Why Write on SafeSport Cases: The Why and Some Backdrop

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2023/11/26

I chose to work in the equestrian industry in Canada because I wanted to write about the industry and sports, as a side project. I wanted to transition out of 7 days a week at four restaurants with janitorial seven nights a week at 2 of them, too, which was about two years building up to it.

I intended to take on the challenge of someone with zero horse, or large domesticated animal, experience and work with them. Everyone said I’d fail — literally, not an exaggeration. Hilariously enough, that’s fair. “You’ll be back.” No word of encouragement.

Naturally, I wouldn’t be the appropriate one to ride and train horses professionally. For the most part, individuals who ride and train professionally start in the single-digit ages to, at the latest, early to middle teens.

When those neural networks continue to form and integrate at a rapid and malleable clip, those are the times to become acquainted with horses for the development of a firsthand horse sense. Everything else becomes second nature if done later. My horse sense is second nature, not first.

In conducting basic labour at an equestrian facility, the most valuable experience has been talking to people whose primary concern, as in their definition of a “horse person,” is the horse. That’s true, in a good way. Some are obsessed in the wrong way, too. In another manner, it’s an extended version of cat people and dog persons, but much more involved.

Two perspectives can be taken in this context. One is animal welfare and non-human animal rights. Another is equine sport and industry. The sport can put the animals through challenging physical demands, which has a history of cruelty to the animals and people too.

At the same time, they can receive excellent care and feeding programs with respect for the animal. There is maltreatment in that area, too. Those present a more complex story but represent two apparently paradoxiform paths of truth about the industry and sports. That’s the fun, unravelling paradoxes for a more profound single truth.

The purpose of this article arose from something coming up in conversations, on and off, with horse people. As with any industry and sport, there have been scandals. I’m not new to writing about scandals. I’ve seen lots in the high-IQ communities in interviewing them for almost a decade. It’s not simply Mensa. There have been over 100 high-IQ societies, half of which could be classified as defunct by my analysis.

I stinted in the sustainable and ethical fashion world, which was fun. Interestingly enough, there weren’t any scandals. None that I can remember off the top. Some people worked in more straightforward circumstances, and others worked in more challenging contexts to get the business running. No true scandal, however.

I’ve seen much in the human rights domain. I’ve observed this in the women’s rights domain. I’ve come across this in student unions. I’ve had lots of experience in Model United Nations and came across a bit of this at Model United Nations. I’ve encountered endless amounts of this in religious communities, a bit in secular societies, and somewhat in Settler and Indigenous communities. I didn’t see this in the harm reduction community, happily.

In the secular communities, where, on a personal note, as an example, the president of an organization attempted to coerce the youngest member of the board, by far (me), to take his revenge against a former president, I resigned after this and another event. I still argue that those worlds, each of them, are vastly positive. This is the world, though; it doesn’t come in neat little packages.

I could run the list from almost A to Z. In Canada, I’ve seen this in journalism. There’s much talk about Cancel Culture as a capitalized abstraction. It’s natural in some sense: People get cancelled across communities; and unreal in another: Folks come back more often than complete reputation obliteration. People have career consequences, but not cancellation in the sense of permanence.

It’s more like Public Penalty Culture. Neither political — left or right — nor socioeconomic. Guess what? That’s not new. There have always been different social and political consequences for freedom of expression. These aren’t philosophical orientations seen with cancel culture.

It’s a tactic. Hence, why do we see intimidation against more left-oriented journalists like Amber Bracken or intimidation against more conservative journalists like Lindsay Shepherd? We’ll continue to see this similarly in how victim as an identity is seen too: It’s practical and comes with rewards. It’s here to stay.

Now, typically, the scandals in Langley, British Columbia, revolve around the Evangelical Christian community, not because of their size in the general population, barely half, but because of their political motivations and misbehaving in the midst of it.

