off track quarter horse

[silversnaffles]

Me, at the end of my dressage test saluting to the judge after failing to halt at G and ending up half out of the ring with my horse facing in the wrong direction:

[tokays]

So, Stormy Daniels (yes, that Stormy Daniels) is an avid equestrian and eventer who exposed Ellen Doughty-Hume (US 4* rider and Rolex competitor) for animal abuse on a COTH forum post.  Two of Ms. Daniels’ horses died while at EDH’s facility.  

Other accusations towards EDH later came to light on the thread, including:

Encouraging students to yank on mouths and “ride through lameness”

Refusing vet care for a horse with severe colic

Encouraging children to ride unsafe horses, and putting young children through high-level courses on her competition mounts

Buying a horse who later seemed to show signs of strangles, not quarantining or testing him, and letting him lay in an uncleaned stall without food or water.

Competing/hauling client horses without permission, sometimes out-of-state

Her dogs (which she takes off leash to shows and off property) breaking the spine of a barn kitten, which she then manhandled and did not take for care or euthanasia

EDH slapping tight side reins on a baby OTTB, causing him to rear over and break his skull, then refusing to euthanize him or even let the working student on hand cut the bridle off to free him.  His body was illegally dumped in a back pasture at her facility.

The thread has grown in the two years it’s been online, and new allegations have been posted on facebook.  I normally don’t post stuff like this, but the accusations have come from several sources and been tied to names.  It’s a highly disturbing pattern. EDH is a very visible eventer in my state. Until I was googling her (I will be in Dallas this weekend and was scoping out some facilities) I was unaware of her history of cruelty.  She’s actively advertising horses here still.  I do know at least one sponsor has dropped her since this went public.

Beware of this woman and anything she touches!

I highly recommend the entire thread here, it is worth the whole read.

[equikage]

shit is wild

[sdequus2]

Not to stir more drama but I'm a fan of Elisa and I see way too many people assuming horrible things about her just because she made some mistakes. She's human, not a robot, and she does care about her horse more than anything. She was angry at herself for pushing him too hard when she fell and walked off to cool herself down so she didn't make her horse anxious, and because people had already grabbed her horse and were calming him down and making sure he was okay.I hope you have a nice day ❤️

Honestly, though, I still don’t get that. I personally think it more so comes off at her being angry they didn’t finish because what if the horse was severely injured and needed to be put to sleep? As a horse person, I think that’s pretty inexcusable not to even check on your own horse. I do like her and want to see how she develops and changes from this but the fact that she didn’t even turn around to check on her horse, to me, is a lot less understandable than not pulling him up. She knew he was exhausted but that can be excused a bit by the competitive drive and her thinking that a few more fences wouldn’t hurt but after the fall, she’d know exactly why it had happened and that her horse could’ve been really hurt and she still walked away.

If he’d needed to be put to sleep or was severely injured, she would’ve missed out on the time to actually check on him and potentially say goodbye. So, even if she didn’t want to get him anxious, not even really turning around to look or telling someone before she leaves shows carelessness that seems more related to not finishing the competition than being mad at herself. It is poor horsemanship and tbh I think that if you were watching another rider who you weren’t emotionally invested in do that, you’d have different views.

Check on your horses, especially if they tried to tackle a 4* fence for you even through exhaustion. That horse was honest to a fault. If you’re disappointed with yourself then you should be doing right by your horse and sticking with them because they’re probably just as out of sorts and in need of seeing their “mom”.

[keepcalmandletitride]

I mean … I just disagree with anon on the principle that I’ve been there. my horse and I fell and went down and it would’ve been really easy for me to just take him home and put him away - especially given that my skull was cracked, but I didn’t. I spent an hour cold hosing his legs to make sure he was okay. we weren’t competing, but it doesn’t matter. if you and your partner go down, you check on them. horses can’t verbalize to you if they’re okay, so the only way you’ll know is to check them yourselves. I don’t excuse her behavior even if she was angry.

[sdequus2]

Exactly and that coupled with the fact that there’s absolutely no way that she wasn’t aware of how exhausted her horse was (she’s been riding him and knows what is normal and abnormal for him), she would’ve had an idea of why he went down and the mistake she made so no matter how stupid you feel or how angry you are at yourself, I don’t understand what would’ve compelled her to walk away without checking because if it were me I know I wouldn’t be able to walk away from my horse like that especially if I caused the accident.

