I don’t think this has been posted here yet. Thoughts?
Oh yeah. I have thoughts.
First, I am disturbingly mad about the name. Like, really really mad, and it feels petty. But honestly, it’s such a major misfire to center a “Blue Ribbon” in this endeavor. The entire thing is supposed to be about elevating the needs of the horse above the hunt for the ribbon. That’s it, that is the ~entire crux~ of the problem. I cannot imagine you need a public relations degree to recognize this is a terrible name. There has never been a bigger head::desk moment in my life and I can’t help but wonder how many other bass-ackwards approaches they have in mind.
What the what? So how is this different? What did this Initiative accomplish in seven years? What have we gotten from it other than another committee and another press release with a bunch of drippy words?
Oof. I really try to stand up for our GBs because I’ve served on them and know it’s an insurmountable task to try and make things work for everyone but honestly, you’re straight killin’ me Smalls.
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I have cynically low expectations that this “Blue Ribbon Commission” will result in any meaningful change. We can hold all the town halls and blue ribbon commission we’d like, but in the end there seems to be no appetite to change the way things have been for decades. We can’t limit the number of classes a day because the show managers will lose money and “Suzie” won’t be able to gain points in 4 divisions, we can’t limit the number of shows for the same reason, we can’t create a rule against pulling shoes for flat classes because it’s too hard to enforce. It goes on and on.
Unfortunately I’m pretty pessimistic about seeing any real change. The blue ribbon commission will write a report and then there will be no commitment from leadership to step up and make hard choices and things will continue as they always have with a couple of minor rule modifications for show. I usually try and stand up for the GBs as well, but I don’t think the wherewithal currently exists to make real changes.
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Is there a list of members of this commission? One thing that alludes to intent and success is the inclusion of outside members, e.g. those who have nothing to do with the sport, that can approach this with objectivity and freedom to challenge the status-quo without bias.
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I haven’t been able to find one, which I find incredibly disappointing. Where is the transparency?
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This is a really good point. Has USEF ever included non-members in any committees in the past?
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On the eventing side, I had to fight and hammer on officials to include non-eventer resources when examining the safety of the sport. This lead to some successes and some failures in policy development, but I and many others forced the creation of a system where it is at least acknowledged outside expertise is always valuable.
I would thus point to eventing as an example where even members who would otherwise be dismissed have a significant amount of expertise in areas the NGB has no understanding/resources. In other words, amateurs with outside careers.
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It will do nothing but up our fees to pay for this commission group. It’s like adding new laws when they need to enforce existing laws.
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Yes, and this is why it is time for those “forgotten” folks needs to stand up and raise a fuss as needed.
When the FEI and USEF proposed new rules based on inaccurate FEI data as well as an insular safety committee, a small group of folks out west raise enough of a stink based on data and facts with well reasoned arguments that the USEF had to back down.
I’ve seen it happening too long in the h/j side of amateurs simply resigning themselves to status quo with no attempts to hold the governing body accountable. There are plenty of experts who ride h/j who know more than anybody on this commission and where are they? We need to encourage them to step up.
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A “Blue Ribbon Commission” seems to me to be just another expansion of the USHJA/USEF bureaucracy.
Instead of encouraging, and backing current USEF and USHJA officials so they are comfortable in enforcing the current rules, they bog down in bureaucracy once more.
I think that USEF has become so lawsuit averse that they are paralyzed by their own culture of inaction, and horses, as well as people suffer from it.
USEF had better change their seemingly helpless culture of inability to enforce their own rules, and why they think another committee is going to help is beyond me.
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It’s all just lip service so they can say "Look what we’re doing. Give us kudos!!
Nothing will change for the better until it hits the big players where it counts- in the pocket book. And seriously hurt them. To fine Ms. Millionaire-Billionaire, the owner, a few hundred or thousand for a drug violation is nothing to them. It does nothing. The big fish know they likely won’t get caught and if they do- so what it’s a few hundred dollars and maybe a few months suspension. Nothing to them in the grand scheme of things. The clients will keep coming in because they win and that’s all that matters from the small ponies to the very big time jumpers.
We all know if those barns that drug and worse. We’ve heard stories or what goes on behind closed doors, yet these trainers and programs are celebrated . Nothing changes. You can’t report just on rumour and stories.
Enforce the rules regardless of which trainer, rider, coach, barn or owner it is. Drug test the winners every time. Hell drug test all the ribbon placers. Will it cost money? Obviously. But those showing realistically can afford an extra $50 or what ever it would cost.
