In an attempt to keep this blog from being bogged down with pony talk, I have a second blog, Blue Ridge Pony, where I talk about my equestrian adventures. It’s a pretty simple noncontroversial blog, where I post a lot of photos of my pony, talk about competitions I take part in, trail rides I go on, products I have tried and just general pony antics. It gets some traffic, but is certainly not a popular blog, which is ok with me because I use it as a fun sort of way to document what I am doing in the equine world.
Yesterday at lunchtime I received an email notice that there was a comment on my BRP blog, in response to a post I made in early February. Being one of the very few comments this blog has received, I eagerly pulled it up. After reading it I questioned if it was a legitimate comment, or if it was instead a new type of clever spam, because the response did comment on my post, but it completely missed the very clear and simple point, and seemed more like the writer had only read the headline.
The blog post in question is titled “Sunday Hunting” and is about Virginia’s decision to continue to ban hunting on Sundays. It is actually a repost from this blog, which I consider to be a much more controversial and opinionated blog than my BRP blog. I include a calendar that the Virginia Horse Counsel put out that marks days that are open to some form of hunting so riders can decide if they want to venture into the woods, or if they want to put on blaze orange or caution yellow. In the post I comment that it is my preference to keep the ban in place.
The commenter was clearly and outspokenly interested in changing the law to allow hunting on Sundays.
The difference in opinion is fine, and his statement, although it sounded rash and a bit off topic, was fine. But it was quickly followed by additional comments, by the same poster as well as a few additional posters. The comments quickly turned malicious, feeding off of each other’s lack of sense and rational, and snowballed into utter nastiness. Wild ‘facts’ were thrown out, including the statement that someone in the woods is more likely to be hit by a meteor than hurt by a hunter’ and that no rider or horse had ever been hurt by a hunter, claiming propaganda and conspiracy theories against hunting.
I also got a few ping backs on my blog, which lets you know when your blog has been listed as a link in another location. I followed the pings and came to a Facebook group titled “Legalize Virginia Sunday Hunting For All”. And the unpleasantness, and lack of actually reading my blog posts before jumping to conclusions, was continued. The lead instigator, a grown man, was joined by other grown men, and they were fully involved in a cyber bullying frenzy.
In the commenter’s defense, I had not listed the reasons in my original blog post as to why I prefer hunting to remain banned on Sundays, nor did I elaborate that I am pro-hunting, and supportive of hunters rights. Although it was apparent that they were truly not reading the blog post before commenting anyway, and preferred to make their own assumptions. But I did leave them to decide my reasoning on their own. And they were, as expected, wildly and totally off the mark.
By this time I had received a good dozen comments, that rolled from irrational smears to outright verbal attacks and threats to myself and my horse. I quickly turned on the blog’s built in comment monitor, and removed those that had already appeared to the public, because nothing healthy was happening. Certainly threatening my life and my horse’s life, does not further the cause of legalizing hunting on Sundays, or stay in line with the upbeat, friendly blog I have intended to provide.
The assaults continued both on the FB group and on the now, unpublicized comments, gaining aggression, until I finally shut down my blog.
I am sad to see a group of grown men, act like a bunch of school yard bullies, while hiding behind computer screens.
Certainly any creditable group would not make wild death threats to prove their point?
If a true discussion was the intent, all a commenter had to type was “why do you not want hunting on Sundays” rather than attempting to publicly post an elaborate description of field dressing a horse.
Sadly all of this was stated in the name of proving that hunters are responsible and should be allowed to hunt 7 days a week, and that everyone will be safe to enjoy the woods if it is permitted.
Yes you have shown your maturity, the degree of self control you possess and made the level of your rational thinking clear.
Shame on you grown men, who give hunters a bad name.
All Things Krista 
Meredith
/ August 23, 2012I’m terribly sorry this happened to you. Your blog post above was spot on, very thoughtful and reasonable. You were the victim of a feeding frenzy, by animals with no more rational conscious thought than sharks. I hope you can resuscitate your pony blog in time–the creeps will have moved on to other fresh meat by then.