Windurra social media

[AMWookey]

I wanted to link Courtney Cooper’s social media post here, in response to Windurra calling her out on social media, and then retracting it, and posting a ‘sort of apology’ .

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19tT8Q6Zt7/

The reason I am posting it is not to start a huge massive discussion on who is right or wrong, but because of the power imbalance between the Windurra SM reach and Courtney’s.

I know neither of these two individuals personally. I have my own opinions on the subject, but I have a really hard time with the reach that the Windurra post got, which is damaging to this individual, vice her post with her own side of the story.

For transparency sake, here is the second Windurra statement. The first can be seen in Courtney’s post.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19TFMarSk2/

Also, FWIW, I cannot stand the people who took issue with posting the screen shots to defend her side of the story. Its no different then him naming her, and certainly better then him naming her, and telling people to call 911.

[Groom_amp_Taxi]

Thank you for sharing the other side of the story.

[Texarkana]

Karma’s a b*tch.

[Marigold]

@AMWookey

The reason I am posting it is not to start a huge massive discussion on who is right or wrong, but because of the power imbalance between the Windurra SM reach and Courtney’s.

This is a great point. The power imbalance is further exacerbated by Courtney’s decision to turn off commenting on her post (which often seems like a cop-out to avoid discussion, but in this case actually seems like it probably prevented people from showing her some support and protected Boyd to a certain extent). When you make that decision, the algorithm limits the reach of the post, so her good deed in that regard also limited her own defense. I think bumping it here is worthwhile.

[AMWookey]

Can you elaborate? Karma for courtney or boyd?

[Texarkana]

@AMWookey

Can you elaborate? Karma for courtney or boyd?

For Courtney.

There is a good reason she has pretty much continuous “help wanted” and “training openings available” ads.

[Djones]

I imagine he has to chase a lot of payments day in and day out. Payment is due BEFORE you leave the property, not when Neal gets around to it 4+ hours later AND he had to text her.

No issues with him banning her.

I do have issues with him naming her and shaming her. He could have said something much more professional publicly without naming her.

[AMWookey]

Totally get his side of the story, and i had zero issues with his initial post or the one after…until I saw the responses from Courtney.

The text message exchange tells a different type of story, and I just feel personally that folks should get to see both sides of the issue, and hers won’t get the traction his has.

[Lusoluv]

Well, if I went to a property to XC school and one of the horses I brought didn’t go out, I wouldn’t think I had to pay for him either! Plus, if these 2 pros are supposed to have a good, years long relationship, why would Boyd rant on FB about it? Something doesn’t jive! Personally, I wouldn’t be going back to his place after that attack if there are ANY other decent options.

[FitzE]

She says she had over a year of paying at the end of the day via her BM via venmo. It’s okay for him to change that arrangement but not to go postal on her and shame her in SM.

I have a real issue seeing the text exchange. She is apologetic and de-escalating from her very first response. She does nothing but say sorry and back down yet his texts to her actually grow in aggression and rudeness, up to his openly calling her a bold-faced liar. And she even says, okay, I’ll pay for that horse that didn’t school as well, no problem, I don’t want this to be an issue.

People who cannot control their emotions in professional settings are not behaving normally, reasonably, or rationally. The way he was speaking to her via text was so immoderate I cannot imagine treating someone I genuinely dislike in that manner, let alone a fellow equestrian and student with whom I’ve had a relationship spanning over a decade. The subsequent hissy fit on facebook AFTER he’d already reamed her out via text AND got his payment AND banned her - that is so far beyond the Pale I just cannot fathom what he was thinking.

His ‘good guy’ schtick doesn’t look so authentic to me now that I see how he spoke to her via text. She’d been doing it one way for over a year. He’s well within his rights to change that and say, no more paying in the evening, pay at the time or before if you’re not the one who does the venmo. Thank you for your compliance going forward. The end.

That’s how a professional conducts themselves professionally and maintains their ‘good guy’ rep.

That he went on to complain publicly that he and his wife are up to their eyeballs in debt suggests that the basis for this was something that’s going on with him and his business, not this one repeat user doing things as she was accustomed to doing them on this one day.

[Texarkana]

Flip side: how would you feel if you open your property to the public and a number of local hanger-oners make your property a staple of their business… only to continuously pay on “their terms?”

I don’t know the financials between the two parties. But non-payment at Windurra isn’t a new problem. And this individual uses the property a lot. Those saying there are two sides to every story…yup, and we don’t know the half of it from social media.

Windurra has been a good neighbor. What we’re seeing are horse people problems as old as time coming to light. Improvements could be made all around.

