USA TODAY International Edition
Scandal inquiries have equestrian world in rebellion
Horse trainer’s suicide has some saying that sexual abuse investigations are going too far.
Speaking at a big industry meeting this year in Southern California, longtime equestrian trainer Scott Matton gripped the microphone and ripped into possibly the most hated organization in his professional community.
His target was the U.S. Center for SafeSport, which opened in 2017 and is tasked with investigating and judging claims of sexual abuse in Olympic sports. Matton and many others in his line of work view this organization with suspicion, worried it could be used to devastate them with false sex abuse claims – however unlikely that might be.
“We’re being bullied a little bit here,” he said, drawing applause from the ballroom crowd of professional horsemen.
To avoid this risk, Matton proposed leaving SafeSport’s jurisdiction and setting up shop where he wouldn’t be subject to its requirements or its authority to deliver punishment.
“I need to go out to unrated shows for the safety and welfare of myself,” he said.
Other public forums for equestrian trainers and coaches reveal similar opposition to SafeSport, an independent agency that has issued 18 lifetime bans in equestrian since March 2017, out of 285 lifetime bans overall across 50 sports. This rebellion is a big reason many trainers and some affiliated organizations are discussing a divorce from the U.S. Equestrian Federation,
which binds them to SafeSport rules as the national governing body recognized by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC).
But others see something else that also might be at play in this talk of secession: fear and resistance to changes that are making Olympic sports safer than ever, even if they’re not perfect.
“If you’re breaking away from the Olympic movement because it is now holding participants accountable for sexual, physical and emotional abuse and/or because you consider it burdensome to spend a couple of hours a year training on ways to identify grooming and prevent abuse, that’s rather unfortunate,” SafeSport spokesman Josh Wenderoff told USA TODAY. “Of course, as we said, we listen to concerns and we’re always working to improve.”
The USOPC has made use of SafeSport mandatory for all national governing bodies in the wake of sex abuse scandals in gymnastics, taekwondo, swimming and other sports.
By comparison, the equestrian community largely has avoided such widespread disgrace except for the unmasking of legendary horse trainer Jimmy Williams, who died in 1993 and recently was accused by multiple pupils of molestation.
Former riders and others in the industry say Williams was not the only sexual predator over the past few decades. Judgment day for those sins could be at hand as a result, with SafeSport in charge of the proceedings.
“I think there’s some very nervous people right now, that’s for sure,” said Florence Fleming, who was an equestrian rider in the 1970s. “They should be. They should be nervous if they can take you down this many years later. There’s got to be some people running scared for sure.”
Adding fuel to this fire is the suicide in June of longtime equestrian rider and coach Rob Gage, who had been banned from sanctioned equestrian events for life by SafeSport in February. SafeSport had found that Gage, a protégé of Williams, had engaged in sexual misconduct involving multiple minors. These allegations stemmed from decades earlier and upset him after becoming public, according to a friend and former pupil, Emily Karp.
His suicide led to even more backlash against SafeSport. Critics said it was proof the organization can ruin a man’s life without sufficient due process to fight the charges. SafeSport noted Gage “had multiple opportunities to provide information and evidence as part of a robust investigative process.”
Critics of SafeSport are careful to note they support measures to protect youth. However, they say they fear being “guilty until proven innocent.”
SafeSport, which has fielded more than 3,250 reports since it opened, resolves cases through a formal process that includes trained investigators and sometimes interim suspensions if deemed necessary before a final decision is made, such as issuing lifetime bans. People accused of abuse are informed of the identity of accusers and have the right to offer witnesses, evidence and appeal sanctions.
SafeSport said “false reporting is a violation of the SafeSport Code and is investigated accordingly.” It noted such false reporting in general is rare, according to research.
Effective June 1, SafeSport instituted new policies aimed at limiting one-onone interactions and electronic communications between coaches or trainers and minors, helping reduce opportunities for abuse. This change has triggered yet more angst in the equestrian community.
“I had to walk a pattern with a girl this weekend, and we were the only two out in the middle of the arena,” Matton said recently. “Am I non-compliant? How do I do that?”
It’s OK if there was at least another adult present. SafeSport’s policies generally require that one-on-one interactions at sanctioned events with minor athletes take place at an “observable and interruptible” distance from another adult.
Saddlebred horse trainer Bret Day similarly called SafeSport a “detriment to our business” in May when he helped lead a town hall discussion in Minnesota.
“One child done wrong is terrible, but we’re all trying to make a living,” he said.
He told the crowd that if “we implement our own governing body, we probably will decide there probably needs to be some kind of SafeSport offering,” suggesting it might not be required or as rigorous.
By contrast, U.S. Equestrian chief executive Bill Moroney sees SafeSport as a necessary requirement to protect all young athletes under his organization’s watch. He says the vast majority of his membership supports it.
“We know that recently some of our affiliates have voiced concerns and questions over these policies and their implementation,” Moroney said. “Education is probably one of the most critical components of this process, and while we understand that the change is difficult, SafeSport is non-negotiable.”
