What Kind of Culture are We Actually Reinforcing?

It began like it so often does: a perfectly ordinary class at a local jumping show. The horse jumps clear. It is all smiles, at least till someone check their phone and realise the official time is completely off and says, “That can’t be right.”

What Kind of Culture are We Actually Reinforcing?

One trip to the judge’s booth later, where the rider and its helper were armed with both a polite question as well as video evidence everything turned into a full-blown disagreement.

The video was dismissed, voices were raised, and reportedly, a door was even shut close in someone’s face.

After this, the disagreement moved online to the comments section on social media.

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Names were dropped, allegations of disrespect, incompetence, and unprofessional behaviour started to circulate.

One party claimed poor treatment by officials, another said they were verbally threatened with reputational damage. People took sides. Screenshots were made. and screenshots submitted. In the end, both sides made a formal complaint to the national federation.

So what started as a minor disagreement had now turned into a full blown case for the national disciplinary board. However, when the governing body finally came to a ruling, the outcome felt a bit anticlimactic.

The judge? Cleared.

The rider? Also cleared.

The helper? Slapped with a mild reprimand for being a bit too worked up at the event.

The social media posts? Indeed the comments and the tone were sharp, even so, the social media activity is still considered to be inside the lines and bounds of free speech.

So far so good...

But the dispute over the timing which was the original and actual cause of all this, does not even come up for discussion!

In other words, everyone go home.

Nothing to see here.

Carry on.

Who are we protecting?

So in the end, we have no answers. Instead we have yet another reminder that ever so often in equestrian sport, it’s not the fence that trips you up, it’s what happens after you land that sets the bar.

For us who watch and follow how these smaller and bigger dramas unfold in the world of horses, more and more of those bigger questions are starting to surface.

Cause when the rulebook [yet again] shrugs and says, case closed, what kind of culture are we actually reinforcing?

What kind of signals are we putting out there?

Where does the line in between valid critique and rule-breaking actually go?

Last but not least, who are we protecting? The athletes or the officials?

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