Horse and Hound - Speechless

sunflower

sunflower

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Have just read this weeks H&H and am utterly speechless at the reporting of the FEI verdict of the Amy Tryon case. Mark phillips comment

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Technically she broke the rules so they have given her a nominal sentence - the minimum sentence is usually three months but they've taken into account the fact that Amy really cares for her horses

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Combined with William F-P's comment

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Amy's case serves as official notification to riders that they must be more aware. The FEI is, rightly, taking a harder line on welfare issues. If it hadn't the outside world would have gained a damning impression of how horse sport is governed

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Words fail me.....
 
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Buying my copy on sat...interested to see what will be written...

but looks like im going to be dissapointed...
 
I wouldn't hold your breath. The 'in-depth aritcle' on it is a short piece giving the main points of the tribunal with all the excuses of 'she was tired, she didn't knwo' etc and MP's comment posted above. the 'industry reaction' as far as I can see is a short bit on the end of W F_P's column effectively saying she was unlucky and it could have happened to anyone.
 
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Ah, this is why i spend nearly £3 every week

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Our H&H didn't turn up today.. and the first thing mum said was "oh, i hadn't noticed, it's not something i look forwards to anymore"
I think we only get it out of habbit now..

Is anyone else pissed off that they haven't made any ref. to how the public (aka us on HHO) have reacted to the AT case??
Every week i look at the little section near the front where it gives a % of what is talked about most on HHO, and not once has it said anything about the AT case, which is after all what seems to be talked about most on here!!
 
I feel the same Sunflower, cant say I feel the same way about WFP as I did. Im really disappointed at the lack of column inches given the amount of interest this has caused.
 
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I posted about WFPs comments in comp riders - just don't know what to make of it
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On one hand he's saying the FEI are taking a tougher line then saying he thinks her punishment is quite severe. There is also reference to the fact that the incident was shown on the internet etc which all adds to the impression that the only reason they did anything about it was because it was so public.
To be honest I think the outside world have 'gained a damning impression of how horse sport is governed' and it's entirely due to the total whitewash in this case.
 
There's a brief brief mention of the forum on page 7 of today's issue at the end of the AT article (not WFP's column)

It says "updates on the story have been among the more read on the H&H website and the subject of much debate on the website's forum"

That's it!
 
Apart from the brief bit about how this has been 'the subject of much debate on the forum'
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To be honest I am not surprised given how biased the reporting of the entire incident has been but I am disappointed.
 
i have commented on WFP's comment on teapots other thread but frankly i am not surprised at H&H. if they make a big thing of this then possibly it will be taken up by a wider audience who might not realise how much AT 'cares for her horse' and then HH would be in trouble with BE the FEI and god knows who else for inciting the populace.
I think my next letter will be to the times or something. This whole thing has been a complete whitewash.
 
I cannot BELIEVE CMP! The man should be shot.

And I am so shocked that she was given less than the minimum sentence for "being kind to her horses."

An outrage in all respects.

Why is HHO too gutless to give us a balanced report?
 
My sister watched this "incident" live on TV in America and couldn't believe the FEI verdict either!

She was very upset at the time as only a few minutes before had said how wonderful the horse looked as he galloped and jumped around the course.
 
Agreed, it's a total whitewash and I am very disappointed with H&H's reporting of the whole incident as well as those "professionals" who are falling over themselves to make excuses for her.
 
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Bugger I need to kill my horse so i can prove how kind I am to her.... and how much I really love her

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Well technically I think it means you are free to kill your horse as long as you didn't mean to do it and are really sorry because you cared so much for her and your total disregard for her welfare was only because you were highly focused on winning
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So what exactly does someone have to do to break the rules more that 'technically'?!

If as a bumbling amateur I can tell whether a horse is unlevel or not, then a 4* rider certainly should be able to. The fact that he says she would have pulled up if she had been further from the finish just says to me she did not give two hoots about anything other than getting over that finish line.

It's rare I get het up about anything, in fact in general I think people are too nice to their horses, but this has left me outraged - I fail to comprehend how it is acceptable to use the defence of 'I did not know anything was wrong' when you are meant to be an elite athlete. If ignorance is no excuse for doping, then it is no excuse for riding a lame horse, and frankly, if you can't tell that a horse is trying to pull up at 4* level then you have no place riding full stop, let alone eventing at the top level.
 
Exactly - I fail to see that her position on the course matters. A lame horse is a lame horse whether at the first fence or the last.
 
H&H's coverage does not reflect the strength of feeling of the general public and I am really disappointed with it, along with WFP's comments which I think are very carefully worded.
 
Just to put a different viewpoint - why should someone be crucified for making a MISTAKE?

I've watched the video lots of times and I don't think its as black and white as everyone is making out.
 
well according to the FEIs decisions

you can kill a horse (so long as you care about it) and get banned and a 1000 franc fine

you can whip it 'cos it reared in a warm up area and get fined 3000 francs and warned as to behaviour

you can accidentally or purposely have banned substances found in your horse and you as the rider will get fined and banned for 3 to 12 months


so really it's OK to kill your horse ......just don't dope it first
 
Whether it was a mistake, an error of judgement or whatever the fact remains that she was found guilty of horse abuse and recieved less than the minimum sentence. I don't think she should be crucified and I don't think she should receive a lifetime ban either but if this is the FEI taking 'a harder line on welfare' what kind of message does this actually send out?
 
I think it's the horse world closing ranks and trying to show a united front on what is potentially a very explosive topic given the wider context of some silly people saying horse sports are 'cruel'. I agree the reporting has been very PC to say the least but I think it is damage limitation for the sport as a whole.
 
I can see your point but is it really damage limitation? These cases are, fortunately rare but surely the FEI taking a tougher stance on horse abuse would show the general public that this is unacceptable. TBH I think it looks worse for the sport that AT has been found guilty of horse abuse and yet only given a token punishment - the implication being that this was oly because the incident has been widely available to view on the internet...
 
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