"Please consider signing our petiton opposing reinstatement of U.S.
Equestrian Federation membership privileges to the members who were
suspended in 1996 for killing show horses in order to collect on their
insurance policies. This petition will be sent to the FEI as well as USEF
and the US Olympic Committee, so even if you are not a US resident, know
that signatures from members of all FEI affiliates are very important.

For those who may not be familiar with the case, here is some background:

In 1996, the American Horse Shows Association ("AHSA"), predecessor in
interest to the United States Equestrian Federation ("USEF"), the USA's
national governing body for equestrian sport, suspended nine (9) of its
members for varying lengths of time as a result of said members' conviction
on various counts of fraud and conspiracy. 

Most, if not all of those suspended, had either killed horses, caused horses
to be killed, or conspired with others for horses to be killed in attempts
to defraud insurance companies. Most of the horses were electrocuted by
inserting a clip into their anuses.  One horse was killed by breaking its
legs with a crowbar.  The responsible co-conspirators have become
colloquially known in the equestrian sports field as "the horse-killers".

The complete list of USEF "horse-killers", together with the terms of
their respective suspensions, can be found in a report of the meeting
minutes for the meeting at which action was taken to suspend them,
contained here:

http://www.ienn.com/break/mayjune97/indict.htm

The USEF "horse killer" who received the shortest suspension term was Mr.
Paul Valliere, now resident in Wellington, Florida and Plainville,
Massachusetts.  Mr. Valliere received a life suspension, but becomes
eligible to apply for reinstatement of full USEF membership privileges in
April of 2006.

In anticipation of Mr. Valliere's eligibility for reinstatement, a petition
has been drawn up opposing his reinstatement to full USEF membership.  You
may view and sign the petition here:

http://www.petitiononline.com/valliere/petition.html

We are an ad hoc group of horse owners, trainers, admirers and competitors,
most of whom are members of USEF or one of its affiliate organizations.  We
met on the Chronicle forums and informally agreed to work together to
prevent reinstatement of any of the "horse killers" to full membership
privileges in the U.S. Equestrian Federation.

We do not believe any of these so-called "horse killers" is entitled to
reinstatement of USEF membership privileges.  We fully intend to proceed in
like manner against each "horse killer" in turn as they respectively become
eligible to apply for reinstatement.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR USING THE PETITION:

We encourage you to circulate this petition in any way you see fit. Send it
as an e-mail, print it out and obtain signatures, or simply e-mail links to
the press, or people involved in the equestrian industry.

PLEASE NOTE, however: it is imperative that the language of the
petition not be altered in any way whatsoever.  Any signatures on copies of
the petition where the language has been changed could be rendered invalid.

Please encourage your signers to provide their full information, including
e-mail address and USEF Membership Identification Number, if any.  If your
signers are members of other horse-related organizations, that is important
information to present to USEF, too.  We promise your information will not
be transmitted or sold to any third parties other than the appropriate
committees of the USEF, the USOC and the FEI."