Today's episode of "Barbed Wire Is NOT Horse Fencing!"

I've covered this topic before, but not recently, and I just got these pictures which are so very educational. If you can look at these and still think it's OK to put your horses out on barbed wire, well...I give up.

Here's a bit of the story. The horse is a two year old registered (?) Half Saddlebred. No clue what the other half is. What do I tell you people about breeding these odd crosses and where they tend to wind up...


"This woman had taken a horse from her neighbor 4 days earlier, as the horse was living in mud up to his knees and not getting fed, so she talked her neighbor into giving the horse to her. Unfortunately, she was not really set up to house a horse and had built him a small pen out of two strands of loose barbed wire to contain him." (lovely accomodations pictured left...I particularly like the loose nylon halter and way too long drag rope)









(Point #1: You are not rescuing when you take a horse from a bad situation and put him into another bad situation. If you wanted to help the horse? Take him to a boarding barn. If you don't have $$ for a boarding barn and don't have proper horse facilities, then call animal control and otherwise stay out of it. This lady did not do this horse any favors. Although, at least she did call a good rescue and that's who has him now!)

Anyway, pretty predictably, this two year old stud colt (c'mon, you KNEW that was coming!) cut his hoof halfway off on the barbed wire. If you're eating, don't even look...


































Everybody - it's spring.The weather is getting good. Just go out and buy hot tape, connectors, a charger, and enough beer to get your friends over for the day. I know it's not the cost that's stopping you. The supplies are cheap. You just need the labor. Aren't your horses too valuable to you to risk an injury like the one you just saw? And don't tell me it's ok because your horses are in a big field. We all know that the mean horse will corner the wimpy horse in the corner of that big field. It's Murphy's Law of Horses.

Oh, and the colt is going to be okay...quite amazingly. The injury missed the joint. Of course he has substantial vet bills - if you'd like to donate or are interested in adopting him once he is a healed-up gelding, head over to SAFE. He's in the Seattle area.

'Cause only snobby wealthy people care about bloodlines!

This exchange was sent to me from a Horses For Sale/Wanted message board. I cannot resist adding my 2 cents worth - and kudos to the person who responded...who is the person I wish owned this horse and was making decisions for him! By the way, this is a two year old horse.

Original Poster:

Im looking for someone to give my buckskin stud a good home, i dont care if you geld him or not, but in my personal opinion, he doesnt need to be gelded. He is dead calm and is not spooky and is a puppy dog. He follows you everywhere and is halter trained , trailer trained, can pick up his feet groom, has been saddled, bridled and started with his riding. Good for medium or smaller person as he will not be huge. I weigh 145 and he suits me fine. Great with kids, but needs finished out. Wouldnt be hard, it would be great for a teen wanted to train their own horse, not dangerous. asking 500, will take less to a good or forever home, no meat buyers or horse traders!Location: Northwest Arkansas Email me at lnz_4ever_lu@yahoo.com

Response from Horseperson With Brain:

I hate to sound rude, but if you are only selling him for $500 or best offer, with no bloodline information or real convincing attributes other than his attitude, maybe you should make sure to geld him before selling him. If he sells for only $500 or less what does that say about the quality or demand for the offspring he will produce if used as a stallion? There are so many quality horses for cheap nowadays that have good, proven bloodlines and are at least broke (though I agree a small two year old should not be pushed in training), that there isn't much demand for anything less, unless it is a dead broke kids horse, and NO 2 year old stallion, I don't care how calm or good, should be marketed as a kids horse unless he is soon to be gelded or is under a contract to be gelded or something. Also, this is a HORSE WANTED board anyways, please place this on a board for HORSES FOR SALE!

Response from (you knew it was coming!) the OP:

If you have nothing interesting to say, dont say it on here, it is a horse home wanted ad, ok? I can market him as a kids horse, as i have kids, i wouldnt if i didnt know what i was talking about. I have trained horses for years and been raised with them as well. bloodlines dont mean crap, its temperament, only snobby wealthy people sink as low to only want bloodlines. Ive seem some full blood quarter horses with Impressive go crazy, and they should be pure, right? Wrong? Horses with impressive shouldnt even be registered. Why not keep him a stallion if he is a puppy. I have mares, and hes not interested. why waste the 250, just to have to raise his price. Ive already got over 500 dollars in the horse. Next time keep your thoughts to yourself, if you arent interested in an ad, this isnt a blog to express your feelings in the matter.

