Click to enlarge the rumor
The following is the story of how a computer glitch almost took over the world. A rumor stormed around Facebook and Twitter earlier today that Dutch rider Raf Kooremans had taken over the ride from Buck Davidson on Carl and Cassandra Segal’s BallynoeCastle RM. We helped debunked the rumor after speaking with Buck but the source of the rumor evaded our grasp…until now. After our first story today, EN’s army of tipsters set out on a quest to find the source and they found it quickly, with lec and Polly identifying the UK Eventing magazine as the culprit. A tipster, who requested to remain anonymous, sent us the above page from the UK Eventing magazine, which arrived in their mailbox this morning. On the page, Rachel Wakefield, the magazine’s self proclaimed “queen of gossip” writes:
“Dutch rider Raf Kooremans has a new mount in the famous form of Ballynoe Castle RM who has flown all the way from Buck Davidson’s US yard. Raf sold Cavalor Demeter to Marilyn Little-Meredith and needed to fill the stable…“
I am told from a very good source that this page is what led to the USEA Facebook post and Tweet. I don’t know how the queen of gossip acquired this fascinating tidbit, but I would definitely bet that Lindsay Barreth’s observation that Raf Kooreman’s FEI record shows a 69th place finish on Reggie at Fontainebleau this March has something to do with it.
From Raf’s competition record on the FEI website:
We also heard from Carl, who said “I can assure you that since we bought Reggie, we’ve never given 1 thought to selling him.” Myth busted. And now you know the rest of the story.
