a rebuttal to Edie Booth's report to ridecamp, from Bill Proctor

[wsabg@t-online.de (Wolfgang Schwingenheuer)]

I forward this as I was asked to do so:

> I would like the opportunity to respond to the accusations made
> against me by
> a few people who should be minding their own business and not
> that of others.
>
> First, everything I wrote about on Tom's list occurred just the
> way I said it
> did.
>
> Second, the bet was between two other people--I  didn't see where I had
> anything to prove to anybody. None of my riding group had the slightest
> interest in getting into the mud-slinging contest started by
> Darolyn, Kathy
> and Becky. At the time, I had other, more important things to deal with.
> Third,if I had known that the "judge" in this dispute was going
> to turn out
> to be a private investigator who was going to pry into our
> private lives I
> would have objected streniously to the choice of who the judge was.
>
> When Heidi whined about "just one person" I persuaded the person who had
> served as one of the ride managers to call her--and she promptly
> called him a
> liar in public--as the rest had feared would happen. As far as I am
> concerned, this is a mark on her character, not his. One of these "ladies"
> asked, " Please, Bill, tell me why it would be "punishing" to
> anyone who has
> participated in any sort of an endurance event to have information about
> their event shared with Ridecamp?" The answer to that question is obvious,
> isn't it? Because they would be called liars, as I was.
>
> The following is a rebuttal to Edie Booth's report that attempted to prove
> myself as a liar and a fraud.  I doubt that this will ever get on
> ridecamp as
> I believe that people will not want to hear the other side but
> only believe
> what they wish from the people who are well known and a part of
> aerc elite.
>
> The < > represents quotes from Edie's report that was posted on
> ridecamp on
> June 20, 2001.
>
> <Once again, remember, Tom and Cliff accepted me as the
> arbitrator. Those of
> you who asked questions about the data Bill produced deserve a little more
> information.>
>
> I am not sure that most of the people that ask questions are interested in
> our private lives. I am surprised that the people of ridecamp do not know
> what, when and how we feed our horses, what time we getup in the morning,
> where we buy our groceries, etc due to Edie's very zealous attempt to pry
> into our private lives.
>
> <On Friday, June 15, 2001, I did a lot of research work....only
> from Public
> sources, i.e. the courthouse, where anyone can view the real
> property records
> for the entire county.  The staff showed me how to use their
> pcsoftware and
> never knew what name I typed in. Suffice to say, Bill's ranch is
> considerably
> less than he has said forhis conditioning, 14 mile trail, etc.>
>
> Never claimed that we owned 240 acres. In my reports to Tom's list I said
> "The conditioning trail is on 240 acres that is at our place". It is
> unfortunate that a typo our web site occurred, as soon as I found
> out that it
> was there I fixed it. The 240 acres is owned by the Fisher family
> that lives
> up the road from us less than a mile. I received permission to
> use and mark
> out a trail there well over a year ago. The entrance to the trail
> is directly
> across the road from our place.
>
> <A friend of mine who lives very near Bill has been watching for land to
> lease in the area for longer than Bill has been there, and there
> is nothing
> available for lease. There is no evidence there of a horse trail.>
>
> The lease talked about is an "oral exclusive right to use" lease and not
> meant to be used for commercial purposes. The fact that Edie could find no
> evidence does not equate to nonexistence. The fact that she is making up
> evidence as she goes along should give everyone a clue as to her
> obvious bias
> at the very beginning of her "investigation".
>
> I do not know how far "very near" is but our neighbors that live
> close to us
> (within 5 miles) that we know have never heard of Mrs. Booth. The
> 20 acre hay
> field directly across the road from us was leased to a gentleman that
> produces and sells hay for a living April,2000. We have been here a little
> longer than that.
>
>
>
> The trailer that is in our yard is not the one that was in the wreck.
> Again, this Mrs. Booth failed to find the truth of the
> matter, but simply assumed she had found it--or created it.
>
> <From the road I observed Smokey in the pasture rather close up.  In my 23
> years of experience in endurance riding, I have not seen a horse look like
> Smokey a month after a long winter of heavy competitions and
> conditioning.
> The horse appears not to have been ridden significantly for months.>
>
> A very special gift indeed, to be able to tell the fitness of a
> horse and how
> much the horse has been ridden while observing from the road
> while the horse
> is grazing in the pasture. If fitness is her area of expertise,
> why does she
> have to help her son win races by cheating?
>
> The following was sent to me by one of our ride group who shall remain
> nameless here:
>
> "Bill
> I regret at this time that we are not going to call to verify
> your riding in
> our events. I have talked to most of the people that ride in the
> events that
> we put on and they all feel the same way.
