Save Polaris

[merrygoround]

OK You have a determined talented rider, with a very good horse. She’s guilty of poor prenatal planning, she wasn’t born into money, nor did she have the wisdom to marry money with a great pre-nuptial contract. She did initially have a great sponsor who was inconsiderate enough to pass away. So, not having a PhD in Business law, she signed another contract with a person who turned out to be fickle, unreliable or whatever.

Now she’s hoping John Q public will bail her out. And you are blaming her for trying. And busily raking up the coals to roast her.

This and a few other threads on these Forums make me wonder It used to be a place to come with questions and sharing problems, and getting help. Now it’s more like summoning the judge and jury.

[SnicklefritzG]

That is such a ridiculous statement.

She a hard working person, who maybe didn’t do things right the first time or the second time with contracts, but hopefully she learns from that and does better from this point on.

So how many people on this board have taken a horse from 5 yo all the way to finishing Rolex???
:lol:

@Equibrit

If you are suggesting that this rider is a young, irresponsible waster ? You are probably correct.

[SnicklefritzG]

You are exactly right. Much of the commentary on this board reminds me of people running around with pitchforks and torches.

@merrygoround

OK You have a determined talented rider, with a very good horse. She’s guilty of poor prenatal planning, she wasn’t born into money, nor did she have the wisdom to marry money with a great pre-nuptial contract. She did initially have a great sponsor who was inconsiderate enough to pass away. So, not having a PhD in Business law, she signed another contract with a person who turned out to be fickle, unreliable or whatever.

Now she’s hoping John Q public will bail her out. And you are blaming her for trying. And busily raking up the coals to roast her.

This and a few other threads on these Forums make me wonder It used to be a place to come with questions and sharing problems, and getting help. Now it’s more like summoning the judge and jury.

[seriously1]

I am not blaming her for trying. I just get tired of gofundme without any other apparent types of fundraising strategies. Including other fundraising as part of her posts (maybe they showed up later?), may make people more understanding. She is certainly not the only ULR not to come from money…

[Saskatoonian]

Of course I blame her for asking for handouts so that she can pay off the horse she couldn’t afford. Newsflash: there are ways to get money other than luck at birth, marriage, sponsorship and begging. A job, for example. I know, I know, what a horrible suggestion.

[merrygoround]

@Saskatoonian

Of course I blame her for asking for handouts so that she can pay off the horse she couldn’t afford. Newsflash: there are ways to get money other than luck at birth, marriage, sponsorship and begging. A job, for example. I know, I know, what a horrible suggestion.

I hate to break it to you dear, but riding at that level is a full time job, and then some.

[NorthernHunter]

@SnicklefritzG

That is such a ridiculous statement.

She a hard working person, who maybe didn’t do things right the first time or the second time with contracts, but hopefully she learns from that and does better from this point on.

So how many people on this board have taken a horse from 5 yo all the way to finishing Rolex???
:lol:

Not me! In fact I only got back into riding after going to school and working to pay off loans, cause I couldn’t afford it until I had a paying job. Horses are expensive, there are no shortage of Go Fund Me pages for people looking to have vet care paid for, their upper level horse (in this case), etc.

[Saskatoonian]

@merrygoround

I hate to break it to you dear, but riding at that level is a full time job, and then some.

Thanks for the laugh. I didn’t think I needed to clarify that it should be a job of the money IN variety, not money OUT.

[kcmel]

@Equibrit

If you are suggesting that this rider is a young, irresponsible waster ? You are probably correct.

This is very unkind. There is plenty of information about Sara out there if you care to look. She’s the kind of person that you like instantly upon meeting her. She’s honest and cares a great deal about her horses and clients. And anyone who could get me to training level (on a former Amish tour buggy horse no less) is a hell of a trainer!

It’s understandable that some people aren’t going to like someone starting a GoFundMe in this situation. It’s definitely a first world problem. But I don’t remember hearing all this negativity about Jonty.