In addition, their central university, Trinity Western University, is the largest private Christian university in the country. That’s an achievement and a testament to the brilliant organizational somewhat growth-oriented leadership of Neil Snider over decades.

It’s scandals at the times when Trinity Western University does something sociopolitical with their religion or something discriminatory because of their religious tenets, as they publicly flout them, leading to, in fact, prejudice. It’s a softball journalistic project because they tend to embarrass themselves and ruin their reputation without external intervention.

Some examples: rather than help a student who attempted suicide, they expelled her, a 51-year-old guard on campus was charged with manslaughter, queer students publicly speak about homophobia on campus, and their longest-standing university president Neil Snider (the longest in Canadian history of any university public or private) resigned after a sexual harassment scandal (where it was rescinded after an apology, happily).

Of course, they lost a court case up to the Supreme Court of Canada to (not) win an Evangelical Christian law school based on a Community Covenant everyone — staff, faculty, administration, and students — had to sign mandatorily. It was found a concern to prevent discrimination against gay and lesbian students. After the embarrassment, they dropped the Covenant, but only for students. That’s just the start.

What’s the solution, more Bible study and prayer? Of course not; those don’t work. If they did, those issues wouldn’t arise. Unless God is testing their faith, the tricky bastard. So, scandals aren’t new here or in other reportage for me. And I could ramble for a much longer article, but that suffices.

Within equine sport and industry, there is a history of abuse of horses, mistreatment of staff, sexual misconduct, grooming of mostly girls and some boys, involvement in sex trafficking — see Clare Bronfman and Sara Bronfman of NXIVM, use of illegal and cheap labour — mostly Latino men, financially bad dealings, fraud in medical documentation, doping, drug and alcohol misuse among staff and riders, und so weiter. There is a minor conspiracy of silence because there is a community for the sport. Cui bono?

Many play a role and have a livelihood built upon it. At the same time, people need to put food on the table and have a roof over their heads, and staff shortages and employee retention are significant issues across the industry. In British Columbia, the industry is shrinking rapidly.

According to the 2019 “Equine Industry Economic Impact Study,” the “Total Economic Impact” in 2009 in British Columbia was $879 million and $784 million in 2019. That’s a 10.81% reduction in Total Economic Impact in British Columbia over a decade. The issues function relationally, and intergenerationally.

Both the mostly white/Euro-Canadian girls coming into work can be poor workers and flakes as a difficulty for employers, and the pay and working conditions aren’t necessarily excellent in a period of significant inflation of the prices of goods, services, and housing for the workers. In 25 months or so at the current job, I’ve seen 20 or so employees come and go – 19 white girls and 1 older heavily drinking man; and it’s a small operation. Men aren’t attracted to work in the industry.

The issues for workers in the horse industry are multitude. Most are poor. Education ranges from grade 9 to grade 12, for the most part. They do not receive overtime, double time, dental care, medical care, or any form of healthcare (unless salaried, which is rare). 

The wage caps out relatively quickly in the industry. The working conditions are difficult, manual labour with no real lunch breaks. This is their reality. The main future sits with education and technical skills in a knowledge economy, which means the shrinking horse industry, in British Columbia, as an example, becomes a luxury item. 

Clients tend to be professional types, have grade 12 to Ph.D. education, for the most part, e.g., business owners, lawyers, or dual-income homes funding their kids. There is a definitely a distinction in higher-end barns between staff and clientele. These appear to be statistical trends, neither stereotypes nor images.

It’s hard for everyone, significantly as the industry may be shrinking for many while costs increase for everybody: lease costs, hay costs, grain costs, horse purchasing prices, tack costs, board and lesson costs, farrier costs, veterinarian costs, and even manure pickup, shavings dropoff, and machinery maintenance.

Regardless, people love their horses. I have no doubt many would bankrupt themselves for the love of their horse. It’s a deep, abiding passion. I have to respect that. At the same time, in my first week of work, I was threatened by a female colleague. “I got the last guy fired. So, don’t get on my bad side.”