> We are not willing to get involved with the ladies? of AERC central region
> who appears to us to be behind this. While we do appreciate the
> information
> that you provided us with the carbohydrate supplement that you
> used and the
> obvious ablilities of your horse we do not wish to get into the
> middle of a
> character assignation that they seem to be perpetrating.
> One of the people that has been a part of our group remembers a AERC ride
> that she attended a couple of years ago, a 50 miler. She
> remembers that on a
> part of the trail on one of the loops Ms Booth and her son where riding in
> the front, the trail was very narrow where one could not pass, Ms Booth
> slowed to a walk, her son who was ahead of her took off at a gallop. The
> riders in this group where all front runners but could not pass.
> After that
> ride we chose not to ride in any more central region AERC rides
> and those who
> where members did not renew thier AERC membership.
>
> We deeply regret that we are unable or unwilling to help you with your
> problem with these people.
>
> We have postponed the remaining rides scheduled until this matter
> is settled
> and we again will have no involvement with any of the AERC central region
> members.
>
> When we get to where we feel we can get back to holding events
> again, we hope
> that you will choose to participate.
>
> Best Wishes"
>
> Winning by cheating is not winning through fitness, so I have my
> doubts as to
> whether Mrs. Booth knows a fit horse when she sees on, from two
> feet or two
> hundred.
>
>
>
> De's truck was not at her ride in Nov. Were records checked
> (VIN's, etc) to
> confirm this or was this just a guess? If it is offered here as proof of
> anything, then all it proves to me is that Mrs. Booth is
> attempting to lie by
> implication.
>
>  <Most significantly I think, I had a detailed conversation with
> De, Bill's
> wife. I immediately recorded some of her responses to particular
> incidents
> that I described to her (from Bill's detailed accounts) so that I
> could be as
> accurate as possible.>
>
> Recorded as in a tape recorder? De works for the local Police
> Department and
> was dispatching at the time. I believe that I remember her telling me that
> when the public comes in to the PD and talks to dispatch that the
> conversation is recorded on a tape recorder.  So, there is probably a tape
> recording of this conversation available should this whole thing lead to a
> legal proceeding.
>
> <The attitude of my conversation withher was non-threatening.  I projected
> that, to me, it is no big deal, that it would not affect our
> relationship in
> any way. I projected that it would all be ok, if it were just stories.>
>
> De does not remember this coming up in conversation. Is this "projection"
> some kind of horse whispering?
>
> <the first she heard of anything was when someone called her
> about two weeks
> ago and asked some questions.  I told her where she could look at the
> archives in RideCamp and look at some of it starting back about
> 2-3 weeks.>
>
> De also does not remember this being part of the conversation.
>
> <She said, "I know he likes to joke around, maybe he was joking." When I
> asked if he had knee surgery in May, she just kind of shook her head, and
> said " He's got a joke line going that's not working."  When I asked about
> how much riding he had done, mentioning that he told me at our ride in
> November that he had been working so much that he had not been riding, she
> agreed.  She said, "It was probably just a joke that got carried away."
> Previously, just a ouple of days following Bill's account of his
> reconstructive knee surgery, I returned a flashlight to De that
> they had left
> at our ride.  I said if they did not help at our ride coming up
> in June, that
> maybe Bill could ride.  We were not expecting a lot of riders. De
> said he had
> been doing so many hours at work that he had not been able to
> ride Smokey.
>
> Last Friday, about Bill riding 240 miles per week, she said, "It must have
> been a joke or something."  About the trailer wreck, and I had
> already been
> out to see the unblemished gray two horse bumper pull at their
> place, I told
> her about Bill telling about an 18 wheeler wreck on the way to the Frigid
> Digit ride, she said "This is a joke that got carried away.  I'll talk to
> him." I suggested the best way for it to go away or calm down would be for
> Bill to just go ahead and fess up to it.>
>
> According to the accounts that I have from De and others in the PD very
> little of the above was said during the under-5-minute
> conversation. What De
> related to Edie was (I quote from De) "I think that this has
> gotten to be a
> joke and I do not understand why you are asking all these questions" "This
> has to be some sort of joke but it is not funny". De has told me
> that she was
> referring to the bet and the resulting investigation.
>
> Regarding the "riding 240 miles per week" I have done an
> extensive search of
> the achieves from the HoreseScience list and have not found any posts that
> indicated that I ever claimed to be riding 240 miles a week. The working
> schedules outlined in detail there are all under 100 miles.
