After I parsed Babington’s article in the Plaid Horse she found it appropriate to send this message to me. I find it revealing…” Sarah I reread you comment where you so painstakingly took the time to repost pieces of my article but you made sure to leave out the part that I said Good grooms are worth their weight in gold etc and all the positives. I think you are the racist not me. I think you hate white people. You are right about one thing…the article has to do with ethnicity …in one aspect; the fact that the grooms through no fault of mine are young adults or immigrants illegal and also legal. My husband is an immigrant it’s not the dirty word you make it out to be. I have no idea why you and a few others made assumptions about my business practices and then reacted as if your assumptions or speculations are fact. I also don’t care anymore. The truth Sarah, is the person who was my example was also cat calling young riders in my barn and sending them inappropriate texts. Juniors Sarah girls that were under age… children. Should I have written that and been accused of stereotyping Hispanics as predators?!? Should I have trained him not to be a pervert too? My lack of training was not the issue. He was s BAD EMPLOYEE which had NOTHING to do with his race or legal status. Do you somehow not find this possible? Are all Hispanic grooms beyond reproach, are they all hard working diligent workers? Are all white, black or green? It’s not the issue. The point was he was a bad groom but the shortage of trained help made him desirable to another trainer who was so desperate she didn’t care. Would it help you understand what I was dealing with if you knew he’s had three jobs since he left us? Did those three employers fail or do you think it’s possible he sucked at his profession? He was cherry picked because there is a supply and demand issue. I’m sorry if you don’t agree but I wrote the truth. Are you a trainer? A horse professional charged with paying salaries, providing housing and dealing with personal issues for 13 people because of the number of animals under your care, custody and control? No you are not. Those who walk in my shoes get it. Loraine Nicoll lives it like I do. You claim you know what I pay? I never wrote what I pay. I spoke to ten trainers and gave a median salary. You didn’t even understand that every groom is also in Florida but you assume there are employees at home possibly not getting paid?! You clearly don’t know much about how this business on the A show circuit runs…maybe read and learn? You accused me of not knowing about the British Horse Society Cert?! This is America… or have you forgotten with all your speaking Spanish fluently? There is one grooming cert program I am aware of and I posted it on my page. Other than that program there is a lack of training available. We all train our grooms and other grooms train grooms. Training on the fly as you recall I wrote about that too. I reread your rant and there is not a statement you made that was based in fact. I don’t care what you think because I have no respect for you because your arguments are based on your imagination of what it’s like to work at my farm. Did you know my husband was one of the original ambassadors for Just World and helped build schools in Ecuador? Did you know we tried to adopt a child out of one of the orphanages? You pretty much accused him of being a racist. It’s inconceivable. How does that fit into your made up image of Kevin and Dianna Babington? I bet its inconvenient for your angry agenda of being a hater of people who YOU deem white and privileged. Who the hell do you think you are? Judge and Jury? There is a problem in my industry… there is not enough help, there is even less trained help, the workers are generally illegal immigrants or young adults ages 18-30. I didn’t make the rules I live them. The groom you are defending ( because of ethnicity btw because you are the racist) had five horses in his care. Four of them had scratches and all the hair was coming off their faces because they were never cleaned. He knew how, he DIDN’T WANT to!!!My other grooms were losing their minds and wanted him gone. This is the actual truth not my imagined assumption. Do you know seven people read the article before it went to the editor…Nobody saw any of this kind of reaction coming because everyone who read it is in the industry and knows it is reality. So you can scream and yell and accuse me of employee abuse, not training someone, speaking down to a wonderful employee who’s feelings were hurt, blaming parents?!? Not even sure I understand that one but whatever. The bottom line is it’s just the facts. You should consider facts before you attack someone.
Has anyone ever explained to her the adage about how to proceed when one is wielding a shovel and finds themself in a deep hole?
From that screed, it would appear not.
BTW, I think your comment on GM being a flawed genius is spot on. He may be a criminally responsible asshole, but it doesn’t negate his talent. What the ISWG crowd misses is that it doesn’t excuse his actions, either.
Oh. and "seven people read " that, and nobody cared enough to hand her a copy of Strunk and White?
And either the editor it went to after that wanted to let her hang herself, or they have no grasp of what “edit” means.
