I may have ridden that horse; what was its name? She sometimes had nice quality horses come through, and would use them for lessons with the better riders until she sold them. I remember a really nice pale palomino mare come through, and an appy gelding. These horses were both tall, 17-ish hands, and looked like TBs with color added.
And then there was Jingles, a cute, young red dun pony she got for $300 IIRC, because he was so spoiled. A lot of kids fell off that pony, including me, because he had a naughty habit of ducking out at the last minute before a jump, sometimes scraping off the rider on the jump standards. But over time he turned out to be a quality pony that just needed to get ridden a lot, and have variety in his life, which Helen provided with a lot of trail lessons. I think she sold him as a hunter pony for $8000⊠Would have been around 1978 or 1979.
Her schooling shows were fun! I picked up my best placings on the aforementioned Jingles. I was in my teens, but small for my age, so we made a nice pair.
Helen was a character. I loved her, but she was pretty spicy. The best thing about her program was all the trail rides - we went everywhere, and there were little jumps on the trails. She was a foxhunter and wanted kids who could get themselves out of trouble out there. I think she died about 10 years ago.
Mine was a light palomino mare named Angel! She had a liver spot on her left thigh. Angelic to jump but she had a bit of a buck. She would have been mid-teens. Always wondered what happened to her.
That was her! I loved her and she never bucked with me. I think she got sold on fairly quickly. I recall her being tall, maybe 16.2? I was a peanut ar the time so I usually rode the ponies.
Thatâs crazy. Hopefully she had a decent life afterwards. Only horse I ever sold. I initially leased her for a year to a family who rode with Helen. Helen offered to buy her and I was kind of desperate. My mom didnât get along with her at all. A year later they moved to PV and she kind of wanted her then bc there was a group of women who jumped.
I got her in 1968 or 1969. She came from Tucson AZ. She taught me to jump and to ride a buck. Somewhere along the line someone had taught her to single foot. She had some pretty decent dressage training as well. I showed her locally and LA County shows with a very occasional bigger show. Hunters, jumpers, eq. I think she was 16.1 but pretty big bodied. Never knew her breeding.
Oh wow. I can think of any number of trainer-barns where this was standard operating procedure. The one or two or three young barn rats whose parents were rarely seen were elevated to the primary riders. The go-toâs for any ride but especially the nicer horses.
They said he targeted girls whose parents rarely attended practices or shows and assigned them his best horses to improve their chances of winning, and to secure their loyalty.
Among other things, I remember that trainers showing nice horses to potential buyers would put these girls up to show how well the horses went. On the horses the girls were silent, no opinions expressed, and rode however the trainer asked, did whatever the trainer asked. They were almost extensions of the trainer.
âThe whole time it was happening I never told anybody,â Thornton said by telephone. âI became the star. I got to ride the clientsâ horses. My parents attended a few shows, but eventually they were never there. The other girls that were his victims were also a little bit estranged from their families.â
Back in the day I just thought they were good riders and envied them their barn time and riding skill. It didnât occur to me that there was a trade-off.
The article is worth reading â it gets much worse, if that is even possible.
âThey were nice kids, but itâs not what you think. Itâs not what everybody thinks,â Lipari said. âDo you know how hard it is to say no when they come on so strong? I never messed around with anybody that did not come on to me.â
The trainer said although the sex was consensual, he now understands it may have been inappropriate.
âLooking back, you might be right,â said Lipari, suffering from late-stage pancreatic cancer and under hospice care at a Riverside medical facility.
He died Friday morning. [2018]
I wonder if he would have been as forthcoming if he hadnât been in late-stage cancer. Under hospice care he knew he didnât have long.
The underage girls âcoming onâ to him may have been what he convinced himself was happening. In that day & age so many people were bought into the âLolitaâ stereotype â as they interpreted it back then, putting the blame on Lolita (a book Iâm sure most never read).
âHowever, the idyllic setting contained a dirty secret,â the women wrote. âJohn Lipari was a sexual predator.â
It sounds like the only good thing that guy ever did was admit his actions right before he died. Although even then, he shirked his responsibility for his behavior.
As I recall, on his memorial page (it may still be online somewhere) I think there were only a few people who posted something. All were pleasant memories from women, about the joys of riding with John when they were young.
