Stormy Daniels is involved in a multimillion-dollar court battle and ensnared some of the top officials in the rarefied world of competitive English riding.
As she tangles with a former president, the adult-film actress also plays a starring role in a drama that has rocked the world of competitive English riding
But the woman who was paid $130,000 to bury her account of a couple of minutes of sex in a Lake Tahoe hotel room has simultaneously been involved in another legal drama unfolding far from cable news studios and big-city courthouses. Daniels, 45, declined to comment for this article through her attorney, Clark Brewster of Tulsa. Brewster also declined to answer a list of detailed questions from The Post.also known as Stephanie Clifford, was exercising protected rights to free speech on “a matter of public concern” when she criticized Doughty’s treatment of horses.
Since Daniels spoke out about Trump in 2018, Americans have been divided in their views of her. Many of the former president’s critics have elevated her to the role of savior and heroine, a woman unwilling to be silenced by a uniquely powerful man. But peace can be a rare commodity in America’s subculture of moneyed horse enthusiasts, a world of strong animals and stronger personalities where “barn politics” can be at least as vicious as anything inside the Beltway. And if her fight with Doughty shows anything, it is that Daniels’s involvement in equestrian circles has been far from quiet.According to Daniels, there has scarcely been a time when horses weren’t an important part of her life.
Their new home was on the eastern fringe of the Dallas suburbs, where new subdivisions give way to prairie and pastureland. Daniels took lessons at a barn about 20 minutes’ drive from her house.Like Daniels, Doughty came from the kind of modest background that is uncommon in the world of competitive riding. She was the daughter of a police officer, grew up outside Detroit and worked hard to make her way in a sport dominated by kids with deep-pocketed parents.
“It was my job to keep him safe and I failed him,” she wrote on Facebook the day the horse died. “I know most of you reading this have horses. If there is ANY chance of your barn flooding with the recent rains, don’t risk it … Please don’t make the same mistake. I’ll never forgive myself.” Doughty, meanwhile, let the matter of the unpaid barn bill drop. And there her dispute with Daniels might have endedA few months after Daniels moved her family’s horses to a new location, two of them — Danger Mouse and Ziggy Star Rocker — died after a collision with each other while galloping in a field. It was an unheard-of freak accident, even by the standards of animals notorious for finding strange ways to hurt themselves.
Just before 6 a.m. on Dec. 21, 2016, Daniels published a lengthy post in the online discussion forum of the Chronicle of the Horse — the 87-year-old publication that is the primary source for news and gossip in America’s equestrian community — that detailed her “horrible experiences” with Doughty.
Daniels didn’t give up, however, and six weeks later reached out to Erin Walker, a rider who had been among Doughty’s most vocal supporters but had recently left her barn, according to court records. After communicating with Daniels, she recanted a letter she’d written to equestrian authorities defending Doughty.
Doughty again denied the allegations, saying the bones of Beaux had been exposed on a remote part of her property by erosion months after his burial. Nevertheless, in February an association panel removed her certification. Although the move did not prevent Doughty from giving lessons, it meant she could no longer advertise herself as one of the association’s approved instructors.
“Read what you yourself wrote,” Hershey argued. “How can you ask others to blame for this decision — when, in fact, you are here blaming yourself for it in your own written words?” no longer wanted to proceed with her complaint against Doughty, telling an association official in an email that she wanted to “move on with my life and go on about my business and forget I ever met her.”
As facts emerged in the lawsuit, it became clear that some expert arbiters of horse health had found little to criticize in how Doughty ran her barn. David Celella, one of the state’s top equine veterinarians, said in a sworn declaration that he had been visiting Doughty’s facility for years and that her horses “are healthy and well cared-for.”
Couch said that while the details of the Daniels-Doughty feud sounded extreme, drama among bipeds was an unfortunate fact of the riding life, particularly at more-advanced levels of training and competition. Some less-experienced riders don’t react well, she said, to the commanding personalities that often ascend to the top ranks of a dangerous sport that demands unerring control over 1,200-pound animals.
“She’s hard on these girls,” Hyde said, nodding at Doughty, who was calling out instructions to his daughter and two other mounted riders in the arena. “But they’re strong, independent women when they’re done.”
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