Interesting.
The post:
I find it all very interesting that the allegations against the Strassers which they say to be false come right after the Parra situations, when some are claiming that sanctions against trainers who are abusive toward their animals will be wrongly used against trainers who haven’t done anything wrong. It smells just like the pushback SafeSport got when they made the rules stricter. I know very little about the Strassers and have no reason to believe or disbelieve the claims made against them.
The whistleblower’s social media isn’t too difficult to find and there is sufficient coverage in reputable news platforms such as Eurodressage to indicate that both Equestrian Canada, Safesport and SPCA received the complaint and alleged photographic evidence last year, at the very latest, and probably much sooner, even if they put it to one side at the time…
EC likely has finally gone public with it because of Parra and the attention given to the stakeholders open letter. To me it is much less likely the complaint is the opportunistic action of someone who has been following the Helgstrand and Para stories and suddenly remembered they had some bad images from another barn, from years ago. Given the number of apparent previous attempts to complain to the authorities, its not strictly correct for the Strasser statement to say the complaint was only made recently…
OP could you correct the spelling of their last name in the title so this comes up when people search?
I’ve screen recorded video posted which shows the alleged photos. Looks like horses being repeatedly whipped in the face, kicked and ridden into exhaustion.
I have seen and met one of these riders and they do train in deep over flexion. I have witnessed at least that much.
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Do the videos confirm it’s them? I just can’t watch
No at this point it looks a just allegations and this source claiming they received these from someone years ago who told her of abuse. Allegedly there was another report of abuse, from a different source to EC this time.
They are videos of the photos, not active abuse of that helps. They still are awful. Horses that can’t open eyes from being whipped in the face too many times
so you can’t confirm it was the Strassers who did this?
Strassers? No I can’t confirm that’s why I said “alleged photos”.
All of your videos say unsupported format for me…
No, Not at all. It’s some photos of a sleepy looking horse in good weight standing in a stall with what honestly looks like like an allergic reaction (some very minor swelling on the face, welts under the belly near the sheath and ventral edema, looks tired, sleepy or sedated) and a woman talking over the photos and alleging it’s abuse from being beaten under saddle in a way that she probably thinks insulates her from legal action but absolutely does not. Someone is getting a C&D.
The photos remind me of the time my old mare was turned out near Aiken for a few days and got into a fire ant or ground hornet nest tbh. I don’t see what this “proves”? I don’t know why this has been posted here in the manner it has. There are absolutely enough clear photos and videos of horses being trained too harshly etc, this does not fall into that category.
My poor hivey horse looked exactly like this when he was having an allergic reaction so I’m reserving judgement until I know more.
thank you for explaining this, having had a horse that got hives and one that had a spider bite blow up his face I get that this may not be what she claims it to be.
The horses name is Romeo Tyme. He is fully linked to the Strassers.
That information is not in the video posted above.
It wasn’t posted to “prove” anything. It was sharing what’s being put out as alleged evidence for this case. Posters are free to use their own knowledge and intellectual skills to form their own opinions.
A major european horse publication online has just posted an article on this and linked the video on YouTube in the article.
You wrote that “Looks like horses being repeatedly whipped in the face, kicked and ridden into exhaustion.” The video doesn’t show any of that?
Again, if there is actual evidence there should be steps taken to ban the people responsible but this video is not as you represented. There could be many explanations for what is shown.
I had a horse freak out in a horse trailer and bash his face all up who looked similar. Sadly I think video is really what is needed to really confirm abuse.
Again, thank you for pointing this out.