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KikiDee said:
I wonder if the lack of competing affiliated was a sore point for TB too, especially if they expected him to be out improving his record and competing at a certain level. From her posts, MD seemed to want to take her time with him and encourage more relaxation. On the other hand in the interest of fairness perhaps she just wasn’t bothering to put the work in to get him back out competing which caused friction with the owners, who knows.
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Yes I wondered about that. Prioritizing relaxation over results isn’t particularly conducive to building up a good competition record — perhaps an owner sees that as a problem if a horse is there with a sale in mind — and it doesn’t seem like judging in dressage as a whole rewards it anyway (I remember the Swedish rider Carl Hedin posting that a judge’s notes had criticized him for having a very loose curb rein at GP).
 
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Having just read through most of this thread I couldn't find a FB page for TB has it been taken down or could someone put a link up / PM it ?
Just being very very nosey 🤥👃🤥 😅!!
 
KikiDee said:
I didn’t follow MD before but have since this thread and she posts a lot of stories on IG of her with the horses, daily care, working them etc. Did anyone follow her previously? If she’s always posted this stuff it kind of disputes that she’s not actively looking after her horses day to day, unless it’s only just started as a positive PR exercise.
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I could post pictures every day of my children reading/cleaning/being angelic… doesn’t mean it’s reality!
 
KikiDee said:
It’s quite hard to take pictures and videos of you doing things without doing them though.
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I could take a couple of videos/pics of my horse’s in their stables every week, in reality they spend 95% of their time living out.

Someone in social media isn’t posting AM and PM yard, 365 days a year are they? If you see 2 or 3 posts a week of “good care” you will assume it’s an ongoing things.

I could set up a SM account tomorrow that makes my terrier look like a well trained, calm and sensible dog, in reality she’s a reactive lock down dog!

SM isn’t real!
 
HopOnTrot said:
I could take a couple of videos/pics of my horse’s in their stables every week, in reality they spend 95% of their time living out.

Someone in social media isn’t posting AM and PM yard, 365 days a year are they? If you see 2 or 3 posts a week of “good care” you will assume it’s an ongoing things.

I could set up a SM account tomorrow that makes my terrier look like a well trained, calm and sensible dog, in reality she’s a reactive lock down dog!

SM isn’t real!
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Well yes, fair enough, if your point is that SM can be faked, then of course you are right. But I also think there are plenty of horsey people who do post honestly, to promote what they are doing and what they believe in... my yard owner does, someone I have clinics with does. And I'm still not clear what would be the point of faking, because anyone who had a connection in real life would know.

Personally, I would not be surprised if this thing turns out to be not related to welfare at all, just related to money. Here's a possible scenario:

1. LZ wants to sell shares, tries to negotiate with syndicate, but they can't agree on a price
2. LZ loses patience, removes Olaf to force sale, uses welfare as a cover
3. MD wants to keep Olaf, asks LZ if she can buy her out
4. LZ gives MD a high price
5. MD starts GFM

The truth? I don't know. But possible, definitely. And to me, it's a much more simple explanation of all that has gone on.
 
There's a huge grey area between "faked" and "accurate" though.

Taking footage when you have time, good weather, support crew to film content that covers a range of husbandry topics - like feeding, stable management, field management, grooming, bathing etc - isn't "fake" as much as it is good sense. You're just using your time constructively. But you hack that footage up into 20 different videos, and drop them over the course of X number of months, interspersed with other content. That's not "faked", but it does give an inaccurate idea that this is happening over a longer period of time.

That's not necessarily problematic if the content is generated on one day, but reflects the wider picture of what happens every day. Equally it could be used to present the idea of good ongoing management where it isn't happening.
 
HopOnTrot said:
I could take a couple of videos/pics of my horse’s in their stables every week, in reality they spend 95% of their time living out.

Someone in social media isn’t posting AM and PM yard, 365 days a year are they? If you see 2 or 3 posts a week of “good care” you will assume it’s an ongoing things.

I could set up a SM account tomorrow that makes my terrier look like a well trained, calm and sensible dog, in reality she’s a reactive lock down dog!

SM isn’t real!
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Her recent stories (not posts) have been a bit of a video diary of her day working various horses and doing stuff with them, it’s quite hard to replicate that fictitiously.

That’s why I asked if anyone else followed her previously, as I didn’t, so curious if it’s a new thing in response to the claims being made or she’s always posted similar updates.
 