>
> <This is not evidence of Bill having done the four rides or not, but
> certainly has a bearing on the evaluation of Bill's data.  Draw your own
> conclusions.
> No witnesses for any of the four rides have ever come forward.>
>
> One witness did make a phone call to Heidi and was promptly
> called a liar. It
> is not surprising that others have chosen not to make any phone
> calls. Again,
> the truth is the truth, whether or not Mrs. Booth wants to make up her own
> version.
>
>  <When Bill called me last Friday at 7AM before I began investigating he
> asked me to "not get involved in this '>
>
> Not True!
> I ask that she not involve De as De had received some very
> distressing news
> regarding her fathers health and was rather upset. I told her
> that I was sure
> that she would do what she thought she had to but I ask her not
> to be going
> to De's work. When I called Edie to ask her not to be getting De
> to involved
> in her
> investigation, I knew that her findings where probably not going
> to be very
> unbiased. She told me "I have read some of the things that you
> wrote, most of
> which are unbelievable and the rest are beyond belief."
>  This tells me that Mrs. Booth began her "investigation" with a
> bias against
> me and against the actual facts that I presented on Tom's list.
> this is her
> problem, not mine..
>
>
> <When I asked why, he said that his wife was about 3/4 mad at
> him. I told him
> it was too late, that I had already committed to checking out his
> research.
> I asked him some questions to which most of his answers were
> rather vague and
> he said he did not "have his notes with him.">
>
> The health news was rather distressing to me as well.
>
> <He said a ride manager and a riderwould call me.  They have not.>
>
> Again not surprising. I do not think that anyone likes to be
> called a liar by
> people that they do not even know.
>
>  <He gave me locations for the four ride dates. I called Bill back at work
> Friday and left a message on his machine asking for the name of
> the limited
> distance champion who had started the other club.  I have not
> heard back from
> him.We have a National AERC Limited Distance Champion in our area
> who did see
> Bill briefly
> one morning at a restaurant eating breakfast.  She is Patsy
> Hoffman, and she
> has never dropped out of AERC or started another endurance club.
> There are a
> few other LD National Champions -check them on the records on-line.>
>
>  It was not Patsy who told me about the group. I did not ask for
> proof about
> the LD champion when this lady told me, did not think that I
> needed to or did
> not care one way or another.
>  The group that I rode with is not an organized club, never has been.
>
> <Because of the personal contact, I am sorry to have gotten
> involved, but I
> think it is necessary that we base our evaluation of supplements on good
> science, or at least have evidence that the trials and results
> are sound.  We
> owe it to the horses, who give us everything. They are the ones
> who give us
> the honest relationships. I did this as carefully and quietly as
> I could, not
> involving any of Bill's friends, businesses or neighbors.  I did
> not violate
> any of his rights. Draw your own conclusions.>
>
> Talking to our neighbors, the owner of the feed store where we
> buy our horse
> feed, the vet, sitting along the road by our place and watching,
> and various
> other means of prying into our private lives does not constitute violating
> our rights to privacy?
>   You have the right to draw any conclusions you wish. You do not have the
> right to publicly violate the character of another person unless you have
> proof. You are making up your own proof and it is untrue, as
> are the assertions of Darolyn, Heidi, Becky and Kathy. As Tom has
> said, you
> have all proven yourselves to be "filthy" people.
>
> I have not included some of Edie's report (not much) as the
> passages that I
> did not include are not pertinent.
>
>
> The bottom line is.
>   1.I could not supply witnesses to verify my participation in
> the non-aerc
> rides in question. Therefore in the minds of some, those rides
> did not occur.
> They did!
>   2.It is not surprising to me, that the people that I rode with
> during these
> events where and are unwilling to verify the existence of these rides with
> these people of the central region. They are fully aware of what De and I
> have gone through during the investigation and do not wish to subject
> themselves to the same ordeal.
>   3.It is also not surprising to me, all of the disbelief started in the
> first place from several of the women of the central region. The women who
> make up the core of the East Texas aerc central region do not
> readily accept new comers who have different ideas, who strive to
> succeed in
> the sport and, most importantly, are not a member of their clan, are very
> indigent to, want they perceive to be anyway, a lower class of
> participants
> in the aerc events. The good part is that most of the East Texas central
> region people are not at all like this small group.
>   4. I stand by my detailed statements made on horsescience. You
> people have
> called me a liar.
> I do not really give a flip if any of the people of the aerc
> central region
> who had a hand in this believe any of the detailed reports that I made to
> Tom's list or not. They are all true.
>
>  Bill Proctor

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