strike.
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This was an interesting bit of the article linked above…do we think this speaks to some of the wonderings in this thread?
Moroney also emphasized that it’s necessary for the owners to have greater involvement. He noted there are underlying currents of mistrust, “of worry about any one person or couple of people having a louder voice than others in the reconstruction.” He expanded on that thought by characterizing “a major lack of trust between high performance riders and the high performance program.”
Sounds like a load of corporate doublespeak bullsh#t to me. Lots of buzzwords but not saying anything. I am surprised he did not throw in the phrases like “taking a deep dive” and " need for granularity". No - I am not an eventer ( I am way too chicken) but I recognize corporate bullsh#t when I hear it. I think the poster that recognized the two “teams” probably had it right.
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That is a great idea. In principle it would send a strong message to USEF about the ridiculous goings-on.
In reality, I think a lot of pros would be reluctant to do it, either for fear they might be blacklisted, or that they need the income from training and showing.
Looking back to the beginning of Covid-19, no one was showing because there weren’t any shows. People still survived.
I think for a period of a couple of months, I think it could potentially work with enough riders and owners involved.
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Well, I didn’t really expect there to be specific answers about why Duvander was let go, but I thought perhaps there would at least be a plan going forward. Setting up a task force after you’ve already fired everyone is ridiculous. Why not renew the contracts for a year while the task force comes up with recommendations?
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Here here!!
Was anything said about the 2022 High Performance Training list? Normally this list would have been out already. Who exactly is going to put that list together now that everyone has been fired!!!
I really haven’t paid attention to much in this sport but coming over from corporate America this seems to have been done with haste which makes me think -
1- Something nefarious? With Safe Sport I suspect we would have heard unless still under investigation or perhaps not quite that horrendous.
2 - Major shareholder unhappy & wanted everyone out.
But even #2 - organizational transitions are managed, you don’t just clean house.
3 - CEO thinks he’s Wizard of Oz & as previously mentioned more concerned with retaining his role than progressing the organization.
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For 2, he was extremely dismissive of any possible way that Erik could have contributed to recent successes. That says a lot about how much he thinks it would be helpful to have a transition of sorts
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Yes, that was a real skewering to ED.
Agree with the Wizard of Oz comment.
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Well, I would say good bye to any American eventing Olympic medals in Paris. It takes years of consistent team work to win one. To have no one in place as Performance Manager only three years before Paris is just foolish. The recent improvement in international performance by American riders has been very apparent and, importantly, new riders have been able to step up. Odd that it is invisible to the admin.
ETA I forgot the FEI World Cup of Eventing in Italy in eight months time. How is good, effective preparation of the USA team possible with no management?
The current British depth of talent is based on the large, committed background team effort of farriers, nutritionists, sport psychologists, vets, etc etc with strong leadership and guidance from both Bartle and Waygood, who work very well together. Success builds on success. Beginner eventers at the lowest levels also benefit from the knowledge of all those farriers, vets, nutritionists etc. Yes, money from the Lottery undoubtedly does help at the very top but the majority of riders depend on other sponsorship, teaching, liveries and selling horses, same as America. UK prize money is non-existent.
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Completely agree with everything you said.
If there is a major donor who is unhappy and made threats to pull out if he/she didn’t get their way, what does firing all the coaches actually do? I don’t think it serves anyone well for Paris, not even the riders for that donor(s) if that is in fact what is going on.
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Interesting that Karen stood up to make a point that riders should have seen this coming. Two camps theory above has legs
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