I haven't seen the video and am not sure I want to watch, but he apparently has charges being brought against him following a temper tantrum in competition during which he beat his horse 13 times when the horse had issues with a water jump.
This is the kind of thing that makes me want to take a whip to the rider.
However, the least I can do is write to his sponsors and alert them to the fact that they are giving money to the wrong rider.
I can't find any info in my brief Google search - if anyone knows more, let me know via comments.
billie hinton’s camera-obscura:
life and lessons on November Hill Farm
20 comments:
i have no idea, and i don't know how you'd find out. i wonder if the usef/fei have that information somewhere and if it is accessible to the public. they should, and if they don't require that info from the riders they should. and they should be required to make it public.
or maybe find out what stable he rides out of and speak to the manager? i'm sure he has someone else conducting his business for him... i doubt they'd give you much (unless maybe they thought you also wanted to sponsor him, yeah right!) but i can't think of anything else :-(
i don't generally approve of violence but, i would have a hard time not dragging him off his poor horse and kicking the crap out of him if i saw that in person :-\ better the offending human than the innocent, involuntary participant horse.
Usually riders at his level of competition have websites but I can't find one for him. Perhaps there was one and he has taken it down during this furor - I'm seeing a lot about this recent video when I google his name today.
The one good thing I'm seeing right now is that when people screw up like he did, and like Kittel did, the video hits the internet and everyone has the opportunity to protest, complain, boycott, etc. There need be no "your word against his" scenario. And I do believe incriminating video makes it more difficult for the governing bodies to simply ignore things.
I just watched the video. He's an ass, that's not the way you treat a horse who won't jump water. Unfortunately, I've seen this happen a lot in the past at many shows. You wouldn't believe that people on the sidelines actually thought this was a good practice and the riders were really 'tough' to get the horses to do what they wanted. They were even considered good riders for getting the job done. We've always considered them ignorant and abusive.
It does say something about how things are changing( although a little slowly). Years ago this was considered an acceptable practice, now videos are being taken and the riders are being looked at differently and hopefully being taken to task for having a hissy fit. I don't know who sponsors him, but their should be a way to find out. I do hope he lost the class at least.
i saw it, and was not impressed! the spoilt child method of getting your pony over a fence, which in my book would result in said spoilt child being dragged off pony pronto!
Billie...did you see this?
http://www.chronofhorse.com/article/fei-and-usef-initiate-charges-michael-morrissey-abuse-case
Arlene, I'm glad to hear things are slowly shifting - wish it were a faster process, but old habits and ways sometimes die hard. Hopefully the growing focus on this kind of equine treatment will hasten it a bit.
Claire, I like the image of the spoilt man being dragged off his big pony. :)
Maddy, I had seen the article you linked - but had not followed a link within that same article to read this blog:
http://www.horse-canada.com/?cat=51
which offers some interesting details to the story. It's refreshing to read that this blogger has generally made a nuisance of him/herself trying to get answers directly from the FEI about what is being done.
I found a 2006 article/interview from his publicist phelpsmediagroup.com where Mr. Temper Tantrum says that his uncle owns all of the horses that he rides... couldn't find any mention of corporate sponsorship :)
Your background makes the blog difficult to read.
Oh, my, TOH... I guess if one's uncle is sponsoring there is not really anyone to write to about uncouth behavior! :/
panovia999, thanks for the feedback - I've been trying to change the color of the blog post titles, but getting error messages for now.
Otherwise, though, the blog is exactly the way I want it to be... obscura, you know?? :)
I didn't know where to post this but thought you might enjoy this story.
Picaro is a horse who was seriously injured when he was shot several times by his owner who subsequently took his own life. Picaro now has his very own blog and is enjoying his rehab on a local farm. It's truly amazing that the outstanding vets at Tufts were able to save this wonderful horse.
http://picarodiary.blogspot.com/
Thanks, Maddy, I'll check it out.
CWD sponsors him
Thanks, anon, and for anyone who wants to email CWD, here's the link to their contact page:
http://www.cwdsellier.com/?currentPage=Contact
that's disgusting. how can people even behave like that towards a horse that obviously hasn't been trained correctly to do the jump! it erally annoys me when you see people generally attacking their horses when going round any course of jumps. especially shouting i can't stand that. there should definately be a rule against that.
Fez, I agree- and encourage you to write his sponsors and let them know how you feel.
I did (you can read the update post) and got a personal response about how they have chosen to handle it. But the more people who contact them the better, as they will realize that it does matter.
Thanks for sharing the link, but unfortunately it seems to be offline... Does anybody have a mirror or another source? Please answer to my post if you do!
I would appreciate if a staff member here at camera-obscura-billie.blogspot.com could post it.
Thanks,
Jules
Jules, which link is it you want? The link to the ride itself was never posted here.
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