Riders and owners - get educated on horsemanship. Demand to know what vet work is being done or meds given and why. Demand to know why things are done a certain way. If you get an icky feeling - act on it. Take a step back and look at the training program- is it truly one that puts the welfare of the horse firat. Or, is it all about winning and showing. If you see a mystery medication/special juice fee on your show bill question it. If you aren’t demanding transparency and accountability you are part of the problem. Have the guts to leave a bad program. Don’t give the offenders your money or business.
As an owner I have the responsibility of my horses’ welfare, safety, and health. I try and do the best I can. I have the right to say no, to say let’s call it a day, to say I’m getting the vet out to investigate this issue, or finally, let’s retire Pooky… I have the responsibility and brains to understand that our horses are animals who don’t ask to do this, and they don’t choose to go to shows and jump colourful poles. We make them so we need to take care of them.
Yes, I’m very disillusioned with it all lately. And I can’t help thinking that 80-90% of the very BNTs are just a bunch of ego driven money grabbing asshats…but I hope I’m wrong.
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The term “blue ribbon commission [or committee]” is used outside of the horse show industry - it’s a widely-used name.
Definition pulled from Wikipedia (commission and committee are used interchangeably in this context): “In the United States, a blue-ribbon committee is a group of exceptional people appointed to investigate, study or analyze a given question. Blue-ribbon committees generally have a degree of independence from political influence or other authority, and such committees usually have no direct authority of their own”.
This doesn’t address your other point of whether they’ve accomplished anything or not (or will), but the name has nothing to do with winning ribbons.
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Appreciate that knowledge, but we are in the horse show industry, and asking that industry to associate a Blue Ribbon with something other than a Blue Ribbon is needless and unnecessary work. The imagery, in relation to the goal they have set out to achieve, are in conflict.
And do we really have “exceptional people” working with a “degree of independence from political influence or other authority”? No one knows because apparently no one knows who’s on the committee. If this was an actual attempt to lend real world credence to this effort, then that press release should have stated what a “Blue Ribbon” commission historically is, listed the members, and highlighted exactly how they are exceptional and free from influence.
As far as I know (being someone with at least one foot firmly planted in the outside world yet still hearing of this definition for the first time today), there is no requirement to call it X Commission if X has a highly prevalent yet totally different meaning in the context of that industry. And IME, if the name needs an asterisk it is not a good name.
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In the context of the USEF and horse shows, 99.9% of members are going to think “prize ribbon” and not “fancy management speak for a particular type of committee”. Which, again, shows how tone deaf the USEF can be.
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Adding the “blue ribbon” title to any committee just means your trying to impress people with your seriousness. Blue ribbon committees in my experience, start with a splashy announcement, a list of well known people and then end silently with no accomplishment.
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Just alot of blah,blah,blah. Don’t have too much faith in this.
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Two observations, one is that the name is suitable for an outside audience since that is really the target audience. From a marketing perspective, I would choose a name that had branded meaning to people NOT in the industry. In that sense (natural cynicism about large organizations and such committees aside) it’s a perfectly useable and user friendly name.
Secondly, everyone is referencing USEF. This is a USHJA committee. While technically that makes it even more likely to be a waste of time and resources, it’s not USEF’s wasted time and resources.
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So if you had true chance to ask this commission to do one thing to fix the sport what would it be? And how should they go about doing it?
I’ll start - limit hours the longe area is open and limit time allowed for each horse to longe. To accomplish this I would make USEF provide longe area supervisors (at USEF’s expense) to microchip scan each horse prior to entering and exiting the area and record how long it was there. It would be nice if the microchip could be linked to a computer program that would automatically record the times. This would give a clear picture of the time horses spend longeing.
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While over lungeing is definitely a concern, I think there are bigger problems. Also, that’s a lot of man hours, expensive software, and policing to accomplish.
Why not, I don’t know, just limit the number of classes a horse can do in a day and in a week? Enter as many as you want, but penalize (heavily) if a horse checks out of the show over the limit. My local circuit which runs 3 day H/J shows with hundreds of horses and 6+ rings going has been able to do this for over a decade. Simple, easy, doesn’t require much in the way of extra man power or tech.
ETA: shows want their money, so they will track the classes accurately. Add/scratch all you want, but blue/red warmups count to the total.
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Ok - what is the limit? I know there was an attempt to place a limit on classes a horse can do in one day, but that met with resistance given the wide variety of levels at any one show. Should a ground pole horse have the same limits as a 3’6” horse? We need a specific number to push forward.
