Equestrian Influencers #25 Tina not happy with her lot & chases a Badminton House Photo

[MayaK.]

So, there is a massive scandal brewing in the Dressage world (again lol). Not sure if it is acceptable to name names as the person in question isn't an influencer as such (yet has quite a following on Insta and is sponsored so.....)

Child of mega-rich parents who bought several world class (literally) horses for her so she managed to get to the Olympics before she even got out of Young Riders. That was a dozen years ago and since then there was a change of nationalities because her former "mean federation" left her out of a team spot.

In April, she was banned from sport for 3 months for not complying with anti-doping protocols. She got a team of lawyers and appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sports, and to my amazement the appeal resulted in her ban being extended to 18 months. I was startled by that as it seems quite harsh for not reporting in properly basically (the original charge was that she failed to report her location to be available for drug testing 3 times), but now it turns out (if the story isbtrue) that the Court of Arbitration for Sports received files from allegedly 30 individuals, including from a vet or vets and (probably former?) employees.

If even a quarter of the allegations are true, not going to the Olympic should and would be the least of her worries now.

Allegations include the use of electric shock devices on horses' legs, electric collars, chains, bleeding mouths from severe bits, actual doping after drug tests, beating horses in the stable, mistreatment of employees by taking their documents and refusing to hand them out, not paying staff, verbal and psychological abuse and breaches of employment law.

Shockingly, it is also alleged that both her national federation and the FEI have been informed, the former responded saying the allegagtions were without merit and the latter didn't even bother to apply.

If you can read French (or are on a device or browser that translates it for you) here is a French article about it. It doesn't name her but people who follow international Dressage probably know who they're talking about because the suspension so close to the Olympics was widely talked about.

Not what the sport needs at any time and certainly not this close to the Games.....

I agree maybe timing isn’t the best, but we certainly do need abuse being reported and I’m glad the grooms have spoken up.
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I dont know what her backstory is but scarlet martin is the most bizarre narcissist.

I have unfollowed a little while ago as I just didn’t really get her either. Not sure how she’s an equestrian influencer, it seems she hardly ever rides. And she’s now very in with that Leonora Smee who used to be a show jumper, now is just mooching off her parents and doing I guess lifestyle brand consultancy? Although she is also in Holland cooper adverts. Just doesn’t actually ride, has broodmares. These two I don’t really get, they seem to be trying to find their online identities, yet are like every other influencer out there. Ok rant over

 

[vam14]

So watching Meg’s latest reel about Equipt I thought ‘here we go another influencer selling stuff they have been gifted’. Well I am very happy to admit I was wrong as Meg is donating all proceeds to the BE Support Trust. Can’t believe I am saying this but well done Meg

 

[Clariecakes]

Doesn’t gluing stuff on affect the density of it or something? Can cause it to shatter on contact? I vaguely remember reading something that you should never alter them yourself.

Yes it does, they advise not to use solvents on the shell.
It also invalidates any warranty too.

But then, this is RWC, she won’t be told.

Looks like she is going to a show I’m grooming at tomorrow, I’ll let you all know how it looks

 

[Twintwin]

My local riding school has a limit of 12 stone!

 

[_Willfully_]

The original Ponyjet thing (the attachment that goes onto a hosepipe with a built in shampoo container) is just a rebranded cheap attachment you can get on Amazon for 10 to 12 quid... just found them on AliExpress for 3.56.... It's exactly the same, made in the same places by the same people, just costs soooo much more when branded for horses...
The hot water unit, as far as I can see, is just a basic camping shower, again rebranded and marked up for "rich" equestrians waiting to be fleeced.

 

[infernalcarpet]

Miri is such a bad advert for groundwork and horsemanship, it drives me up the wall. Neither of those things are free from consequences for the horses, and we do not make excuses for them =/

When you look at the likes of Tristan Tucker (TRT Method) who really promotes groundwork and a methological approach to horse care, but he doens't let his horses walk all over him, competes at international level and is brimming with positivity and good humour.

 

[sledgehammer]

Why is Miri Hackett filming herself in floods of tears on IG? It's a Blondie post which says nothing except not to judge until the final post. Why clickbait with crying as a professional horse rehabber? Why film yourself crying and deliberately post it without context?

Because she’s an overly emotional attention seeker, probably.
I don’t follow her anymore because she irritates me too much. I vaguely remember her on Olivia Tower’s podcast a few years ago and she was crying then too.
I really don’t think rehabbing horses is for her if she’s going to be that emotional about it.

 

[sledgehammer]

Harlow is getting tall now, I would have thought by next year she will be far too tall for a section B.

 

[unwanted.opinions]

He's a very hard working individual who is self made, so I think he comes across as hard when he's not. He offers alot of help to other riders at events and treats his staff very well. I do have to be careful as I know there are people out there who will never like him and that's their opinion.

He has ridden some tired horses, but so have fan favourites like harry meade just to throw a name out there.

