Omg how awful.
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Yes it was awful. I did as much as I could to warn the parents.
I live in Fl. so my opinion was ignored in spite of sending newspaper clippings of the BOâs
conviction of molesting a minor child.
There were so many red flags early on to me but these parents
were all new to the horse world.
This guy also made an effort to get on the good side of parents
and grandparent.
These creeps should be run outta town. Donât give up.
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Article of interest;
It is worth remembering that USEF has absolutely no interest in characterizing their sport as a haven for sexual predators.
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Unfortunately itâs not just horses. If youâre a fisherman you go where the fish are.
Same with pedophiles
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wait the sex offender has pictures of children as his cover photo on Facebook? Holy moly
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Children proudly holding up ribbons after attending a local horse show. If you go to the River Chase Farm page, you will see that photo proudly posted back on September 17, 2023. They name the farm where the show was held.
The show they went to was a VHSA associate jumper show. Itâs not hard to find the info given the public information on River Chaseâs FacebookâŠ
One could conclude that by making THAT photo his cover page photo⊠heâs almost flouting the fact that he got around his SafeSport ban by attending that show and taking all those minor studentsâŠ
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Hiding in plain sight, straight out of the child predator play book.
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Wouldnât this also apply to SW and the other USEF member trainers at Wulfcrest?
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Definitely. I know SW is a USEF member. Not sure if anyone else at Wulf Crest is though. She was a lifetime member back when she worked DIRECTLY for Tom before Wulf Crest was created. The issue was discussed on these forums.
USEF did not sanction her though, that I know of.
Maybe VHSA will do something about it this time. Because this whole situation is ridiculous.
There is a man who teaches there (WC) that is a USEF member. Not sure if he is a freelance trainer that just goes there for lessons or if heâs employed by them.
Alfredo Gonzalez is listed on the WC website as their farm manager and trainer.
Rick Eckhardt used to work for Tom as a coach at River Chase. I think he was a US Team member a long time ago and a licensed judge. I didnât see USEF do anything in terms of sanctioning him either though.
Bruce Leland?
I know he teaches, but wasnât sure if member or not.
I mean itâs a beautiful facility to work out of.
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He is a usef member
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You can send a PM to anyone even if their profile is private (unless they have you on ignore.)
Go to your mail box. Choose ânew messageâ and type in their screen name in the place that says âadd a userâ.
My profile is private because years ago some weird dude was following me around in real time on the forums and sending me creepy PMs. I posted on the thread the PMs he was sending me and then blocked him and made my profile private so he couldnât follow me around in real time.
You can also see the posts of people who have their profiles private, you just canât follow them around in real time. Just type their screen name in the search box for that forum and their posts will come up.
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I checked the Loudoun County court cases.
Tom has court this week. I looked into the name of the person who is suing him. Former boarder. Any idea how to find out what its for?
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Thatâs interesting.
Iâm befuddled as to why anyone would allow this guy to rent their multimillion dollar property to run his horse boarding and lesson business. How does he even have appropriate professional insurance with his criminal record?
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Not sure, but he and two co-defendants are suing SafeSport as of May 2024. Another SafeSport sanctioned individual, Derek Strine (Barnstaple South LLC in FL) is also suing SafeSport.
Edited to include links:
https://dockets.justia.com/docket/virginia/vawdce/3:2024cv00030/131494
This is it. Sports that attract children, that the children are keen to be involved with (not just mostly pushed by parents), are good fishing holes.
Naive parents are easily made happy by a fun coach / program overseer. A big personality who is good with the kids. Yay. He/she is fun to be around, how could someone so nice be a problem?
Little Jimmy or Sally is occupied for one or a few precious hours and the parent(s) can have that time for themselves. The kids are eager for it, not complaining as they do about other lessons and school activities. So away they go to the program.
Where there are barns and stalls and equipment sheds and hidden corners, maybe a residence on the property, all kinds of opportunities to âbecome closerâ with the chosen targets.
I wonder if there are any conditional probation situations that might help with some of these cases.
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It is amazing to me, but I do think the big personality, great with kids, gaslighting situation is one reason why it is so hard to get these people out of a sport, and keep them out.
I donât know why, but people can be naive and reluctant to believe that âsuch a nice personâ is actually a very bad person. All of the awareness-raising and even the training, and yet many people donât seem to absorb it.
The predators can be great salespeople who attract newbies who donât know. Some social scientists even say that people tend to be willing to follow the loudest, most calmly assertive person in the room, and these sorts of predators know how to fill that role.
There was a business guy arrested locally on 14 counts of child predator activity that I mentioned in another thread, months ago. It was a shock.
He was not just the nicest guy. He was always on board to help others, support new businesses that would have perished without his help. He did more volunteering, donating, offering leadership in church and school organizations â tons of time-consuming community service and charity stuff other people think about doing, but have difficulty fitting into a busy schedule. This guy found time, made time.
He was actually arrested here for crimes in a far away state, where he formerly lived. It became clear that he relocated here in hopes that he would be out-of-sight, out-of-mind, back where he did bad things. Not so much, though, his victims and their families were seriously angry and vengeful. It didnât help that he made a trip back to visit family, and for some insane reason he did it again in the familiar surroundings.
Out of stunned curiousity, I searched for legal records and found some details on his actions that I wonât go into here. Suffice it to say that it wasnât a soft approach to his victims. They were terrified of him and what he might do next. They felt trapped in situations that would have been severely traumatizing for any child â or adult.
But just knowing him as an acquaintance here locally, and knowing a number of people who worked with him, no one here had a clue as to what he was really like with children. Just that he was one of the better community members that could be counted on. And great fun at a party. He positioned himself very well in the community to be believed and likely given every benefit of the doubt.
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