[amb]

@merrygoround

I hate to break it to you dear, but riding at that level is a full time job, and then some.

Is it? It’s surely a lot of work, but I think of a job as something that pays the bills, and the upper-level riders I’ve known well enough to have some idea of how their business works all bust their asses teaching and training and moving horses in order to have the money to compete. Riding is only part of the job. (Personally I don’t have a problem with this, but opinions clearly vary. If I wanted big-money events and the toxic crap that comes with it I’d still be in Hunterland.)

[JER]

@SnicklefritzG

Much of the commentary on this board reminds me of people running around with pitchforks and torches.

Or, in my case, a violin.

[JER]

@kcmel

But I don’t remember hearing all this negativity about Jonty.

I was negative about Jonty.

(More skeptical than negative but I don’t see this GFM heart-horse approach as an appropriate one.)

[amb]

@JER

I was negative about Jonty.

(More skeptical than negative but I don’t see this GFM heart-horse approach as an appropriate one.)

I haven’t actually read the GFM page, but in general getting somebody else to pay for one to ride is a time-honored tradition. Sometimes it’s family, sometimes an NGB if you’re doing well, sometimes it’s benevolent owners; in this modern world why not ask the world at large? People who want to can throw some money her way and they get to be involved. (Just like being in a syndicate except you don’t have to keep forking over every month!)

[fledermaus]

Seems like people are conflating some dissimilar situations. Individuals at the top levels of almost any sport must have sponsors of some kind. That is how the world is constructed. The number of people who are both skilled/dedicated enough to achieve at that level who also happen to be independently wealthy is extremely small! And that would be the only economic category that would be sufficient to compete in a very expensive sport at that level. So let us hear no more about how she should get a day job.

This is not a person who wants something for nothing, nobody gets where she is without the kind of dedication and sacrifice most of us can’t even imagine. So let’s not hear any more cracks about that either.

The chances of someone with such an unusual level of talent also having the talent of being able to tie extremely wealthy people to ironclad contracts they and their lawyers cannot get out of, also seem pretty slim.

Athletes like her are really at the mercy of their sponsors and horse owners. If those people back out, there is not a lot of recourse for a person who only has the talent, not the money bag. So I do feel for her, though I know nothing about her at all. No one has said she is difficult to work with or in any way deserves what has happened.

[Hilary]

I guess I feel that this young woman had a fantastic run of good fortune/right place/right time/right horse/right sponsor. Now its over and she has to find another way to make it in the world. Hopefully she truly recognizes/understands what a privilege it was to be in that situation.

Having it happen so early in her career afforded her the opportunity to make it to Rolex before she was 35.

No one can take that achievement away from her so if she wants a horse career, she’s in a great spot to start. She just might not be able to have it all and continue to compete at the top level for a while.

If GoFundMe helps her pay off even on one loan, that’s fantastic and I hope the donors are profusely thanked. What I disliked about the campaign was that it was “save” Larry. Larry wasn’t in danger. A soccer team in Thailand needs “saving”.

[JER]

@fledermaus

This is not a person who wants something for nothing, nobody gets where she is without the kind of dedication and sacrifice most of us can’t even imagine.

You can stop there with the insults, fledermaus.

You are very, very wrong.

Most of us on this board have gotten where we are - in the horse world and in life in general - with all kinds of dedication and sacrifice.

Not only can we imagine it, we’ve been there too.

And even if you don’t want to acknowledge it, this Sara person does want something for nothing. She wants people to give money to her to buy a horse. This is not a syndicate or an ownership proposition. It’s a GoFundMe. As in donations. You give money, you get nothing in return. She gets - hopefully, in her thinking - a horse.

[SnicklefritzG]

I’ve met her and think she is nice and a good trainer. I would have gone to her barn except I moved and it would be much too far of a drive.

I feel bad for the number of people who have the talent to bring horses up the levels, but not the money to keep them.

