General comment.
If you take SS training, do you end up by signing off something like “I fully understand the rules and agree to abide by them?”
In that case the assistant trainer may be delaying that so she can plead ignorance of how she’s meant to deal with TN.
SS only has jurisdiction over actual USEF events. It’s great if non USEF shows adopt the SS rules re: banned members, but there does not seem to be an easy way to monitor participants at that level.
Safe sport also has jurisdiction over usef members. USEF members cannot do business or work with or promote etc safe sport banned members.
So this is where the whole schooling show series, or affiliated show series situations get tricky. If the owner or manager of the farm hosting these series is a USEF member… and a banned individual shows up and either enters the show themself, or coaches students who are entered…
Then essentially the USEF member (who is the owner or manager of the farm hosting the show) actually IS doing business with a banned person, to a certain extent.
I understand I’m getting deep into the weeds on this issue… but it’s important for anyone managing or hosting a schooling show series to think about this, so that neglecting to monitor and screen participants in a basic way doesn’t come back to bite them.
If the farm owner/manager or show manager isn’t a USEF member, I guess they are free to welcome people banned by SafeSport to their schooling or affiliated shows, should they wish too. But… it’s a bad look, that’s for sure.
RCF is using their “Best of Loudoun” status in their advertising. I expect that whomever is responsible for that list will retract it in as public a manner as possible, before some parent sues them.
I wish they would too. However… they haven’t even replied to the email alerting them to the situation. 
Wow. If I were a parent I would be irate that they are promoting a convicted child molester’s business. If they don’t know about his past and his lifetime ban, they should. No excuse for promoting Tom Navarro’s business either way.
Frankly… that promotion IS effective amongst non-horsy parents who live locally, who have a kid who wants to start lessons. People in the area use those lists as a starting point just to figure out possible places to call to get their kiddo going.
I’m really disappointed with the Loudoun Times Mirror.
Oh, I’m sure it’s effective. Most parents wouldn’t expect the local paper to promote a Safe Sport banned sex offender’s business.
For a newspaper they are a little lax on the research end of journalism, aren’t they?
Loudoun Times Mirror, you say. Do they have a website or facebook thingy where you can contact them or post that they are endorsing a banned sex offender? I’m not a facebook member or I’d give it a go.
I wonder if the more public venue of facebook might get a better response than email.
It’s not really a journalism thing, it’s a separate part of the paper that deals with community fluff. There’s no real oversight of it or research done to vet anything on that side of the paper, it’s all ABC and 123 stuff.
Perhaps they’d better learn the entire alphabet before their incompetence lands the paper in court.
It doesn’t really get tricky, because it’s very simple to not do business with the likely handful of people in your area banned by safe sport.
But it probably is easy to pretend like you don’t know anything about that.
But if you are an active USEF member, you’ve taken your safe sport training, and you know that such a thing exists thus again just not that tricky.
But of course people are awful.
You generally speaking, in case the above was unclear
Believe it or not, there are lots and lots of people very active in the horse industry that have nothing to do with USEF and certainly are not considering SafeSport at all when they are doing business.
I’ve been very active in the Virginia horse industry for years and I had never heard of Tom Navarro before this thread.
I believe it, and that is a situation that needs a remedy. The Loudoun Times Mirror needs to stop contributing to Mr. Navarro being under the radar.
But as I’ve stated, if you are a USEF member, I think I’m being fairly clear on who I’m holding accountable to follow the rules of usef.
Mostly here we’re talking about people who are running show series and who are pretty active usef members.
People who are not USEF members are not bound by any of these considerations, regardless of whether we wish they would likewise follow the rules regarding associations and dealings with safe sport banned members
It would be nice if they at least bothered to respond politely to citizens who email them to alert them that they seem to have inadvertently promoted a young rider coaching business run by a person who has objectively been determined to be an unsafe coach for young riders. But sadly, they just ignored the email.
Oh well - when the best of Loudoun 2022 contests get rolling, maybe that will be a good time to email them again and say, “Hey! Do you guys seriously want to help promote this guy? Cause he’s banned by SafeSport for a conviction involving a sexual offense on a minor.”
Sure - there are lots of people involved with horses in a variety of ways who have nothing to do with competitions, or coaching kids.
But for folks who are involved with coaching kids, or going to competitions where there are young riders present doing short stirrup and pony divisions… at this point, they really should be generally aware of SafeSport, and other best practices to prevent the abuse of kids involved in sport.
There’s no reason why anyone would have heard about Tom Navarro before he landed at Riverchase about ten years ago. Based on the addresses tied to his name, he had been an under-the-radar nobody, moving from place to place, apparently working and living at/near barns and stables, likely where he’d be around children, based on the addresses. Then he somehow landed at Riverchase and we sort of know what happened after that. Apart from the fact that he was convicted of a sex crime, nobody seems to know much of anything about him from before he came here or even the circumstances of his crime.
I’m going to take this opportunity to share his bio from the RCF website. I’ve shared it before when his name has come up on these threads… because I find the disconnect between his bio, and the fact that no one in the horse community knows anything about his pre-River Chase history except for the fact that he’s a convicted sex offender… well… I find that telling.
Anyway, people can make of the bio what they will 
“Tom Navarro has 30+ years of experience in almost every aspect of horsemanship. He has started more than 300 horses under saddle, worked with top competitors on the Hunter-Jumper circuit, and manages a premier barn and business with exceptional care as the first priority. Tom has successfully trained and assisted horses and riders from beginners to Grand Prix Jumpers, from local schooling to AA and 5* competitions.
Tom emphasizes strong classic equitation with his passion for jumpers. Formerly, a professor at George Mason University for course PRLS 1120; Intro to Horsemanship, he now devotes most of his time trying to improve the local horse industry and return it back to that “Fun with Horses mentality.”
Tom’s goal for River Chase Farm is to promote a family-friendly atmosphere that establishes strong ties to the community, emphasizing the well-being of each horse and rider while continuing to train and compete top horses and riders at the national and international levels.”
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