Erik Duvander Out As U.S. Eventing Performance Director

[enjoytheride]

Dominic Schramm -

In my opinion, USEF CEO Bill Moroney answers to the USEF membership the same way a CEO answers to shareholders of a company. If our dues pay his salary, we need much clearer insight into the reasons behind the recent removal of Erik and Jenni and the disruption it inevitably causes.

There was a lot of ducking and weaving yesterday - I understand that big decisions like this are made when restructuring and there will always be people that feel it was the wrong call. However, when you provide no real reasoning behind why the call was made how do you expect the membership to be on board moving forward?

Elite sport is all about ‘catching momentum’. The payoff for a well executed plan happens sometimes 5-10 years down the road. What’s to say that US High performance doesn’t end up in exactly the same predicament another 4 years from now. Not to mention, who in their right mind would even want the role of coach or ‘technical advisor’ given the track record of how things end and how USEF treats whoever takes the job?

It seems to me that the ‘consultation of stakeholders’ has very little to do with overall results, the direction of the program as a whole and the feedback from membership, and much more to do with the feelings of a very select few and their own personal interests.

And even if that is way off the mark, Bill Moroney has given me zero information to think anything otherwise.

I don’t even ride for the US and even I can see how ludicrous this comes across.

[beowulf]

Can you post what she said? I don’t follow riders on social media.

Edited to add… honestly, from the opinion of a total outsider looking in, a lot of these actions read like this is a planned termination of the Eventing Performance role and its auxiliary roles… The lack of replacements and transparency make me wonder if there are plans to dissolve this unit entirely… Which just seems absurd.

[HorseAlter]

Agree. Totally absurd. I’ll say it again, what about all the different programs that do training over the winter? The Elite, pre-elite, and development programs? They are all doing things over the winter in preparation for the spring horse trials, and then the Kentucky 5* and beyond.

What’s going to happen there?

Maroney is full of Baloney and needs to go.

My direct interaction with him - I came away with the feeling that he is not an entirely honest person. Very poltiical and cares more about himself than the organization and people he is supposed to serve.

@beowulf

Can you post what she said? I don’t follow riders on social media.

Edited to add… honestly, from the opinion of a total outsider looking in, a lot of these actions read like this is a planned termination of the Eventing Performance role and its auxiliary roles… The lack of replacements and transparency make me wonder if there are plans to dissolve this unit entirely… Which just seems absurd.

[horses_and_courses]

Paraphrase:

Karen: Isn’t it true Billie that these riders have been told about this process weeks, nay, months ago?

A: Well we did send a survey asking their thoughts about the program.

Q: And there’s nothing else you could have done to let the riders know, right?

A: I mean, we could have given more of a heads up.

Karen’s comments don’t jive with EHS’s owner who said he didn’t have much notice, and bill sort of agreed.

[kt]

In the Hot Seat at the USEA Convention: High Performance, Calendar Process...

Some more detail about that session here

[Equibrit]

Have you seen this ?;

https://horsesdaily.com/article/david-o’connor-presented-general-douglas-macarthur-exemplary-service-award-united-states

[Texarkana]

@kt

https://eventingnation.com/in-the-hot-seat-at-the-usea-convention-high-performance-calendar-process-top-of-mind-during-friday-sessions/?fbclid=IwAR2ObV-2_Xc8BuJq6m87PPb480XHZdk4x_D_vFeFBN-S0XQaM-eOumy3A04

Some more detail about that session here

This is hilarious:

We learned from this process that we don’t always explain things we know to the outside,” Moroney conceded, noting that much of the strong feedback received from committees, athletes and owners centered around a lack of transparency or communications.

Ya think?

[DogWithBigEars]

I’m so confused. Here’s a quote from Maroney during the high performance session. He’s inferring that some are taking “responsibility” and others aren’t? Who exactly is he talking about? Talk about the need for transparency, geesh.

Moroney also came under more direct questioning regarding the actual decision not to renew Erik Duvander’s contract, with multiple mentions of the recent results achieved by the U.S. team (most notably a win at Aachen, a Nations Cup silver medal at Boekelo, and an American 5* winner at Maryland). “I totally get what you’re saying,” he responded. “We’ve had some recent results at Aachen, Boekelo and Fair Hill that were amazing. But those results are after four years. And are those sustainable? And when you look at those results, they were also created by the people that were at the table, taking personal responsibility. Here we are circling back to that theme of personal responsibility for preparing themselves and their horses to arrive on competition day ready to go.”

[tennesseeforlife]

I think he was trying to fit the phrase/talking point/square peg “taking responsibility” into a round hole. His point is that he thinks the riders did what they needed to in order to succeed. He doesn’t appear to think that coaching has helped the riders in our recent successes

[DogWithBigEars]

You could be right. His communication of that point is clear as mud. Everything seems cryptic.

