Morgan Barbancon

[Palindrome]

I am in 2 minds. It sounds a bit fishy that she didn't follow the guidelines properly about the doping (i.e. she needed to register where she would be in advance so the horses could be controlled) which resulted in her being suspended.
The accusation of "Blows on a horse of such intensity that led to his death." need some proof behind though, there should be back up for such a claim and IMO if there was the pictures would already be out. If one of her top level horses it would have been noticed too.

 

[Caol Ila]

I saw the HHO article and the comments, including their response. The jury is so out it's gone on holiday to Greece. We know from the Cesar Parra case that it can take years for whistleblowers to come forwards because the consequences of doing so (for your career and personal safety) are high, and that national equestrian federations are as useless as marzipan dildos (apologies, Malcolm) at investigating 'the odd' allegation. Accusations had been levelled at Parra for years, and USDF was like, "Eh...whatever."

I appreciate not reporting on the abuse allegations when they haven't got multiple credible sources to back them up. That's good journalism. But I felt that the spin on the article was very sympathetic towards Barbancon's 'woe is me' FB post. You could have reported 'just the facts, ma'am' in a much more neutral way, which would be smart, given those other allegations swirling around, which may or may not be proven.

 

[nikicb]

I saw the HHO article and the comments, including their response. The jury is so out it's gone on holiday to Greece. We know from the Cesar Parra case that it can take years for whistleblowers to come forwards because the consequences of doing so (for your career and personal safety) are high, and that national equestrian federations are as useless as marzipan dildos (apologies, Malcolm) at investigating 'the odd' allegation. Accusations had been levelled at Parra for years, and USDF was like, "Eh...whatever."

I appreciate not reporting on the abuse allegations when they haven't got multiple credible sources to back them up. That's good journalism. But I felt that the spin on the article was very sympathetic towards Barbancon's 'woe is me' FB post. You could have reported 'just the facts, ma'am' in a much more neutral way, which would be smart, given those other allegations swirling around, which may or may not be proven.

Thank you, that's exactly how I felt, although you probably worded it better than me. The headline described her 'nightmare'. The headline should just have been 'rider disqualified for 18 months'.

 

[Wishfilly]

I hope it is all investigated fully, including the allegations around human workers. I feel there's a lot of exploitation of workers within horse sport and it's probably something that needs to be looked at more closely.

It is also concerning how many allegations are starting to come out against pro riders- it almost feels like a culture of silence is starting to break?

 

[boltus]

In Texas a dressage rider shocked a horse to death with a cattle prod. It took 30 minutes for the horse to die. So I guess it depends what she used to beat the horse to death with. She can afford the very best lawyers and my guess is it will all be settled for $$$ with no wrong doing admitted. I just can’t believe 30 people including vets who could lose their license for lying all made this up.