Anyway.... Tina still banging on wishing she was posting Badminton content we get it you want a house picture. Move on

Tbf I don’t think anyone can say his success is down to anything but hard work. But I just wish he would put his competitiveness aside sometimes and retire a horse that is clearly too tired to make it round the cross country course. And yes he isn’t the first and won’t be the last to do it. As long as he doesn’t slip back into old habits like in the past and stays putting horse first and not being win at all costs even of it’s ugly he has my respect. From what I’ve seen of him in demos and talks he has a great sense of humour and seems like someone you could have a laugh with so may become a fan of his again in time.

 

[storynerd]

It’s definitely quite odd to want a baby while your parents are still young and around rather than wanting to have baby with a partner. Fair enough if she was much older but there would still be plenty of time at her age.

In her podcast she talked about it in more detail - she's asexual and so doesn't want a partner, but does want to be a parent. That's part of the thing about having her parents around as she'll be doing it solo otherwise

 

[ishgirl]

Even


Even if I won the lottery, not sure I’d buy a horse from Holly as all they seem to do is jump, jump and jump! When’s the last time you saw her take them for a hack or do something other than jump?

They're low mileage as they only get ridden half the year. She definitely doesn't just jump, she just posts that because it's what gets the most views or she can actually get someone to video for her on those occasions. I don't think her dad wants to stand in the rain and video her trot round in circles every day just for youtube

 

[sledgehammer]

Why are judges not pulling riders up who are that obese? Is it fear of being told they are ‘fat shaming’ I wonder?

That girl had lost so much weight but she looks like she’s put even more back on.

 

[bea93]

I listened to that podcast with Justine on, she more or less said that the vlogger girls read Tattle on the regular and have tried to help her get an account/sign in. Makes sense how they randomly get 'sent screenshots' all the time!

Also was browsing this account, opened this post and - that must be Dali right? Mackey Ireland saddle pad and he has that constant tail swish.



Seems this person doesn't seem to care (rightly) what influencers think, a couple have replied in their comment section defending themselves for using some type of training method (not that they were in the post, like Dali is) that was being criticised and they very much stand their ground.

edit: I just scrolled down to see Holly commented on the post haha. They seemed to have a nice-ish talk about it, Holly wasn't happy about the clip being used without asking - which I'm 50/50 on, she posted those clips publically and they were taken at a public place/show.

 

[unicorn fairy]

She should be told to dismount and leave the ring.
How does she look at that and think it’s acceptable to expect a horse to carry that weight?
I am disgusted that dressage judges care more about how they are perceived than about animal welfare.

Just say that horse weighs 580kgs, 20% of the rider max weight is around 18st. I have no idea what type of horse it is or who the rider is. But you can’t presume she’s too heavy for it or even not too heavy for it. Judging people’s weight is highly unfair, no matter what size they are.

 

[sledgehammer]

The trouble is, the owner is obese too. I just think obesity becomes normal to these people. I see a lot of overweight people with overweight children and dogs.
How that poor animal hasn’t had laminitis I don’t know.
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Looks like even more people are posting about Wayne Garrick now and from Olivia Towers’ story this weekend I assume some people have stuck up for him and said he was being bullied and it’s all bullshit. But of that where true he’d have an explanation and not deleted his social media accounts or posted a kiss my ass tiktok.

What did Olivia say about it?

 

[Alfie1234]

Megs update vlog about Bear is literally an essay on why she should never have bred from her

 

[Elliania]

It almost looks like (and I have NO idea if this is true or not just how it might look to an outsider) that Wilma is a lot less straightforward than she seemed at Ardeo or even if they potentially mis-represented how much she'd done. She went very nicely over th cross country fences in Ireland but that was at a venue she knew & had presumeably been schooled at, with no-one else around.
Maybe she hasn't coped as well with the move & the exposure to all the things that go on at an event.

 

[Alfie1234]

Whilst not a huge fan of Freddie Steele he seemed to have Jam going very nicely, soft and relaxed and without a short tense neck. Ettie is lovely and glad to see far less hairy ( not a hairy horse fan), but again I’m amazed at how little she’s done with her and is only just getting her into a horse box, they seem to be missing massive handling opportunities with their youngsters.

 

[takeiteasy]

How come Tina is doing global amateur tour again? Didn’t she do it last year? Does no one else in the UK apply?

To be honest I never knew it was a thing until Tina said about going on it - I would love to do it but it is SO expensive! I'm sure you get what you pay for, but unfortunately massively out of my price range

 

[unicorn fairy]

I guess a lot depends how Brego turns out. If he's the same as Bear (quite sharp, spooky etc) then most likely not. But it could be that at least some of Bear's issues might be from her past - Meg has said a couple of times they don't really know her history but her passport showed she'd been through the sales a few times & when they got her she was quite sick, underweight and just in a bit of a sorry state. So it's possible she's had some bad experiences that have either maybe caused the issues or made any pre-existing ones worse.

It’s funny how they are bringing up Bears history now, it was never an issue before she put her in foal. They used Bears “quirky” behaviour for humour and funny jokes and videos. Basically using Bears behaviour for content, now Bear has managed to buck Meg off since Megs confidence crisis, it now becomes an issue that Bears history has been bought up! They’ve had Bear for a long time, this isn’t new behaviour, they should have fixed this behaviour when they got her, not now. Welcome to reality Elphick Event ponies and breeding. Meg will never be confident riding Bear.