[skrosenthal]

Did he actually say any coherent sentences of explanation that…explained anything? Cause there weren’t any in the COTH article…

[Texarkana]

@DogWithBigEars

“We’ve had some recent results at Aachen, Boekelo and Fair Hill that were amazing. But those results are after four years. And are those sustainable? And when you look at those results, they were also created by the people that were at the table, taking personal responsibility.

This confuses me, too.

Those results are after four years: Uh, yeah, ED’s tenure with the program.

And are those sustainable: What does that even mean? Is he saying those results were luck? Or they were flukes, possibly because of the global shutdown due to covid? It sounds like he is taking away from the riders’ accomplishments, which is really petty.

They we’re also created by people who were at the table, taking personal responsibility.: Almost every one of those riders responsible for those results has publicly expressed support for ED and credited him for recent success. The one exception is the one squeaky wheel who is linked to just about every conspiracy being tossed around online. Coincidence?

[Equibrit]

The guy’s name is Moroney (as in Moron).

Why would anybody expect a long time Hunter/Jumper person to even understand what is involved in the training/organization process for eventing, let alone make decisions for it’s implementation. Double speak is usually employed when there is a lack of solid knowledge. (I wonder where that table is ?)

[charger75]

Re: “But those results are after four years/are those results sustainable”…
To me, it’s not clear whether “those results are after four years“ means it has taken TOO LONG to start getting good results, or, conversely, four years is NOT LONG ENOUGH, and the sample size is too small to determine whether this is a trend or a blip.
Also, regarding this section of EN’s article:
“Moroney acknowledged that WEG was at the top of the priority list, naming several tasks that will need to be undertaken in the process of establishing new leadership. This list includes the recruitment of a new Managing Director, finalization of the 2022 competition calendar and WEG selection process, identification of the next cycle of high performance athletes, and the solification of leadership decisions to guide the listed riders. The vacant Chef d’Equip role, Moroney explained, will be filled once this structure has been identified.”
This just seems so backward. I am an outsider here, but in the relatively short time since Duvander took the job, it appeared that the US program, which had been stale (with the United States riders not really being competitive on the world stage), had some new life. Throwing everything out and starting over, but with no structure and no leadership in place, seems crazy.
One last thing: It sounds as if some people felt that Duvander was spread too thin and was not giving some riders enough attention, whereas the EN summary says Moroney referred to U.S show jumping, which “[had] worked under the technical advice of Robert Ridland since 2013 with multiple WEG, Olympic and Pan American medals earned during his tenure. These riders often work with their own coaches at home, relying more heavily on the role of a technical advisor at major competitions,”
I don’t know which program structure would work better, and if Duvander was doing too much or too little, but it just sounds as if the poor guy couldn’t win. If the structure isn’t working, address that, and don’t just fire people with no explanation.

[HorseAlter]

Who is the Squeaky wheel? Will Coleman?

On another topic, who would want to work with the USEF as Eventing Chef D’Equipe after what has happened over the last few weeks. It appears to be a huge headache!

@Texarkana

@DogWithBigEars

“We’ve had some recent results at Aachen, Boekelo and Fair Hill that were amazing. But those results are after four years. And are those sustainable? And when you look at those results, they were also created by the people that were at the table, taking personal responsibility.

This confuses me, too.

Those results are after four years: Uh, yeah, ED’s tenure with the program.

And are those sustainable: What does that even mean? Is he saying those results were luck? Or they were flukes, possibly because of the global shutdown due to covid? It sounds like he is taking away from the riders’ accomplishments, which is really petty.

They we’re also created by people who were at the table, taking personal responsibility.: Almost every one of those riders responsible for those results has publicly expressed support for ED and credited him for recent success. The one exception is the one squeaky wheel who is linked to just about every conspiracy being tossed around online. Coincidence?

[Equibrit]

Fuller report;

USEF CEO Addresses Eventers in USEF High Performance Athletes Open Forum at...

[Sticky_Situation]

The USEA article says a whole lot of nothing except that some “stakeholders” were unhappy.

What were they expecting to have after 4 years? Did they think we would go from being mid-pack after dressage failing to get our teams around XC at every major world championship to suddenly being a major powerhouse again like we were a few decades ago?

[HorseAlter]

“Robust evaluation” no !@#$%^&-way.

Moroney needs to go.

@Equibrit

Fuller report;

https://useventing.com/news-media/news/usef-ceo-addresses-eventers-in-usef-high-performance-athletes-open-forum-at-usea-convention

[tennesseeforlife]

3/4 people selected in May to go to Tokyo wanted ED to stay. Insane for Bill to imply that riders overall wanted to clean house. Not even close to a consensus, and from rider reactions in general, it looks like Bill went with the perspective of a relatively small minority of riders

[DogWithBigEars]

How do you know 1/4 of the riders selected to go to Tokyo didn’t want Erik