Thankies for explaining. I’m used to just a plain old snaffle or a curb (used with very soft hands!)for my partucularly ornery Arab. I still feel bad for the poor horse with all that.
What was being said on Facebook [I don’t personally know if this is true] is that there is a financial incentive to finish the class. One comment said that every rider that finished the course got a $5000 check. It was speculated that THAT is the reason AK did not pull up. If that is in fact true [and I doubt we will ever know if it is] ,then it makes the decision to continue even more appalling - that it was not a lack of judgement in the moment, not pure bad horsemanship, but simple GREED, chasing short money. :no:
Is there anyway you could copy and paste it? Or provide a direct link? It’s hard to find one post among the thousands on there.
I have NEVER EVER given a horse drugs in order to keep them competing. My attitude has always been, if they need drugs, then I need to step back until they don’t need drugs. I realize that most of us here probably feel the same way, but I’m not competing for owners and for $$$$$. Still, I hate that people would compromise their horses (and themselves) that way.
Now, if I were talking about light bute for an aged short-stirrup pony with a touch of arthritis (I’ve known of such situations), I suppose I might compromise, but from H/J to eventing back to HJ then to dressage - if my horse needs drugs, it doesn’t show. It gets the needed drugs and rest until it’s good to go.
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if you think that Eye Candy gives any ounce of a sh*t about the horses she buys and stables with him, guess again.
this is the purest form of greed it is sickening. I hope someone goes after this bunch and ensure Andy is ousted onward.
We don’t need this type of horrendous riding or horsemanship in this sport and it is a well-known fact that he rides and operates like this on a regular basis. I hope people publicly open their mouths to him at shows and stop walking around like their mouths are taped shut for posterity. It’s about time those who spend their hard earned wealth on this sport, speak up on behalf of the horse who cant speak for itself. enough is enough already
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Medications I can understand. I know a lot of riders who use medications - things that are banned for the horses. Inhalers for asthma and advil the morning of the show are two that stand out. Drugs. on the other hand, are a whole different story.
I do think a little bute is what is kind for the older schoolmaster, and I think it keeps them in work and moving around, which is good for them. I’m also a little stiff and creaky when I get out of bed these days, and so I understand it more than when I was in my 20s and 30s. I’m perfectly fine to have a job and to go to the gym, but some days I need a little help. I would like my horse to be able to have that same comfort but to also be able to still have a job and compete. He actually loves to get off the farm. I think it’s funny that we ask so much more of our horses than we do of our athletes. I would love to see some athlete drug testing, but I’m afraid we would lose some ammy riders who compete on wine. muscle relaxers and xanax!! Oh my!!
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Wine, Xanax and muscle relaxants are not prohibited under the rules by the FEI or USEF. They are, none of them, considered performance enhancing or a masking agent for other drugs.
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COTH has an article posted with a statement from USEF and mention of a dispute of ownership:
"There is a dispute between the Maranos and Wilten over the horse’s ownership. The Maranos say Wilten once owned a part of the horse but doesn’t anymore, while Wilten says he still owns a small share. Neither has a sales contract, and Carollo is registered with the USEF and FEI with Kocher as the owner.
Wilten said regardless of the current ownership dispute, he no longer wants to be paid out on any part he may own in the horse if Kocher continues to ride him."
I can’t post a link directly to the article for some reason.
What’s interesting is that the videos actually show what is going on - it’s the evidentiary support that gives so many the reason to believe it was abusive as so many of us do. It’s not like RG where it’s hearsay and SS/USEF statements. It happened in plain sight and has prolifically made its way around multiple SoMe channels and forums recorded forever on video, and yet people are still defending it? How did no steward see this or worse yet not hear this horse going around the course? The sound the horse makes struggling to breathe is absolutely sickening. Bulldozing him into the standard was equally disgusting - then looking back? For what? To see how badly it was destroyed? Why not pull up? So many, many people failed that horse that day. The owner. The rider. The officials. Is everyone so focused on athlete abuse that we are now overlooking blatant abuse to the animal? I’m embarrassed that this individual is from the US and have to wonder what people around the world think about the US equestrian culture with our athlete and overt animal abuse. I only watched it once and felt so nauseated I had to stop. My heart goes out to Roy - he must be devastated that he has put this horse in this situation.
I do hope the people criticizing AK and the owner steer clear of them in the future. Its important not to do business with those that you are accusing of abuse or those whom you think are abusive.