Lindsey, you ignorant cow. Here's some news for you, sunshine. While nobody should ONLY want bloodlines, nobody should ONLY want disposition, either. My 30+ year old grade toothless fugly rescue mare (pictured left, for everybody's amusement) has a great disposition - do you think that means she should have babies? And you're an idiot who clearly thinks that all Impressive horses are bad because someone equally ignorant tried to explain HYPP to you once and the concept of a N/N was way beyond your ability to comprehend.

Why not keep him a stallion? Because, Lindsey, stallions make more horses. More grade, $10 says fugly as hell, UNMARKETABLE horses that wind up being a sandwich in France! Not to mention that just because something is an uncut two year old and is still quiet, that does not mean it will be equally quiet as an uncut four year old. You note that he's not interested in mares yet - well, honey, just wait til he IS. I love how you admit you would rather sell him for $500 as a stallion than geld him and sell him for $750 as a gelding (or how about you eat the cost of gelding him? Who bred this thing anyway? Another $10 says you!).

Note the use of "waste" to describe the $250 needed for gelding (which I do not believe, BTW, if gelding is $80 in rural Washington state, you cannot tell me it is $250 in rural Arkansas. Not buying.)

Anyway, I'm guessing Lindsey knows about the blog since she mentioned she wasn't posting on a "blog to express your feelings." So hey, Lindsey, you're the star today! You and your ($10 says grade) buckskin two year old colt, THAT NEEDS TO BE GELDED. Hopefully some "snobby" person will buy him who has the sense to chop his balls off!

For all of you who get fed up reading Craigslist and the free horses...I have a happy ending for you. A friend of mine was looking at the free horses and saw a free Saddlebred, 28 years old. Her first thought was that she'd have to go look at him because she loves Saddlebreds. Her second thought was that, if her first horse was alive today, he'd be around that age. Yeah, you guessed it. The free Craigslist Saddlebred was her first horse. Yesterday he came home to her for the rest of his life. She's going to have that second chance so many wish we had to spoil him for the rest of his life and make sure he never wants for a thing. Congratulations, Jessica - I'm so happy for you both!

Finally, you have to check out this before and after video showing the work of the Humane Society of North Texas. (Warning: There is a dead horse in it. But the rest of it is great!)

Discussion: The true cost of owning a horse

Lately we've been hearing a lot from pro-slaughter forces who think we must have slaughter or horses will be neglected. I don't agree with that, although I have no problem with government-funded or privately-funded euthanasia and believe we must make that readily available. My argument is with giving anybody a penny of profit for their bad behavior. That, to me, is the biggest problem with slaughter as it has traditionally existed - it pays you for being irresponsible and/or cruel. As long as you reward a behavior, that behavior will continue and increase. Think how much more crime we'd have if you got a $300 bonus each time you were arrested! If the two options are: care for your horse (costs money) or kill your horse (pays money), we all know what the asshats of the world will choose.

Ultimately, a lot of it comes down to discouraging people too poor to own horses from owning them in the first place. That's what I want to talk about today. What does it really cost to own a horse? I think a lot of people are clueless about the facts!

(Somewhat related - for you newbies, read my blog entry a while back on the fact that horses are a luxury)

I want to know your location and what it costs you to maintain a horse in your location. I've outlined what I think are the necessities below (some are averages/guesses of course). Can you do the same in this thread and be sure to state your location? I think this will make for very valuable reading for anyone considering purchasing a horse, or for those realizing it is time to budget now for next winter. I'm not talking about supplements or tack or "extras." I'm talking about the FLAT OUT BASICS to maintain a horse in good and healthy condition. If you board, quote your board cost and what is or is not included.

Location: Seattle area

Hay: $12 - $15 per square bale (large 100# bales) for alfalfa or orchard grass. Local grass goes for $4-$6 per square bale but my horses need better. If you're looking to feed a Thoroughbred, older horse, etc. - you're going to be buying the expensive hay. I go through a bale a day per four horses - that's probably about average. I'm actually going to have sufficient grazing this summer to do without hay but that has not been the usual case. Normally I've had to hay year-round. If you have 10 horses on 3 acres, guess what, you have to hay year-round! I was told a long time ago that the ratio is 1 horse per acre if you want them to be able to maintain on grass and from my experience that's about accurate, IF you have GOOD grass. I once had 5-6 Thoroughbreds living on five acres and they were hog-fat all summer with no supplemental feeding, but that was in the Midwest where the grass is excellent. Not so much the case if you live in a drier climate or have weed issues.

