A readers opinion on the Amy Tryon case
“Its funny, the hunters/jumpers and dressage folks are always criticized for being so political, but the honest truth is that the eventing world is very similar. It certainly helped Amy Tryon’s case to have the “heavy weights” in her corner during her hearing (i.e. Karen O’Conner and Captain Mark Phillips). I believe her sentence was terribly weak. It was determined that Amy Tryon’s abuse was not “intentional and premeditated”, but abuse in any form should never be acceptable.ÂAs an upper level rider and former Olympian she is who the younger generation of eventer’s looks up to. More importantly I think this is a terrible precedent to have set. While I can understand the pressures on the FEI Tribunal to allow Amy to continue to compete (with an Olympic year looming ahead), how can they adequately punish the next case? The fact is, a horse had to be put down because of a selfish desire to win. Such a lack of horsemanship should never have been tolerated or encouraged in any form. The horse’s safety should be of the utmost importance in any equestrian sport, but the FEI’s decision certainly does not demonstrate this to be the case for three-day eventing.”
Anonymous
August 8th, 2007 at 6:23 am
While I too believe that the sentence was far too weak, there are several comments in the full judgement that have made me slightly rethink my initial total and complete condemnation of Amy Tryon. (1) (quotes are only approximate) “….her misfortune was that the injury occured so close to the end of the course” yes, it did make the whole thing look so much more calculating. If she had initially thought that maybe Sparky had over-reached and was temporarily sore (cf recent PanAm games where horse very sore after overreaching on the xc trotted up sound after an intensive night’s treatment) - it soon became apparent that it was far worse than this but by this time she was through the finish. (2) ” …probably the initial stumble caused the irreparable damage…” can never be certain, and obviously she caused the horse more pain and suffering but the outcome may well have been the same.
One can only hope that the memories never, ever leave her and that the whole awful incident makes her a better horsewoman and serves as a warning to the rest of us that there but for the grace of God go all of us.