Several affiliate organizations under the umbrella of U.S. Equestrian and SafeSport rules still have formed a joint leadership council that has been considering the formation of an alternative national governing body, including the American Saddlebred Horse Association. These organizations represent a small portion of U.S. Equestrian and have other concerns with its governance besides SafeSport, such as medication rules for horses and fair representation. But criticisms of SafeSport often dominate town hall discussions among professionals unhappy with U.S. Equestrian.
Saddlebred association president David Mount said in an email there are “concerns about the U.S. Center for SafeSport’s implementation, even as we strongly support what it’s trying to accomplish.”
Critics in the equestrian community point to the case of Luis Felipe Rodriguez as perhaps the biggest example of their mistrust.
Burden of proof
Rodriguez, a Minnesota trainer, was charged in criminal court in 2015 with improperly touching a teen student. News accounts then said he admitted to law enforcement to hugging and kissing the girl on the forehead, as well as spanking her on the buttock as part of his training. But his attorney, Glenn Bruder, said his client only admitted to hugging her once, and Rodriguez was acquitted in a jury trial in 2017.
SafeSport permanently banned him in July 2018, subject to appeal. Bruder said he believes Rodriguez was banned despite his acquittal because of a “Salem witch trial environment” in Olympic sports after the sex abuse scandal in gymnastics involving doctor Larry Nassar, who pleaded guilty to molesting girls and women.
“They decided it was a whole lot safer to ban people who were accused of sexual abuse than to risk the possibility there might be somebody else out there like (Nassar),” Bruder said.
Rodriguez challenged SafeSport’s decision and recently was taken off the banned list after Bruder said they sent a transcript of the trial to the agency costing about $5,000.
SafeSport said its policy is not to comment on specific cases.
SafeSport has banned many other coaches after they were convicted in criminal court but has the authority to issue sanctions according to evidence against those who aren’t charged or convicted. It also can issue sanctions for violations that are not crimes, such as with sexual harassment.
That’s because SafeSport’s rules are akin to workplace rules that require a tradeoff. In exchange for the privilege of staying employed or part of an organization, the employee or member agrees to abide by such rules and take certain training, in this case designed to protect minors and eliminate abuse.
“We have had decades of putting the interests of abusive coaches first and worrying too much about making accusations all the while athletes were subjected to unspeakable abuse,” said Dionne Koller, a sports law professor at the University of Baltimore.
Similarly, in the NFL, the league installed rules in recent years designed to crack down on domestic violence after a rash of cases involving players.
The burden of proof in such workplaces likewise is lower than it is in a criminal court, where a defendant’s freedom is at stake, not merely a paycheck or job. Instead of needing to prove guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt” as in criminal court, the burden of proof in SafeSport cases is “more likely than not,” based on a preponderance of evidence, as it is in civil court cases.
Trainers still say it’s unfair. In April, Saddlebred training stable owner Jackie Hale helped lead a town hall in Tennessee and argued that SafeSport should be for those on track to participate in the Olympics. “The U.S. Center for SafeSport was created to govern the Olympic movement,” she told the crowd. “We are not going to the Olympics the last time I checked . ... So if (U.S. Equestrian) would consider separating the Olympic from the non-Olympic, which they said they were not able to do, for whatever reason, then that would get us out from under the U.S. Center for SafeSport jurisdiction.”
Such an approach would shrink SafeSport’s jurisdiction to a smaller number of athletes. Most athletes in the Olympic movement compete at lower levels and are not elites on track for the Olympic Games. They are still protected by SafeSport and served by national governing bodies such as U.S. Equestrian.
Some say that’s necessary – and overdue.
The culture
After Gage’s death, SafeSport noted it doesn’t have a statute of limitations, saying in a statement, “We disagree with those who seek to invalidate abuse that occurred many years ago. To change the culture of sport, individuals must be held accountable for their behavior, regardless of how long ago it occurred.”
DiAnn Langer knows how the culture used to be. The industry veteran said her trainer repeatedly sexually abused her over a six-year period, starting when she was 13, in the 1960s. But she didn’t dare tell her parents or report it to police, in part because she felt shame and intimidation at such a young age. She declined to name the trainer, now dead, but detailed her experience last year in The Chronicle of the Horse, an industry publication.
“It was the norm,” Langer told USA TODAY. “Who was going to walk up to a man and say, ‘Listen, I think you’re behaving inappropriately with this young girl.’?”
Fleming, who competed in the ’70s, recalled an environment in the Northwest that was rife with discussion about trainers being sexually involved with junior riders. Back then, she said some of the girls were considered “starryeyed” for some older trainers.
Langer says one big difference now is SafeSport, which was authorized by Congress. It gives athletes a dedicated place to report such misconduct, and it enforces other rules to prevent it – resources they didn’t have in previous eras.
Langer also has followed the discussions among those who want to leave the U.S. Equestrian Federation and therefore the jurisdiction of SafeSport. She says it is driven by vocal professionals – trainers and riding coaches who interact with youth more than other parts of the industry.
“What they are going to do is go back into the dark,” Langer said. “They are afraid. And they make a mockery out of it, I believe, instead of working in a positive way to make SafeSport acceptable to everybody.”
“We know that recently some of our affiliates have voiced concerns and questions over these policies and their implementation . ... While we understand that the change is difficult, SafeSport is non-negotiable.” Bill Moroney U.S. Equestrian chief executive