[FitzE]

@Texarkana

how would you feel if you open your property to the public and a number of local hanger-oners make your property a staple of their business… only to continuously pay on “their terms?”

I would feel like I would have had a professional conversation with her over a year ago.

Courtney - you’ve been paying via venmo only after you ride and that doesn’t work for us. Going forward, ensure that your schooling fees are paid in full by cheque on the day of your schooling sessions or in advance if paying via venmo. Thank you for your continued patronage and your compliance with this policy from this date onward.

The end.

To be abudantly clear: I would never feel that I had the right to speak to another human being the way he did in that text exchange and in no universe would I have taken it to facebook in any way, let alone the way he chose to.

[Texarkana]

I don’t disagree about the communication part.

But this isn’t quite the “out of the blue” exchange people are assuming.

[FitzE]

It does seem like something is missing here, that’s for sure!

[DogWithBigEars]

Fair Hill should be fun this weekend. They are both competing there.

[Bogey2]

Suspension? Then welcome back after the suspension? Very weird. I do think they should pay for the 5th horse regardless, if that’s what they signed up for. But I have never heard of anyone posting a suspension from a BUSINESS. This whole thing should never have made it to social media.
ETA I would also not be advertising that I am in debt up to my ears

[Djones]

We don’t know if that’s happened or not.

[FitzE]

Given how aggressive he was with her via text and that he had zero scruples calling her an outright liar, I find that the fact that he did not contradict her clear declaration that she’d been doing it for a year without incident to be a decent indication that he hadn’t told her not to do so heretofore.

On this very thread is someone who also schools there and pays later that day via venmo.

Both of those things give me some comfort that she was not lying when she said she’d been doing it that way for over a year without incident.

I’d rather go on what I can see them both saying to each other than just pre-suppose she’s lying. He was going OFF on her, no holds barred. If she was lying about that he’d have called it out.

[quarab]

@FitzE

That he went on to complain publicly that he and his wife are up to their eyeballs in debt suggests that the basis for this was something that’s going on with him and his business, not this one repeat user doing things as she was accustomed to doing them on this one day.

That was one of the things that stood out to me too. I understand that riding is an expensive sport (believe me and the 4 fig checks I’m writing each month to my BM/trainer) but having just had a not dissimilar argument with my trainer (after two years of paying invoices promptly and without question I tried to clarify my latest and she went directly to “you’re just trying to weasel out of paying and I’m broke”) it’s apparent that many trainers who are broke because of this damn sport are taking it out on clients.

I truly don’t how to make the damn sport more sustainable but it isn’t blaming your clients when they are willing to pay the fees that are set in a way that seemed appropriate to Courtney. After 10 years you’d think there’s a large part of Boyd that believes she doesn’t have malicious intent (otherwise fire her as a client) so why does it seem like he immediately goes on the attack? In my experience it’s often just misdirected frustration at the expense of the whole thing and money issues.

Professional communication could’ve looked like this:

BM: Hey I noticed I didn’t receive payment today for schooling

CC: My bad! Neil normally handles it for me at the end of the day. He’s getting on it now though. Going forward would you like payment before we school?

CC: pays 4 horse fees

BM: I noticed you only paid 4x the schooling fee. I need to collect fees for all horses that enter the property as I can’t verify who went out to school or not.

BM (on SM): Some clarification on the rules for schooling and Windurra: 1) payment must be received before schooling starts (either the day before via Venmo on in the drop box), 2) all horses who enter the property incur a schooling fee regardless of how much or how little they are ridden. We had some issues with miscommunication about this with a long time client and I’d like to make it as clear as possible.

Hell, he could’ve even added: Schooling fees will be going up to $xxx/horse on X date due to the high amount of labor involved in maintaining the course. We’ve loved sharing the space with you all and hope to continue to do so

And he would’ve come out looking shiny. His SM team is usually so on top of his SM that me thinks BM shouldn’t have access to the passwords any more. It’s not a good look.

[FitzE]

Yes, to all of this!

Lots of comments on the Windurra ‘apology’ of people who are shocked about how he went scorched earth on this one client and how it changes their perception of him.

I’ve got to think that there is some enormous financial stress going on and that is really a shame. I wish that wasn’t true for them as they seem to be doing good things for the sport.

But this was an epic misstep.

As bad as his treatment of Courtney was in the private messages, he could have still saved his own reputation by not making the first facebook post that he did the dirty delete on, and by not making the second ‘apology’ and just making it worse. And, to be clear, he was apologising to his fans for having an SM hissy fit, not to Courtney for his private treatment or his public shaming of her.