Michael Barisone Hearing, Tuesday, April 23

[Virginia_Horse_Mom]

@OverandOnward

There was a directional life trajectory on the part of MB and LK, based who each was as a person, and how each of them lived their lives. That built toward their initial introduction and then their interaction on the farm. That would be fascinating as the approach to the story. IMO.

Yes. All of this. I think everyone would like to learn more about Lauren’s life trajectory. She’s said many things, but there are also gaping holes in her background. Such as…

How does Lauren afford her horses? I’ve been asking this question for years… and still don’t have a clear answer. Just a lot of rumors and assumptions that her parents were wealthy.

Bluntly… I’m still wondering about their finances as well. Because there is a weird lack of public information about their career history that theoretically allowed them to fund Lolly Pop’s super expensive dressage aspirations.

I hope Netflix digs.

[OverandOnward]

Michael’s, too. Was he really the authentic, forthright, focused dressage professional he seems to be? (I know very little about him.) If so, even more fascinating how his steadiness in life, in the career he chose, brought him across the path of the erratic LK, and led him to open the door to her chaos. Knowingly or unknowingly.

One thing I have wondered throughout – did MB know LK well before their horsey enterprise, did MB know about LK’s track record? Had he heard, but just thought it was just over-inflated horsey gossip? Or that it wouldn’t be important in his interactions with her?

It seems they were living in the same house, for a time. I know there is a segment of the horse world, and the sports world, that does that, transactionally. But to a great many non-horsey people, that might be rather curious. Even suss.

There are layers upon layers of situations and events that led to that final moment.

I hope the documentary doesn’t fall down the rabbit hole of ‘lifestyles of the rich and famous’, rather than who these people were as people, and the humanity in the drama.

[rothmpp]

@OverandOnward

Michael’s, too. Was he really the authentic, forthright, focused dressage professional he seems to be? (I know very little about him.) If so, even more fascinating how his steadiness in life, in the career he chose, brought him across the path of the erratic LK, and led him to open the door to her chaos. Knowingly or unknowingly.

One thing I have wondered throughout – did MB know LK well before their horsey enterprise, did MB know about LK’s track record? Had he heard, but just thought it was just over-inflated horsey gossip? Or that it wouldn’t be important in his interactions with her?

I knew (know?) him a little. He is authentic and forthright, but also very impressed with himself and his “big time” students. I’ve said before, but his endless “when I was in the Olympics” stories and comments about big name students get tiresome and frankly, more than a little annoying when I’m paying a premium for his time.

I can 100% see how he was blinded by her apparently bottomless pockets. I’m guessing that he’d never heard of her before the clinic she rode in back in what? 2016? It’s not like she was showing a bunch or located in an area where they would have been in close proximity. Whoever she was riding with before Michael - I can see how they would be walking a thin line between wanting rid of the problem, but not wanting to burn a bridge among other professionals by badmouthing a client - it could be the prior trainer was “oh, she just thinks she’s so talented and so important, maybe it’s just a personality conflict between her and I, not a pervasive problem so a different trainer may be the answer”.

I asked her several times what she did to be able to afford this level of training with so many horses, couching it as “so others can learn from your example”. She, as expected and is her prerogative, chose not to answer. I’m on board with others here that I hope if the Netflix docu happens, that they deep dive and get answers to her endless lies.

[SpicyPRE]

@OverandOnward

One thing I have wondered throughout – did MB know LK well before their horsey enterprise, did MB know about LK’s track record? Had he heard, but just thought it was just over-inflated horsey gossip? Or that it wouldn’t be important in his interactions with her?

I also think that its not unusual for a professional in the horse world to think s/he could handle a difficult client where others couldn’t. How many times have we heard a pro utter “I should have listened…”

[Virginia_Horse_Mom]

Did you watch the trial? It answered much of this.

[jvanrens]

@OverandOnward

It seems they were living in the same house, for a time. I know there is a segment of the horse world, and the sports world, that does that, transactionally. But to a great many non-horsey people, that might be rather curious. Even suss.

Would it be suss even if there are separate living areas in the house? LK was there with RG, it’s not like she was there alone with MB.

