I recently had a few instances where I thought ‘was this all for nothing?’
First one was a few months back when a new student came to me to start riding. She had been riding for a few months at a different farm. Then I find out that the reason they switched to me was because the mom felt the trainer was being inappropriate with their kid… I asked if it was trainer x and the mom said ‘how did you know?’
Trainer X is on the safesport list. He’s a registered sex offender. But that info isn’t front and center on the internet, or really anywhere, so no one knows.
If you type in the farm name, nothing about safesport comes up. Even if you type in his name, the safesport result is the 6th or 7th listing down. Once you click on that, you are met with confusing legal language.
Just today someone asked on Facebook about the farm for beginner riding lessons. I sent her a private PM. She had no idea what safesport was, was confused as to how a registered sex offender could teach minors, and wanted to know why none of this came up when she typed in the farm name. I couldn’t say anything but ‘ I don’t know’
Why is Safesport and USEF not trying to protect the most vulnerable group, those who are new to the sport, mainly children, who wouldn’t know to look up the name of a trainer on a safesport list?