When I got my first back injury and called my GP to leave work at lunch, I was stopped. A woman colleague said, “Maybe it’s your work ethic! Maybe it’s how your mother raised you!” They tried to threaten me into not leaving based on what became a legitimate WCB claim, in front of a catatonic management, apparently. The second WCB claim management attempted to blame this on me subtly insinuating that a prior back injury must have existed. Nope, only here.

I’ve had a colleague stalk me to old colleagues/friends at old restaurant jobs. I’ve been asked for 3 months notice, not if leaving the job but, if changing continuous work hours in any way: Good labour is hard to find – let alone replace. I offered 2 to 7 months out of generosity and honouring commitments here, while awaiting new job changes. In Canada, 2 weeks is considered the norm. 

The long-term staff drive away new staff with this behaviour. Interestingly, I’ve only seen this abusive behaviour by women, and rarely towards other women on site. So, there is a sexist undercurrent explaining why so few men take part in the sport here. Women abuse too, and excuse the abuse when in the presence of other women. 

They can exhibit kindness in giving a place to rent on site when it is needed, as was the case with me. However, when push comes to financial shove, it can become a tool. Where, I wanted to reduce hours still to full-time rather than double full-time or more. They threatened to take the apartment away because they falsely claimed the hours would be below full-time. A lesson to any working student: Do not trust verbal contracts and always get things in writing from owner-operators because the cards are largely stacked in their favour. You cannot rely on individual good will and whim.

When WCB came to the worksite, both the stable manager and employer encouraged not speaking to them when they tried to speak to me, which is to state: Employers encourage lying or silence by staff to the Workers’ Compensation Board.

We have to be aware of abuses of staff on site, even if they’re deemed a dominant group. The racism isn’t seen in the labour as much in Canada. It’s more, by others’ accounts, exploitation of working students, which is to say: mostly young women and girls. However, I have had eyebrow raising statements said only by young women in front of me about Mexicans.

• “They know how to do everything.  And they’re so cheap.”
• “Sometimes, I wish we could hire only Mexicans. They’d do what they’re told and with a smile.”
• “Scott, you’re our Mexican!”

Thus in a Canadian context, the exploitation of labour happens to young women often white; while in America, it’s men and Latino men in particular. The racism comes in less than 10% of people, often younger women, but only in occasional phraseology, not in law, work, or anything formal as a barrier. That’s a sign of progress in Canada and a compliment to the horse culture in Canada because the race issue isn’t legal discriminations. It’s occasional attitudes. America appears to have a different context with a contiguous border with Mexico.

The industry has some toxicity and legality issues. These may want to be investigated more thoroughly for the health and wellbeing of workers and compliance with the law. Maybe, Latino workers could form a union to protect themselves from exploitation in the States. As with any sport, there is a competitive streak. I’m told things are better than they’ve ever been. However, I have seen numerous young women undermine each other to get ahead on the job site.

There are plenty of cases like the above.

It’s a mostly white women’s industry now. They act as men did in different areas when men were dominant. Which is an argument for egalitarianism, gender balance breeds healthy relations; neither men nor women hold monopoly on generic virtue, and only on styles of virtue and vice.

Simultaneously, and the important compliment to individuals working in this struggling industry, those same people will offer consolation, lowered rent on site, some of their lunch, and help with barn chores on hard days. They’re just people, but individuals coming into a job with minimal candidate screening because the industry needs workers.

People can give all of themselves in their shifts, while, as rural whites, for the most part, their livelihoods, family legacies, and life paths into the present are neither exceptionally good nor promising of a hopeful future, typically. These actions reflect a stressed blue-collar, working-class cohort of rural, mostly Euro-Canadians in the Township of Langley.

Equine sport has scandals in them, too. As recently as a few days ago, as of the time of writing this article, there was another update on the Eric Lamaze lawsuits over wrong horse deals with some resolution for $1.39 million. Lamaze is Canada’s most decorated show jumper.