[Sdel]

@jvanrens

@OverandOnward

It seems they were living in the same house, for a time. I know there is a segment of the horse world, and the sports world, that does that, transactionally. But to a great many non-horsey people, that might be rather curious. Even suss.

Would it be suss even if there are separate living areas in the house? LK was there with RG, it’s not like she was there alone with MB.

It’s more suspicious that she’s on record as saying she makes it a “requirement” that any place she boards provide her “housing”. Even with the current barn/house in Florida, at one point she claimed she was renting an apartment on site at the barn.

I think it’s pretty obvious, now, why she makes that a requirement.

[Maria]

@Sdel

I think it’s pretty obvious, now, why she makes that a requirement.

so she can ninja about.

[Maria]

I have seen and been to a number of high end training facilities. Some have apartments on the property that they will allow their clients to stay for a short period of time. Some for free. Some for a rental fee. I have never seen a training facility that has an apartment for a client to stay permanently for a fee or not.

The above is just my experience.

[Annie10]

Has the Netflix thing come out yet?

[Djones]

No, I’m not sure when it’s expected.

[cph1957]

It came out in the trial, they were “Daddy’s deep pockets”, she admitted it and when she was questioned about where her father got the money she looked confused and replied “at the bank?”!!! It was all MB’s attorney could do not to laugh in her face!! She’s not blonde but she’s s typical/classical “dumb blonde”! But maybe because so many brain cells are burned out by drugs.

[Virginia_Horse_Mom]

I watched that. I disagree she was confused. She was carefully dodging that line of questioning.

[Jillsmith]

Regarding the shared house, I found it preposterous that RG kept referring to the house as “his and LK’s property “. I really wished he had been called out on that.

[ohnoO]

Apparently it is because she needed to rest/nap during the day.

(She did admit—on what SM I can’t remember—that she did rent an efficiency apartment on the farm where she landed after the trial. She didn’t “live” there. She and Daddy bought a house a bit away.)

Back then she apparently also didn’t have a driver’s license so if she lived off the farm that could be an issue.

[Sdel]

@ohnoO

Apparently it is because she needed to rest/nap during the day.

Uh huh….sure……

Just like their is a serious lack of chatter around the cross ties.

[Danvers]

Exactly - that’s close to if not more than a million a year going between NJ and Wellington with a BNT with that many horses

[rothmpp]

@cph1957

It came out in the trial, they were “Daddy’s deep pockets”, she admitted it and when she was questioned about where her father got the money she looked confused and replied “at the bank?”!!! It was all MB’s attorney could do not to laugh in her face!! She’s not blonde but she’s s typical/classical “dumb blonde”! But maybe because so many brain cells are burned out by drugs.

What came out at trial wasn’t a description of where her money “comes from”. At least to me. She was asked over and over here and other places where she was not under oath how she possibly affords 5 horses in Wellington in training (it did come out in trial that MB gave them a killer deal in NJ, even if she tried to pretend that $5k a month was keeping the farm afloat) and she has had no answer to how she possibly affords all this.

At the time, if I remember correctly, some people dug a little into her dad & family and nothing seemed to indicate that he’d have the kind of money for her to be a stay at home daughter with a expensive hobby and a man servant. It’s all well and good to not share that information on a board like this, but that kind of evasive, clueless answer on the stand in front of a jury did not help her image or believably. It made her look like a liar.

[ohnoO]

IIRC, from those that dug a little, they speculated that it came from her maternal grandparents in Texas. They also speculated that it went to daddy to manage, but conservatorships are not public records.

That’s the best I can recall from…how many years ago? 5?

[DownYonder]

IIRC, the defense attorney asked LK where her father got the money he used to pay her board/training/rent bills at the farm, and she flippantly (and evasively) said, “from the bank.”

I also believe it was posted someplace (maybe in the L&C comments) that the judge would not allow the defense to drill down any further on that topic because LK wasn’t the one on trial and the source of her money had no bearing on the matter at hand. It was therefore never expounded on during the trial if the money came from her grandparents, from her time as an alleged stripper/escort, from alleged illegal activities, from (as hinted at elsewhere) a “sponsor” of sorts, or from another source (at one time, someone speculated that it was lottery winnings).