Oh good grief. And he was on the D&M committee! While he was drugging horses! He wrote that!
‘thought it would be embarrassing but in the end, no big deal.’
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I hope this is the case, but I can’t help think that there’s an element of panic and “circle the wagons” for some who are waiting for a similar email.
I have been through the devastating experience of finding out something truly vile about a close family member – a man I greatly admired, loved and liked. It came out of a clear bue sky – I had NO inkling; none. While I was completely shocked and disoriented, I was able to accept it as truth pretty quickly. There was no investigation, but everyone’s stories were consistent (and eventually he admitted it). Was I his “supporter”? Yes, in the sense that I couldn’t just turn off my love for a family member I’d known for 30 years. I didn’t want him dead. But it also never occurred to me to deny his guilt, or (god forbid) attack the people he’d hurt. And this was a man I had a deep, close, loving relationship with - not someone I knew professionally or as a celebrity, so I’d say I had a lot more invested in believing he was a good man than if I’d worked with him, taken a clinic with him, or read his columns in PH. It was not that complicated to simultaneously love a person and yet believe, accept and hate what he had done. Painful as hell (STILL painful, after several years), but not complicated. And most importantly – it’s the moral thing to do.
I hope GHM’s “supporters” can make the same moral choice.
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Ron Danta? 
O am so disappointed by this.
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Was GHM allowed to confront his accuser to defend himself? Was GHM deemed innocent until proven guilty? If proven guilty, where is the evidence? After almost 50 years? Please. Where is the legal standard of the accuser being required to produce credible evidence in a court of law, before a judge? Where have GHM’s Constitutional rights to a fair trial been enabled? This is the problem with SS. It operates outside the established law of the land and has the power to destroy lives and reputations based solely on accusations. It is a sick NGO, endorsed by congressional members who make no secret of their agenda. Wake up. This is so much bigger than GHM, but he has become the keystone.Seriously, do you want to live by random standards of justice, where anyone with a grudge can accuse with impunity?
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I hope you and others are reading the posts enough to make sure they are actually there to support him, not just to observe the activity in the group, before you post their names here as supporters.
Especially since several people have posted here that they are members of the group strictly for that purpose of observation.
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Also bathhouses. But still not sure that’s going to get you to 10K.
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Or if he did, would he really have told his husband?
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USEF is a workplace. A private organization. “Innocent until proven guilty” is not the standard in any workplace or private organization.
GHM was allowed to question his accuser in the investigation process. Evidence from both parties was provided to investigators. If you don’t believe me, please refer back to the SafeSport code which I linked for you before, p. 23-24:
https://uscenterforsafesport.org/wp-…yperlinked.pdf
I am a teacher. If allegations of sexual misconduct were reported to my administrators, I would immediately be placed on leave without pay. There’s a good chance the press would get ahold of the story and my face and name would be blasted across the news. Then my workplace would decided whether or not to terminate me based on their own internal investigation, which could range from thorough to laughable. No judges, no fair trial, no confronting my accuser. I could try to fight it in court, at astronomical expense. It would take a considerable amount of time to reach a resolution that route, and would I really want to continue working for an employer I just took to court?
In any number of professions, the process would be similar.
So please stop acting like his rights have been violated. They haven’t. He essentially was “fired” from his job. He can still ride horses. He can still attend shows unaffiliated with USEF. He can still write books and magazine articles. Technically, he can’t provide coaching/training services to USEF members, but if we have learned anything from the past, this ban won’t stop it from happening. Or, he can do basically anything else he wants that doesn’t involve a sport under the US Olympic umbrella.
If you have a problem with the fact that people can be fired from their jobs for committing felony misconduct, you have bigger fish to fry than SafeSport.
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Why would a “wonderful horseman” need to load a horse up with reserpine and pole him?
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I was a professional in the hunter jumper world eons ago. I rode with a protégé of GHM’s, and went to Hunterdon on occasion, mostly to watch other peoples lessons. I do not go for screaming and demeaning. At one point in my career, my mother pointed me out to GHM, who made a positive comment about my leg position. That was as close as I came to instruction by the man.