[idreaminbayandgrey]

My thing is that it’s possible someone told her as they passed that they had the horse and to go get checked. Or maybe someone was waving her down. Also the clip is extremely short. It’s possible she went and got her vest off and passed on to someone then came back to help. No one really knows tbh because you’re basing a character judgement from a 10 second clip

[sdequus2]

I would still say the whole thing is bad horsemanship. I understand why she may have thought she could finish but it won’t change my opinion that it was selfish to make that decision and while she may have come back, I do find it really weird that you wouldn’t even glance back at the horse after a fall like that. She seemed upset after and really disappointed which I mean, yeah it sucks and yeah there are things that could’ve influenced her decision making but I don’t believe any of that justifies the selfishness of pushing a tired horse like that. So while people can like her and believe she will change (I’m sure she will) I don’t see why so many are trying to justify the decision. It was a lapse of judgment and it was bad horsemanship regardless

[idreaminbayandgrey]

I mean she admitted it was bad horsemanship. She was punished. They are also now going to do bloodwork on the horse because he’s been to several 4* and they have no clue why he was that exhausted.

So while in the moment she wasn’t thinking great, after the fact her actions are speaking for themselves.

[sabino-spots]

@sdequus, you are constantly judged on minuscule moments that you share on social media by people who have no idea what’s really going on. You of all people should know better than to judge a short clip of a small moment in time.

[otqh]

(I actually wrote about this on my AP Lang exam, hoo) but I think part of the reason people are being so forgiving of Elisa is because of her large social media following and the fact that she has kind of become a mini celebrity as a result. There were a lot of riders who have done a whole lot less who were actually crucified by the Internet/tumblr. I think it is important to look past personal opinions on her and see that her entire cross country ride was unobjectively Not Good™

[thoodleoo]

alexander the great was a weird horse girl

when alexander first saw bucephalus and found out that his dad philip didn’t want to buy the horse because he was unmanageable, he kept saying that it sure would be a shame to give up such an awesome horse

he kept saying this until philip was like well alex do you think you’re so great that you can tame this horse

of course alexander said yes

alexander tamed this Troubled Horse Who Lets No One Else Handle Him by being gentle to him and and turning him away from his shadow

literally like a Horse Girl Movie ™

philip was so amazed by this that he told alex that macedonia was clearly too small of a kingdom for him

in the words of a delightful ode to bucephalus, “fuck you, dad”

bucephalus became alexander’s favorite horse whom he loved without equal and who wouldn’t let anyone else ride him

one time bucephalus got kidnapped by persians and alexander freaked the fuck out

he promised that he would cut down every tree, burn all the crops he found, and kill every living creature until he got his horse back

needless to say, bucephalus was returned along with a plea for mercy

bucephalus then supposedly lived to be about 30 years old which is pretty long for an ancient horse

when he died alexander was so upset that he named a city bucephala after him

that’s right, a city named after his horse

somebody please make a Horse Girl Movie ™ about alex g

[spanishequestrian]

Need me a freak like that

[thecinematichorse]

This is absolutely 100% relevant to this blog.

[myfairjoy]

History.

[freerangeeventing]

@themotherfuckingclickerkid

[equikage]

Remind me to post the link to the article by the woman of color (can’t remember if she was black or latina) who wrote about being at some equestrian event and someone asked if she was the fucking bus driver

and when she said no they said ‘weird, you look like a bus driver’

[plantanarchy]

I heard a story from somebody who had a non-white friend who came with her to a fancy show jumping competition and the friend got mistaken for barn help…

[equikage]

Can we share these stories? Anybody who’s reading and has one? I understand poc not wanting to share their personal experiences but apparently this kind of thing needs to be talked about over a megaphone for this kind of racist bullshit to skate by for over a thousand fucking notes

[equestrinope-blog]

Old trainer of mine thought it was necessary to take us all aside and warn us about a black dude coming on property to learn to ride. She even whispered the word black and the word Zimbabwe. ( Where he was from. )  All of us found it really fucking awkward and inappropriate. :// 

[thequeerblackequestrian]

When my mother had just graduated vet school, she had started working at UMD, and lived on campus with several other young vets. In order to the Vet center, a bus was sent to pick all of the new employees up. Upon loading the bus, the (white) busdriver refused to allow my mother on the bus because they did not believe that she, a black woman, could be a medical practitioner of any kind. She had to walk to work. Mind this is late 1980’s.

