Nevzorov Photography Contest of Crazy

Our good friend Alexander Nevzorov is at it again with a photography contest called "Unmasking equestrian sport." The purpose of this initiative is aimed at "instituting criminal proceedings against equestrian sport." Yes, really.

To help competitors, Nevzorov Haute Ecole is preparing a photo guide called "The cruelty of equestrian sport: types, methods, and the nature of the cruel treatment of horses. Documentary Photographic Evidence."

You don't need to wait for the special guide, he's looking for pictures of horses with severed fetlocks running down a racetrack and the like. I found this out the hard way while perusing his website. Learn from my mistake.

Meanwhile an "expert psychiatrist" has claimed that watching Mr. Nevzorov's new film is actually hazardous to one's health. And here we thought laughter was the best natural tonic. Mr. Nevzorov responded by claiming the shrink must have been sampling some psychotropic drugs when he viewed it. Not sure who wins this particular Contest of Crazy. The translation is rough but we especially like "Internet-public is greedily rubbing its hands."



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More Drama In The Anti-Rollkur Scene!

Horses & Sports reported Thursday (sorry it's in German) that Dr. Gerd Heuschmann has resigned his No. 2 position in the Xenophon society. This follows his very public, very messy break-up with Philippe Karl. However Dr. Heuschmann has not been cast out of the society and remains a regular member. We suspected that his willingness to compromise with the enemy at the February meeting met with resistance from others who do not accept a step-by-step approach, but a very nice insider has now informed us we have no idea what we are talking about. It's just that on the basis of his comments following the conference we thought the guy might have been brainwashed. His assessment of it just didn't jibe with anything else we read from anyone in the "anti" camp, which was basically "this is total BS." But perhaps he was just being diplomatic. That makes sense.

But there are also potentially scandalous rumors afoot about Dr. Heuschmann and Rollkur Barbie, fueled when her press rep, Phelps Media Group, insisted the two are "just friends" following the latest clinic Dr. Heuschmann conducted at RKB's place in Wellington, Florida. Probably she planted the rumor as she tries desperately to rehabilitate her image. That plastic minx is always up to something.

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Take Your Dog To Work Day

This Friday is Take Your Dog To Work Day in the USA, so if you're elsewhere, and are relying on someone in your company's American office to get anything done, best to rethink that. UK canines have to wait until September for their chance to get a taste of Cube Farm Hell.

Henk Rottinghuis Is Fabulous

The website of FEI presidential candidate Henk Rottinghuis (NED) is up and running, and he even linked to the Carrot, like we're a real news source or something. FABULOUS! We like a candidate with a sense of humor. It looks like HRH's latest PR team there at Good Relations noticed the link as well. Maybe they are handling HRH's attempted re-election whereas the crew at Hill and Knowlton seems more crisis oriented, focusing more on eg, the Morrissey cluster. Or maybe the latter agency just liked reading the Carrot on an April Sunday afternoon along with the FEI and USEF, in the interest of managing a PR crisis horse welfare. Good times!

This is better than when we got a press release from NOGOE, just like we were the real media or something. The Carrot felt badly for not coming up with anything on Greenwich but we'll keep trying. Ideas always welcome!

Other than a link to the professional survey Mr. Rottinghuis sent to all the national federations and affiliate organizations, we don't see anything newly published on the site that we haven't already linked to, other than his contact details. But the survey company promises to have the results ready by July 14. Efficient. Informative. Open. Professional. We like it.

Always on top of all things Swedish (and HRH-related), Hastmagazinet reported that Dear Leader's other challenger Sven Holmberg gave an interview to tabloid from hell Expressen. Unfortunately like most things Swedish, it's in Swedish so no one else can read it. However TranStar, which is the  Carrot's Official Swedish-to-English Translation Partner, tells us he emphasizes that he is not a princess. This is indeed a plus however we must note that Henk Rottinghuis is also not a princess.  What else ya got?

