Absolutely many felt the same way.
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Yes.
I have felt that “eventing dressage” riders showed examples a more fluid and forward horse, vs a mechanized slave. But I haven’t watched eventing dressage in person in +10 years, so I don’t know if these methods are creeping in there.
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This guy from the midwest ( < < COUGH) seemed to get away with everything. My now retired vet showed Arabians (hunter) for years… and at Scottsdale about 15 years ago now (so almost 10 years after the original incident I witnessed), that same trainer came in the gate for the senior stallion halter class with a horse with an obvious welt from a whip across his right shoulder. Everything ground to a halt while heads got together… and in the end the class went on and he either won or was reserve grand… I would have to look it up. Trainer from the midwest blamed a groom for not bringing the horse to the hitching ring safely (eyes all around and stewards like your amazing friend in the hitching rings and warm up rings so nothing going on there) and said that the horse scraped himself on his stall door or a gate - and that was what produced that mark. Yeah no. My vet was livid.
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Wandering over as someone from HJ land. This stuff is nothing is new. I know a lot of folks idolize Reiner Klimke. I was at Madison Square Garden on 1986 or so and had a grooms pass so I stayed at the arena the whole time. I watched Klimke beat, ship, and yank Alrich sp? for HOURS so he could do his demo ride to standing ovations. Unfortunately no cell phone cameras back then, but that “performance” is burned into my brain.
As far as shunning, people are still buying horses from PV and AK…so not much hope there
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Wasn’t David Boggs the one who showed Amber Satin? I remember reading about him showing her at an international show: She got some kind of a wound and they didn’t use anesthetic when they sutured her. Now, that I think back, I think it was an ear wound. I felt bad and mad about it because she is probably my favorite Arabian mare.
Peter Witte is also someone I would never do business with after seeing him out back one morning during a regionals show.
Edited to add the ear wound.
This is quite shocking. I can’t understand people getting pleasure from beating a helpless animal.
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Yes, that was Boggs. I have no use for either of them. Years ago the farm I managed stood a well known stallion and at nationals I noticed a futurity colt was being shown, sired by said stallion. I made a point to look him up, being shown by Boggs, and went to their stalls. As soon as I mentioned the stallion and asked about the colt, he actually sneered at me, looked over my shoulder and walked away, leaving me standing there. When I saw the colt in the class a day later, I understood. The colt was butt ugly…but they had no problem billing the owner to show him in the class…used the colt as “trailer filler” to make money. The colt wouldn’t have even been a good gelding and should never have been shown at that level.
DId he, himself, show the colt and maybe get some halo points?
He showed the colt himself…and the colt’s neck was set on so low and upside down that Boggs was kneeling on the ground to try and make it arch the right direction. It was appalling. And obviously no ribbon of any sort.
Ah yes… my favorite trainer from the midwest. 
I think this link might have been posted, but it sounds like the FEI will likely end up agreeing with the Danish Federation’s decision on how to deal with this…We can only hope…
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I’d be shocked.
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I have a couple of memories of Arabians being shown from long (decades) ago here in Michigan. Don’t remember if they were at the same show or different but…
One was just before the (mature) stallion halter class. There was this trainer Right Outside The Ring In Plain Sight “tuning” up a grey Arabian stallion. The trainer was whipping the stallion to hype him up, I guess. (I know that I was pissed seeing it, as I was considering buying an Arabian at that time.)
Well, they entered the ring and when the trainers were to ‘stand up/pose’ their stallions, THAT grey stallion WENT AFTER the trainer. And did NOT stop. The trainer had to keep moving, as that horse was going to EAT him! That horse and trainer were dismissed from the class as the stallion aggressively continued to go after the trainer.
The second, and much better memory, was after an Arabian Stallion Park Horse class. It was won by a big (16 hand) chestnut stallion who was a “big name horse” at a “big name” farm here in Michigan. I was close enough to see and hear the show vet (a woman) come up to the rider and tell him how much she liked the “big name” stallion. The rider said to her, “Would you like to ride him?” The vet said ‘yes’, and I got to see her do so, on a horse who was well-trained and happy in his ‘job.’
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I think I know the stallion and handler you mentioned, as the horse developed quite a reputation due to the abuse, and it continued after he was gelded. The handler was one of the early abusers who started the whip nonsense. Years before that, the horses were shown quietly, as they should be.
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Yes. Tonya Harding grew up in poverty, raised by her mom, and she and her family saw her skating as a way to escape it.
I don’t think that’s ego; I think that’s desperation capitalism.
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I want to say this is impossible…but you saw it. That is SO horrific. I hope (please God) that Ingrid would never. She is someone I have always believed to be kind and the highest ethical principles.
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Here are some TikTok excerpts. I haven’t viewed them.
https://www.tiktok.com/find/helgstrand-dressage-operation-x-trailer
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