In my area, there were ALWAYS rumors, to the point that they were jokes. Back in the day, things were probably more morally lax than they should have been, and people did…things. One of those, allegedly, was getting younger men asked by that BNT for oral gratification, which was apparently a very consistent theme. So, when you are looking at 10K partners, consider the limited period of time that takes. And multiply it by Gawd knows how many.
People do many things to be close to those they consider to be the power brokers in their business, or sport. And consider that for some, that kind of random sexual activity, upon request, is acceptable. I tend to believe that the gay community, as I know it, was even more closeted back then, than now. Things happened, but it was kept quiet. And now, (as it should have been then) being coerced into any form of sex is completely unacceptable. So, using todays lens on yesterdays activities is happening.
Sunshine really is the best disinfectant.
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Because you indicated that other poster who “watched” clinics in the past and recently was complicit because s/he continued watching 40 years later. S/he didn’t say any of the recent stuff was in person, could well also have been the Horsemastership series like many of us. Most of us who have been around a while have heard the rumors, too…I sure have. I mean, if I hadn’t already heard, his memoir didn’t leave much to the imagination.
in short— I thought your assumption that watching = complicit behavior was perhaps not fair to that poster. That’s all. I also don’t think that hearing rumors indicates you shouldn’t attend someone’s clinics…I mean I can think of precious few trainers I HAVEN’T heard rumors about, I have no idea what is true and what isn’t. The horse world is chin deep in rumor and backstabbing, I try to tune it out as much as possible.
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This. In a myriad of professions, this is SOP. I’m baffled that so many people are unaware.
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I tried…
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Seriously, I adore Carl Hester (who I believe does seem to have a very deep love of every horse he’s ridden, incredible humility given his accomplishments, and who is genuinely supportive of his riders, as well as is funny as hell without being mean), and the momentary confusion was like a punch to my gut. Glad just to see his usual happy Facebook posts when I scurried over.
I’m already very disappointed in Robert Dover, who always seemed like such a kind man, including when teaching his clinics to aspiring pro young riders. Really shaking my head at his tone-deaf excuses.
Beezie Madden’s response was very diplomatic and cagey, based on what I read on COTH’s article on the subject.
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It less like being fired from your job and more like not being allowed to work for Microsoft, and instead having to work for any of a million other smaller employers.
He can still ply his trade all over the place, just not at select venues at select times.
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I’m simply providing a list of names of members of the page. Period.
The tenor over there now reads as if SafeSport procedures and USEF’s lack of action are the enemies.
Lots quitting or not renewing, calls to boycott USEFs partners , calling or writing Senators kind of stuff.
And lots unable to seperate Safesport from legal criminal procedure.
No, I’m not participating
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That is my understanding. And the trainer is one that Kristen Hardin mentions in her post as threatening her.
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THIS^ is the issue. And it scares the living daylights out of anyone who can see the Big Picture. The most recent article on COTH states that GHM was suspended for “Safe Sport violations that allegedly took place between 1968 and 1972.” Huh?
Would one of the attorneys present please explain how one can be held RETROACTIVELY in violation by a group that DID NOT EXIST, would not exist for another 48 years, at the time of the violation?
CONTEXT of those times is everything! ALL of it–the parties and bars, the furtive gay scene, the poling, the dope–people had different issues than today’s mores, surveillance culture and litigious atmosphere. Was a lot of that stuff smart, or nice, or ethical? NO it was not, but please note the context was campus activity in the “Animal House” era, the "Mad Men’s"office or the director’s “casting couch.” It was a different world, to judge people today for what took place half a century ago is insane in any context! We no longer live in that world. (Unless, of course, you’d like to also memory-hole the careers of at least 6 Presidents!) Another thing to realize is that in those days, horses were not pets–they were just emerging from the era of expendable “using” animals and much more a means to an end than today. Pros in those days did the riding at the high levels, ammies rarely. Rich ammies demanded wins and paid the bills. Pros did what they had to do to win and mostly got away with it. And plenty of officialdom, then as now, was corrupted by said money.
This is going to end up in civil court, and it won’t be pretty.
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Based on some comments about the RG situation, people are not going to give this up easily. One person, who previously supported Safe Sport in posts here, commented on FB that it was useless for protecting minors. Another said she thought that Hillary R was lying.
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From another who is watching the page, many who are saying they are quitting or not renewing (at least in a poll someone set up) are not even as members in the first place.
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