I couldn’t really tell if you were talking about Karl, or Lillie or Jessica or Katie or or or…. seriously, none of these young kids at this level are buying their horses, and all of them have rich parents. Like I said, everyone loves to hate Karl. If this is truly your beef, you should be more mad about Lillie than anyone. She’s gone through way more top horses than Karl has. Katie Dinan too. They’re all spoiled when it comes to having mommy and daddy buy them the best horses in the world, but they all put in a lot of dedication and hard work, and they all have tons of talent too. And I think Katie is still going to school and has a real job on top of that so kudos to her.
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I haven’t seen Lillie or Katie putting out endless videos trying to make it sound like they can solve every problem in the horse world because they’re so much smarter than everyone else. Maybe I missed the videos from them.
I also have not seen them display poor horsemanship in the show ring when things did not go as planned.
The bottomless checkbook certainly helps when it comes to competing at the top level. Or any level, for that matter. It does not automatically make the person more qualified than anyone else.
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I didn’t see where the post I responded to mentioned social media. But there was a beef about mommy buying horses, and I doubt Lillie and Katie are buying their own horses without their mommies’ help, and both of them have indeed gone through many more top world winning horses than Karl has to date. Lillie’s social media is pretty eye-rolling in its own right with the weird modeling with horses poses but I don’t know what instagram has to do with how they ride.
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It has nothing to do with how they ride, but it might have something to do with how people think of them.
Ditto for the way they react when they have a less than perfect round in the ring.
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I don’t understand who the “they” is in the second sentence of your post. Is it the riders themselves or the riders’ followers? If it’s the riders, are you saying they are focused on their social media accounts while they are actively competing? That seems unlikely for anyone riding at that level. If you are referencing their followers, I don’t get what that has to do with anything being discussed here.
Like I said, all the potential alternates have their pros and cons for this year’s Olympics so best of luck to all of them. Whoever gets to go will have a great learning experience.
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The way the riders react when they don’t have a great round could affect how others think of them. I hope that’s clear enough for you.
With all the talk about being aware of the social license to operate in horse sports these days, a display of poor horsemanship or poor sportsmanship is not exactly a plus for somebody who is trying to get a spot on the team at the one event that gets the most attention from the general public.
Don’t believe me? Ask the Pentathlon people about it.
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I think we are going off the rails here. The point is who will it be? Right now, without knowing anything, I’d say Karl for sure, McClain, Laura and Kent. Lillie is doing really well and horses do break, as do people. The games are still a long ways away so this “horse race isn’t over by a long shot” I’d bet.
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I’m not looking for a fight. I’m simply responding to the post that called out Karl’s mommy for buying him horses, because there are plenty of other young riders whose mommies have been doing the same thing for longer than Karl’s has. That’s all. I’m not invested enough to take this to the level that you’re taking it to no matter how right you might be.
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I’m not looking for a fight at all. I’m just stating my opinion, which is what typically happens on a discussion board.
My opinion is that riding ability is a huge factor when selecting somebody for the Olympic team, as is their level of experience, their horse power, and their proven ability to perform under pressure in a team competition.
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And I’ve been stating my opinion, which as I’ve said multiple times is that I believe they’re all mostly equally matched for the alternate position and may the best one win. I’m not the one who brought up social media, you are.
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Yes, in response to the question of why people might have different opinions of different riders with similar backgrounds.
I don’t see where anyone mentioned what people think of riders with respect to social media until you brought it up , but I’m on my phone which is rare so I might have missed a post.
You don’t think the social media output from the riders affects how people think of them? Didn’t someone make a comment earlier in the thread about Lillie making posts on social media to promote her line of jackets?
Edited to add: Oh, wait. That was you.
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I don’t think social media has anything to do with someone complaining that mommy is buying horses for top US riders, and that is what I replied to today.
I also don’t think Lillie Keenan gives a crap about what I think of her jackets or her posts on social media, and I didn’t think she gave a crap about my opinions on the day I posted that either.
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No, I would imagine she probably doesn’t.
Exactly, so I’m not sure why you brought it up.
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In case you missed it, you claimed I was the first person who brought up social media in the discussion. Clearly that was not the case.
Do I need to screenshot that post of yours as well?
Here you go.
Again, I posted today in response to someone who complained about Karl’s mommy buying him horses. Today’s conversation had nothing to do with social media until you brought it up.
My post from last week or whenever about Lillie’s instagram has nothing to do with today’s discussion no matter how badly you want to tie the two topics together.
Whatever you say.
Thank you