As I’ve stated before in my previous posts pertaining to racism and elitism in the equine world, my experience has been exhausting. Numerous times I have scheduled an appointment to view a barn for either prospective boarding, or even a job interview, and been met with angry faces and a gun on the hip or shoulder when I arrive.

Last year, when I boarded Cal at a facility, I was the only black person, let alone poc, at the facility, which isn’t far from normal. Though everyone was warm and friendly with each other, they were always kinda cold to me. A few months into boarding there, I’m met with a text message from the barn owner that I have one week to move Cal because she doesn’t want me there anymore. Apparently several other boarders had came to her saying that they heard me telling someone I hated it there and that I would never board there again. They said I made them uncomfortable and didn’t know my “intents”. Even though after telling the owner that none of this was true she said I could stay, I moved shortly afterwards.

I’ve got plenty more stories. But there’s some to get an idea.

[otqh]

My best friend is Guatemalan. Just the other day we were at a show together and she was walking back from the bathroom when a lady stopped her and asked "oh, is that your brother?" before pointing to the only other person of color in the entire place. Mind you, this kid looked absolutely nothing like her and they never interacted with each other at all or even went near each other. However, since they were both brown that lady figured that of course they must be related. Even though this isn't that extreme, and some would argue that it isn't even racism, just little things like that run rampant through even the most straight edge, politically correct side of the equestrian community.

[threebigolsausages-deactivated2]

every single person who has not seen a horse by the age of 13 has died at 33

I don’t know why but this ask scares me and I want it out of my inbox but I’m afraid if I delete it it will curse me

[transperceneige]

Badminton 2017 | Show jumping phase | © Shannon Brinkman

Yoshiaki Oiwa and THE DUKE OF CAVAN

[transperceneige]

Badminton 2017 | Show jumping phase | © Shannon Brinkman 

The winners, Andrew Nicholson and NEREO

Nicholson, 55, first rode at Badminton in 1984; he has since completed more times than any other rider, and has finished second, on Lord Killinghurst in 2004, and third, on Libby Sellar’s Spanish-bred chestnut gelding Nereo in 2013. He was in the lead on Nereo in 2015, but it all went wrong in the final phase.

His win is even more of a fairytale considering he broke his neck in a fall 18 months ago—the prospect of competing Avebury, his three-time Burghley winner, and Nereo was, he says, a strong motivation during his recovery. (x)

[otqh]

Did anyone see Elisa Wallace's cross country round?

There's a lot of drama going on about how she should've been carded, etc. etc. I sadly missed it, but I know there's been a ton of falls on course so what's the uproar about Elisa?

[orbite-beast]

When u fall off a fjord

Fjuck

[ultrafacts]

The same thing is done with racing horses. Except that they use a goat. [x]

(Fact Source) Follow Ultrafacts for more facts

[absolutepie]

HELLO FAST CAT I AM YOUR DESIGNATED DOG FRIEND

[vancity604778kid]

Opponents would literally attempt to kidnap each other’s goats in an effort to upset the horse and cause them to lose the race. [x]

[ultrafacts]

[actuallyasisterofbattle]

I have a weird derailing question. Is this the origin of the idiom about getting someone’s goat?

[crowmeme]

As a matter of fact, it is!

[thatsthat24]

I just learned so much from this one post.

[gorreality-deactivated20170927]

“I can’t be vegan, I love cheese”

Dairy industry is as evil as meat. No less harm for animals. Does it look natural that calf can’t drink milk so you can taste your piece of cheese? 

GO VEGAN. 

[smellyoldblanket]

WRONG

That calf is wearing a nose tag. Nose tags are put on calves so that they are able to stay with their mothers longer, but are unable to nurse. They don’t NEED to nurse as they get older, they just get greedier and pushier and will bash up the cow’s udder and bruise it with their noses.

This nose-tag is so that calves can stay with their mothers, their mothers can remain pain-free and healthy, and nobody is stressed.

Educate yourselves you ignorant fucking tarts.

[horseandarcher-deactivated20150]

…really? You don’t think it might have anything to do with the milk being stolen for human consumption? At all? Not even a tiny bit?

[the-gay-is-over9000]

Militant vegans can fuck right off

[periegesisvoid-deactivated]

Based on fur texture and face shape, that calf is at least six months old, probably older.  Calves can survive without actual cow milk even at three months, though older is better (calves weaned that early are usually fed a sort of formula for another couple months).

Also, nose tags like that one don’t go through the cow’s septum.  They basically work like those fake septum rings for humans.

