Ouch, That Might Leave A Mark

We might have to start a series entitled Great Moments in Equestrian Journalism. The USA's most highly esteemed The Chronicle of the Horse published on Wednesday a most curious history of international endurance:

In 1982 the Fédération Equestre Internationale recognized endurance as an international sport, and in 1993 endurance became the fifth team discipline under the U.S. Equestrian Team. The first world championships were held in 1998 in the United Arab Emirates.

Oh my. If by 1998 they meant 1986, well then sure. That's only a difference of. . .twelve years, in which the USA won all six individual world endurance championship titles, a run extending through 1998 with the seventh consecutive US gold, Valerie Kanavy's second in Dubai. A run which also featured Becky Hart's incredible three consecutive world titles on the same horse (!). There's a helluva lot of horsemanship involved in keeping a horse at that level for so long, even in a small sport (and the winning ride times back then were nothing to sneeze at). Which is why we're mentioning it. And then there were Pieraz's two consecutive golds, and the two WECs that the US itself hosted and the two team golds they won there. You can still read a bit about this history of endurance, pre-UAE cash era, in the FEI's own Aachen preview here on Horsetalk (funny how one has to keep going to New Zealand to read about what some Americans were up to). And of course there were The Chronicle's own Overall Equestrian and Overall Horse of the Year honors that Hart, Kanavy and Pieraz so deservedly won for their respective achievements. We'll mention Cassandra Schuler (gold in 1986) and Danielle Kanavy (1996) as well just because these people should all be recognized in the face of such an incredible oversight by their own top media source.

It's not that the author had to detail US accomplishments as that obviously wasn't the point, or even the scope, of the piece. But to negate everything that happened before Dubai got involved is a bit much. That's not just a run-of-the-mill error, that's a slap in the face to the entire US endurance community, which is why we're addressing it. Actually I'd call that a right walloping upside the head. Ouch. Where did they research that, Wikipedia? Just for kicks I looked it up on Wikipedia, and sure enough:

When first recognized by the FEI, there were only four international competitions. This grew to an average of 18 rides per year by 1998, when the first World Championships were held in the United Arab Emirates.

Make that "the first world championships WITH MONEY," or perhaps the Wiki writer meant the first time the UAE (as opposed to another country) hosted the WEC, the second time being the notorious 2004 worlds when the gold medalist got sent home by the OC rather than have his moment on the podium, in a stunning slap in the face of due process that cast the FEI as the good guy for once.  Wouldn't it be funny if the American Horse Publications recent award winner for "general excellence" is researching the history of equestrian sport on Wikipedia? Not really.

They go on to inform us that riders at the WEG will be covering 100 miles in less than 24 hours. Well yes, that's technically true, but it's a lot less than 24 hours! Like 8 hours less. Isn't that sort of a big difference? With the required minimum speed of 13 km/h over 160 km (= 12.31 hours ride time) plus the intended 200 minutes of holds (= 3.33 hours), you can't possibly get anywhere near a 24 hour total completion time. More like 16 hours (barring adjustments of the minimum speed due to ambient conditions). The longest it's gone in recent memory was around 18 hours for the last rider in Jerez under extraordinary weather/terrain conditions and a minimum speed that was reduced to 10 km/h (and that was eight years ago, literally eons in terms of endurance development). It was about the same in Malaysia in 2008 at 12 km/h when the tropical conditions were so worrisome they raced at night and added a lot of extra hold time (nearly five hours compared to just over three planned in Kentucky). Aachen at 12 km/h also had heavy rain and mud and the last finisher still came in after about 16 hours, including holds. This isn't obscure information (although it's probably not on Wikipedia).

Are there no editors at this magazine? It's starting to look like summer interns run amok. Next thing you know they'll be slapping an erroneous headline on an FEI press release and misinforming likely tens of thousands of people that Sapphire's disqualification from the entire World Cup Final was ruled incorrect. Oh wait, that already happened. And still haven't got it right more than a month later! The media doghouse got really crowded after that cluster, so some are chained up out back, not even allowed into the doghouse.

