Yet another delightful rider..... not..... when will this end?

Jenko109 said:
So very rancid.

The excuses are absurd. How stupid does he think we are?
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There are plenty of people defending him who are happy to at least pretend to be that stupid. Though tbh I suspect they would still defend him if he said he did it because he was possessed by a ghost or the horse would otherwise have eaten a baby.
 
I haven't seen the original film but his excuse popped up on my Facebook, he also included a clip of the horse now to justify it. I saw an unhappy, shut down horse miserably trotting around whilst being jabbed in the side with spurs & also being jabbed in the mouth. That poor creature would be better off death if that is his future.
 
Any beating - such as CDJ - is horrible and pointless but I just cannot get my head around hitting a horse 47 times in succession. It's haunting me.

Such a prolonged and continuous beating has to have come from a position of extreme temper or anger.

I just wish that the poor horse involved had gone on to a better future after this incident that what seems to have happened to it with its new rider.
 
Pic from sale ad on his page
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ester said:
I don’t get why you wouldn’t immediately be clearing your page of stuff like that… unless of course you think it’s fine and dandy.

Also, do wet horses sell better? I always find that weird too, even more if you’re a pro and it’s your job to take a sale photo…
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Given his pitiful excuse and woe is me response to the original videos he absolutely does think its fine and dandy. He was only sorry he was caught.
 
reynold said:
Possibly 'revenge' for the horse putting HR friend in hospital.

Has he been reported to australian Police yet for animal abuse/cruelty?
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Heath Ryan is facing an outstanding charge by RSPCA New South Wales for horse cruelty, as well as EA Integrity uni.

I'm not holding my breathe. Two similar but not as bad cases here in SA in last three years - concerning, respectively an Olympian, and a professional show jumper, trainer, and coach on the sj youth squad.

The Olympian, Wendy Schaeffer, was allegedly witnessed kicking her horse in the head after coming off at an xc event. Was fined, and suspended for 3 months. Appealed the charge, won, and was then voted EA SA Vice President!

Case 2. Professional show jumper, charged by both EA and RSPCA with whipping cruelty, appealed, reinstated; has also faced civil charges for sexual assault.

These people are a few k's down the road from me.

So, you will forgive and understand my mindset, that EA has proved itself to be toothless, to say the least. Might be a situation where FEI intervention is needed. We'll see.
 
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millitiger said:
There were quite a few at the time I posted the link- maybe 20% were in support of him?
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I would disagree with that. I saw the comments you have posted and a whole lot more, and I would put the figure at closer to 5% - those who were supporting him. I read the page until it disappeared from view.
 
Burnttoast said:
It seems like there are quite a few professionals who have nothing in their brain telling them something isn't acceptable. Most horses, sound or not, are very trainable so extreme methods are not required but in situations where speed is prioritised or an individual horse who is tricky for whatever reason is encountered then the gloves come off and they don't even pause to consider whether they should come at things in another way. Anything is acceptable to get the job done. There are elements of psychopathy going on here. Zero empathy, for one thing. But they certainly shouldn't be around animals.
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Or very often children.I have seen over ambitious trainers/parents being frankly violent to children if anything goes wrong in competition.No wonder some of them grow up without any empathy.
 
eahotson said:
Not just him.The horse he states,put its owner in hospital. What was going on there.?The implications is that it was problematic behaviour from the horse rather than just a very unfortunate accident.
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Somewhere on sm I read that he would refuse to go forward, drag his rider off and try to trample them but no substantiation so who knows. That would require careful expert handling if no physical cause (or retirement/pts also perfectly valid options) but without understanding the reason for the behaviour thrashing him is simply burying it till the next time.
 
I could only watch a couple of seconds of the video before I had to turn it off. The 'excuse' he gives is pathetic. A 'life or death' situation is a horse charging at you waving it's front legs and you've nowhere to go. Or backing you off a precipice or into the path of an oncoming train. Whipping in absolute desperation might be acceptable then.

What a vile human being. Just despicable. I hope he is banned from keeping animals.
 
millitiger said:
@Lois Lame not sure what comments you are referring to that I've posted.
Anyway, we can agree to disagree on it 🙂
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Ah, yes, I see now that you didn't post those comments. It was Dave's Mam on post No 559 in this thread.

ester said:
I don’t get why you wouldn’t immediately be clearing your page of stuff like that… unless of course you think it’s fine and dandy.
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He cleared his page at about 9.30am on Thursday morning (EST).
 
I'm Dun said:
Given his pitiful excuse and woe is me response to the original videos he absolutely does think its fine and dandy. He was only sorry he was caught.
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Absolutely. No one here in Australia, who I follow, or know personally, in equestrian, is taken in by his pathetically transparent rationalisations for such unbelievably violent behaviour towards a horse.

As mentioned up the thread, Heath Ryan really must think we all came down in the last rainfall to believe the knackers story. NOONE, who has gotten near a talented warmblood of that breeding, that is young, and sound, even if its behaviour is off the air, is going to have it pts. It will be of value, to someone, somewhere, ideally with more in their toolbox than Heath. So, I don't believe that aspect of his story at all.

And the general feeling amongst Australian horse people, that I'm sensing, is of actual grief. Grief for the horse; concern, for his wife, fellow Olympian Rozzie Ryan, who I've seen ride GP in RL, and is not harsh, but, who, by association, probably won't get another Olympic berth; grief [and maybe some relief], over the incontrovertible fact that social license is now down the toilet. So yeah, well done Heath.

But like previous European/US FEI examples of professional rider horse abusers from CDJ to Cesar Parra, to Andreas Helgstrand, like them, in this country and abroad, Ryan is very powerful, very influential across all the fields; breeding, training, riding, but there have been rumors about his behaviour for years.
 
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I've had this same issue with my horse. He'd be cantering then suddenly come to a dead stop for no discernable reason. If you try to get him moving again he goes backwards, pins his ears back and bucks. How far he would escalate his behaviour if you started gouging him with spurs or beat him 40+ times with a whip I have no idea since I didn't try this. Nor did I send him to the 'nackery'. After a physio check and bloods showed nothing I had him scoped and he has pyloric ulcers. They're not severe but the images show that when the sphincter closes they rub together which looks painful never mind how it feels to the horse. I think the treatment is working but he hasn't been rescoped yet.

I honestly think with some of these pro riders they are just sadists looking for an excuse.
 
The FEI statement reminded me just how long it seems to take them to investigate anything, still nothing on Parra either yet
 
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