Gift link: https://wapo.st/40CYb1o
Edit: See screenshots below if having trouble with gift link.
Ugh. Horrible.
I don’t doubt for one second that she was just one of many, many, many victims.
2 Likes
The farrier in this article was Eddie Shelton. He was the farrier at the farm where I grew up riding and where I worked as a teenager. While he never touched me, a friend of mine at the barn told me how he pushed her against the wall and put his tongue down her throat while groping her. When she told the barn owner, she was advised not to come to the barn on Thursdays, Shelton’s regular day of work there.
He is beloved and defended to this day by many people I know, many women I know, despite his confession. This is the first I’ve read about the rest of the interview, where he blamed the girls.
16 Likes
That’s a thing I will never understand.
Also, regarding the barn owner who chose to look the other way. 
16 Likes
Yeah. This was 1980 or so. Fourteen year old barn girls were a dime a dozen, a farrier to keep 40+ horses sound and in work was much more valuable.
2 Likes
Must give email and subscribe to read the article? Any other way?
You just enter your email and they send you a link to read it. No subscription needed.
There’s a thread in off-topic about the same article that has a synopsis.
2 Likes
How timely I just finished my SafeSport recertification. Reading the above article and @2bayboys post just reaffirmed for me why, even if flawed, we need it.
ETA and I’m so glad authorities took the time to track this down. I hope more states continue to open up the timelines so that victims feel more comfortable coming forward. No one should have to shoulder that kind of trauma all to themselves without a chance at justice.
24 Likes
I met him when I was 16. He was my farrier until his health forced him to retire a few years ago. In all the years I knew him, he never crossed any lines. I never felt uncomfortable around him.
I would never ever discount any persons claims of sexual abuse, especially coming from the 80’s and 90’s because things were definitely different in the horse world then and I had my own encounters with the male species back then but I just felt the need to say something about the man I knew. He wasn’t the monster from that article.
When I first heard about this I was certain that she didn’t know who the farrier was and they were guessing by which farriers services that area during that time frame but he turned himself in from what I understand. It’s hard to picture him in that light. He was always a gentleman around me.
1 Like
The victim Stephanie watched the interview that perpetrator Shelton gave to police.
From WaPo:
“She watched as Shelton entered an interrogation room. She listened as he explained the side effects of his chemotherapy treatments to [Detective] Kelly in a genial Southern drawl, called her pretty, and asked whether she had a husband or children.
But when Kelly pressed for how he felt about admitting to a sexual relationship with Stephanie and another teen from the barn,his tone took a turn.
He called the girls at the barn “groupies” and insisted they instigated any sexual encounters. “I think that none of that would have happened if they hadn’t been in a flirty mood,” he said.”
thank you @farmpony84 for illustrating why people don’t come forward.
also, for people who say “it was different then”, just know there was never a time in human history when children liked being raped.
55 Likes
Ewe. Stop. He confessed. Anyone that takes advantage of children is a monster. Stop minimizing the victims experience. It isn’t a good look.
27 Likes
It sounds like the person in the article was younger than that.
Based on the ages mentioned in the article, that means he was probably around 40 years old at the time.
It just shows that these guys are selective about their victims, whether it’s based on their age, or which person seems to be the most vulnerable, or whatever. Ick.
17 Likes
Again, I said I would never discount this women’s or any women’s allegations. What I’m saying is that it is hard to picture him in that light because I never saw it. I’m not saying it didn’t happen, I’m not saying she liked it, I’m not accusing her of anything. I’m saying I never saw him behave that way.
I’m also not saying that it was ok because it happened in the 80s and the 90s, I’m saying that I was in the horse world during that time frame and it was different. The men in the industry got a way with things that they would never get away with now. We didn’t have social media or phones. We got dropped off at the barn in the morning and picked up in the evening. A lot of things happened back then. I’m saying that it happened.
When I heard about it I thought for sure she didn’t know the name of the farrier because the man that I knew and had dealt with had never done anything odd. As someone said, that’s part of why victims don’t come forward. Because so many people have good experiences with the person that does bad things. And when it was a child, it was very easy to discount their story, to say they made it up, to bully them into silence.
There was another barn in this area in the 90s where the trainers husband was abusing a rider at the barn. Only one came forward but my guess is there were more. There were a lot of people saying that it was her fault because of how she dressed, her parents fault because they dropped her off there. She was a kid that should have been safe at the barn she boarded her horse at. She was a kid that should have been able to wear whatever T-shirt she wanted to. She was a kid and was bullied into silence. Again, the 80s and 90s were different. I’m sure there are a lot of people that have never come forward.
@TheHunterKid90 I’m not sure what your are responding to? Because I said the man I knew wasn’t the monster in the article? It’s true. I didn’t know him the way she did. That isn’t saying it didn’t happen. Have you ever known a raging alcoholic or a physically abusive person? Not everyone sees that side of the person.
9 Likes
What was the name of that Ted Bundy documentary? So nice except for the 10 minutes time periods he was raping and killing.
Like the other person said, please don’t add to the reasons people don’t come forward.
10 Likes
Genuinely curious. What about Eddie Shelton compels you to offer this picture of him? We all know that people who do bad things don’t do them all the time, otherwise they would get caught immediately. Why do you feel the need to defend him? By doing so, it appears you are trying to throw doubt on the experiences of his victims.
16 Likes
I’m not defending him.
When a friend of mine reached out and told me about the warrant I was shocked. I couldn’t believe that he would do something like that and was certain that she had the wrong guy. He turned himself in. That shocked me even more because I had known him for so many years.
I’m saying it because of how shocking it is. It kind of falls under that “you never know what goes on behind closed doors”. I have a friend that works at the courthouse and she had filled me in on everything so I know. I’m not defending him but hard as I might, I just can’t picture him doing that, even though I know.
I have stated in all of my posts that I would never discount the person coming forward.
8 Likes
