BEF and Meydan deal?

Ycbm when have I said I wished others do not post or have I misunderstood you? Why do you feel the need to insist I explain to you why in your words I would want to take 'dirty money' as you insist on calling it.
Are you saying I'm not allowed my opinion unless it is the same as yours?
You don't need to keep bringing up Splitters Creek Bundy.
 
Steerpike said:
Ycbm when have I said I wished others do not post or have I misunderstood you? Why do you feel the need to insist I explain to you why in your words I would want to take 'dirty money' as you insist on calling it.
Are you saying I'm not allowed my opinion unless it is the same as yours?
You don't need to keep bringing up Splitters Creek Bundy.
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I think everyone would like to understand why you think it is all right to take this money when so many people are against it. I'm personally intrigued whether you really have convinced yourself it's morally clean, or whether your desire for more rides is more important than the origin of the cash.

You can have whatever opinion on it you like, I'd just like to know what it is, and you aren't saying.

I'm not going to trawl back through your posts but several times I have got the impression that you were saying you wished people would stop criticising this deal.

And Splitters Creek Bundy isn't the only horse who has had below the knee fractures, it's a known side effect of the drug/exercise combination that is used with these horses. And my own opinion is that we need to keep going on and on and on about it until the abuse stops.
 
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Steerpike said:
Why do you feel the need to insist I explain to you why in your words I would want to take 'dirty money' as you insist on calling it.
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That is a good question, tbf. Why would you? When wouldn't you, or is all money fine as long as it helps you achieve your aspirations?
 
Flame, you don't know what my aspirations are so no they won't help my aspirations but I think if the Fei are happy for these rides to go ahead then you cannot criticise the British riders for going there if they choose to. Ycbm I haven't even thought about the money let alone trying to convince myself it's clean as you say.
On a side note I see 3 horses were killed at Cheltenham today, channel 4 racing, sponsored by meydan. Not much in the media about that.
 
I can't get over how you could not consider where the money is coming from and to suggest that because the FEI is happy for them to go ahead so it's all hunky dory is just :eek3: I'm sure there will be plenty in the press about Cheltenham- there is usually much more about racing than endurance!
 
Steerpike said:
Flame, you don't know what my aspirations are so no they won't help my aspirations but I think if the Fei are happy for these rides to go ahead then you cannot criticise the British riders for going there if they choose to.
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We'll have to disagree about that :)

Steerpike said:
Ycbm I haven't even thought about the money let alone trying to convince myself it's clean as you say.
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You should give it some thought, do some reading and listen to people who have explained far more eloquently than I can all the reasons why taking this money is just bad.

Steerpike said:
On a side note I see 3 horses were killed at Cheltenham today, channel 4 racing, sponsored by meydan. Not much in the media about that.
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I'm actually not as appalled by the dead horses as many are, but the cheating, the pressurising exhausted horses, the amputations and the desire to control and shape international endurance instead of just entering varied rides like everyone else, keeping to the same rules, unwritten rules and etiquette as everyone else. Many of the horses seen on video footage look like they are having a really hard time, too. There will be stuff in the media about dead horses at Cheltenham anyway.
 
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ester said:
I can't get over how you could not consider where the money is coming from and to suggest that because the FEI is happy for them to go ahead so it's all hunky dory is just :eek3: I'm sure there will be plenty in the press about Cheltenham- there is usually much more about racing than endurance!
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This. Stunned ....
 
Flame, believe it or not I do read nearly all that is published, I don't come across well on computers! I'm not burying my head in the sand, yes it's sad horses have lost their lives but it happens every day. I enjoy endurance and with all the nastiness that is going around at the moment makes me want to just put my head down and enjoy my own horse. I want to put a different view/opinion across from others and I'm sorry if a fair few of you don't like that but that is life you can't like everything.
 
Have to laugh when people resort to "lots of dead horses in racing, so that makes it OK in endurance" argument.
Major difference being that in endurance 'to finish is to win', in endurance the aim of the game is to preserve the horse. Oh, and we aren't talking about racing, we are talking about endurance-where the welfare of the horse is paramount.

Let's face it, the UAE have given international an awful image. One that even Jo Public has heard of. Yet, here we are the BEF nice and comfy nestling in Meydan money, rumored to be £1 million, with EGB cast aside not fit to run the rides at Euston Park. Last time I checked EGB were the national body for endurance, but now 5 out of 11 FEI rides have been deemed too important/prestigious/big/difficult/add your own word here for EGB to run or have anything to do with. Instead the BEF prefer to hand over the organising of the ride to HPower, a company with with the experience of what, 3 x 2* rides at Windsor as their whole sum of their experience in endurance? But that isn't a problem, as the FEI officials will be there if anything goes wrong, the responsibility of a smooth run ride starts and finishes with the officials chosen to officiate that ride.
So we can all heave a sigh of relief as if HPower are looking to have the same officials as they have previously used at Windsor, then it should all be plain sailing, especially when 2 of the members of the ground jury are famous for their capacity to sleep whilst on duty!

FEI riders will choose where they want to ride, I will put my money on certain faces that are 100% sure to sadly choose Euston Park over the EGB FEI rides. Quick to forget the hard work and planning that has gone into the EGB FEI rides for years and the fact that those EGB FEI rides were on the calendar way before these Euston Park ones, and I will put money on others that are 100% sure to choose the EGB rides because their conscience wouldn't allow them to compete at a ride that has been bought and paid for by sponsorship that they don't agree with.

There are only 24 British FEI endurance riders registered at present. Some of those don't even live in Britain and never compete in Britain either Last year's figure of 113, (we can probably count as around 100 UK based FEI riders if we are being generous) as the rest are abroad in far flung places across the globe. With 6 EGB FEI rides, this is a better ratio than a lot of countries have, but it is not enough according to certain quarters. Not prepared to hop over the channel to Holland, Belgium or France which are all in easy reach, they prefer to demand more loss making rides in their own country, after all, it is easier to win against 5 or 9 riders than to compete on the continent with 100+. Notwithstanding that the main reason to be FEI is to compete internationally. But what about the cost of competing internationally? "It costs too much to go abroad, but we don't have enough rides to compete at" is often another argument used.
Well do what riders do in other disciplines when they are serious about their sport..... Find sponsors, or move countries. Mark Todd is one of many foreigners that came to the UK to improve their eventing career, Guy Williams recently re-located to France as he was fed up with having to cross the channel every time he wanted to compete in Europe. Others go to America or elsewhere.

There are some GB FEI riders quietly going about their business, they don't complain and they also make the effort to pop over the channel once in a while to go to an international event.

The UAE have wrecked the sport. Despite the new measures put in place by the FEI in the UAE we have still got to double figures with regards to dead horses this season and another one to add to that from this week. Not to mention the continuos cheating, the ghastly video of the young riders beating their dead eyed and exhausted horses over the finish line in January, the grooms chasing horses out of the start gate, the 'miraculous' recovery times, the excessive speeds, the cars still shown on the track, the disqualifications due to riders changing halfway around the loop, not to mention horses who have been disq being allowed back out onto the next loop, all under the watchful eye of 'officials'..... or maybe they were asleep, dozing in the sun (!)
 
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