@fledermaus

Seems like people are conflating some dissimilar situations. Individuals at the top levels of almost any sport must have sponsors of some kind. That is how the world is constructed. The number of people who are both skilled/dedicated enough to achieve at that level who also happen to be independently wealthy is extremely small! And that would be the only economic category that would be sufficient to compete in a very expensive sport at that level. So let us hear no more about how she should get a day job.

This is not a person who wants something for nothing, nobody gets where she is without the kind of dedication and sacrifice most of us can’t even imagine. So let’s not hear any more cracks about that either.

The chances of someone with such an unusual level of talent also having the talent of being able to tie extremely wealthy people to ironclad contracts they and their lawyers cannot get out of, also seem pretty slim.

Athletes like her are really at the mercy of their sponsors and horse owners. If those people back out, there is not a lot of recourse for a person who only has the talent, not the money bag. So I do feel for her, though I know nothing about her at all. No one has said she is difficult to work with or in any way deserves what has happened.

[retreadeventer]

@merrygoround

OK You have a determined talented rider, with a very good horse. She’s guilty of poor prenatal planning, she wasn’t born into money, nor did she have the wisdom to marry money with a great pre-nuptial contract. She did initially have a great sponsor who was inconsiderate enough to pass away. So, not having a PhD in Business law, she signed another contract with a person who turned out to be fickle, unreliable or whatever.

Now she’s hoping John Q public will bail her out. And you are blaming her for trying. And busily raking up the coals to roast her.

This and a few other threads on these Forums make me wonder It used to be a place to come with questions and sharing problems, and getting help. Now it’s more like summoning the judge and jury.

This exactly. With you, Merry. We used to be a family. Now a couple of Bully Pulpit-ers get the floor and get to judge everyone especially those who get disgusted with the negativity and DARE to disagree.

[Edre]

My biggest issue with this is the emotional narration behind the account (“Save Larry!!” in the title of the GFM does not really make me respond warmly, when it’s clear the horse isn’t in need of ‘saving’ rather, her ride on him is in question).

That said, I think this is one of the situations where I’m less opposed to seeing a GFM. She clearly had an agreement that was working with her original sponsor. Unfortunately, she passed on. In that emotional (and no doubt, also concerning time for the rider - wondering about if she would be able to secure her ride on the horse or not?) time she jumped at what seemed to be a solution. Clearly, as indicated now, it wasn’t.

The why isn’t something I’m sure on - was the new sponsor expecting things that were unreasonable? Did the rider over-promise? Did they just misunderstand each other? Who knows. It doesn’t seem like the public has been made privy to those details.

That said, the rider arranged for loans on her own time to immediately address the issue. Technically she’s not looking for funds to buy the horse, but pay back those loans. Again, it sounds like she might have leapt at an immediate (short term) solution when the problem arose.

Hopefully she’ll learn from this event and going forward, will work on creating a set of contracts and hash those business decisions out more securely. There’s a bunch of lessons to learn.

But from all accounts (and I don’t know her personally but know of people who have worked with her) she’s a hard-working, solid rider (and personally I’m inclined to think well of her given her willingness to work things through with a horse that to all accounts can be a challenging ride in dressage) who puts in the effort and the hours.

((Not directly related to this situation, but it’s annoying to me as a rider when we have independently wealthy professionals or professionals who are well heeled with great sponsors, who have one horse after the other who are absolutely lovely but the rider themselves is unsupportable - Marilyn Little is a great example of this. And then on the flip side, we have riders that seem to be precariously positioned in terms of sponsors and finances, even if their horsemanship and riding is good. I don’t advocate GFM as a solution to this disparity, for what it’s worth, but I can’t blame someone in Sara’s situation for trying.))

[kcmel]

@Edre

My biggest issue with this is the emotional narration behind the account (“Save Larry!!” in the title of the GFM does not really make me respond warmly, when it’s clear the horse isn’t in need of ‘saving’ rather, her ride on him is in question).

I would agree with this. It could have been written better.