On the view of the bigger picture I find myself caught here.
We do not, as an average majority of people, have the inclination to call out wrong behavior in public settings. If you don’t believe or agree with me, look to the TV show “What Would You Do?” with John Quinones.
Over and over in planted situations where people should stand up and say something, they do not. Until the random one person does. Or the situation presented crosses a line in someone’s proverbial sand. But the point I am making is that with HUMANS, who all speak and communicate better than horses, we do a terrible job standing up for our fellow man.
Now let’s moving this reality to the clinic situation that this video derives from, admittedly 2 years ago. It’s a time to train with a dual Olympic Gold Medalist and honestly one of the icons of our sport. I’m sure the star struck factor was at play with the riders and possibly extended connections as well
No human on the video is outwardly looking affronted. No one appears to be moving towards Mark to tell him off. And sure it’s a SHORT video from what I am positive was at least a 90 min - 2 hour clinic. But the reason the video was posted in the early comments back and forth with the video owner, was that one of their friends said it would be funny and should get a laugh. (Websters: new definition of “Backfire” 
)
The same LACK of motivation to be the person to stand up and say “Hey this is not ok” is as present here as on the Tv show. One of the other riders from this group has (NOW) come forward and said that they were not ok with this. But I mean…2 years later, in the heat of a viral media storm. Seems a bit like band wagoning. Even if she does mean what she says, the timing of her convictions coming to light is a bit rough for this onlooker.
I have been in the event world since 1984 and I have seen training methods done that have killed horses, injured horses and people and in general sucked a lot. None of them are particularly in use today, but how we train a sentient being has changed over the years. Lots of ways for the better, some not as much.
We now have outrage at poling and carpet nub rails. Back even 5 years I know I couldn’t count how many barns had the carpet nub rails as standard parts of their equipment. I know team riders now that have different types of rails with the same intent. Make the horse jump better if it dangles a leg. That’s important for any competition horse. But how you train that is still very diverse.
In the way we look to this video to help define our paths forward, we need to acknowledge the human and training failures of life. The advent of cell phone cameras will bring more things like this to light and with PETA and other associations out there, training a horse without some long held methods that skirt the definition of ‘abuse’ may have to get to the exit from our programs a bit faster.
It’s not about ignoring how we used to do it, but rather finding better ways to do it going forward. But lest you all think you know the only way, I promise you if you go to one unrecognized HT in Area 2 or one XC Schooling day anywhere popular, that will show you more people who are going to be doing it wrong forever. And here’s the kicker, the situation becomes that IF we are saying that Sir Mark Todd shouldn’t do this and we know better, then you have to be able to walk up to ACTUAL people you may or may not know and be ok telling them their way is wrong also. It’s one thing to jump on social media and scream indignance, it’s quite another to walk up to a current rider beating the crap out of a young horse to get it down a bank and telling them off.
That, is the part that will be the hardest to overcome, for the sake of the horses and just having a sport going forward.
This forum has outed PLENTY of eventers over the years for atrocious behavior and treatment of animals, and yet all those people still have barns, horses, students etc. Maybe we should work a bit harder on our landscape and ideals here first. It would be best if we could use this video as motivation to pay more attention to what happens this year in things we see with our own eye live, and not on the internet.
Em