In some other Fair & Balanced^TM type reporting, they have interviewed Nicki Shahinian-Simpson about the very unfortunate Tristan situation, but make no mention of even having contacted the horse's owners for any comment. Because in such matters, there's never another side to the story, right? She probably did get royally screwed, but isn't the reporter's job to reflect investigation of what happened from various angles, as opposed to appearing to accept what one side told them as "the truth"? A simple "The owners had no comment" speaks volumes, and only enhances the rider's credibility (and she was already very credible). Instead we end up sort of doubting when we otherwise wouldn't, because we don't get the feeling another side was even considered.

That's sort of like reprinting a press release from the USEF or FEI as if it's necessarily "the news," as opposed to what these bullshit artists at the organizations want the media and public to believe is "the news." Oh wait. . .

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Where In The World Is The USEFEI Tribunal Ruling?

OK we see what you did there

So we knew these kids were up to something based on the wonky press releases, we just really needed to either see the actual ruling, or have them refuse to publish the ruling, to confirm it. If they had refused to promptly publish the ruling after we asked so nicely last Wednesday, the Carrot would have taken that as enough of an answer to publicly pose the questions immediately raised by the oddities in the press releases, in context with the oddity of how this whole thing has been handled. We never expected the actual ruling to see the light of day. But then. . .they published the ruling.

Oh, my.

Just as we suspected, the actual ruling did not match the bullshit served up in the press releases. Why on earth did you guys publish that? How stupid do you think we are? Either the USEFEI is far more stupid than we realized, or they are just incredibly brazen because they know it will never be reported on and they will never be called out on duping almost the entire FEI Nation into believing there was actually a judicial proceeding in favor of McLain Ward.

Henk Rottinghuis: The Movie

We were thinking that FEI dark horse candidate Henk Rottinghuis (NED) really needed to post some videos on his website, so that people can feel they are getting to know him more than they would just by reading what he has to say. Et voilà:



The more videos the better; we hope when he has digested the results of his survey he will comment on different issues in further video clips.  In order to want to vote for him people need to hear him speak. We are particularly interested in learning more about the consolidation of the Dutch federation and what he might have learned from that process. He has also posted an English translation of a Hoefslag article about his candidacy, and was interviewed by Phelps Sports (subscription required). Here are some of his policy and management ideas.

Sven Holmberg has formally sent out his platform to the NFs, as reported by dressage-news.com, which has been a great source for election news, and further elaborated by Horsetalk, another great source of election news. (what has now gone to the NFs looks to be the same thing published on his website and passed around by email in May). And we would love to see a video from him as well, even though the FEI Nation already knows him far more than Mr. Rottinghuis. Mr. Holmberg is keen on the FEI restructuring but like many at last year's General Assembly appears to take issue with prior efforts. Readers may recall the last attempted FEI restructuring was shot down in Copenhagen 49-48, well short of the two-thirds majority required to amend the Statutes. That proposal (summary here) was the work of Princess Haya, FEI Secretary General Alex McLin (USA), Gerardo Werthein (ARG), John Long (USA), François Mathy (BEL), and Martien van den Heuvel (NED). But last-minute, inflammatory changes not done in accordance with the statutory procedure sealed its fate.

We must commend both candidates for their openness with the general equestrian public in discussing their ideas. We vaguely recall the 2006 Edition of HRH Princess Haya starting this modern and wonderful trend with a dedicated election website (there wasn't nearly so much interest back then so it wasn't that widely circulated.) So there, The Carrot has complimented HRH.

Great now I'm probably going to get fired.

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FEI Fails Public Relations 101. What, Again? Really? So Soon?

Or, look what mayhem ensues when everybody gets a press release, but nobody gets "it"

The FEI has massively failed Public Relations 101, yet again. We've never seen anything like it. And we've seen a lot. It's like the FEI got everyone drunk on Double Trouble Carrot Punch^TM without even meaning to! Given some very wishful thinking Stateside it's a full scale media disaster for the FEI. One award-winning American journalist in particular is so badly spun we think she might have motion sickness. We won't even link to that mess for comedic purposes, it's that far gone. It's so bad, we feel sorry for the FEI (save the Person Responsible for this whole mess). L'Affaire Sapphire even made us feel sorry for John Roche, and we didn't think that was possible.

