Down the rabbit hole..
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Anybody having horses know it is hard. It is hard work, it cost a lot of emotions, it cost a lot of money, and it is freakin' hard to let go.
But one thing I cannot get out of my head is why bad things seem to happen to good people? I bet everybody had these thoughts from time to time and the past week it was my turn.
It started with a friend of mine making a comment on the piece about the Belgian doping case in Paris.
Hoofbeat Online
The comment led to a discussion why some people seem to get away with almost anything. Like in the Paris case where it turned out the person responsible wasn't considered to be the person responsible.
From this our discussion rapidly went down the rabbit hole and we ended up talking about some other weird cases we know off.
Like the FEI rider that was caught on film when abusing a horse.
The rider was reported to the FEI. But even though the video proof tagged along with the complaint absolutely nothing came out of it.
In another case close to my friend, several high profile witnesses filed a complaint about multiple counts of horse abuse, also by an FEI rider, just to see the case getting tossed out cause there was no video footage to go along with it!
And why not the famous showjumper who rode around on an obvious lame horse at a European Championship a couple of years back in time. Something that was reported to the officials on sight, but nothing happened.
At another European Championship the very same FEI official as involved in the case mentioned above, did the dirty work for the trainers and riders who didn't want media to be able to make photos of either the warm up nor the ten minute arena.
How do I know this? Well I was the one reporting the showjumper, and I was one of the two members of the press being forced to leave our positions at the dressage euros by the very same FEI official.
This list could probably go on forever, the point is the inconsistency in the same kind of cases seem to be larger than life.
Some people [riders, trainers, nations], depending on who they are and who they know, seem to be able to get away with just about anything.
To be honest we all know of people who quite frankly do not seem to care about their horses, cats or dogs, and their well being. But for some unknown reason not even Karma seem to be out and about to haunt these people down.
These people's horses seem to get through just about any kind of [mis]treatment, and still manage to keep their health and live happily ever after - which of course every horse should do, but you know what I mean.
Then there are others, they love their horses, they treat them like horses should be treated, they follow the rules, they do everything right, and then BAM.
Freak accidents happen and it's like game over, and one sit by the sidelines and wonder: Why do bad things happen to good people?
