My horrible experiences with Texas horse trainer/instructor Ellen Doughty-Hume

[Sparrowette]

This was posted in the comment section of the WaPo article by someone called Dad Moon Rising

“Let’s not forget that the new CEO of the Post is William Lewis, a Rupert Murdoch (of Faux News fame) protegé. In the 2000s, Lewis was involved in many journalism scandals in the UK tabloids as a result of his unethical and illegal (ex: phone tapping of a member of the Royal family) journalistic practices. He was hired by Murdoch to “cleanup” some of those messes that Murdoch created. “Cleanup”, of course, just meant “coverup” as it came to be seen later. A known unethical scumbag is CEO of the WaPost. Bravo, Jeff Bezos. “

[MHM]

Hmm. Interesting.

[MHM]

I don’t know the exact circulation numbers, but I don’t feel like the Washington Post is only read by people who live around Washington any more than the New York Times is only read by people who live around the city.

[OverandOnward]

Who said anything about that? I’m not sure why you are replying to my post. Maybe unintentional though.

[thoroughbred22]

That was a really distressing post about the WaPo’s new CEO. I can’t trust that newspaper going forward, with that apparently very crooked individual at the helm.

It’s getting so the only newspaper I can trust is the Cleveland Plain Dealer. If you know anything compromised about the CPD, please don’t tell me.

[Bogey2]

Think of this article every time you read a “news” article. Because we know the subject well (horses) it is easy for us see all the “errors”. Imagine all the other articles we read on subjects we don’t know much about…

[cristalle]

@rockwallhorsedad

You’d think she’d be concerned that all of the testimonies, the photos, and bad experiences that are posted here would end up as comments on this Washington Post article.

I really hope that the posters here with knowledge of ED will post in the comments of the WAPO article.
As others have said, this has not been about Stormy for years, but about Ellen Doughty-Hume.

[Texarkana]

@OverandOnward

@archieflies

Photo editor probably doesn’t know horses, and if his/her goal is to paint SD as someone who would unfairly attack the poor, working-class outsider in a big money world, you can’t have the pictures looking too flashy.

Probably they know nothing about horses or condition. They wanted a photo with horses. There were horses in those photos. Good to go.

Also if the horses in ED’s barn generally look like that, all getting the same care standard, that’s what’s going to show up in photos.

Not to go 100 rounds over the photos. But this was my takeaway:

There is nothing “wrong” in any of the photos. You might split hairs over the kid leading 2 horses out, but plenty of people do that, especially with well trained horses who get along.

But the horses look unthrifty. Not in a neglected way, just in a less-than-optimal-care kind of way. Ribby, dull coats. This could just be the choice in photos to use; we all know how easy it is to capture a bad moment in time. It’s an eventing/lesson barn, so you aren’t going to see rotund hunter ponies or anything. But still, whether it is an unfortunate coincidence or a reflection of care, they weren’t the most flattering photos of the horses.

[Angela_Freda]

The pics in question:

See credit for photo source in screenshot.

[stillgoing]

have to say the crappy arena says a lot – overgrown RR ties for the border, one of them is jutting up out of the ground, not sure what that pipe fence thing is in the background, sad letter “A” so we can do dressage! and someone is paying for lessons there…“how you do one thing is how you do everything.” so the photos of the unthrifty horses aren’t a surprise, nor is the history of this person. There are far nicer places and trainers in Texas.

[LemieuxTasteonaBarebackBudget]

A couple years ago, one of Ellens mares, Rylie, got a pretty decent tendon cut on her pattern/fetlock area. They moved her from the muddy runs to a stall for rest. We checked on her often. I don’t recall ever seeing it wrapped or cleaned. Her stall was absolutely swarming with flies, considerably more than any other stall. Since she couldn’t be ridden, Ellen offered her to a boarder to take home saying she just needed rest to recover. When the boarder came to pick her up, one of the barn hands asked if she noticed her incredibly swollen hock. The border didnt take the horse because she was ill equipped to handle such a situation. The tendon injury turned into an infection that worked its way up to the hock. Ellen refused to take the horse to the vet and continued to just treat her with whatever antibiotics they had round after round. Eventually the infection traveled up to her hip, still unseen by a vet. A rescue eventually took her to a sanctuary.

When Ellens boyfriend’s dogs attacked another horse on property, she told the new horse owner everything was just a surface wound and the horse didn’t need to go to the vet. Ellen knew the novice horse owner did NOT have resources to take the horse to the vet: no trailer, no truck, no vet contact. Another boarder took the horse to the vet where they found deep lacerations in the legs, 1/4 of the skin ripped off of his face and cartilage chunks taken out of his ear. The vet commented that he should have been brought in within 4 hours of the attack. Ellen was present and witness to the attack around 6:30 that morning, 13 hours before the boarder was able to get him to the vet. Ellen exclaimed that she has always done her own vet care and has never had any problems. Poor Riley is only one tragic example of that being completely untrue.

[fledermaus]

I’ve never read an article in any venue, where I knew the people and/or the event, which really told the whole story. And I grew up in a newspaper family (publishers, editors) and have worked on several newspapers myself. It just doesn’t happen. Reporters go in cold, and try to pick up the relevant details in a series of interviews and phone calls, and if they get paid enough, they may have the time to read some background. Then they have a deadline. The photographer just goes around snapping pictures of things. The editor shapes the story the way they think it is most readable and catchy. And if we’re all lucky, it has some resemblance to the truth.

