Small derail. Phillip Dutton just testified for the defense in Michael Barisone’s trial.
When the defense called Phillip Dutton I thought hmm, same name as PD the eventer. I was quite surprised to see the PD take the stand.
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calm as a cucumber too
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He probably has no nerves left after competing for so many years. 
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What was he asked and how did he respond? Please don’t make me go to the Dressage Forum to find out!
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Go to 4:50:11 here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKyHsQl6ZFE for PD’s testimony.
He seems like a stand up guy.
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I don’t think anything Phillip said was about “positive image.” It’s perfectly fine as far as I’m concern to have criticism of leadership.
But I do not think “ensuring athletes project a positive image” is a bad thing. The most abuse I ever took as a volunteer was as a ring steward and it was at the hands of a U.S. athlete just returned from the Olympics. I swore then that I would never join or donate to the USET (or its equivalent) if that was the type of individual who benefited from my donations. That was more than 3 decades ago. When I was long-listed and on the athlete mailing list I was prodded to join and I did not. (I was a one horse owning amateur with two little kids at home–no one was going to support or choose me for anything.)
Even today I would rot in Hell before I donated. It was the single worst eventing experience over my 40+ years of involvement in the sport. So, yeah, maybe telling a few athletes they aren’s god’s gift to the horse world would be a good thing.
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I don’t think that’s aimed at Phillip, exactly. I think it’s more correcting some of the issues the last person in the job had.
That is terrible. I’m sorry that happened. I really want you to out who it is but maybe you can just leave us a very random clue and I can try and figure it out ahha
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Boyd Martin was on the stand as a character witness for Barisone today.
In what way did ED not present a positive image, or discourage others from presenting a positive image?
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In all fairness, I have never seen him do these things. However, multiple people I generally trust have reported seeing them poll horses and being advised to give horses dormosedan to school xc.
Not exactly upstanding, in addition to being a big safety issue.
what on earth would be the purpose of this??
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You best not think that any of the post 1980 - 2004 icons in the sport are above this.
MANY have poled horses. Giving Ace ( I recognize not Dorm) is still VERY popular when going to unrec trials, schooling and hunting.
The Dorm thing might be wrong as in people gossiping got the “tranq” name wrong.
But none of this is new and none of it has caused that huge of waves before.
Em
why do they tranq before an event? Thats crazy.
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Oh, no, you are definitely correct. And riders have been giving dorm for ages. The withdrawal time for FEI is a lot less than ace.
I definitely think the difference is who gets caught and who doesn’t. They weren’t polling horses at home quietly, they were (supposedly) doing it very publicly and not well.
The same reason you give any horse sedation to ride. To take the edge off.
Also, I do feel like ‘tons of others do it’ isn’t a good enough reason to allow the team coach to make it a standard practice. I would actually expect the person in that position to be held to a higher standard of horse well fare in this day and age. Regardless of what has happened in the past.
LOL like Im supposed to know why? I have never nor will never need to drug a horse to ride it. In fact, I loathe anyone who does that.
Returning from rehab for minor light work once or twice excepted.
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So ED was complicit in poling and drugging horses, and some individuals spoke out and that’s why he got fired?
Is there any confirmation on drugging horses for schooling or polling? I used to train with an UL rider who used to wrap their square rails with plastic tacks. I had never SJ’d with them at their facility but when I saw it I drew a line. So many questionable practices that some people engage in.
We have a championship coming up. We had success under ED and Boyd is still posting videos of riding with him for jump schoolings. So what is the answer here?
Even if we pick up the best coach in the world should we be changing up people’s training plans this close to a championship? Have the selectors made a statement or come up with a plan? Is it just every man for themselves? This makes little to no sense especially with the better results that the US team has been having under ED.
