If the owners are Anton and Michele Marano (and possibly also Roy Wilten), then who the heck is Eye Candy Jumpers (Erica Hatfield) and how are they connected?
The COTH article states that “After Spruce Meadows Carollo shipped home to the Maranos’ farm near Chicago and is currently on a six-week break. Michele has been taking the opportunity to hack him.” But yet Eye Candy Jumpers has a video of Carollo hacking out at their farm, posted July 12th, tagged #minnesotavacay
Color me confused 
oops, you are correct, my bad! But like you said, still not a good read
I believe the person he was texting with is one of his sponsors.
I’m sure owner pressures are intense, especially when you are just starting to break into the upper echelon, and when one of the owners are like that whackadoodle, eye candy jumper… that can’t make things easier. That said, as the rider and trainer, you are the custodian of that horse’s welfare. You are supposed to be the one standing between the horse and bad owner decisions. In short, you are supposed to be the adult in the room. And if you couldn’t persuade the owner to not go through with the entry/you were worried about them pulling the horse (although without a bill of sale, that umm, seems unlikely), you still had the option to pull up in the class. And if it wasn’t glaringly obvious that you needed to pull up after that bank, then maybe you are not an adequate custodian of your horse.
Apparently there was no owner pressure to enter, and they weren’t even aware, which is that much more damning for him.
I’m confused by the ownership issue. I think that is a detail with the governing bodies that should be more accurate than who is listed as trainer or responsible person at a show. FEI’s horse details page has a field for percentage of ownership, but I have never seen it populated when multiple owners are listed (e.g. HH Azur owned by Double H Farm & McLain Ward). I don’t know how Eye Candy Jumpers factor in unless Andy rides out of them.
And just last year he said this: “K: I regret when I was younger and impatient with the horses. My training was too forceful. Now I am more mentally connected with the horse. I try to get him happier so that he wants to do his job. I am not into severe or harsh training. You won’t see me out there with draw reins a lot or with heavy bits or with a horse in a white lather. If you have to ride a horse that way, put him back. If the horse is stopping and you can’t ride him, then you shouldn’t be riding that horse.” All about the PR? https://practicalhorsemanmag.com/personalities/andy-kocher-you-gotta-dream-it-first
I was confused by the ownership issue too, and what role Eye Candy Jumpers played, until I read their FB post:
“I do not own Carollo, I was acting as manager that week and the four weeks prior. If I could roll back time, I would not have posted that [Instagram] story—and needless to say, I am retiring myself from that medium. But would not posting the story have made any difference? Possibly not, as the afflicted individual is very determined, for reasons I would feel petty repeating, because, well—they are. But the hardest part for me is seeing all the harsh, vindictive words directed at Andy. Andy pulled off an incredible win on a difficult horse. Should he or should he not have entered the derby? Should he or should he not have pulled up? It’s really not for me to say. I know he had a bad round, that happens. But I also know: Carollo is not and was not injured, Carollo was not overly fatigued, Carollo is an elite athlete with extraordinary stamina in top physical shape who had a planned month-long break coming right after Spruce. I will also say that Andy is my rider. We collaborate in the care and management of my horses, something I am involved with on a daily basis. I admire his talent, independence, persistence, and work ethic. I stand with him.”
”‹”‹
And yet. The link posted earlier in this thread showed a picture of his horse from just a few months ago with an awful lot of bridle on, plus a pair of draw reins. And that was a picture for a puff piece on his groom, so clearly it was not anything they considered out of the ordinary. As usual, a picture is worth a thousand words.
It’s been interesting to see them all madly try to backpedal and point fingers at each other as this situation has played out. I would say that the Instagram video of them making fun of the horse for looking tired pales in comparison to the video of him stopping, crashing through jumps, and having several rails down. That derby video bothers me much more than the other one.
It’s the timing that makes it all bad. They knew he was tired…and made jokes about it instead of being concerned. I make jokes about the horses I ride, but not when it’s a direct result of my decision making.
Somewhere in all the posts, I believe one of them (Eye Candy?) said that the Instagram video was taken early in the morning, long before the derby started, and she was joking around because none of them felt wide awake at that hour. Or something. For whatever that’s worth.
I think they are back tracking.
Talk about softballs… I imagine Kocher himself arranged a “friendly” interview to get his side out there…
Very interesting. Thanks for posting it.
Lots of me, me, me…
Except for the cause of the problem. That seems to be the uneducated audience, according to him.
This interview sounds like he was planning to do the derby from the get go… but, in the Chronicle article, the owners stated they had no idea he was entered in the derby. ( which I find hard to believe). You’d think an owner sending a horse to a show like SM, would know what classes her horse was showing in. One thing I do know… AK should have pulled up after things started going downhill. Thankfully the horse was not injured.
So true.
Well I wouldn’t give Jay Duke the time of day either! Plus he was rushing to Andy Kochers defence on a few fb posts…just blech!
He kept going because he thought his “score was still competitive?” In hindsight he would retire once he realized “the win was gone”?
How about you retire when you’re crashing through all the jumps? How about placing be damned and you just nod to the fact that it’s not your horse’s day?
I get that it can feel different on a horse than it looks to a groundperson. I have a mare that feels TOTALLY different than she looks (as in, most who get on her say “Wow I had no idea she felt like that.”) But you take a “built like a brick” 1.60 horse that’s suddenly playing pickup sticks at 1.45m and you don’t think that something’s not right? Even if he was “strong”, clearly nothing was being accomplished by continuing other than reinforcing racking up faults.
He may have felt strong in his hand, but he sure looked tired and dull. And coming from a mare who feels super strong and unrideable when she IS tired…I’d still bank on the fact that the horse was exhausted and it.was.too.much.
In that interview he says he would enter the event again. The only problem is uneducated people watching. He has no empathy for his horse and no freakin’ common sense.
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