Especially since yet another “prominent” hunter professional (and former student of Jimmy Williams) is now on the Safe Sport interim suspension list.
Rob Gage. Interesting.
I think it’s interesting that some of the names that were removed from the US Equestrian SafeSport list are still listed on the master SafeSport list with “Interim measure- Restriction.”
https://safesport.org/userviolations/search
You can do a search by equestrian and you will see some names on the US Center for SafeSport list that are not on the US Equestrian list. Very interesting.
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Huh. So does that mean they can attend a horse show, but not volunteer at the local youth hockey league or whatever?
Without weighing in on the “is this flawed in some way and/or an outrage and/or whatever” question, does anyone have any insight on how the requirement that the horse’s OWNER be SafeSport certified will affect lease horses? I lease from someone who is not an active USEF member, so I always have to pay for a show pass because her membership isn’t active (which is a pain, but whatever), but it appears from this paragraph in the FAQ e-mail like I’m not eligible to show the horse if she hasn’t done the training. Earlier in the FAQ, it says that if you don’t complete the required training, you’re on the Safe Sport Ineligibility list. Then it says:
“If the owner of my horse has not taken the Safe Sporttraining, is the horse ineligible to compete?
Horses entered under owners who are on the Safe Sport Ineligibility List are ineligible to compete at USEF-sanctioned competitions.”
If the owner of the horse is not a USEF member, does that still apply to her? Am I responsible for actively ensuring that the college student who owns the horse I lease completes the training or else I’m ineligible to do rated shows?
I’d love to hear if anyone has asked USEF and/or has thoughts on how this part of the requirement will be implemented. It’s not an insurmountable obstacle to make happen, but given the number of horses that are leased out because their owners are not actively involved in equestrian sport at the moment, it seems like a challenging one…
File the lease with the USEF and it doesn’t matter if the owner is current on their membership.
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I thought that was true, but apparently it isn’t — we recorded our lease with USEF months ago and the last five shows we’ve gone to have charged us a non-member fee because the registered owner is a non-member…
Yes, I understand.
Wow - No need to be rude.
My point is that there are a whole lot of folks that are on the showgrounds that are not required to take the SS testing and somehow there is a giant hole in the system.
I have no issue taking it, and have done so for the last 4 years as a Licensed Official.
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You need to follow up with USEF. Something is wrong with the lease registration. Be sure all the t’s are crossed and i’s dotted according to below.
GR1108 Lease Registration
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The Federation encourages all lessors of horses competing in Federation competitions to register the lease with the Federation. A recorded horse must be shown under a lessee’s ownership provided an official lease is registered with the Federation.
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For points to count with respect to any recorded horse at a Federation competition, such agreement or lease registration form (provided by the Federation) and fees must be received by the Federation office on or before the first day of such competition. The lessee becomes the bona fide owner of the horse for the period of the lease (except for Owner classes) for Federation award purposes. The horse must be entered in the ownership of the lessee and must be shown in accordance with GR1110.
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To be official, a certified copy of a lease agreement or a lease registration form must be submitted and registered with the Federation and must be accompanied by the required fee. The Horse Lease Form which lists the fee can be found at www.usef.org. Either document must contain a start and end date and be signed by the lessee and the lessor. If a lease is not renewed within 30 days of its expiration, a later renewal will require an additional fee. The lease registration with the Federation will then be effective the day the renewal is received by our office.
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A written statement of termination must be submitted signed by the lessee and the lessor if the lease is terminated before the end date stated in the lease registration form.
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The Federation does not accept agent signatures.
Definitely give USEF a call. When we leased a pony there were some issues with our lease filing at first. They were very helpful when I called and got everything straightened out quickly. It was a similar situation since the owner was in college and her membership was inactive.
Interim measures mean there has not yet been a full hearing. See page 2: https://www.usef.org/forms-pubs/q8jxScBcCTs/safe-sport-frequently-asked-questions
So basically, you can request a stay of suspension via an interim measure. You will see some interesting names on the list that are no longer on the US Equestrian page, but on the SafeSport page they have “Interim measure - restrictions.”
SafeSport Practices and Procedure - read the sections on Interim measures:
This is on page 8
c. Interim measures and sanctions remain in effect pending arbitration All interim measures and sanctions imposed by the Office will be in effect until arbitration, if any, is final. However, the Responding Party may request
that the Director delay implementation of the sanctions until the arbitration is final. Whether to delay implementation of the sanctions
So basically, the US Equestrian list just tracks suspensions. It doesn’t track those whose suspension has a stay and is pending arbitration. So, it’s a bit misleading when a name is removed. It doesn’t mean they are completely cleared necessarily, it just means they are no longer currently suspended. This could explain why we receive emails when names are added but don’t get notification when names are removed.
I would always defer to the SafeSport list and search by equestrian. It tells the current actual status, which UE Equestrian does not.
I haven’t been getting those emails lately, in either case. I don’t know if that’s true for everyone, or if it’s just me.
I recently discovered that some USEF emails go to my spam email inbox and some don’t. With seemingly no rhyme or reason?
Sometimes people post about an email on here and I haven’t gotten it yet, and then later I check and it’s finally in my inbox. The last one I got was July 24th where they lifted a suspension. From an email they sent July 26th, it looks like they stopped sending the one-off emails and now include the suspensions in their weekly newsletter. @MHM, this might be why you haven’t been getting those emails lately. Here’s the except from the July 26th notification:
“US Equestrian will feature a special Safe Sport section in the Equestrian Weekly member newsletter with a link to the current banned and temporary suspension list, as well as important Safe Sport news and updates. US Equestrian will consider broader communication to press and members when deemed appropriate to ensure enforcement and awareness to effectively implement a ban including removing their name from past accolades and preventing future recognition.”
Yes, I think that’s what happened. It was just a pretty abrubt change from the previous approach. I wonder if they got a lot of pushback about emailing out the names, which I believe are not included in the weekly newsletter. Now they’ve added the step where you have to go to the suspension list to look for the names.
Today’s email from USEF, with a general overview of the Safe Sport program. One thing that looks new to me is an effort to include parents of juniors a little more, by contacting them and offering them a free fan membership so they can take the Safe Sport course online.
They have yet to address all the other people that make up the horse show day that are unlikely USEF members.
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That’s going to take a lot of doing on everyone’s part - perhaps some trainers will require it (and pay for it) of their employees on their own. I know that would certainly make me happy if I were a parent. It would say they care.
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We would need the training in Spanish for many of the grooms. Not all of them speak English and I know of many that aren’t literate.
I just completed the training this week and wanted to chime back in to say that I found it both easy and informative. It seems like the big challenge here will be getting the word out. I encourage skeptical people to give it a try.
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