I find labeling people as vigilantes because they speak out against abuse says far, far more about those name callers than it does about the alleged “vigilantes”.
If only the horses had the protections alleged horse lovers give to the abusers.
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I don’t think anyone is against calling out abuse. What people find problematic is when groups of people pile on over one bad moment or one bad ride. Or lash out when people don’t treat/ ride their horses exactly like they would. In this day and age of social media we have to have the non- horse public on our side if we want equestrian sports to continue. That gets harder and harder when equestrians themselves nick pick and get nasty over every little thing someone does wrong.
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Ok. Fair enough. Give me an example of someone getting grief over one moment of not the best riding.
yawn
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https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT6kqpmKw/
This one deals with horse care in general.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT6kbVdFq/
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The byline of this article is Kenneth J. Braddick. It’s not COTH, but Dressage News. He is responsible for the word salad Laura Graves serves up. He provided little context for her criticisms. Compare the middle section about her current mounts and suddenly everything makes sense.
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I (semi successfully) showed a tongue loller (hunters) for a year. Confirmed behavior. Should I tie her tongue because that’s her “stress behavior?” It didn’t originate with me. Some of y’all are just ridiculous. I let her tongue flap free and we did reasonably well at decent 
show. Y’all love seeing TBs show, but many show stress. We do our best to mitigate that.
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We had an appendix with nerve damage from a pasture accident that made it impossible for him to keep his tongue in! He ate and drank normally, but his tongue was always flapping around. Vet said strapping his mouth shut would be cruel for him specifically because he couldn’t help it. So he cleaned up at local shows and flapped his tongue in all the win photos 
. Anyone who asked got the story, but I can guarantee the Social Media Horse Police would have a field day with any single pic taken out of context.
This doesn’t excuse abuse, blue tongues, rollkur, etc etc etc. I bring it up because it’s things like this that The Mob looooooove to pile on - easy “proof” of abuse. So should we have kept dozens of kids out of the saddle and show ring just because it “looks bad” out of context on social media? Nope. That horse had a useful job and was pampered his whole life.
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Wow, do you also get a decoder ring, a badge, and a secret handshake on that high horse?
The real heroes for me are the ones that quietly work to educate individuals with their horses, that tirelessly volunteer, and support bonafide rescue. Those that don’t bring drama with them like a well-loved accessory.
The real heroes don’t do the work to get clicks and attention.
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Exactly.
Is it abuse to put shoes on a horse…some barefoot advocates might say yes. Is it abuse to keep a horse stabled for 20 hours a day…some who keep their horses out 24/7 might say yes. Is it abuse to turn a horse out by itself with no companions, to feed concentrates once a day, to ride in 90 degree heat or 20 degree cold?
Everyone has an opinion. And when that opinion gets weaponized on social media, it becomes truly dangerous.
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And all the while, things that we can all agree are abuse (beating/punching/senseless whipping/soring/etc) get lost in all the noise. At a certain point, when everything is abuse, nothing is… because people start tuning out the Internet Idiots and are unwilling to have a real discussion. When the topic of shoes gets the same vitriol and outrage as a horse getting beat over the head for some perceived slight, people start to just ignore it all. Bits are another fun one - nearly every comment under a post with a horse wearing bit has someone saying they’re abusive. Most of us know that a hackamore with any leverage can be far more severe than most bits (not to mention the long shanked monstrosities I see all over bitless fanatic pages).
Meanwhile, the non-horse public gets the impression that everyone handling a horse in a safe, species-appropriate way is a psycho abuser because all they see is clickbait rage and arguing over everything. Par for the course for the Internet, but still.
Social license to operate is real. I’m not one to fear-monger over horse sports getting banned, but it is foolish to brush off the impact that public perception can have on our ability to own and compete animals.
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I am getting tired of the holier than though BS in general…saddles shouldn’t have thigh blocks etc. Most of this from people who don’t even ride any longer.
They live in the old days which would be fine but back then no one cared if the saddle or the bit fit correctly. Horse trainers were mostly men.
There have been many improvements in a lot of things for horses and people. Social media has given the keyboard warrior way too big a platform unfortunately.
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exactly. I’ve seen young teens say any bit is abuse and comment on a video of a horse wearing hackamore “I love that you’re bitless!!” Meanwhile the hackamore has a 7-inch shank and a rawhide noseband and the so-called abusive bit is a smooth, lozenge dee. There’s zero critical thinking.
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I’ll say that the more sensible reaction to this is about neglect, or not meeting proper welfare needs, vs abuse itself. At least that’s how it is on my end… I don’t think most people abuse their horses, but I do think many are failing to meet the proper welfare needs for the species.
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Me. I once posted the ridden portion of a vet soundness exam online to get as many eyes as possible on a NQR but not limb-lame horse. I got everything from “omg horse abuse riding a lame horse” to “maybe if you rode him correctly/rode with proper contact he wouldn’t be lame”. The behavior only showed up in ridden work and riding is a valid diagnostic tool.
Anyone who has been on FB has seen people rip apart well-meaning and not-abusive riders for everything from not having perfectly straight polos to the horse not demonstrating he’s the happiest he’s ever been and that must = abuse. I don’t even post my own (positive) rides much anymore on my personal pages - as much as I love having the memory and “mile marker” to measure my own progress with my projects, it’s absolute insanity to have your program and your decades of experience ripped apart by a teenaged Instagrammer or 20-something “influencer” who has never even sat on a 3 y/o.
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This right here might be one of the saddest parts of the whole mob mentality online. The people who post abusive / questionable things just keep posting ( and making equestrians look bad) while the people who are honestly trying to improve and are open to constructive criticism don’t ask for help because they don’t want to get attacked by the mob. How many more people could be helped if the people responding to videos and pictures where just nicer about it?
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Abuse! Behind the vertical! Abuse! Look how stressed the horse looks!
This is the featherlight horsemanship gal - shes sitting in a beanbag chair right next to the horse. Fwiw, the horse does not look to be what I would call happy or relaxed in any of the liberty work, but I’ve found that to be the case of all liberty training, period. Not sure the what/why of that, honestly. This woman is crazy skilled, from her blips online, so not a dig at her at all!
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Photoshop a rider on there and The Mob would be foaming at the mouth!
Also, I share your observation about liberty horse expressions being different from what one might expect. I wonder if there’s some element of “inward thinking face” - I know I make some weird faces when I’m concentrating mentally. Or when something is physically challenging, even if I’m having fun 
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Or they are just annoyed at having to perform without any tack. That is chill time for most horses.
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My problem with these big ringleaders of social justice is, often they aren’t all perfect either. It’s one thing to shine some much needed sunshine on dark places in the industry - but you better make sure your own horse management is positively spotless before you start dunking on other people’s livelihoods and careers. Peep the candid photos of some of these horses’ feet on some of the louder social media personalities if you want to experience disconnect.
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