People Attempting to Undermine Safe Sport

[Virginia_Horse_Mom]

I agree. I took note that on the training tab of his website, there is an updated list of River Chase Farm instructors. He’s got QUITE a few folks working for him now, though other than Sarah Willson, I don’t know if any of the rest of them are USEF members…

Rick Eckhardt (he’s been associated with RCF for years

Sarah W. (This is Sarah Willson, but they curiously made a choice not to spell out her full last name on the website… perhaps because she’s a lifetime USEF member and thus bound by SafeSport code, and thus is engaging in prohibited conduct by working as an instructor for someone who is banned for life.

In all fairness, some of the names on that list appear to be pretty young, and perhaps they are only acting as RCF instructors during the summer camp season. But that doesn’t change the fact that they are indeed aiding and abetting this guy in terms of supporting his coaching business. If they are USEF members, or hope to have a professional future in the sport, they should probably reconsider this choice to work for Tom Navarro and RCF, as it’s pretty clearly not aligned with SafeSport code…

[oreo_mom]

Has anyone notified the police that TN is a sex offender and is around children? Or ?
Simple answers for this issue. If you care so much, do something .

[ChestnutMare1]

It’s slightly more nuanced than that. TN was previously on a sex offender list but is no longer. So he’s not breaking any laws. He is, however, on the SafeSport lifetime banned list, which means he’s banned from any participation of USEF activities and all that entails. In addition, any one who is a member of USEF is required to take SafeSport training and adhere to their policies, which includes the aiding and abetting clause that’s the purpose of this thread. Forthermore, the discussion here is focused on what CAN be done in this situation. Some actions have already taken place - see previous posts about the Beverly schooling shows.

[LexInVA]

TN’s offense in NY pre-dates the sex offender restrictions in VA by a nose hair, so he never had any restrictions governing his movements.

[ClassyJumper]

The farm has a Google page, I imagine leaving a review would be the best way to give a heads up to the uninformed and new to the sport.

[LexInVA]

None of those names ring any bells, except Toney. There is an older woman with ties to the area that goes by “Toney” who has used many different names and variations and gone around from place to place, claimed to have graduated from the old elite Morven Park school and ran a questionable - now defunct - kiddie mill barn in Mebane, NC, called The Equestrian Arts Institute. It was originally a community barn for a failed planned community development that was shut down and sold off. There were several older threads - long since gone in the maintenance and site migration over the years - about what was going on there and some clearly questionable behavior by those people in how they were doing things and trying to acquire horses. According to current information, she has apparently since migrated back to the rural Horse Country part of Virginia and uses the last name “Massters”, as she had other names in the past, though her legal name is something else.

About

Equestrian Arts Institute, In Mebane, NC, anyone heard of?

I’m not that active here anymore, but wanted to post here because I figured I might get more response from a larger forum I got an email from the program director at this place called the Equestrian Arts Institute (http://www.equestrianartsinstitute.com/) about being interested in leasing my horse, Clyde, today. From what she describes, it sounds like a great program, but I want to see if anyone here had heard anything about it? It’s 4 1/2hrs. from where I live, and I don’t thin…

[Virginia_Horse_Mom]

AGAIN… nice research!

That thread was interesting reading. Very odd. The Amy person seemed to be the one bringing a whole lot of crazy to the table. It definitely seems like the Toney Massters person currently at RCF is the same woman that was behind the Equestrian Arts Institute place in NC. Here is the bio for her that RCF has up on their website…

“Toney has trained and competed up to the Grand Prix jumper level. She is ready and able to train those from the beginner levels to the advanced jumpers, boosting confidence and conditioning skills along the way.”

Huh. Odd that there is no mention of her being a graduate of Morven Park this time, and a focus on Grand Prix jumping instead … just like Tom’s bio. Odd that no one could dig up competition history on her ten years ago, and now she is at River Chase, and they are making claims that she competed at the ‘Grand Prix jumper level’ … whatever that means.

Her old bio from the EAI site, for comparison sake, mentions she competed through Intermediate as an eventer, and Prix St. George in Dressage. No mention of Grand Prix jumping.

