I may have to coin a new term for the reason Anky is suing Astrid of Eurodressage: cyber-abuse. Last night Astrid issued a press release to let the world know about the law suit, which has its day in court (perhaps its first of many, perhaps not) on September 8th. The crux of the matter is a photo that Astrid published along with the FEI’s announcement last winter that the roll kur controversy had been miraculously solved (though many have argued it was more a case of re-branding). The photo, taken I believe in Athens in 2004, is of Salinero in training, chin on chest.
As if DQ land weren’t fractious enough already. This controversy is showing early signs of giving folks a whole new reason to take sides and shriek ‘black!’ or ‘white!’ I can already hear the CoTH dribblers revving their engines. Now, if the whole point of this law suit is to make incriminating photos of Anky’s horses go away, this was not the way to do it. The Carroteers published a link to a Dutch TV show in which both Astrid and Sjef are interviewed. Not only is the Athens photo frequently flashed full-screen during the 10 minute program, it often appears on two TV screens in the backdrop to the set of the news magazine program. So does the TV station get sued too? The only Dutch words I understand are those that sound like English, but the show is still worth a gander. If nothing else, it’s fun watching the blonde woman describe roll kur and LDR to her male colleague. And man oh man, does it ever underscore how big Anky and dressage are in Holland.
I wanted to put a link to the page on Eurodressage describing the suit, but an extraordinary spike in traffic seems to have crashed the site. Either that or it’s been hacked. So now I’m scared to put any links at all, lest the cyber gods descend on me as well. Just go to Eurodressage (if you can get on) or the Carrot (www.horseslovecarrotsandbute.com) to find out more. Crap. I just Googled cyber-abuse and found out it’s already been coined.