I was made aware of welfare concerns a number of months ago. Not by anyone named on this post but another owner who removed her horse after being informed MD was on holiday and the horses were not being provided with adequate care, ie no one had been engaged to provide proper coverage whilst MD was away. Owner removed horse immediately and was very upset about its condition. This owner has nothing to do with a syndicate and from what I can see has not made her experience public. I have no reason to doubt her story nor think there is any other side to it but then those of us who breed/ produce horses and thus send horses away for training etc, are all too familiar with the numerous people whose social media presence is completely misaligned with the reality of what goes on at their yards. I have a list the length of my arm of people I have horror stories about from personal experience; I will make others aware through a quiet word but haven’t the energy to make public name and shame posts and deal with those who defend substandard care of horses until their last breath as always happens. I know plenty of people who feel the same and thus it’s no surprise to me that no info about these allegations came out until this GFM came about. As an aside, MD was recommended to me on a FB post when I was looking for a classical rider to take on one of our young mares; I have to say I was distinctly underwhelmed by the constant drilling of horses in the same movement in all her videos and the fact that all look under muscled for the work being asked of them. I wouldn’t say the impression I get is of horses being kept to a high professional standard.
 
Efasporthorses said:
I was made aware of welfare concerns a number of months ago. Not by anyone named on this post but another owner who removed her horse after being informed MD was on holiday and the horses were not being provided with adequate care, ie no one had been engaged to provide proper coverage whilst MD was away. Owner removed horse immediately and was very upset about its condition. This owner has nothing to do with a syndicate and from what I can see has not made her experience public. I have no reason to doubt her story nor think there is any other side to it but then those of us who breed/ produce horses and thus send horses away for training etc, are all too familiar with the numerous people whose social media presence is completely misaligned with the reality of what goes on at their yards. I have a list the length of my arm of people I have horror stories about from personal experience; I will make others aware through a quiet word but haven’t the energy to make public name and shame posts and deal with those who defend substandard care of horses until their last breath as always happens. I know plenty of people who feel the same and thus it’s no surprise to me that no info about these allegations came out until this GFM came about. As an aside, MD was recommended to me on a FB post when I was looking for a classical rider to take on one of our young mares; I have to say I was distinctly underwhelmed by the constant drilling of horses in the same movement in all her videos and the fact that all look under muscled for the work being asked of them. I wouldn’t say the impression I get is of horses being kept to a high professional standard.
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I have known MD for about ten years and have worked for her family briefly when I used to freelance. I’m also local to where she is based. I’ve checked in on her occasionally to see how her riding career played out because from what I saw back then, although I hoped I was wrong, I absolutely saw this coming.

Someone I know took their horse there on sales livery, she was happy to pay the massively overinflated livery fees and was impressed by the SM. She visited on day three, was shocked by what she saw and removed her horse within an hour.

I wasn’t in the slightest bit surprised but was obviously sad for both her and especially her horse.

I think the only way you can genuinely understand what goes on in someone else’s yard and their level of knowledge/work ethic/ability is to work there for a couple of months, I can honestly say in this case SM and reality couldn’t be more opposite.
 
moosea said:
not really, you can post pictures from another time or use AI
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off topic, but we have someone at our yard who has done this....sponsored up to the nines, all the free gear, but literally petrified of her horse (her words) and doesn't ride. She gets a professional out to take photos once a year of her doing things and then spreads them out over the year...when it comes to photos of free stuff that needs to be photographed, horse gets a quick bath, stuff gets put on, photographed and 5 minutes after that they ahve left the yard and you won't see them for a month.
 