I guess the place in NC is no longer operational, and somehow Toney ended up connecting with Tom Navarro and is now an instructor at River Chase?

[Virginia_Horse_Mom]

A purely tangentially related note…

The Amy from this EAI story is on Facebook, and within the last few months has been posting ISO ads regarding lease horses for lesson students.

I tried to link to the earlier discussions @LexInVA mentioned on the discussion thread linked… but darn it… the links are broken now.

[Virginia_Horse_Mom]

@ClassyJumper

The farm has a Google page, I imagine leaving a review would be the best way to give a heads up to the uninformed and new to the sport.

Fair point. But they exhibit the same issue as many other businesses when it comes to Google reviews… there are clearly a few honest ones that point to the issues we are discussing on this thread, and then there are a BUNCH from known friends and even Tom’s own employees. The strategy is to boost their average rating…

But there are multiple reviews talking about his SafeSport ban, and the poor care of horses and maintenance issues…

[LexInVA]

Amy got slapped hard a few times after being called out and disappeared for a while, only to resurface after she thought people forgot who she was.

As for Toney, EAI bombed in 2016 cause the property was being sold and she came back up I-95 to latch onto the on-site therapeutic riding program at Frying Pan Park. I don’t think that lasted long, cause she doesn’t seem to be mentioned in anything past 2016 and she strangely isn’t in any of the photos from that time or any after, from what I can see. In fact, it’s next to impossible to find a photo of her and what little there is, is small and from a distance. She definitely keeps a low profile and doesn’t want to be seen, even when she’s front and center. I couldn’t say how she hooked up with TN, but it may have been through that program, if he was volunteering there or hanging around the place when she was around.

[LexInVA]

The problem with the bad reviews is that none of them explicitly state that he’s a convicted sex offender, who sodomized a child. If you don’t outright say it in the text, nobody realizes what the heck they are reading, with terms like Safesport not being familiar to them, making them skim the reviews and only retaining the generally positive stuff that is fluffed in those write-ups.

[2bayboys]

Ding ding ding! The average person does NOT know what safesport is and has no idea what a violation means.

[ChestnutMare1]

The RCF public lesson calendar indicates students went to a show this afternoon. I assume they went to the Red Gate summer afternoon schooling show.

[LexInVA]

Juan Gamboa DVM has been added to the Safesport banned list for sexual misconduct involving a minor. He is a competitive rider and veterinarian who had a practice in Aiken, SC and later, Wellington FL. Several years ago, he was charged with molesting two boys in Aiken and another in Mississippi and acquitted twice on those charges, so I’m not sure what this particular ban is directly related to. Before that, he was the subject of an ethics complaint from several veterinarians who argued that he improperly distributes prescription drugs and offers illicit (USEF Drug Rules) supplements for competition purposes.

[oreo_mom]

Another witch hunt. You said the key word—ACQUITTED.

[Ghazzu]

I’d toss his ass for life just for the bathtub pharmaceuticals.

[Virginia_Horse_Mom]

Hmmmm - it says sexual misconduct with a minor. The standard of proof is different in terms of SafeSport vs. a criminal conviction. Maybe it’s about the same complaints, but there was enough evidence to uphold a SafeSport ban?

So… here’s a new question. His vet practice is Gamboa Veterinary Services. Is it a violation of SafeSport for USEF members to use him as a vet? I’m obviously at one end of the spectrum of opinion on SafeSport issues… but my vote is YES… that amounts to prohibited aiding and abetting.

[LexInVA]

I don’t think Safesport would see it that way, as he is providing his services to the horses and there’s no animal abuse charge, but they have the leeway to interpret things as they see fit and act accordingly. No information exists about whether or not the charges he faced before were related to his work as a veterinarian, because the case information in public records is minimal, but it is certainly possible and plausible that the incidents happened while he was on-site at someone’s farm, providing services.

[Mara]

@oreo_mom

Another witch hunt. You said the key word—ACQUITTED.

Nobody cares about anything you have to say on the topic of SafeSport.

[skydy]

Rich Fellers Ruled Ineligible By U.S. Center For SafeSport