In the interest of promulgating reality, our first Gold Media Star goes to none other than St-Georg (yes, really), which has published the first clarification we've seen (The Carrot doesn't count) of this latest massive communications failure. Unfortunately in addition to being in German it's wrapped up in a predictable "welfare" agenda when we all know this had nothing to do with actual welfare, only the manipulation of the concept with obvious motives. The Interweb Mayhem is not limited to the English language, oh no. So far we've seen it in French, German and it's probably in Dutch too, but we can't make any sense out of Dutch. So St Georg has differentiated itself by publishing a more nuanced explanation of the ruling bullshit that the FEI and USEF actually tried to put out on July 3 (and did, if you knew that both the retro-elimination AND the disqualification were protested with only the first likely to be overturned, the essential dispute not so much). But well . . . look where that got them.

The resulting mayhem worked very well for the USEF though, didn't it?  Hey peoples, if the May Tribunal ruling (that has  strangely yet to see the light of day) was so favorable to the USEF/MW, why did they just spend the entire 30-day appeal period negotiating to stay out of arbitration over it? If it was really in their favor, there'd be no reason to appeal and thus nothing to haggle over all this time to get them to NOT appeal. And the American side "officially" got so little out of it and yet is so satisfied, isn't that kind of odd?  "Officially" the story is something nice about "the good of the sport," the main need for the good of the sport being to get the protocol revised so this can't happen again. But they could easily have gotten the protocol revised without using the leverage of a CAS appeal, there was surely overwhelming support for that before the WEG, given the widespread outrage. So we have to ask, is that it? Are you SURE that's all you guys got? Especially considering the highly irregular way in which the resolution of this case has been handled, well . . . let's just say Cinders, the mysophobic piglet, might have to pull on her Wellies again. We love Cinders.

Horse and Hound has been conspicuously silent on the matter; we hope they're on the case and will knock our socks off clarifying the FEI decision for the largely confused anglophone masses.

If you read French, the Swiss site Le Cavalier Romand also has commentary on the BFF situation. They and L'Eperon posit BFF concern about the WEG was a strong motivator; it would indeed be unfortunate if the USEF had appealed and the CAS decision came down in the midst of the WEG. Awkward!  We all know how important it is to USEF to not have anything screw up the WEG. Progressive list, anyone?  Probably the arbitration would have stretched into 2011, given who is involved. But we're pretty sure it would never get that far. If you had all that dirty laundry, and all that at your disposal, would you let it get that far?

thanks to reader Lisa for sending the St Georg link, and other humorous contributions on this issue.

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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.

Back To Geneva

Dressage-news.com has reported today's FEI announcement that Sapphire's leg swabs have come back negative. Now there's a surprise. Obviously HRH wasn't expecting to find anything or the swabs would have been ordered to start with, rather than only after being demanded by the victim of her outrageous witch hunt affected rider. Which suggests that perhaps she knew the "anonymous tip" was total bullshit and just wanted to put on a "welfare" and "integrity" show anyway for media whore purposes. Or maybe that unsubstantiated rumor was specific to non-prohibited-substance-induced hypersensitization. Right. We're pretty sure the rumor was not about Sapphire having a bit of pain in the pastern. But of course no one, not even the "officially" non-accused, gets to have that information. Nancy Jaffer has the latest comment from McLain. Blood and urine were already negative as previously reported.

Sorry to beat a dead-but-otherwise-fit-to-compete horse but once the dust settled we still kept coming back to the elephant in the room which few have really explicitly called out. (we can't imagine why.) We heard a lot of criticism about the FEI falling back on "protocol" rather than common sense, vague references to unusual arm twisting sessions meetings and that the rules are wrong, no appeal etc.  But  the hypersensitivity (as opposed to hypersensitization) rule was in fact put in place after Hong Kong and the current version of the testing protocol took effect last summer (the effective date is even listed in the rule book). No one seemed to have any problem with it until political interference caused it to become an issue. So if the rule can prompt that kind of flagrant interference, yes the rule might be a problem in and of itself, but the bigger problem is the interference which can also be applied to other subjective decisions without appeal. Plenty of subjective things are not appealable, that is nothing new. This rule is just especially conducive to abuse based on gossip in an incredibly gullible president's ear so she can help her buddies out and earn points with naive clueless people outside the sport who will applaud her "tough stance."