Iâm guessing it was like most of the other barns with predatory trainers: There were minors that were groomed, gone after, manipulated and assaulted⊠and those who were strictly hands off for one reason or another. And of course itâs always the girlsâ fault, because they flirt or âcome on so strong.â Give me a break. Whoâs the adult?
I keep thinking equestrian professionals will catch on and curb their behavior. Yet it just keeps happening.
I agree, and Iâm even more hopeful that parents will catch on and stop sending kids to these trainers.
The rate of recidivism among sex offenders is very high. While Iâd love to see these people curb their behavior, if parents arenât helping by removing the trainersâ access to children, then how will this get better?
Why arenât parents avoiding even the above-mentioned trainers? Are we putting a higher value on the trainers and on riding than on our kidsâ health? What message are we sending to kids by continuing to support these barns? And, is safe sport doing enough to educate parents of minors?
Itâs too late on Sunday for me to be posting anything in public ⊠but heavy into the wine glass after the Dallas Cowboys tanked the playoff game to the 49ers. Good thing I donât keep hard liquor in the house. Oh wait, I do ⊠Anyway âŠ
The charm thing is real with polished, long-term predators. These guys (and gals) donât just groom the girls, they groom the moms to enjoy hanging out with the cool people at the barn and the shows. The trainer is funny and sophisticated about horses and people. It is shocking to realize how predators can have big interesting personalities that create an entire atmosphere that is comforting and amusing.
And some are very good riders, and/or very good riding teachers. People can be more than one thing and itâs possible to understand people and horses while still being a predator. In fact itâs the path to the hunting grounds.
There is always something fun and interesting going on at the barn and for the adults itâs a break from the rest of real life. The trainer does all of the thinking, planning and deciding, so the adults can just cruise along with this cool vibe without much effort. Itâs like your favorite alcoholic beverage. Especially the ones with sprigs and umbrellas. I think.
I think there are adults who would rather be willfully blind to the truth than give up these halcyon days at the barn and the shows. If with their life experience they still donât see it, donât know, itâs because they donât want to know.
The parents and other adults who are more alert and more supervisory over their own kids are kept to another group, another section of the trainerâs business. Their girls arenât the âspecialâ ones. Minding their own business makes them unaware as well.
Thatâs how I think they do it. Just based on observation.
I do not understand why a sex offender (a pedophile) is allowed to work with or be around children or teenagers in the firsty place. Why isnât that part of the terms of his release? Itâs like letting an animal abuser work in a shelter.
Thatâs the thing that bugs me most. Because parents are obviously too damn stupid or lazy to care. With the internet itâs so easy to check out a person or business.
Hell, George Mason University made him a professor until someone pointed out they had a pedophile on staff. They got rid of him real fast after that but why wasnât he properly vetted beforehand?
This infuriated me. They also had their riding team based at River Chase for awhile until people spoke up.
All of that happened while his name was still on the local sex offender registry. George Mason deserves every single bit of public shaming they have received for this EGREGIOUS lack of oversight.
I am so sorry. That sounds like an incredibly stressful situation.
If the person isnât yet banned by SafeSport, I doubt USEF will penalize the folks who hired him in any way. The most powerful thing people can do in a situation like this is share information with other clients - especially folks who have kids. And make arrangements to move somewhere safer.
So is this person unregistered in your state? So they should be registered, but are not? That could be fixed with an anonymous call to your local law enforcement. Or has their time to be registered as an offender expired?
Of course regardless, allowing someone with that history to be in close proximity to minors and other vulnerable, potential victims in a close, quiet setting is asking for trouble.
I am not saying what is happening here is OK, but I think it is fair to say that most people do not pay for a background check on their underpaid manual laborers.
I did not get my quote in before you removed a bunch of stuffâŠ
You are allowed to be mad, but donât take it out on me. I was just stating a fact. I did not say it was the right way to do things. I was just stating a fact.
I have cleaned many stalls in my life and not once has anyone run a background check on me.
Indeed oops on the alter. First time I have had one and I screw it up! Could you delete your posts that quote my regular user name or edit them so it doesnât show? Iâm trying to keep this completely anonymous for reasons Iâm not willing to share as they are not mine.
