Posted on 12/30/2005 3:19:33 PM PST by N. Beaujon
(CBS) MAHOPAC A Mahopac woman faces charges of animal cruelty for allegedly beating an 11-year-old horse - by hitting it in the head with a chain. The Putnam County Sheriff's department is charging 20-year-old Anna Nicole Bruno with animal assault.
Bruno, the horse's owner, used to ride Colby in equestrian events and has been ranked high in dressage competition by the U.S. Equestrian Association. http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_361084925.html
(Excerpt) Read more at wcbstv.com ...
MAJOR humiliating. From now on she'll be afraid to jerk a lead rope for fear someone is watching her.
And she may yet do time.
She may never have the guts to go to another horse show, at least in New York.
I'm here now....????
Becky
Heh... Oh I just wondered if you were sill following the conversation... I wasn't sure if I'd responded to your earlier posts :~D
Our horses didn't get fed till nearly 8 this morning. They were thinking of calling Animal Cops themselves. They don't know how good they've got it. :~D
I was thinking about this chick. I bet she's a little thing, and she's only 20. I'm not sure I physically ~could~ hit a horse hard enough to open up it's face, although the bony parts of the face are thinner skinned than anywhere else, and if she was doing that, I'm surprised the horse didn't pull right out of her hands. Whatever it was that went on was a bad scene. She's lucky she didn't take out an eye.
It was definitly a mess. Maybe the horse was tied up,,,,no telling.
I have to reserve judgement on her. If this is a pattern of behavior throw the book at her, if it was a one time thing it may not happen again.
Didn't feed till 8, huh...uuummmmm:). I didn't feed till nearly 9. I got several phone calls this morning and I just forgot that I hadn't fed till I looked out there and saw Harley staring at the house:). One of the calls was from Celia, and she had the dates of the Natrc rides. Looks like I could go to 6 next year that would be within my 4 hour travel time limit. But I'm only going to shoot for 4 of them. 2 of them are when the weather could be real iffy, and I'm not riding in cold rain, just not going to do it:). If the week of those rides the weather is great, and the ride is not full, and I don't have anything else going I'll go, but I'm not signing up early.
Becky
Understood, I don't ride in bad weather either :~D
I agree that the humiliation will be enough, and in addition, people will know her name now, and not for good reasons either. As a result, she might find it mighty hard to get her hands on another horse if she looks for another one.
I agree, but even if they somehow don't ban her, she's finished anyway. Dressage is a lot like gymnastics and figure skating -- totally subjective judging. I'm sure the judges won't like what they see when they know the rider is vicious horse-beater.
Little missy needs to be kept away from vulnerable humans too, like children.
I'm no horse expert, but I have trouble giving the benefit of the doubt here. This happened at the "Tilly Foster Farm" which is operated by the county. Presumably the witnesses who gave statements to police were familar with horses, and I'm sure the police would have consulted with the vet who treated the horse before actually bringing charges. People who know horses and witnessed either the attack or (in the case of the vet) its results, felt this was a matter for police attention. And I'm wondering what the horse was doing at this "foster farm" in the first place, and why the young woman was visiting/handling it there.
That reminds me... I saw an article in my "Horse Illustrated" magazine this month critical of a top dressage rider who has been accused of 'overbending' her horses in warm up. I scanned it below:
That was called abuse. This speaks to what I was saying on the other thread about a fine line.
Benefit of the doubt lasts until she has a trial. It always should. I think what people were saying was the petition for a stiffer penalty seemed premature. The case hasn't been heard.
True enough, word does get around.
Agreed on your other reply. Someone who does this to a horse has no business either having or being around children.
Abuse???? Stupid maybe, but not abuse.
I've had alot of discussion with people from our local round up club about what constitutes abuse. It's hard to define. Most of the people in the group believe bucking a green horse out is abuse. Once again I say stupid, but not abuse. I don't think that makes for a good minded horse, but it's not abuse.
This goes to my opinion of too many people are looking to make their horses "pets" rather then working animals. They don't want to hurt the horsey. LOL...more likely then not the horse is more apt to hurt them especially with that attitude. But that seems to be prevalant these days. I think being to nicey to your horse creates as many problems as being abusive. a spoiled brat horse is as dangerous as a mean one, or a frightened one. But you all know that:)
Becky
To overcollect a horse in warm up doesn't meet my definition of abuse either.
But you know people... gather 5 of them in a room, and you'll get at least 6 opinions on anything :~D
Ah ... a subject near and dear to my heart here. I consider it abuse. It most certainly is NOT classical dressage. This is the current very hot topic/debate in the dressage world. There is a war brewing between the rollkur aficionados and the classicals. The issue was recently brought to a head when certain training activities were seen during warmups at the WEG in Las Vegas.
Unfortunately, over the past 20 years or so, competition dressage has moved further and further from its roots in classical dressage. Time-tested methods were abandoned to pursue so-called newly discovered methods such as rollkur. The truth is, these so-called newly discovered methods are not new at all but are rehashed methods tried at one time over the years and discarded due to their harsh nature and effect on the horse.
St. Georg magazine published an article critical of certain riders and trainers and was promptly sued by them for telling the truth. These individuals have closed their yards to public scrutiny and threatened to sue anyone publishing or taking photographs or videos of their methods.
Overbending understates the method. Rollkur brings the horse's neck so deep and bent that the nose is plastered to the chest or between the front legs. It damages the nuchal ligament, among other body parts, permanently. Horses trained with this method become "leg-movers" and do not meet the criteria of dressage. Unfortunately, there are many judges who do not know the difference.
To me it seems on the same level as unnaturally slow gaits for Western Pleasure.
An unnattractive fad... a cheating and unnatural way of going that I would judge ~down~ for, but I bring it up to speak of ~abuse~ as a ~legal~ term. we need to be careful about that.
Under the law, it is not considered to be abuse. However, under USEF or FEI regulations it could possibly be considered abuse. It SHOULD be.
And, you make an excellent analogy. The AQHA is addressing the problem through judge education. The USEF and FEI should do the same. This has yet to occur. However, there are some judges and others with influence who are actively working to correct this problem in dressage. One of them you may have heard of: Klaus Balkenhal. He won the bronze medal in individual dressage at the Atlanta Olympics, and is currently the coach for the American Olympic dressage team.
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