In addition to weaning the calves, another use for nose tags is protecting non-lactating cows.  Sometimes weanlings or even adult cows will suck on themselves or other non-lactating cows; this can cause internal teat scarring bad enough to prevent that teat or teats from ever working.  I’ve seen this happen, and it’s ugly, probably at least somewhat painful, and, if bad enough, would lead to the cow being slaughtered at a very young age because she can’t produce milk, has chronic mastitis, and/or can’t be milked with automatic milking equipment.  So, nose tags actually prevent animal cruelty.

Also, calves will suck on anything remotely oblong (and attempt to eat literally anything), even if they are being adequately fed or overfed.  Often they will suck on other calves’ ears, and, since ears are longer than teats and cows have upper as well as lower teeth in the back of their mouths, many calves get bites on their ears, which often become severely infected.  I’m not sure if nose tags would work there, because physics—a non-toxic but bad-tasting ear paint would be better—but yeah, letting a calf put anything it wants in its mouth is not always a good idea.

[master-dog]

reblogging for educational purposes.

[kijikun-deactivated20150220]

reblogging for people being schooled

[gonnagoandrunwiththehorses-deac]

This was the funniest argument about false cruelty I have read.. Thank you. 

[namesnotfred]

I love this for 2 reasons: Most people don’t realize that in farming areas agriculture/horticulture/animal husbandry is part of public school education from as early on as 7th grade. (Though I remember dissecting cow eyes in 4th grade science sooo) I assure you fifteen year old farm kids know more about what constitutes animal cruelty in farms than thirty year old vegans with, or without an agenda. 

Also that if you really want good quality beef/pork/eggs/milk/etc you don’t abuse your animals. Ever. That’s not the point and if you want to make any kind of money off your career choice, you are going to treat those creatures better than you treat yourself. You’ll call a vet five times for an infection in your herd before you visit the hospital for a missing foot on your own leg. 

So. Yeah. Watch out, because we’re getting internet access these days. We’re on tumblr too. 

[somejane-deactivated20200807]

P.S. The immigrant workers farming your supermarket produce have no health care or legal protection, and the Bolivians farming your 365 Organic Quinoa can’t afford to eat it. But PLEASE won’t someone think of the poor baby cows who won’t get off the tit?!

[thehornedwitch-deactivated20211]

Also this is a LOT nicer than what mother cows do to calves that won’t be weaned. You know what mother cows do to calves that won’t wean? kick them in the head. Now I don’t know about vegans, but I’d rather have a nose tag that discouraged me from injuring my mother (because calves that don’t wean tend to chew on udders and make mother cows bleed) rather than being kicked in the head. Source: I grew up on a fucking cattle ranch. I have seen chickens skeletonize a mouse I KNOW SHIT.

[systlin]

As the granddaughter of dairy farmers I approve of serving this knowledge to vegan dipshits. 

[bovicola]

i loved you for your never ending desire to live, you could nearly pull through anything. your mind is capable of living a thousand lives but your body cant keep up.

we have been counting down the days together and you remained as brave as you have always been. i am very grateful for all the adventures we had and i can assure you that you will be deeply missed. i hope to one day find the drive you had to keep on going

sleep tight, love.

[otqh]

me,swimming:wow this is amazing i love the ocean

me, when seaweed touches my foot: I imagine death so much it feels more like memory

[vvarmbloods]

[equitationstar]

So today it’s all over social media that a famous show jumping rider just sold her mare for $3,000,000. to another rich kid. And you and I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that hundreds of young aspiring riders will see this, and add it as one more example of the way that the system is rigged against them, and will allow this news to add to their existing sense of disillusionment about their own chances of ever becoming successful. There will be other kids who might give this news a flickering glance, and keep on practicing the sitting trot, keep on jumping the two foot fences to work on their eye for a distance, keep on trading mucking stalls in exchange for lessons, and the chance to ride more horses. And I can tell you, without a shadow of a doubt, that some day, 25 years from now, it will be one of these latter kids who will be the “big” rider, not the recipients of too much largesse, nor those who use the easy success of some as an excuse to shirk their own struggle.

Denny Emerson on Reed Kessler’s horse, Cylana, being sold to a young amateur for $3 million (via equitation-star)

I felt a tight tug at my chest just now. A little difficult to explain.

(via lowkeyincentive)

[qqqqqqqqqwe-deactivated20170301]

if you don’t see me online a lot that means my life is going good