This is the truth, right here.
Lots of younger riders in the top ten too!
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Have I told a child/minor/young adult to hit anyone or flip them over and stated it while being a person of influence in the sport? Sanctioned by the governing body? On TV or video?
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I say this with kindness - you have obviously had a traumatic and difficult experience, and are projecting it into all corners of this conversation. Iām sorry that whatever happened to you has made you feel and respond this way. I hope you have gotten/are getting the support you need to work through this.
Itās great that you want to protect these kids. However your responses and accusations of bullying, emotional abuse, safe sport violations, shitty parenting, kids fearing not making the team it they speak up, etc, are all a reachā¦ if not pure conjecture.
Do you truly not think Missy, Laura and all the other coaches of these top kids donāt have a direct line to Robert Ridland that bypasses KP? Do you actually even think any of these kids are in team contention in the next few years when they canāt get around 1.35m with Beezie on the final day without issues?
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They wouldnāt need a very direct line. Robert Ridland was standing right there at the ingate.
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Point more that telling Katie off, if that is what they actually felt like doing, isnāt really going to hurt team chances when their coach is Laura/McLain/etc. None of these kids are nobodies with unknown coaches and no connections.
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I audited a clinic where JS said that of course all of his horses were light in the bridle because if they werenāt he would ātear their f-ing teeth out.ā Thatās the last clinic of his that I will ever go to. What a creep.
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Jesus christ. So much for back to front eh.
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I watched the clinic from this link below. After watching the edited clips, I can tell you the actual clinic was a big surprise. This person has the clinics broken down into ten minute clips and the titles are not always accurate, but if you just keep watching the pieces, youāll eventually get it all.
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While I agree with your whole post, I think this is a bit of a stretch. A quick USEF search for only one (Mia) shows she jumped double clean at both weeks of Lake Placid (1.50) last year at 16 years old, was on the YR (1.50m) Zone 2 team the last 2 years, at 15 and 16 years old, and jumped the 3* (1.55m) Saturday night lights at WEF 1, in her first week of being old enough to jump higher than 1.50m. She has arguably one of the best riders in the world as her coach, and the 2020 leading USEF owner of the year as her sponsor. So yes, Iād say she is in āteam contention in the next few years.ā
Note: Luke, while a few years older than her, also jumped those1.50m LP Grand Prixs with 4 faults.
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Fair. I did see Mia in the 1.55 GP livestream, and while she is an undoubtedly talented rider, still stand by my opinion here. Although maybe will reduce āfewā to ācouple ofā years.
I was able to watch the Clinic recently, long after the fact, unfortunately. I watched Katieās session in its entirety.
I had seen the facebook posts and the outrage.
I have to say I disagree with the comments of Katieās generation wasnāt Coddledā¦ as apposed to now.
I thought overall her clinic was decent and fair but the most I struggled with the entire session was the constant request to raise noses and raise hands, bop them in the mouth. The majority of the horses in the session were travelling in false frames, not using themselves properly and the constant request to raise hands and raise the nose created hallow backed horses and lack of engagement from the hind end. I think this is why a good number of them struggled with effective leg-yields which resulted in criticism from over-spur use.
Quite honestly if we want to create effective and professional riders the fault lies on the industry and the barns in which these kids are taught. All of them should know how to properly groom, tack up and untack a horse. Horsemanship starts on the crossties and in the stalls.
Take the spurs off all of these kids and let them learn how to effectively use their aids. At no point should spurs become a crutch to get a response as it seems many of these kids these days use.
Do I think she was tough, yes I do. I do recognized the called out a rider for being too rough on a horseās mouth. It was warranted but then she followed it up with āDepending on the situation you have to be rough.ā; it kind of defeated the purpose of calling out heavy hands.
I think once the ground rails were added in the combination; it helped both horse and rider. Several horses seemed a bit too forward to begin with and maybe starting with the ground poles in the combination wouldve set the teams up for more success, more critical thinking, more control.
I do appreciate her calling out the sport for being dangerous and her reasoning for being tough on them. these students need to listen to instructions and they need to be taught the proper avenues for control. I think Katie got a little frustrated through the groups with a lack of attentiveness and made some commentary that I do believe is out of line in any age and timeframe.
At the end of the day the horse is the willing partner in this sport and should be treated respectfully and honorably by both rider and trainer.
And for my final input on the Maclay finals; start adding the requirement to tack and untack your own horse in front of the judges. It needs to happen
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Iām asking a question I should Google but Iām afraid of falling down a rabbit hole while Iām cooking.
Iām thinking Maclay - it does have the word āhorsemanshipā in its full, formal name, right?? - but havenāt the judges at some point or other had the discretion to ask questions, like, horsemanship questions, as part of final testing for one of the finals?
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Itās in the USEF rules for all equitation classes.
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Iād love to see this.
I started thinking about questions (appropriate per skill level) and my head exploded a little bit.
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Itās a test that actually gets used a lot at IEA type shows for tiebreakers so that the horses donāt have to do any more work.
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I didnāt know this - what a great way to handle that situation!
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Iām so bummed out that IEA wasnāt a thing when I was a kid!
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I think it needs to happen. There needs to be a horsemanship aspect of this level of competition. It has turned into a competition of who can spend obscene amounts of money leasing the best equitation horse and who can afford to be in the best equitation barnā¦Heritage ā¦ to have the most perfect round overfences.
Meanwhile we have failed to realize that many of these kids are showing up to the barns to be handed the reins of a fully tacked horse for their ride and when they dismount, they simply leave the barn.
Maybe a written test portion of these championships is needed. And another written test for the top group of individuals.
We are losing horsemanship with every generation fostering this type of attitude which is a reason why some of the things happened in the Katie Prudent clinic.
Back on subject, I donāt think we should entirely denounce what Katie did in the clinic. Shouting that a horse should be flipped over backwards is unacceptable in any environment and those within the industry need to denounce that behavior.
These kids need to learn discipline. I recall one rider repeatedly failing to halt on the straight line. She would land from the fence and not regain her seat and control of the horse and theyd have to make the turn many strides after the jump. After making the rider do it again and understand that she needed to sit back after the combination and use her aids and her seat to gain control, she could do it. and she did! only to repeat the same exercise much later and fail at doing so again. I understand her mount was strong an difficult but she lacked control of the situation and the horse was repeatedly dragging her around the corner. Yes, it can be a dangerous thing. And after already proving she could make it happen, effectively and kindly with the horse, the rider again let things fall apart and blew the turn multiple times. For such a simple excerise it has to be frustrating to a coach at that point
In terms of driving attentiveness and discipline i think Katie was 100% in the right. Within that clinic there was plenty of criticism but also plenty of praise when things were done properly or at least there was plenty of try by the student.
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Thereās a girl on YouTube who rides at a higher end barn. She explained that although she would like to be involved in the tacking up and grooming of her horses, the barn is 100% full service and wants the grooms to be doing this- not the riders. The riders are not given the choice. That is a huge red flag in my books. To me the barn is focusing on the winning/riding part of the sport rather than the horsemanship and care of the horse. That is an integral part of the riding as it involves the equipment, health care, and personality of the horse (getting to understand your partner). So, in order to ride at the major shows, the kids may have to sacrifice that- which is sad. That is the trainer/barnās fault.
As an aside- the girl is a lovely rider and can certainly tack up and take care of her horses. She has retired horses at home so she is not lacking in knowledge. Iām going to assume though that a lot of the kids donāt have this opportunity.
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