Now, if you have a mush eater, like I do, my cost keeping her in orchard grass pellets is about $6 per day.

Hooves: Trims $35.

Deworming: Averages out to $10 every other month. FYI, if you don't already know this, Country Supply has really cheap Ivermectin. You can't use it every time but you can rotate it in.

Bedding: This is pretty pricy around here. ABM pellets at about $16 per week.

Vet: I looked at last year and my average was about $250 per horse. I had no major emergencies.

So my monthly average cost per horse is in the neighborhood of $216. What's yours?

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You east coast folks said you wanted to see some east coast rescues available for adoption. Here you go. How cute is he??? OMG, he's adorable. He's over at Mid Atlantic Horse Rescue in Maryland - sound, sane, sixteen hands and ready to go have a new career. I know how many of you have always wanted a gray!

By the way, you should look at their web site in general. Note how every rideable rescue horse is ... being ridden! And by someone who can actually ride. Not Cousin Cooter in shorts, tennis shoes, a mullet and a cordura saddle with turquoise sparklies on it. This is one reason this particular rescue has a rep for being able to place these horses into upscale homes where they will receive excellent care. Targeted marketing works.

...omg he's so cute, I just want to kiss his little gray nose...

I'm afraid to call myself a rescuer anymore...

I think I'll call myself something with better connotations...like a crack whore!

Good God, yes, it's another bottom-feeding, criminal-minded con artist $cammer pretending to be a horse rescuer! Yes, Catherine Petersen of Fair Dinkum Equine Rescue/aka Homestretch has been jailed for bad checks and now all the facts are coming out about how she $cammed kindhearted folks on the Internet for horse care that was never done and horses that were never even rescued!

From a post on the Alex Brown board:

"Now, this one really hurts, Snickers NEVER HAD HER EYE SURGERY. Petersen again took advantage of the devotion of the FOBS to this poor little mare, and proceeded to weave a web of lies – but the fact is, she never had Snickers evaluated, let alone had her operated on. This was all a lie – to the tune of $3,500 that she collected from the people here for that surgery. Snickers is still as blind as she was the day she walked out of Cavel. Her current condition shows no evidence of any past eye surgeries. This was verified by an evaluation I had done at Michigan State University’s Ophthamology Department, immediately upon her arrival here. Discussions did take place for a possible surgery for her."

Snickers got a lot of attention because she was rescued out of Cavel the day we banned slaughter, and had a surprise foal immediately thereafter. They, along with all other Petersen horses, are safe...thanks to OTHER rescuers!

Oh, it's not over. Asshat Petersen collected money for an alleged thirty two horses rescued from a Montana auction. But oops, what was the actual number? ZERO.

"Ultimately we spoke with the sales manager at the Billings Montana livestock auction and the Montana Brand inspector in Billings. Neither Catherine or Jeff Petersen or Fair Dinkum Farm and Equine Rescue purchased any horses in Billings Montana the weekend in question. The brand inspector had not written any brands in any of those names in April or May. Also the Billings Livestock auction manager checked her records and said that Catherine Petersen had not written any check under her name or the rescue name that she could find in her system going back to 1999.

There is also an email correspondence written by Catherine to the woman that was fostering the horses stating that she couldn't take in anymore horses and that she would save the money given by the FOB'S for a future rescue.

There was never a rescue of 32 horses, it was all a lie. I am so very sorry to have to be the one to tell you this. I'm sure you are all as stunned, as I was. "

Check this out. This poor woman leased out her gelding to Peterson. Very fortunately, she got him back safe and sound. It could have been another Petunia scenario. (Those asshats have been criminally charged, HOORAY, waiting for a new update now.)

"When the pictures were enlarged [we] found out that these were from a manufacturer's web site and not the barn he was going to be in. I now have learned the night he arrived at their "ranch or farm," it was a house on 1 acre with metal panels next to their house right off the highway with no shelter. That night he got loose from the pen and was running up and down the highway they lived on. The police woke them up to ask if this was their horse. The next day he went to a boarding barn. I have since learned that there was no daughter and that at one time she tried to sell the gelding."

*sigh* The United States Equine Rescue League is the rescue that is cleaning up this particular mess...and they do need donations.

Now, all of those of you with extra money? Donate it to rescues YOU HAVE CHECKED OUT. I am SURE there are local rescues where you live. STOP SENDING MONEY TO PEOPLE YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ON THE INTERNET!

How Not to Train a Mustang!