Our only individual Olympic gold medallist in show jumping who has been having a rough go of it — defender or not — over the last couple of years. By analyzing some of the records, an outstanding equestrian show jumper and a bad person.

As it happens, that’s been during my time in this industry, which is to say: I started on October 1st, 2021. It’s not cosmic, but luck to write on this industry, at this time. For the original reason, I also chose this industry and sport because Langley is titled the “Horse Capital of British Columbia.”

Rather than go out into the international scene again, I chose a local context for a small side project. I was getting some appreciation for opening the conversation in the community for some minor work with interviews. So, thank you for that.

The next topic I might get less love for is SafeSport cases. I first brought this up in an interview with local Township of Langley hero LJ Tidball of Thunderbird Show Stables, who has been an accomplished rider and trainer for decades. Another who I interviewed earlier but published later — like 8 or 9 months late (sorry, Beth!) — was Beth Underhill, an accomplished and great Canadian show jumper. Canada produces exceptional women show jumpers: Erynn Ballard, Beth Underhill, Amy Millar, Tiffany Foster, and others.

This is to say, I was informed of the issue in conversations with all sorts of equestrians, then raised the issue lightly with Underhill, formally with Tidball, published them in reverse order, and now, with a systematic presentation of SafeSport in the upcoming articles. And articles more than interviews now, as I focused mostly on interviews, previously.

One horse person told me that writing on the horse industry and sport is “dangerous.” So, I am, anyway. The series of articles to follow will cover SafeSport and SafeSport cases. The United States Equestrian Federation has an easily accessible database, which will be the basis for the first set of articles. The categories for the United States Equestrian Federation are Banned[1], Interim[2], Suspensions[3], and Restrictions[4]. Those will be covered in that order for these individuals; dead individuals on the list are removed after 90 days.

Simply look at the general gender connection to most names; typically, a face-value assumption is that most of the offenders are men with some women. So, it’s not a black or white phenomenon, but the scales are weighed towards more men given one of the four statuses by the USEF.

Naturally, more details will follow as the cases are examined with whatever resources are available in public news or reportage. To have them in one place will be an exciting new archival work. For ease of segmentation, the coverage will be four articles with Banned, Interim, Suspensions, and Restrictions on this mini-project.

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[1] In Banned status, we find Kenneth Acebal, George Aguel, Mickey Bason, Gabriel Elluomini, Zoubair Bennani, Sam Berry, Clare Bronfman, Harrison Brown, Ruben Camacho, Jeff Campff, Randall Cates, Amanda Devore, Barry Duncan, Juan Gamboa, James Giorgio, Phil Godsey, Robert Hedin, John Lindstedt, Barry Lobel, David Loman, Douglas Masters, Steve Milne, John Monetti, George Morris, Tom Navarro, Adrienne Raymond, Greg Reason, Joseph Silva, Mitchell Steege, Chan Sutton, Donald Ulmer, Gordon “Cappy” Wheeler, and Charlie White.

[2] In Interim status are Michael Barisone, Chris Bearden, Blake Gardiner, Chip Marshall, Russell Matthews, Aaron K. Rhea, Michael Occaforte, Derek Strine, and Geoffrey Woolson.

[3] In Suspension status, we have Jerry Aguilar, Francis Berger, Richard Berger, Richard R. Fellers, Shelley Fellers, Phillip Fountain, Richard Galarza, Dylan Harries, Tom Harvey, Christian Heineking, Thomas Keogh, Alex Lawler, Erik Lee, Chuck Maslin, Diane Masters, Nicanor Miranda, Paul Polster, Nicole Reason, Vick Russell, Antonio Sanchez, Michael Sisul, Michael Traurig, and Arie Van Der Heiden.

[4] In Restriction status, we get James Prettyman, William Tate, Jr., John Manning, Brian Gruber, Manuel Torres, Henry Pfeiffer, Winsford Taylor, and Caroline Van Der Merwe.

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