Two years old, riding Shah Zahr
Because My Daughter Grew Up With the Internet
Ten years ago today, in fact pretty close to this very hour, I was sitting across from my daughter on her 16th birthday. I was thinking about how far we had come and what she had accomplished and I was inspired to write an article about what she had learned and why she had turned out the way she had. I knew it wasn’t just the lessons I had taught her, or the influence of her teachers or the other adults in her life. She had learned valuable lessons from the horses and other animals she had grown up with. She had learned to understand their silent language and the great happiness and sadness they could bring.
So I typed up an article about her called “Because My Daughter Grew Up With Horses” and (stupidly) because I was so proud of her I shared it on ONE Appaloosa based Yahoo list. People loved it. And then the shit hit the fan. They loved it so much they shared it to other lists. And those people loved it. And they shared it. And in all this sharing some people removed both the title and the author, and then they shared it and claimed they wrote it.
Imagine my surprise 5 days after writing it when I get a copy sent back to me, by someone claiming they wrote it. I was flabbergasted. WTF was going on? So I googled it and sure enough, now my article is listed all over the internet, sometimes under the real name and sometimes under a fake name “A Father’s Explanation For Why His Daughter Has Horses”. What the hell? No father wrote it. Some jerk had stolen my article and renamed it. I was enraged. I owned the copyright and had in fact filed the documents to make sure I retained ownership. This doesn’t seem to matter on the internet. People stupidly think that if something is posted that means it is free. They don’t understand that copyright exists from the moment of creation until 70 years AFTER the creator’s death. So I started tracking it down and asking for it to be removed. It was at this point that I realized what a bunch of thieving, lying, self-centered assholes the horse community was. Evidently because I didn't want my work stolen I was the bad guy. I should have been flattered that someone took my article and was using it to promote their business. Oh yeah, I found it on 100s of horse business pages as people tried to pimp their lesson programs, luring parents into buying their junk horses. I found it posted on forums, such as Chronicle of the Horse, where the viperous members were clear that their thievery was acceptable to them, because “once it’s on the internet, it’s free”, the irony that a publication that copyrights all its own articles, was fine with people stealing my work and posting it on their forums. When I pointed out that their theft of my work was the equivalent of someone stealing their horse or tack they blew up, called me names and made out like I was crazy. Yep, the writer of the piece is the villain. The fact that the article was about teaching values and morals was completely over their heads, because theft was excusable in their minds. That instant self gratification was the ruling law, not a writer's ownership of their work.
Then there was the absolute bitch lawyer that tried to say she had seen the article BEFORE I posted it and that someone else wrote it, which gave her the right to use it. She was lying, you can search the internet with any search engine you have and you will never find a copy of Because My Daughter Grew Up With Horses posted before January 21st, 2008. It simply did not exist prior to that date. She created a huge page to blast me, and then an interesting thing happened, I was contacted by a group of people that had also dealt with this bitch and found out she had done similar things to other people. A group was formed to discuss her. Well she’s not a lawyer now. Ironically her husband is an attorney and writes legal thriller crime books, I bet he’d be shocked to see all the emails and defamatory things his bitch wife has printed about people, and how she used her position as a lawyer to bully and harass anyone that disagreed with her. He’s on Amazon if anyone is interested.
I’m going tell the truth here. If I had known about the absolute hell that people would put us through I would have never shared it. While I am happy that people were inspired and that it touched a nerve with parents and children alike I would not want the hatred, harassment, stupidity and bigotry that was thrown at my daughter and me done to anyone else. It really showed me how awful people can be, how self-centered and immoral people will be out of greed or self-entitlement. The fact anyone would steal such a personal article and try to claim it shows a lack of character which the article was supposed to refute. Even ten years later I STILL have to get after people who try to SELL posters and items with my article on it, who still lack the moral compass that would tell them stealing an article about values is the height of hypocrisy. It is the most frustrating and maddening thing I have ever dealt with. Because of this I have authorized its use to only a few entities, one is Breyer Horse Creations and the others have been private readings or videos made for youth oriented groups. To date it has been published in 17 major horse magazines (those are with my permission) thousands of horse organization newsletters ( those are without my permission) and on over a million websites. Some jerks have even stolen it and changed the theme from Horses to Livestock or German Shepherds or whatever it is that they want to say taught their kids values, while also showing that they have no values of their own while plagiarizing my article. It boggles the mind, and it explains why the horse industry is so completely screwed up. Plagiarizing is still STEALING. how can these moronic parents think to teach their children to be better people while exhibiting immoral behavior.
Even now, ten years later, it’s clear some people miss the point of the article and want to take offense at things. The heading talks about teens who dye their hair and get tattoos or end up pregnant, as they seek surface identities, instead of developing their own. I stand by my statement. I’m not saying dyed hair or tattoos are bad, heck I’ve colored my hair and both my daughter and I have tattoos. I’m saying that using these things as a shield to hide the fact you haven’t found the real you is wrong. You have to make choices based on YOUR character, not what your peers say, or some celebrity does. Self-esteem is at the base of who we become as adults, a child can’t develop it without confidence and security. But, some people just want to be offended about everything and crap on someone else’s viewpoint.
If you’d like to read the original article it can be found here:
Riding Colida SkipNTwist, our senior stallion
If I were to write an article today, in the same vein, I would have to retitle it to “Because My Daughter Grew Up With the Internet” and it would have a different theme. It would be about what I DON'T want my daughter to become and how even the horse industry spawns the cruel, immoral, unjust and unkind. How scammers and those two lazy to work at life will steal from others.
Because My Daughter Grew Up With The Internet she learned that people will steal anything published, repost it, claim it has their own and then attack the original author when caught.
Because My Daughter Grew Up With The Internet she learned that even lawyers will lie and steal copyrighted articles, because they are too stupid to understand copyright law.
Because My Daughter Grew Up With The Internet she learned that horse forums like Chronicle of the Horse, Horse City, Horsetopia are the meeting place of people who have no values or knowledge of how ownership works, they are nothing but cesspools here those that can't do congregate to gripe about those that can.
Because My Daughter Grew Up With The Internet she learned that people will think private messaging a minor and using the most vile language is okay, just because they are mad that they got called out for stealing. Because an adult screaming cuss words at a child is acceptable when they get told they can't use a copyrighted article.
Because My Daughter Grew Up With The Internet she learned not to open emails from people she doesn’t know.
Because My Daughter Grew Up With The Internet she learned not to share personal articles because even the people you think you can trust will share crap all over so it becomes a huge headache to control.
Because My Daughter Grew Up With The Internet she learned that even industry professionals will steal your stuff and use it to pimp their own businesses, and then thrown tantrums when you tell them they can’t.
Because My Daughter Grew Up With The Internet she learned people will steal your stuff and sell goods with it printed on them, making a profit from your hard work. Because people are jerks.
Riding Stonewall Rascal as the Ringmaster at Breyerfest
It’s been ten years, I’m still proud of my daughter, she has matured into a wonderful adult. She runs her own businesses, is still riding, training, showing and carrying on our horse business. She’s avoided many of the pitfalls that happen to young people today, through foresight and caution. And despite the heaps of crap thrown at her by the scum that has tried to steal my article, she’s still the best example of why it is so true, especially now, a decade from when I first gave it to her.
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