It’s a really small horse community here, the name of the horse sounded familiar (was marketed here for a while) and a quick fb search of its USEF number pulled everything up. Plus I’ve heard some questionable things from that barn so was curious - I shared just because I think it shows context that this horse has had seemingly known problems jumping.
An eventer on the west coast was just suspended for similar behavior, so hopefully USEF follows suit in this case.
I would add to this that sometimes they prioritize the fancy facilities with the fancy price tag and think it must be the best.
It’s hard to tell in this business who knows their stuff and who doesn’t. Sure, you can look at ribbons and placings, but that doesn’t tell you whether someone had easy horses and bought their way in (or had a parent do so) or not.
And if your eye is educated enough to tell a good ride from a bad, you’re probably a horseperson yourself. Most aren’t, so they rely on cues that work for other businesses.
In other words - it’s really tough for parents. I can’t blame them.
Because they either “don’t know or don’t care”. Either way, sucks for the horse.
He’s a gray. Gray horses get melanomas, including in their eyes. Melanomas in the eye can cause what seems to be irrational spooking. Trust me, I know this first hand. I have an otherwise sound gray gelding standing in my pasture who fits this profile perfectly. I quit riding him when his spooking became unpredictable and being on his back ceased to be fun at all. I did not, however, beat him around the head for being not fun to ride or show.
I wonder if anyone has taken this poor guy to an equine ophthalmologist? Or even considered it might be a health issue at all.
(Scarier still, they can also get melanomas on the brain.)
Will there come a time you will need to consider euthanizing due to vision? So very sad for your horse.
Here’s our whole saga with a current picture close to the end of the discussion. Thanks to Oncept, his ocular melanoma is stable and he lives a pampered pasture pet life. He does have the occasional odd spook when being led but for the most part he is safe when being handled on the ground. He did do a stint as a pony horse after I retired him. My former trainer used him to pony a very very bad horse in for training and he was fine. I just prefer to ride my newer horse who is calm and generally predictable. Love the old boy though and feel like I owe him an easy retirement.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8YY2FUS/
Apparently this horse has a record of refusals. Shocked that the trainer would allow a child to show this horse.
I’ll also add, because the trainer makes them feel special. I’ve seen a few really incompetent trainers keep some clients with deep pockets off of pandering and personality.
How much clearer does the horse have to be that he is done - for whatever reason?
How interesting. He doesn’t appear to be refusing the next jump except once, he appears to have a problem on landing.
I’d be curious to see more rounds. But there’s something triggering it - could be pain in the fronts somewhere, or could be when people jump up his neck. This looks more physical than eye-related to me now that I’ve seen more videos.
And that definitely doesn’t justify her behavior, how embarrassing for Chad.
The horse clearly found a method that works to eject his passenger.
I see beating it is really working to fix the problem.
This, over and over.
Would be nice if owners found horses no longer able to do their intended job a safe place to land instead of unloading them on unsuspecting new owners. I get people want to recoup money but sometimes you just have to call it a loss and do what’s right.
Sure, if the “job” is “being ridden”. Plenty of horses just don’t work out for the rider’s plans and can be happily moved along to a different career. Maybe it’s dressage, maybe it’s competitive trail, maybe it’s w/t lessons at a college.
Selling a horse because it doesn’t like the job is fine - especially if a general soundness workup has been done to ensure that it really IS just the horse not wanting to play in that space. I don’t think people should be required to retire their event prospect because it flat out HATES xc…
I do agree that it isn’t ethical to sell your lame and fried horse on without doing your due diligence and being VERY honest with the prospective new owners. I also think it’s unethical to sell your aged horse that no one will want to care for like you would. But that’s different than a horse just not being a fit for your discipline.
My experience has been that sometimes people do disclose, but they don’t exactly know what they are disclosing.
And sometimes new owners insist on buying a horse they really shouldn’t because it’s in their budget.
And sometimes trainers take horses on that they think they can fix, and they really can’t.
I’ve been involved in one of these crazy transactions with a troubled horse, and things get wild really fast. In my case, I was just a friend who somehow ended up involved and the horse ended up in my barn for the grand old price of $1 after things deteriorated to the point the horse didn’t even want to be ridden anymore.
What was the problem? In this case, it was a small issue (perhaps physical, not sure because he passed the PPE, but as you well know that can be complicated) which turned into a very large one when the trainer (not me) decided that galloping the horse in deep sand would “fix” his formerly minor balking issue. This caused a bilateral hind suspensory issue that was also non-obvious and then the horse’s attitude turned to absolute poo (for good reason) and his minor balking issue became a major “let’s dump the rider” issue.
In this horse’s case, the fault really lay with the new owners who insisted on buying a horse that was outside of their skill level because he was a “cheap warmblood”. It also lay with the trainer, who told them she could fix them after they purchased him. I felt terrible for the horse, whose fault it definitely wasn’t. I suppose the original owner should have known that something might have been wrong, but she did disclose all of his behaviors and new owner just…glossed over all of it.
the Black Stallion syndrome? If you just love the horse enough you can ride him!
In this particular horse’s case, it was partially that but in no small part the new owner was a well-meaning but clueless parent whose daughter really wanted a warmblood like “all the other girls”. Well-meaning but clueless parent didn’t have the budget for a warmblood who could do the things, so decided purchasing a “budget-friendly” warmblood was a good idea. Her desire to make her kid happy ended up causing a major issue. She pretty much badgered her trainer into buying that horse.
It was a huge lesson for me, but I was in my early 20s and had NO idea things could go so far sideways with a horse - it was pre-COTH and a very long time ago lol. I had ridden the horse and he wasn’t terrible nor dangerous at that particular juncture. I rode him a few times after trainer got involved (long weird story) and felt him degenerating.
I’m not saying I could have fixed him at that age either - don’t get me wrong, but her fix was definitely not the fix that he needed.
Would he have been different under a different rider/trainer? Hard to tell. He might have gotten worse and diagnostics might have been performed instead of assuming it was a training issue. He might have gotten better and the final physical issue never occurred. It may have simply been that he needed a more precise ride, and kid was not going to be it without a LOT of lessons. Lots of “coulda woulda shouldas” in hindsight.
He was an interesting lesson in both “don’t buy a problem” and “no good deed goes unpunished”. He was very sweet, just had a passel of issues and needed a good handler, trainer and rider.
That poor horse. I’d imagine his front feet are SCREAMING. How does Chad tie into all this? I always understood him to be a consummate horseman. I hope I am not wrong.
I believe he is the one who shared those other clips to somewhat justify her actions?
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