This. I get that he was ticked off, but there were better ways to handle it.
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Or even just civil and professional. He could have made concise, clear, strongly-worded statements setting professional-client boundaries. You can be tough but fair. But you can’t speak to peole like that and have emotional meltdowns and still maintain your good guy professional persona.
Well, I guess you can if your fans will lap up anything, hold you accountable for nothing, and gang up on anyone you point a finget at.
I respect the fans on there saying, hey, I’m a Boyd fan, but this is not okay. It’s okay to admit that your idol made a mistake and say, hey, mate, I know you’re better than this and can do better than this. Let’s fix this up and move forward, yeah?
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Fair enough
Is it a human right to never get criticized on social media? That seems odd. I don’t think this has anything to do with human rights. I think it’s another example of people who are very good at riding horses proving that they are actually not great at PR, or basic business tasks. Which is a tale as old as time.
Sure. But… news flash. Upper level eventers are generally not the kindest warmest and fuzziest of people. Boyd is not the best… but he’s not the worst either.
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There is one very large difference that makes the comparison not appropriate in my opinion, that person goes off very frequently and turns around and posts texts from distant past not related conversations as proof to make the world think she is the sane one.
In this case one of the reasons this outburst by Boyd is note worthy is because of how this typically has not happened, ever, and here we have people complaining that he is not doing the exact thing that the crazy braider lady does, post history texts (related or not related) to keep the drama going.
No, because it is not even close to the exact same thing.
If Boyd was regularly ranting and posting old text conversations and bringing up past indiscretions like KS does, then you would have a point there.
He was wrong here. He made this mistake.
He does not have a history of being an all out crazy person doing this on the regular.
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News flash: and he should be called out when he is being ‘not the best’. He’s a professional. He also represents his country and benefits from enormous goodwill and sponsorship. When he messes up this big, it is right that he’s pulled up on it.
I genuinely hope he privately apologises and sorts it out with her and that they publically move forward together as friends, neighbours, and colleagues. That’s what would be best for the sport as well as the individuals. It would be a great opportunity to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
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I agree with this.
I don’t think they need to be friends. Totally not necessary.
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Its literally 2 hours and she had multiple horses to unload and who knows what else to do. This is so petty I just can’t understand it. If she has a history of not paying then ban her from the property permanently. But to throw a fit for a recurring client over a slight timing issue is wild.
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I only saw a single person even address that.
It is the exact same thing. I will give you that it is not a repeated behaviour, but it is the same behaviour. Those SM posts were STSW (same thing; same way). Thank goodness this is his first and hopefully it will be his last.
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He literally had one post on social media up for 20 minutes, because someone came and schooled and didn’t pay until hours afterwards.
He then thought better of it, and took the post down.
Sure… it was bad judgement. But… the reaction to this is over the top.
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Fine. As co-professionals and neighbours in a small sporting community. And it would set a great example and be the kind of leadership you’d want from an Olympian.
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That is why my stance is it’s unacceptable to berate or speak to someone that way, because I’ve experienced that behavior myself having worked in BNT barns I bet you’d recognize, and it doesn’t feel good and it isn’t kind.
No, that’s not the violation. The violation is not treating someone decently in private - and then putting them on public blast.
Again, I completely sympathize with the irritation of not being paid. And I’m aware there’s probably more to the story. From the outside looking in, it is not a classy thing to put a large client that paid 2 hrs late on public blast, and it doesn’t foster much goodwill in potential clients to see one treated that way.
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You can think it is the same, I think it is totally different.
KS will dig up dirt about you from years past to bad mouth you when you have done nothing to her currently and then post texts left and right.
He did nothing like that. Nothing at all. Actually, he has avoided doing that.
I can not put these two situations even close to each other in a comparison, they are like on the opposite end of social media outbursts.
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Typo on my part it should have said that it does mention signing the waiver and paying the fee and I have no issue with Boyd having people pay to school on his cross country course. Having said that considering this seems to be a reoccurring problem ( he has multiple Facebook posts about the same issue) it might be time for him to be more specific on his website and social media. It might be helpful if he just came out and said payment is REQUIRED before you school.
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I’m aware. That’s why I replied to you.
Understood. However… there are so many other nasty people out there at the top top of the sport. I think the reaction to this one incident is WAY over the top.
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Uhm except Boyd Martin to my knowledge doesn’t have a history of basically backyard breeding, misrepresenting horses’ bloodlines and, oh yeah brushing off photos of severely undernourished young horses (that he’s responsible for) as “normal.” If it weren’t for that no one would be paying attention to KS’ social posts.
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The 2nd one is still up. Please stop trying to gaslight everyone that he took it down and nothing more happened. Everyone knows her name after the first. He was embarrassed b/c of his own public tantrum with the first one (probably esp the outrageous call for people to dial 911 if they saw her - dear god what hysteria), so he took it down.
But, make no mistake: the second one is still there, just without the name that everyone knows.
It’s still up with his fandom still going full throttle on the client/sucking up to Boyd about how he has no need to apologise. Please be honest in your commentary that a post basically as inappropriate as the first one is still up with comments turned on at running at over 755.
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Two different issues: her breeding/her SM cray-cray.
I’m talking about the latter. SM hit jobs like that are bad in both cases.
Disagree that people don’t pay attention to her without the breeding issues. She has so much fantastical stuff going on that people in that small community abosulutely pay attention to her SM stuff whether they know her only as a braider, a dog person, someone who gets into fights in bars, or whatever else she’s serving up at any given time.
Immoderate SM behaviour gets attention regardless of the poster’s background. It’s why people do it.
Also a worthwhile reminder that the internet is forever. You don’t get to post something inflammatory and then claim no harm no foul because it was deleted 20 minutes later. That post was seen, screenshotted, and shared plenty in that time. It didn’t disappear to be forgotten.
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I don’t move in this world and while I’d obviously heard of Boyd, I hadn’t heard of Courtney before this. But after reading about this last night, I went down a bit of a rabbit hole and did a search here on the forum. Every report I could find about her sales business (and even her working student program?) was positive. Posters on here talked about smooth, transparent transactions, horses matched thoughtfully to buyers, and a clear, professional process from start to finish.
Not saying she doesn’t have a “reputation” locally (I’m sure every professional does in some way, this is the horse world after all) but at least on here , that wasn’t the case. On COTH, the record painted her as someone who delivers what she promises.
That’s why Boyd’s public post feels especially unprofessional to me (in addition to rude, etc). When someone with that kind of visibility and influence calls out a fellow professional in public, there’s a huge power imbalance. It’s not just airing a grievance, it’s wielding influence that can quietly, but seriously, damage someone’s livelihood.
Horse sales run on trust. It only takes one high-profile call-out to make potential buyers back away, sometimes instantly. First, the inquiries slow down. Then the doubts creep in. And long after the dust settles, the shadow lingers - because people remember the association, even if they don’t remember the details…
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I think the problem/difference is that all 5 of Cooper’s horses arrived tacked up. It sounds as if Martin saw all those, then went about his day, then saw payment for 4 and flipped out. Naked old horse who never leaves his boudoir? That horse, to my way of thinking, didn’t need a ticket.
I don’t think he should have flipped out on social media. I think asking others to help police the suspension was a little much. But I can see why appearances (and perhaps a pattern of people skipping out on schooling fees) created the perfect storm for him and, unfortunately, for Cooper.
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