He’s been suspended by the FEI and USEF reciprocates the suspension so he’s not eligible to show.
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Too many are closing their eyes and not speaking up. Seems to be changing now. That said, the name calling should stop, and we should permit the system to work.
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The system that protected this for over a decade? The system where TPTB were aware of videos and accusations like what’s been posted, and spoke out with “unwavering support” (see the article that started this thread) for this man until the social media sh!tstorm became too big to ignore?
I’m sorry, but it beggars belief that in light of gestures broadly all of this, your concern is name-calling.
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Does anyone know who sponsors him? (Product sponsors, not wealthy people who are either clueless or complicit.)
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One thing I don’t understand is in the riding videos, why did those riders tolerate him whipping their horses? How can you just ignore that? This makes me sick to my stomach. He needs to pay big-time.
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It’s on his website, or it was. I took screenshots the other day, let’s see if I can figure out how to post them:
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Couldn’t agree more.
Personally I see no problem with “name calling” towards the person responsible for the video I saw of the chestnut horse that was flailing on the ground. Horrific.
I am honestly so gutted. I feel this is going to get brushed over and in 6 months some other shocking videos from some other a$$hole (oh, block your eyes, I called someone a name!) will come out and then the whole cycle repeats itself. I’m not sure what more I can personally do at this point, except share what’s been happening and report this behavior. But I’m all ears for other ideas. I’ve said it 800 times but I’ll say it again - the judging has got to change. How do we get that to happen?
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What are you talking about? I was just answering that the whip is often used by a ground person as an aid when teaching piaffe by lightly tapping. There are several good videos of teaching piaffe in hand in an appropriate manner on YouTube
Use in the manner depicted in these videos is abusive and horrific. I’m the one that shared the videos here.
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There is at least one media outlet that hasn’t played along.
Dressage-News hasn’t covered Parra in the best light for years. The rare articles about him are negative, never positive. The ugly photo of Van the Man used in today’s article is at least 8 years old;
DN could have used a more flattering one, but clearly chose not to.
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Yep. It has more akin to some of the “dancing horse” training you see than dressage. Actually I think the dancing horses sustain less abuse which is saying something.
I think he took the high school work in the pillars to some perverted extreme.
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His sponsors were tagged in the original IG post.
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Where is this person on all this?
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Jen is the “Doctor’s” (he was a dentist in Colombia) head groom.
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There are over 70 pics and videos of abuse.
Oh wait, I’ve never ridden GP so maybe I don’t know what abuse is. (Note sarcasm)
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Is that her in the video of William flailing around, with the ponytail?
If grooms aren’t also competitors, can they be sanctioned at all?
It seems likely.
I do not know who Adam Steffens-Smienk is, however he writes about the situation with first hand knowledge, and I have no reason not to believe him. Although it’s odd to me that with this knowledge he is not able to name the head groom correctly in his FB post, perhaps it’s a typo. Again I have no reason to dispute what he describes and his experience.
The groom featured in the Eurodressage article has been a personal friend of mine for 24+ years, ever since she worked for a well known west coast trainer and my horse was in training at that barn. She treated all the horses with compassion and gentleness without exception. The horses always came first, day and night. The owners loved her, the trainer would have been lost without her, and her family thought she spent too much time at the barn. To this day, she is the only groom I would ever hire if I needed one. I trust her implicitly.
When she moved back east - at the invitation of a client in the barn who was following a job offer in New York and going into training with Parra - it was a huge loss for our barn.
Since that time many years ago, I have often wondered how she dealt with the rumors about her new boss and how she could stay in that environment. We’ve never talked about it, as I knew somehow she had made a bargain with herself, that staying with the horses was better for them, than if she left them behind.
I hope this is the beginning of the end, that the horses all land safely, and she can find her way clear.
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She’s a friggin’ HERO.
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What is she a hero for? Sounds like she stood by for 20 years while he abused horses and said and did nothing.
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That is William’s owner. She was in shock seeing what CP had done. She was at another area of arena talking to some people and was not directly observing what he was doing and missed him changing the equipment on William.
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