Swedish Equestrian Federation Makes it Official

The Swedish Equestrian Federation made the official announcement today that Sven Holmberg, FEI 1st Vice President and Chair of the FEI Jumping Committee, will stand for election to the FEI presidency against HRH in November. They have put out a strong statement against what happened in Copenhagen, which we applaud. As usual, Häst is also not mincing words. We're glad there's another option; however we're disappointed that Mr. Holmberg did not use Geneva as an opportunity to further differentiate himself from HRH at least by remaining silent, especially when his entirely appropriate outrage over the General Assembly had been so, uh...vividly expressed. So we can only conclude that either he agrees with HRH's activities at the World Cup Final, or he was just being a good boy and falling in line. That he is running against her would seem to suggest it's not the latter, which is concerning.

The problem in Geneva was the same problem that existed in Copenhagen: a president out of control. Whether it takes place in an office or on the field of play, it's the same beast. Anyone who agrees with what went on in Geneva is unfit for the FEI presidency, even if they think the guy was indeed up to something. Plenty of people are up to something, but it's for the event officials to decide, without political interference, period. This cannot be negotiable. And anyone who plays footsie with her under the conference table to get what they want by any means necessary (e.g., NSAIDs) must accept they played a role in creating the monster that just came back to bite them in the arse. It's still corruption, even when it gets you what you want. You can't pick and choose and say, "Oh, we don't like that kind of corruption." You can't have it both ways. You're either for it or you're against it; pick a side.

HRH formally announced her re-election bid back in March, which was almost entirely overlooked by the equestrian media. We sort of got the feeling she didn't want to make a big deal of it and didn't even notify them. The mainstream press reports consistently noted that HRH was responsible for the introduction of term limits for the presidency, so that must have been part of her own press release. That change was great and much needed (of course, it could always be changed again later if it suits). But we are reminded that there was another huge change in the FEI Statutes that was introduced at the same time and never got any press at all, even though the negative consequences of it have been seen time and again. We think it's very relevant at this juncture.

Oh My, We Have A Situation

Or, The Carrot Reluctantly Strays Into (Mostly) Serious Commentary
(this is very long and there may be some profanity)

Some readers may not yet be aware, but we've actually had a Situation a-simmerin' since 17 March, when an intrepid Canadian journalist named Karen Robinson dared to call something out more than two weeks after everyone, starting with the FEI's illustrious Ground Jury, started pretending it never happened. We knew this was really something when the entire United States of America went silent. When even The Carrot's resourceful correspondents can't get a word out of anybody, you know it's really going to be good. Then you know it's really a Situation. We just can't pass up great comedy material here at The Carrot, but first we really need to outline the extent of the bullshit for informational purposes, because no one else is doing it and these arsehats really, really deserve it.

First, if you haven't seen this emerging YouTube star, watch the show before reading further. We mostly left this kid alone when there was no video, because as we know just as well as the FEI and USEF, if it's not on YouTube, it didn't really happen. And what we've learned in this faux news business is that it's always best to let the FEI Nation write its own material. We'd never want to interfere with a good clusterfuck as it unfolds, and we just had a feeling about this thing. So we kept pretty quiet and watched, even though we have some impatient readers all but demanding fresh Carrots on this. But now there's a video, which has managed an impressive 8200 views as of this writing despite a very conspicuous US media blackout. Still, we are far less concerned with the offence itself than we are with the inaction of the FEI judges and USEF bigwigs at the time, and the behaviour of the two governing bodies after the fact.

At the end of March, this little intrigue became even more of a Situation when the good people at Faux Equestrian Investigations finally returned to Ms. Robinson with their opening offer of astonishing bullshit:

The FEI is aware of the incident involving Michael Morrissey of the USA riding the horse Crelido at CSI2* Wellington on 27 February. We are investigating the matter alongside the USEF to determine whether, and to what extent the rider breached FEI and/or USEF rules. Mr. Morrissey was nevertheless disqualified from the rest of this Event and was not permitted to continue taking part in the United States Selection Trials for the World Equestrian Games organised during that and the following week.

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Oh my. Where do we begin? We hope Ms. Robinson will eventually note who sent her this bullshit, because it's really something. Likely it came from the Secretary General, but that doesn't mean he wrote it. We know he's an attorney, and we don't think he's that stupid.  Regardless of its origin, let's examine the bullshit closely: