Re: RC: Boggs Suspension/OT rambling

["C.M.Newell" <reshan@deyr.ultranet.com>]

At 02:01 PM 9/20/99 -0400, you wrote:
>GREAT IDEA...let's ALL show up at a BIG Arab show with cameras in hand.
In big
>numbers, WE will intimidate them instead of the other way around...Then the
>spinless stewards will HAVE to do something!!!


	Stewards, by and large, in my experience, can and will "do something" if
they witness improper conduct, or if someone wants to go so far as to file
a formal protest. Lots of people go as far as complaining to the steward,
but when push comes to shove, they don't want to be bothered following
through.
	Stewards are constrained by rules, and by the fact that something they do
not personally witness is hearsay. (Obviously, in the case of stewards
looking the other way, this is not so.)

	I had a long interesting conversation with a steward about abuse he
personally witnessed while on night duty at a big  show. Two nights in a
row, he saw a "big hair" trainer arrive, get handed a blanketed and hooded
horse, take it into the empty arena, and whale on it with a
whip--terrorizing it,but leaving no welts. The third night, the steward
videotaped it."big hair" saw him doing so. He returned the videocamera to
the *locked* show office whence it had come. Next morning, he followed the
rules, and told the show comittee chairman about the incident and the tape.
Chairman went into the office, came out of the office, and told him he
should have checked to make sure that there was tape in the video. (He had
checked, and there was.) Who stole the videotape? The show chairman?
Another committee member, alerted by the "big hair"? The poor guy couldn't
even file a complaint over the missing tape, because he didn't know who
took it. 
	
	My point is that there are folks in the system  who are on our side. I
like to think *most* of them are. Even most judges are honest. But so long
as IAHA allows trainers to judge, there will be widespread abuse.Too much
is at stake financially. I have to reluctantly agree with those who say
that as money increases, so does abuse of horses and disregard for rules.

	What to do? Bring your videocamera to a show. Tape the stuff. Don't edit
the tape, that may be construed as manipulation. Make copies. Send one to
Mike Brown, the IAHA Commissioner. Let him know dates, places, names. If
you spoke to an official and they blew you off, let him know that, too. 

	The whole Boggs brouhaha started with *one* person with the cojones to
make  the charge, backed up by photograpic evidence. 
				--CMNewell


	


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