[anon6923113]

@LemieuxTasteonaBarebackBudget

A couple years ago, one of Ellens mares, Rylie, got a pretty decent tendon cut on her pattern/fetlock area. They moved her from the muddy runs to a stall for rest. We checked on her often. I don’t recall ever seeing it wrapped or cleaned. Her stall was absolutely swarming with flies, considerably more than any other stall. Since she couldn’t be ridden, Ellen offered her to a boarder to take home saying she just needed rest to recover. When the boarder came to pick her up, one of the barn hands asked if she noticed her incredibly swollen hock. The border didnt take the horse because she was ill equipped to handle such a situation. The tendon injury turned into an infection that worked its way up to the hock. Ellen refused to take the horse to the vet and continued to just treat her with whatever antibiotics they had round after round. Eventually the infection traveled up to her hip, still unseen by a vet. A rescue eventually took her to a sanctuary.

When Ellens boyfriend’s dogs attacked another horse on property, she told the new horse owner everything was just a surface wound and the horse didn’t need to go to the vet. Ellen knew the novice horse owner did NOT have resources to take the horse to the vet: no trailer, no truck, no vet contact. Another boarder took the horse to the vet where they found deep lacerations in the legs, 1/4 of the skin ripped off of his face and cartilage chunks taken out of his ear. The vet commented that he should have been brought in within 4 hours of the attack. Ellen was present and witness to the attack around 6:30 that morning, 13 hours before the boarder was able to get him to the vet. Ellen exclaimed that she has always done her own vet care and has never had any problems. Poor Riley is only one tragic example of that being completely untrue.

Wow.

Both stories? WOW.

Are the dogs involved in the attack still on the property? Or did they belong to a prior boyfriend? I would not keep horses at a barn if there were dogs on site who had a history of this sort of attack on a horse (going after the horse in a pack, significantly breaking the skin and causing significant lacerations when biting). Also, I wouldn’t ride or take lessons (or have my child ride or take lessons) at a barn if there were dogs on site who had a history of attacking a horse like what you describe here.

Dogs coming after a horse while someone is riding? Really dangerous.

I wonder how long she can maintain professional insurance coverage with dogs like this on site, and people with a criminal history on site. Both seem like they might impact her insurance coverage…

[jaj]

What seems to be missing in most journalism is the experience that beat reporters brought to a story. I am not sure a beat reporter could have improved this story, but it seems like basic steps were skipped, and the story was dragged out over several unnecessary paragraphs.

[anon6923113]

@Angela_Freda

The pics in question:

Yikes.

I’m all for very fit horses and understand that fit upper level event horses at times may look more like a 4.5 BCS and show rib.

These horses in this photo? They look like they have poor coats and poor top lines. They do not look like they are super fit, and thus have a lower BCS.

Maybe it’s just a bad angle and one moment in time, and an unfortunate stroke of luck that they ran this photo in the WaPo… but there are stories going back years about horses in her care exhibiting poor condition.

[MHM]

@stillgoing

have to say the crappy arena says a lot – overgrown RR ties for the border, one of them is jutting up out of the ground, not sure what that pipe fence thing is in the background, sad letter “A” so we can do dressage!

Does the trainer in question own that facility? Or does she just lease stalls there? If it’s the latter, she might not have control over the property or the upkeep on it.

I will say if I had the kind of history she seems to have with dogs causing problems with horses, I would certainly not have what appears to be a loose dog or two in the background of a picture while I was holding a horse in the barn aisle.

[MHM]

@fledermaus

The photographer just goes around snapping pictures of things. The editor shapes the story the way they think it is most readable and catchy. And if we’re all lucky, it has some resemblance to the truth.

My very first direct experience with this was when I did a little horse show as a kid, and the local newspaper put in a picture that was identified as me on my horse. But it wasn’t.

To make it even more ridiculous, my horse was a chestnut, and the horse in the picture was a leopard Appaloosa. So it was a pretty obvious error.

Then I had to spend the next couple of weeks explaining to everybody who commented on it in school that it was not me in the picture, and the newspaper had made a mistake.

[trubandloki]

@fledermaus

I’ve never read an article in any venue, where I knew the people and/or the event, which really told the whole story. And I grew up in a newspaper family (publishers, editors) and have worked on several newspapers myself. It just doesn’t happen. Reporters go in cold, and try to pick up the relevant details in a series of interviews and phone calls, and if they get paid enough, they may have the time to read some background. Then they have a deadline. The photographer just goes around snapping pictures of things. The editor shapes the story the way they think it is most readable and catchy. And if we’re all lucky, it has some resemblance to the truth.

Does this make bad reporting OK?

Some resemblance is OK?

[archieflies]

The pictures are a moot point. They don’t demonstrate everyone’s standard of care or maintenance; nor do they prove neglect or show anything specifically wrong. And there could be plenty explanations-- a horse that’s new to the program, etc. Nitpicking the pictures detracts from the actual stories of real neglect/danger by making it all look like sour grapes. And as the article drives people here to read the thread, making it look like sour grapes only supports the article’s conclusion. If you keep the focus on facts, people see the truth.

[Djones]

Those ads are tailored to you. The ads I saw were for Big Dee’s Tack, because I ordered things from them yesterday.