Mr. Holmberg recently traveled to China on behalf of the FEI (and Rolex), to sell watches see about a World Cup League there.  Interesting. In related news, here's a recent Australian news item about an upcoming international horse fair in China. And as we noted awhile back Meydan is building a giant horse city near Tianjin. Everybody wants some of that. As long as they don't do this to the horses, it's all good.

In the interest of keeping up with the transparency game and salvaging her presidency, HRH is to be fitted with an "ear-cam" at all future major events, so the public can see just who is manipulating her aural orifice. The footage will be broadcast live on FEI TV. Whether or not audio is to be included is still under discussion.

Since transparency is all the rage, HRH will also be publishing a list of all her personal heroes and other cohorts on the FEI website, so all riders are fully informed and can be sure to stay in the good graces of anyone who might be able to influence her to do something totally wacky. Like retroactively eliminate and disqualify a perfectly sound horse on "welfare" grounds even as an unfortunate Swiss creature, "crippled since Tuesday" in the words of Rodrigo Pessoa, is allowed to pass inspection.

As you can see we're fresh out of material here until she does something else crazy!

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What Your Pets Are Up To When You're Not Around

Cracked.com posted a great Photoshop contest. My faves:

Back To Disqualification For Flogging By Blogging

Returning to the Disqualification for Flogging by Blogging fiasco, USEF has made a move out in front in the Let's See Who Is Toughest On Crime race, even though thinking members of the public would expect that they have a faster hearing process than does the FEI. (the FEI also does not have a formal plea bargain option.)

Accepting a plea deal, the USEF suspended Morrissey for three months and fined him $3000 way back on May 6, as reported today by the intrepid Karen Robinson. He might have had a shitty lawyer unless someone can cite some similar precedents because that seems a bit much at first glance, for a plea. Especially when you consider he was already (air quotes) "banned from the selection trials" by USEF (LOL) AND "disqualified" by the FEI (LOL). What jokesters they are at the USEFEI! And of course the FEI still has to have its way with him. Plus he starred on YouTube. That is not fun.

Boy they sure did keep that proceeding quiet, which is surprising because we were expecting more of a PR show. Points to USEF for NOT putting on a big show on this, even if it's a little curious that they didn't even put out a news release. We suspect that is less about them wanting to give the guy a break and more about them not wanting to invite further commentary on the ethical issues surrounding the botched cover up. But we're happy to go there anyway, since no one else will.

The punishment was for something vague along the lines of violating their code of conduct, which can mean simply bringing the sport into disrepute or whatever (how dare he end up on YouTube!), but apparently not for violating their whip/abuse rule, which unlike the FEI's is only subjectively worded (no "three strikes" clause):

MICHAEL MORRISSEY violated Chapter 7, GR702.1d in that he was observed excessively striking, with a crop, the horse Crelido, during Class 101, the USEF WEG Selection Trial #2. This conduct constitutes a breach of the USEF Code of Conduct.

For anyone interested in navigating all that USEF mess, the articles relevant to whip usage in jumping are GR803 and GR839.4a, and JP102.1b and JP111.2, but he wasn't found to have violated those. The only article he was actually found to have violated is as follows:

GR702 Violations.
1. A violation is any act prejudicial to the best interests of the Federation, including but not limited to the following:
d. Acting or inciting or permitting any other to act in a manner contrary to the rules of the Federation, or in a manner deemed improper, unethical, dishonest, unsportsmanlike or intemperate, or prejudicial to the best interests of the sport and the Federation.

The "cruelty to a horse" violation is 702.1f, so they did NOT find for cruelty. This does probably make some sense given that FEI rules supersede making this case fairly legally complex in terms of jurisdiction, in addition to the plea factor. And there is likely some coordinated USEF-FEI "strategery" going on here. But more importantly we think this whole thing might possibly be unprecedented for USEF to take action under their rules against a rider for conduct in an FEI event rather than acting after an FEI ruling. When has that ever happened? Thinking members of the public also know that YouTube surely had something to do with that. Did anyone notice that the video only hit YouTube AFTER the botched cover up prompted by Ms. Robinson's blog? The Carrot sure did. And we doubt that was a coincidence. How nice for young Mr. Morrissey.

Witch Hunt Humor