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I’m wondering if the reluctance of the officials to intervene could have been due to an incident on 7 July, apparently there was quite a commotion when AK was DQ’ed from another class- quoted (sic) from the eye candy page:
“Have you ever seen a sadder horse? This is poor baby Squirt Gun being humiliated—ejected and eliminated from the derby! He was eliminated after he hit and knocked down a jump. The jump crew asked Andy to move so they could put back up the jump, but by moving Andy “broke the rules” and was kicked off the course! We were lectured about not knowing the rules and in response I blew my top, used excessive volume and profanity and accused the entire Spruce Meadows staff of being hypocrites as their own ground crew is obviously unaware of rules the exhibitors are supposed to know like the back of their hands! Look at what you did to Squirt! Look at the dejection! Only eight years old and he probably woulda come out on only those four faults! No water jump or liverpool ever scared this guy! I also became angry at Andy for smiling in this photo, but he said he had to be strong for Squirt.”
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Class act.
That whole group deserves to spend excessive amounts of time together. They need to remove all animals from the vicinity first.
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Totally agree Tiramit. The owner is blaming the stewards for not pulling him up…Andy has been saying the horse was anxious.
“That class just didn’t go my way; it didn’t work for me. I had a vet look over the horse after the class, and he said he was completely healthy and sound,” Kocher said. “Many other people have jumped in both classes and done well, and if I had pulled it off people would have called me a genius, but I didn’t so now I’m an idiot.” He wasn’t even close to pulling it off. Calling him an idiot is an insult to idiots.
The best quote from Kate Conover from Roy’s post: Horsemanship and Andy never go in the same sentence…ask Navalo.
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I think Eye Candy means well and does like her horses, she just has not been in the game long enough. She is Probably relying on Andy for guidance. She may not know the difference between too much and not enough. She will learn though, the hard way .
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They should use his jump off round from Devon this year as further evidence of bad riding. When McLain left out a stride where no one else did and idiot Andy came in and tried to do the same and of course crashed! I forget who was commenting but they said before he even started that his horse didn’t have the stride to leave it out! They could tell from watching his horse and he couldn’t from riding it!!!
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Does anyone have a contact email to the owners of Spuce Meadows? (one of the Southerns)
I would like to send them an e-mail telling them how I feel about the ride and the stewards not doing what I consider their jobs. I have also sent some emails to the sponsors of Spruce Meadows.
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“We didn’t know the horse had been entered in the derby, and we wouldn’t have wanted him to go in the derby had we known,” Michele said. “I think Andy made a bad judgment call; I think he made a mistake, and he’s apologized to us for it. But I don’t think social media is the place to go about having this discussion.”
But when they woke up Sunday morning and went ‘oh crap, clerical error, we didn’t mean to enter this class’ (eye roll) couldn’t they have…scratched?
Edited the rest because I had my owners confused.
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I think it’s a bit much to expect the officials to stop the horse in the middle of the round in this case. If you watch the video posted on Facebook, it starts around the 70 second mark on the timer, and there were zero faults at that point. So the horse must have gone about halfway around the course without having any faults by then. He started by having a foot in the water and then a jump down over the span of about 30 seconds, before things really went downhill in a hurry. If there was a ground jury, that means a group of officials would have had to discuss it and agree on it and make the call in the space of about 40 seconds before he finished the course.
If there was a jog before the class and the horse passed it, the officials would have been looking to see if he looked sound, not energetic. And he did not appear unsound going around the ring, just tired. To me, that responsibility to pull up after multiple rails on a tired horse is totally on the rider, not anyone else.
I would certainly hope that at a competition like Spruce Meadows, the ground jury would not have been influenced by any sort of dramatic scene from the owner over an elimination on a different horse earlier in the week. I would imagine they have probably seen it all over the years. And then some.
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It isn’t the same person. Eye Candy Jumpers is Erica Hatfield, not Michele Marano.
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I’m sorry. No. That’s BS. The medium pony I used to lease for my daughter developed a summer sore on her lip. The bit didn’t lie directly on it but it was clear that the bit was pulling on it, causing the pony pain and preventing any healing. To make a long story short, a bunch of adults had their heads up their asses and were still using the pony for camp. My 12yo brought it up politely several times and finally the owners were bothered to text a picture to the vet, who immediately called in scripts to the compounding pharmacy. Now the owners are refusing to talk to my daughter - I assume because they were embarrassed or inconvenienced.
If my super shy 12yo child who is almost too respectful of authority can recognize poor management and advocate for the animal even though she knew it meant adults would treat her poorly? The 20-something Eye Candy chick can certainly do the same.
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