Efasporthorses said:
I was made aware of welfare concerns a number of months ago. Not by anyone named on this post but another owner who removed her horse after being informed MD was on holiday and the horses were not being provided with adequate care, ie no one had been engaged to provide proper coverage whilst MD was away. Owner removed horse immediately and was very upset about its condition. This owner has nothing to do with a syndicate and from what I can see has not made her experience public. I have no reason to doubt her story nor think there is any other side to it but then those of us who breed/ produce horses and thus send horses away for training etc, are all too familiar with the numerous people whose social media presence is completely misaligned with the reality of what goes on at their yards. I have a list the length of my arm of people I have horror stories about from personal experience; I will make others aware through a quiet word but haven’t the energy to make public name and shame posts and deal with those who defend substandard care of horses until their last breath as always happens. I know plenty of people who feel the same and thus it’s no surprise to me that no info about these allegations came out until this GFM came about. As an aside, MD was recommended to me on a FB post when I was looking for a classical rider to take on one of our young mares; I have to say I was distinctly underwhelmed by the constant drilling of horses in the same movement in all her videos and the fact that all look under muscled for the work being asked of them. I wouldn’t say the impression I get is of horses being kept to a high professional standard.
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So bizarre, I wrote this post earlier today and assumed it was sent under my long held profile here. I did not set up a new profile to post it nor was aware I had any other unused profile on here nor did I log on as anything else so no idea where this new user profile came from! But before the comments start about “oh a new user jumps on, you must be a friend of so and so’s”, I am a very long time user of the forum, (more lurker than poster in recent years) and have no dog in this fight at all. But I was aware there were concerns about care at MDs yard going back over a period of time. Which detracts from the unsubstantiated claims being made here that this is down to an investor in the horse being spiteful or greedy.
 
TheChestnutThing said:
off topic, but we have someone at our yard who has done this....sponsored up to the nines, all the free gear, but literally petrified of her horse (her words) and doesn't ride. She gets a professional out to take photos once a year of her doing things and then spreads them out over the year...when it comes to photos of free stuff that needs to be photographed, horse gets a quick bath, stuff gets put on, photographed and 5 minutes after that they ahve left the yard and you won't see them for a month.
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I think this is really common, and a reminder that social media is absolutely not reality. It's (in the main) marketing for the person and is unlikely to wholly reflect the day to day reality. There is no substitute for visiting yards and getting recommendations from people you know well who have actually used the person for whatever service they are delivering.

I see people being recommended online all the time by their social media followers. These people sometimes don't even live in the same country, much less have used their services!
 
The horse is presumably in the possession of the syndicate/owner now as they have removed him from the yard.

I can't imagine them returning him after all this and the concerns for his welfare, but MD seems convinced he will come home which would be really bizarre after they had such a fight to retrieve him!

There's absolutely no reasonable way they could send him back to MD under the circumstances and claims made, so I'm guessing he will be shipped out to Europe, I wonder what will happen to the GFM money then? I'm surprised she hasn't called it a day with the GFM yet tbh as there's no way the owner can morally sell to her given the publicised issues under her care and the detriment to the horse.
 
KikiDee said:
The horse is presumably in the possession of the syndicate/owner now as they have removed him from the yard.

I can't imagine them returning him after all this and the concerns for his welfare, but MD seems convinced he will come home which would be really bizarre after they had such a fight to retrieve him!

There's absolutely no reasonable way they could send him back to MD under the circumstances and claims made, so I'm guessing he will be shipped out to Europe, I wonder what will happen to the GFM money then? I'm surprised she hasn't called it a day with the GFM yet tbh as there's no way the owner can morally sell to her given the publicised issues under her care and the detriment to the horse.
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I was thinking exactly the same thing. Why is she still raising funds for a horse she can’t have? Why does she still think she can buy him? Why hasn’t the GFM ended and the money returned? Why has nobody close to her or directly involved in this situation given her a blunt reality check? I’m baffled.
 
In addition, her stories (particularly this morning regarding switching feed) are a not so subtle effort of countering the allegations. If I had genuine concerns regarding welfare, there would be absolutely no way I would be selling the horse back to the rider, irrespective of price, thus rendering the GFM utterly pointless and resulting in anyone donating less than £25 losing out on their hard earned cash
 
Yeah I see this point, and the ones above. But I think the continuation of the GFM must mean negotiation is still happening, behind the scenes.
 
Barklands said:
In addition, her stories (particularly this morning regarding switching feed) are a not so subtle effort of countering the allegations. If I had genuine concerns regarding welfare, there would be absolutely no way I would be selling the horse back to the rider, irrespective of price, thus rendering the GFM utterly pointless and resulting in anyone donating less than £25 losing out on their hard earned cash
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Yes I notice that, but I hadn't followed her previously which is why I was curious what sort of content she normally posted and whether this was a bit of a PR exercise.
 
JTDAE said:
Yeah I see this point, and the ones above. But I think the continuation of the GFM must mean negotiation is still happening, behind the scenes.
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It's genuinely so baffling! Wasn't the update I was expecting when she broke her silence at all.
 
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