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1/ Hey ponies, it's story time. Let me tell you about my experiences w/ Ponies on the Delta in Lousiana, USA. (Go grab some popcorn; this is LONG.)
The first time I went was April 2018. It was the 3rd POTD & already growing quickly.
The first time I went was April 2018. It was the 3rd POTD & already growing quickly.
2/ Me, my fiancee/handler, & our entire CO herd went. It was great fun, tough competition, & we had amazing experiences that I will never forget. We met people & made connections we never would have otherwise & we were eager to go again.
3/ My handler & I built a dressage system we still use purely so we could compete, & we both won the dressage event both years we competed.
4/ During that first year, a staff member named Foxy (someone I recognized from the internet in my early days of pony play research, & was excited to finally meet) groped my fiancee's breast while incredibly drunk.
5/ He made inappropriate advances on one other member of staff that year, & we were later told of several other incidents. He was all-around a poor judge: disorganized, made up patterns for events that were to happen later that day, marked out a blindfolded cart course that was…
6/ …near-impossible to complete without faults because he was DRUNK when he did it, made bad calls that we have good reasons to suspect were made out of revenge & an attempt to step on the scale so HIS pony might have a higher chance of winning (she didn't).
7/ We were unsure of how to handle this. Foxy was Head Judge & MC, & liked to remind everyone his word was law, & you'd be kicked out of the competition for arguing.
8/ Through friends we made at the event, we later learned Foxy's behavior toward women was not new, that he likes to treat women this way -- especially ponies who wear his tack, & often trans women.
9/ Others had problems with Foxy's behavior & had complained, with zero being done, so it seemed unlikely that the owner & main coordinator of POTD, Joey, would do much to stop this.
Eventually word made it back around to the owner.
Eventually word made it back around to the owner.
10/ He said he spoke to Foxy & made sure it would never happen again. So, in 2019, we attended again. Foxy again was Head Judge. Once more we watched him put on a poor show of being a judge: he was disorganized, he made up things like reining & dressage patterns the hour before…
11/ …the events, he got in mine & my handler's personal space & stayed there even when asked to give us space, he spontaneously got in my personal space to photo-bomb a selfie without asking, & he walked up & hugged my partner during the awards ceremony with zero warning &…
12/ …without asking. Taken individually & in a vaccuum, many of these things would have been minor, but given his history & our experiences with him, this was NOT OK, & he was finally confronted when we made a scene during the post-event wrap up - a meeting after the end of…
13/ …the event, after the awards ceremony, in which attendees are expected to give constructive criticism, & say what they liked, what they didn't, what worked & what didn't.
14/ (I have huge issues with this system of offering constructive criticism, & these issues have been voiced many times - but that's a different story for a different day.)
Foxy was finally banned, & we offered to help Joey run the 2020 POTD.
Foxy was finally banned, & we offered to help Joey run the 2020 POTD.
15/ We would both judge, & my partner would take Foxy's place as MC. I got to work designing the dressage & reining patterns, both of which are finished & will likely be used in the upcoming POTD, whenever that will be.
16/ When my handler & I agreed to help judge & run the event, the group of us (judges & event owner) agreed to discuss & vote on all major decisions. It's the owner's event & we agreed he'd have final say, but he agreed to come to us & get our input.
17/ He said "I've been listening to the wrong people". He said he wanted to change POTD for the better.
I'm not sure how long that agreement lasted, because we weren't informed when he brought in a 2nd.
I'm not sure how long that agreement lasted, because we weren't informed when he brought in a 2nd.
18/ Roles that we'd already discussed, agreed upon & assigned (such as a team of people to handle any reports of consent issues) got reassigned to this other person, & when we objected, another person added who none of us had ever met or heard of.
19/ All without our knowledge or input. When we continued to object, he said he couldn't have anyone be both a judge & on the consent violation team, that he personally was sure a consent issue would never happen anyway (...except that ONE time, right??
20/ Except it was multiple times?) & if they did, he personally would decide how to deal with it, because he's in the army & the army has an amazing track record when dealing with sexual assault.
21/ *sarcastic snort* He literally said he could tell with 100% accuracy & certainty whether people were lying by looking them in the eyes. (Do I have to mention that this is a myth?)
When the pandemic began, we mentioned we should get a plan together.
When the pandemic began, we mentioned we should get a plan together.
22/ The 2nd commented in a public attendee chatroom saying how the pandemic was blown out of proportion. We argued with facts, they responded essentially with "LALALALALA" until the government banned groups of 10+ people.
23/ This was two weeks before people would start traveling to LA for the event. Once the Trump administration announced the ban on 10+ people, THEN the owner decided to post-pone the event until October.
24/ Once it was clear October wasn't going to be a safe or good idea, we expressed our concern again. We tried to get plans together for mask requirements, sanitizer, food preparations.
25/ We tried to point out the issues with folks staying in the bunkhouse, which is a tiny space in the one communal building on the property with little airflow, where every year 10+ people sleep.
26/ We tried to point out the issues with the communal cooking area, the public bathrooms & showers.
27/ We tried to point out that AT LEAST people needed to be APPROPRIATELY INFORMED WITH THE CONDITIONS OF THE CAMPSITE so that attendees can make their own decisions around health & safety, & whether to come or not.
ALL of these concerns were brushed aside.
ALL of these concerns were brushed aside.
28/ We were told covid was a hoax, that the death toll was overblown, that the owner himself was in a SUPER SEKRET ARMY TASK FORCE so he definitely knew the truth of the matter.
29/ When folks in the attendee chat expressed concern, & that several had lost loved ones in the pandemic, the owner & his 2nd didn't have it in them to express condolences.
30/ Many attendees have already cancelled & asked for refunds, & the owner has repeatedly denied those requests.
31/ My handler & I were called "smartasses", told we were blowing A GLOBAL PANDEMIC out of proportion, told to shut up, & finally when we still wouldn't shut up, we were kicked off of staff.
32/ I personally care much more about the safety of our worldwide pony family more than any individual pony event. If we hadn't been kicked out, handler & I would have resigned anyway. We can't in good conscience assign our names to such a wreck of an event.
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