I found the open coin sized open bloody wounds on top of numerous welt marks from whipping a huge concern.
When he says, âhold the two people accountable for their actions,â which two people is he referring to?
Parra and who else? And shouldnât there be multiple people held accountable - the asst trainer/working student/rider/client?
Now that we see the most agriegious abuse coming to light (abuse that was known about even), the question is how much more less agriegious abuse is going on? Is this abuse systemic? I think it IS systemic and results from a system that is rewarding the movement so heavily to the point where movement is being man made to win and make money, a system that encourages fast training and bought made horses. The next question should be, IS this what we want our sport to be? The system absolutely must be changed. The organizations who created this framework, who have directives that they blatently ignore in order to cause a spectacle to sell tickets, who pare down tests so that it fits better on TV without the thought of how that affects the horse and natural training, the organizers who created a system in which corruption is inherent, available and tantilizingâthey need to be held accountable and taken to task. No longer can they say that this is a social media-caused frenzy by armchair riders. One way to take them to task is to stop joining, entering, attending, etc. And that does hurt us both, however I have not yet heard any alternative. Obviously, what they really want to do is cover it up, not do better. Is it possible to vote out the leaders? It doesnât seem so. And obviously, this is not just the US, this is the whole sport.
Iâm guessing they are referring to a specific video? Just a guess.
Yes the abuse is systemic.
Oh I donât think I saw that one, just the one with the rider. If it had something that someone jerked that would be like the old timers used to use. But that was well known to produce poor timing and I canât imagine theyâd want that. I donât know, either way, not good.
Itâs this one
https://www.facebook.com/100064565907302/videos/942489840828947/
The other thing that is so sad to me is that these are beautiful horses that are trying so hard! Ugh!
You know, there are crappy people who do crappy things in every horse sport or activity. I think dressage people in general consider the welfare of the horse conscientiously so when these bad apples show up itâs a lot harder to take. And even going back into the 1980s (yes I am that much of an old fart) with the Arab halter scandals, itâs very disgusting how many people stand by and accept whatever abusive approaches are used.
I wish people and their organizations would get a spine for dogâs sake!
Omg! That is horrifying. Itâs a running W and they were bad juju when the old guys used them. That poor horse, who was obviously quite confused.
Thatâs what really gets me. The horses in those videos arenât misbehaving and they canât know what those people want from them, or why they are being punished so severely.
Itâs heartbreaking.
This is the facility he leased in Pittstown AFTER he sold his other facility in White House Station, NJ.
Dressage-News just posted an update. To think of all of the past failed attempts to bring justice and WTH Mariette Whithages your actions were awful and you are/were an FEI Judge - shame on you!
See
Oh the pile of S**T is getting bigger! Am I understanding that this FEI Judge watched him ride at his own farm and said "ok, you qualify for Olympics for Colombia??? How is this even allowed?? Heâs in Fla, FFS, and cant just go to CDI shows? Was he paying her off?
Quite frankly, the comments about treatment of staff and horses has eerie similarities to the Helgstrand situation, which hopefully will not get lost in the shuffle.
In fact in a couple videos the horse could take off out the round pen gate thatâs open⊠but doesnât.
Or turn butt to the guy holding the whip and lay into himâŠ
And the one vid of the cool out and the girl hugs the horse. Give me a break. If you love that horse donâr abuse it like you just did. Thatâs better than a sugar cube.
Horrifying
Daaaaaaang. Now letâs see some follow-through - how about Whitages loses her judging license? And then Parra is charged with animal cruelty? And the FEI and USDF take a LONG , HARD look at the tests and judging that got us into this giant storm and fed this monster?
Iâd heard rumors of the running W being used, and I hate to see it confirmed. What a bastardization of dressage training.
If PETA is paying attention, we have some trouble.
My only contribution based on personal knowledge â when I first moved to the Northeast, I used to pick up the freebie horse publications at the local tack shop â Equine Marketer and Horse of Delaware Valley. Cesar always ran ads as an FEI rider available for training and instruction. It somehow seemed âoffâ to me. Why did someone of that level need to run classifieds? Word of mouth a bit sketchy, perhaps?
I assumed he meant CP and Jen Mendecia.
On the video with the Running W type device: What in $%@#^ were they trying to do? It looked like the guy had one rope, so every time he jerked it, it pulled on both front legs. Why?
The only use I knew of for a similar contraption was to deliberately cause a horse to fall for a movie. Many died or were badly injured (Humans too). I could tell a trained fall in which the horse bends and falls to one side from the forced fall which was often rotational.
Of the offenses, the bungees were the least objectionable to me from an animal welfare viewpoint. But the others were horrific.
PETA is, indeed, paying attention and has at least one video. It came across my Facebook page. I did not go check out what is on their page. Would assume they have all the videos that have been out there by now.