Might I remind Gentle Readers that half the human race is “below average” in IQ? That “reading for comprehension” is a lost skill in a clickbait world with a 15-second attention span, where people are programmed that belief = fact, and legal knowledge and interpretation are the exclusive province of career specialists?
Maybe all iterations of Social Media are a major part of “how polarized everything is right now.” :rolleyes: If this trainer and situation do not touch your life, you are not his client nor a pro grappling with the changes to your business that all this demands, what dog do you have in this fight that has caused you to spend by now tens of hours writing book-length combined posts? You’re not horse pros or even H/J competitors. Just seems a little odd to me . . .
I think SafeSport needed to happen, then, too… for all the parents who were-- by virtue of their training-- untrustworthy guardians of their children against sexual predators. Yikes!
@Crashing Boar like it seems “a little odd” to most of us that anyone who isn’t a monster would be falling over themselves to defend a sexual predator who targets children.
“This trainer” has “touched” the lives of the majority of people that have ever been involved in the H/J and Showjumping worlds.
His books were read, his training exercises were used, his clinics were attended and audited, etc… That’s why it is being discussed.
Thanks @Peggy. Other than my mother and much later in life (in my late 20s) to my sister, I’ve not told that story to anyone. But I thought that a different perspective from those long ago days might be beneficial for those that grew up quite differently and are scratching their heads as to why more children didn’t say something to someone back then (or even now, in the present). Its just not as easy and straightforward as it sounds.
This is my sport, I grew up in it, I have a daughter that rides, my friends compete in it as amateurs and professionals, I grew up reading George Morris and have watched a few clinics. I spoke to him when he came to clinic at Middle Ranch once; as a boarder I didn’t have to pay (extra) to be there that day, and he was very charming to me. But I always suspected he may have mistaken me for someone with real money, or maybe he was just having a good day. He said nice things about me in my picture sent for the Practical Horseman Jumping Clinic.
But the abuse that he has shown over the years is not only problematic in its own right; it is worse in his role as a trainer of trainers and compounded by his role as a gatekeeper on the USET and in AHSA governance.
(Edited to add: Crashing Boar also may not be aware that GM has trained riders in multiple disciplines, most prominently including dressage and eventing, not just hunters and jumpers, and of course his influence at AHSA/USEF covered all of horse sport. So yes, everyone in horse sport has ‘a dog in this fight.’)
I love horse sport, have competed in multiple disciplines, and want to see it continue to thrive and to become more accessible to kids all over the US, including kids from all economic, racial, and cultural backgrounds. I’ve been quietly doing my own thing to covertly spread my love of horses wherever I can, probably as revenge against my elementary school teachers who hoped I’d diversify my interests.
If you truly believe this then I can’t help but think that you have always been on the very fringes of horse sport. It doesn’t matter that we no longer show, switched disciplines, no longer pros, never been pros or spend time on the circuit.
Many of of us have read his books, attended clinics as riders and/or auditors, read his articles in practical horseman, and at some point had or still have respect for him as the trainer of trainers and a horseman.
He also is one out of many that engaged in this type of behavior across the disciplines. We want our sport cleaned up. I want kids to be able to have my amazing experiences as a junior at the barn. I don’t want them to have to worry about or deal with abuse of any kind.
Now I ask you, what dog do you have in this fight?
Well that makes sense (that the “editor” is the owner). She is a horse person, but doesn’t have any real credentials in journalism or formal education listed. Her article reads like a grade-school level rant by someone who didn’t bother doing their homework. I was thinking there was no way a reputable media outlet would employ an editor like that.
I have recently had conversations with people I like and respect about the recent SS bans. I find the same denial, blame-the-victim, why bring this up now, it was a different time, ad nauseam. I can only hope that the scales will fall from their eyes one day.
Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize that I needed to be his client, a pro, or a current H/J competitor to be entitled to any opinion about what’s currently going on.
I am a survivor of sexual abuse. I am a middle aged woman that grew up in the H/J world, getting off the bus and going straight to the stables with a bagged lunch type dinner, and coming home only after all the lessons were over and horses were untacked and bedded down. I lived and breathed horses from the time I was 6 til I was out of high school and unfortunately couldn’t afford to continue. Having a pretty unhappy home-life, I was ripe for the picking if someone in the horse world had wished to abuse me. That sends shivers down my spine as these allegations come to light. That could have been me. That could have been a lot of us.
Some here have shared their own stories in and out of the horse world of the lasting effects of abuse, and in some cases even coming forward did nothing or only created more hurt.
@4LeafCloverFarm I too came forward, although after several years and was met with the response that he’s such a nice guy, I must be exaggerating or making it up. I shut up then, and I’m ashamed to say that it took me 2 decades to become “unshutupable.” I know your pain, and I’m sorry.
Find it odd all you want @Crashing Boar that some of us are not in George Morris’s world at the moment but still have our voices and opinions. As far as GM in particular is concerned, I’ve never personally interacted with him, I wasn’t there when the abuse took place, but I do come from a place that can understand what those accusers went through and are still going through. Neither you, nor my family that tried to victim-blame will shame me or cause me to shut up when it comes to the topic of outing abusers or rapists in any sport, church, family, business, or group. I find it a little odd that you would try to silence anyone that isn’t directly involved with GM.
