Goodness.
Instead of harping and beating each other up through words, perhaps you all could come up with some legitimate and great ideas how to expose and prevent human and animal abuse, eh
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Iāve got a couple posters on ignore so I see nothing after my post above, but I came up with the governing orgs writing up basic rights for working student/interns by jurisdiction. I think it would honestly make it at least a little harder to do blatant stuff like holding passports.
3 main jurisdictions to cover; lots of lawyer/riders out here; seems like a good deliverable from the orgs people pay all these fees; would help visiting workers and the families of workers who go abroad to help support them in these situations.
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I have only been reading the last couple of posts superfluously, so my apologies if this has been posted before, but here is a letter of USEF President Thomas OāMara to members concerning Parra abuse case:
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Where are the insurance companies in this? Why arenāt they asking more questions about where high value horses are in training and refusing to insure horses under certain trainers? If you have X number of medication violations (hello h/j land!), or a serious case of injury/death due to training practices, your clientās horses canāt be insured. THAT gets the attention of owners who may be otherwise sweet talked by unscrupulous trainers. Insurance companies are free to investigate and make their own judgements outside of the USEF framework.
Iām sure there are many details in the above that can be nitpicked, but it seems like a place to start (and for insurance agencies other clients and the public to put pressure on these companies turning a blind eye).
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@Knights_Mom, some things just go WHOOSH over some peopleās heads. Some people are best put on your ignore list.
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I sent it to usdressage@usdf.org, a general email, and asked that it be forwarded to the exec board.
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And that is the problem - Itās not easy. There is no magic wand no matter how much we all wish there were. Itās not an āIf that happened to me, I would have done/would do blah blahā to magically fix the situation. There is no magic wand.
At least most people on this thread are attempting to look at all the moving parts and are trying to take them all into account to try to suss out what may or may not work to make our sport better and to ensure that not only can people be heard, but that changes are made for the betterment of both animals and humans being abused.
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It all seems a bit sad that in our sport, where we supposedly āloveā horses, so many people have not one bit of compassion for the animals. I donāt really know where we sent so wrong, but there are way too many individuals out there who look at the horse as just a means to an end. I think most of us can definately tell the difference between ātrainingā and āabuseā. If only the PTB at the USEF, USDF, stewards, techinal delegates would grow a set and take action when they witness abuse. You canāt tell me that there is nothing they could do upon witnessing abuse at shows. It is a sad state that our sport has come to and I hope the CP situation will be the catalyst for changes moving forward. If we donāt change, others will do it for us.
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Klieber and Sandbrink have now their statements.
Itās ā¦ I donāt have words for the bs those two have written in these statements. Itās such a shame, that they try to evade consequences for their behaviour.
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Money and greed entered the equation. By means of wealthy owners and greedy trainers, horses are made to suffer.
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Two very knowledgeable friends have been talking about this privately for a long time: not specific instances but the general trend. Their conclusion is that things went wrong when big money stepped in and TPTB saw equine performance as a revenue source. Then no matter what they said, preserving the revenue stream became the primary goal. Retaining their power was/is part of that. They havenāt been able to come up with a solution yet.
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Already there! The sun is finally out and Iāll be working on things I find productive and enriching. Iām working on some very excellent horsey things. 
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This is one of the things that horrify me.
- Buy high dollar horse
- insure
- horse breaks down / gets broken down
- whatever happens to get the insurance to approve euthanasia
- rinse and repeat.
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Not everywhere, but in some states.
https://www.animallaw.info/topic/table-veterinary-reporting-requirement-and-immunity-laws
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Questions:
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Sandbrink claims that Parra wasnāt even there - so then who is the man in the pink shirt who was whipping the horse from behind? An assistant who bears a remarkable resemblance to Parra (at least, from what can be seen in the video)? And if so, from whom did he learn that technique? And who gave him the apparent blessing to use those techniques at Parraās facility? And if the āwhipperā actually is Parra, why did Sandbrink lie about his presence on the scene? What compelled him to cover for Parra?
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Klieber doesnāt mention Parra at all other than to express outrage about his ādisturbingā and ādisgustingā training methods - which she claims she had no knowledge of until the recent revelations. Since she was asked for a statement regarding the specific instance in the video, why did she neglect to mention Parra? Was it because he truly wasnāt there, or was she (like Sandbrink) trying to cover for his involvement in the incident?
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The horse in the video (Fontenay) would be a seven-year old this year. How does a horse go from āUS national champion of four-year-old horsesā to unruly and unrideable the next year? Pain? Fear? Anger and resentment at unfair treatment? And where and how is he now? Is he still at Parraās facility, or has he been moved on down the road? Is he rideable? Has he gotten over the alleged ārearing and buckingā and āunrulyā behavior? Or is he broken physically and/or spiritually?
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Yes - but wouldnāt an ethical vet stop to think about why s/he was being repeatedly asked to euthanize horses at a particular training barn for the same types of breakdowns? Esp. if there were more than a couple of those instances each year, and year after year?
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Excellent, thanks. I am going to write something and also copy the USDF board.
But as we know they are people and as such some are subject to bribery and lining thier pockets with insurance proceeds. Not saying this ever happened in this case. Just saying if seen on Law and Order and such, they got the idea from actual cases.
Very good questions to ask. Itās in all honesty so ashaming for me to even share the nation with those two people. They lie and cover up Parra and donāt stand to their own actions. Nobody with at least 3 working brain cells is able to believe those bs they wrote.
- As you said, who is the man whipping, if it isnāt Parra?
- How was Sandbrink able to not notice the man in a PINK shirt before he stepped closer to the horse.
- How was he not able to notice the āpink manā whipping the horse for a whole minute and a half?
- Why DID Sandbrink even get close to the horse with his shorts and slippers, when he was expecting to only observe and not work the horse (hence the slippers etc.)?
- So why would he step as close to this ārearingā horse to be in danger?
- Why did several people film (at least two) the incident, when it wasnāt about learning somehting but was a āmishapā were the horse āsuddenlyā misbehaved?
- Why do you keep on filming, when you are afraid for the life of your husband, as Dr. Klieber said, she was?
- Why do you, as a german, comment your āsigh of reliefā in an foreign language and say something weird as āMust be an amazing feeling?ā, I assure you, this is absolute bs and nobody would do or say this as a sign of āThank God nothing happend!ā
- And why did nobody intervene, so the āpink manā would stop whipping, when they thought of it as wrong? Or at least would have noticed the autorithies after the incident?
I could go on with this for hours, cause every word, every sentence past the āWe were in NY on vacation and Parra messaged us to come to helpā is a straight lie and the most pathetic sh*'t Iāve seen in a long time!
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Fontenay was the 6 year old Young Horse Champion in 2023. The Eurodressage article previously posted includes an interview with the rider at the time, Sven Smienk. He mentions giving the horse some time off after the show, before moving to Wellington.
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