What Happened at the Stables

When show jumping became the latest Olympic sport to be plagued by revelations that young female athletes had been sexually abused by respected older men, some equestrians fought back—against the organization set up to stop the problem

- By Olivia Carville. Illustration by Ard Su

“I feel like people are looking at me,” Maggie Kehring whispers to her mother as they walk across a dirt track at Desert International Horse Park in Thermal, Calif. The braided manes of the show horses, the chic white breeches of the riders, and the sweaty glasses of flavored iced tea belie the tension in the air. It’s early November, and Kehring, a 19-year-old equestrian who’s represented the U.S. in international competition, is making her first appearance at a West Coast show since the arrest of her coach, Rich Fellers, five months earlier. She’d accused Fellers, a former Olympic rider, of sexual abuse, claiming he groomed her into a relationship while she was training at his showjumping stable near Portland, Ore.

Kehring’s mother, Carrie, tries to assure her daughter that no one is looking, but she sees the side-eyed glances, too. Most people in the U.S. equestrian community remember where they were when Fellers and his chestnut stallion, Flexible, won the 2012 World Cup finals in the Netherlands. The U.S. had endured a quarter-century drought at the competition, and Flexible was regarded as too fiery for anyone else to ride. Kehring was 9 years old at the time, watching mesmerized at her home in Woodside, Calif. Two years later, she was in the stands in Sacramento when Fellers won a World Cup qualifier. Fans lined up to get his autograph, and Kehring remembers thinking: “That’s who I need to ride with to get to the top of the sport.”