Ann Romney = Animal Abuser

[riderinthestorm]

93. Honestly, it was probably her trainer who doped her horse to sell it.

That's not to say that Ann rMoney isn't ultimately responsible - its her horse of course, but presumably Jan Ebeling did the sale. That's pretty standard industry practice. I would guess that Jan Ebeling has complete care of her horses and directs the feeding and drugging.

That said, I'm guessing Jan Ebeling did this to get Ann a new horse. They are both complicit but in the scheme of things, as a pro in the biz, Jan Ebeling is the greater culprit here.

On to your point about "many" bad dressage trainers, I would firmly disagree on your points that they are pushing horses too fast, too hard, or throwing them away. You can't "make" a dressage horse get strong enough to carry a rider and do the movements correctly "too fast" or "too hard". Its impossible. Arnold Schwarzenegger became a champion body builder with years of careful work. Even if drugs are involved it still takes years of patient work to create a dressage horse - they simply have to have time to amass the muscle, strength and coordination. Some are naturally gifted at this and can go faster but ultimately most dressage horses have spent a decade or more to get proficient enough to do what is required in a high level dressage test.

As for throwing them away? Please! They are incredibly expensive to buy for one thing. An owner gets completely attached - these are their pets for decades and won't be thrown away lightly. Lastly, virtually all of them are insured. The insurance industry is manic about checking these claims since the Lindemann/Jaynes scandals a couple of decades ago (they were killing horses for the money and is suspected in the disappearance of Helen Brach). You can't simply "throw" an insured horse away as the vet and the insurance company has to sign off on the loss.