This will probably get deleted, so look quick! Ignore the messsage that says it's been moved and keep scrolling down.

http://forums.horsecity.com/cgi-bin/bb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=30;t=038453;p=1

Fencing: Always cheaper than having more horses to feed!

Reply to: mailto:sale-621872931@craigslist.org:

2008-03-28, 12:24PM CDT We have a 2 yr old Blue Roan Quarter Horse colt 14HH and a 8 year old Sorrel 15.2HH Appendix mare that we will trade for a good working tractor, we are looking for something like a Ford 8N, 9N or a Jubilee - open to other tractors that have wide fronts. Tractor must be in good running condition with 3 point hitch and preferably a bucket. - Good brakes also. Mare is green broke and is a great- granddaughter of Secretariat, would excel at barrel racing, was started on pattern and hauled as a 2 yr old. Blue roan is a mellow boy that my 8 yr old daughter plays on - not broke, does not act studdy he is in with 5 mares and never tries to breed. Both are used to goats, trucks, dogs and cats.

A couple points here:

Even a shitty, non-running tractor is worth more than your green broke appendix mare and an unbroke, ungelded two year old colt. Nobody is going to make this trade with you.

Being a great-granddaughter of Secretariat is about as special as claiming you were Cleopatra in a previous life. Again, not really a sign of value, though I will say that from what I can see, this mare is darn cute and nicely put together.

You have a two year old stallion turned out with mares and you think he never tries to breed them just because, why, he is saving himself for marriage? Let me ask you a question, in case you happen to read this - what do you think costs more money, a bunch of t-posts and hot tape, or feeding the five extra horses you will have next year? I can just see you now staring dumbstruck and saying "well, shucks, we never saw him breed any of them! How did that happen?"

And your eight year old daughter "plays on" your two year old unbroke stud. *sigh*

I am not sure if the next one is selling their faux registry they made up or a horse!

Beautiful Buckskin Painted Sports Horse Registry & Spotted Mare $800. - $1900

Reply to: sale-625588055@craigslist.org

Date: 2008-03-31, 5:05PM CDT

N.V.durbe Bar Luke (Thor)Foal Date 6/24/04 Registration # 04-77S PSH Sire: Skip Bar Luke AQHA 1275887 Champion 3 Bars and Skiper W Dam:Durbie Bell by Palmers Easter Night by Stonewalls Master Prominet sires Stone Wall King Daughter of Garmar. Thor is now a Stallion however will geld him if intrested in gelding. Thor has no bad manners. Thor is now in the pasture with 1 gelding, 5 mares and 3 other stud colts with no problems.

http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/nv+durbe+bar+luke

He is a proven stallion with his first get foaled 3/19/08 with more due soon. His first foal is pictured below. I have had him since he was three months and paid $2,500. for him. The mare with the foal in the photo is a grade mare and is also for sale. Venus is level headed, loves water and calm. She is a 3 year old $800. with out filly at her side. Venus is a spotted Buckskin. Will also sell bred back to Thor for $1,200. or To my Black & White Homozygous Tobiano Stallion ENS King of Spades for $1,500. when bred to ENS King of Spades with the guarantee that the foal will be Tobiano. See the full bloodline of ENS King of Spades at:http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/ens+king+of+spades

I just want to get her address, so all of the kill buyers can send her a Christmas card! She is truly breeding willy-nilly - he's turned out with THREE other stud colts and a bunch of mares! Holy shit! This is going to be like one of those Maury Povich shows where they eliminate three possible baby daddies with DNA testing and the crying skank du jour has to admit that there are six other possibilities, or was that seven? The gelding is going to be out there going "dude, all I know is, it wasn't me, I'm fixed!"

You gotta check out Thor's pedigree - the Three Bars she refers to ISN'T the one we all know and love. And that critter was produced by breeding a part-Paint apparently grade stallion to a NSH mare. WTF? WHY? WHY? WHY?

(The Paint stallion sounds familiar. I've blogged this chick's breeding program already, haven't I? I can't find it but I'm pretty darn sure I have.)

Just more examples...You know what, you'd be surprised how early they are sexually mature. I know of someone whose yearling filly got pregnant due to the neighbor's stud getting loose and getting to her. It happens! If you don't want babies, stop running your ungelded colts out with your mares. I guarantee you that fencing - or better yet, GELDING - is WAY cheaper than feeding an accidental baby until you can sell it. 100% of the time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One of our blog readers has rescued a three year old mare that is nearly dead from starvation in Florida. It's another shocking case of someone who should NOT have had a horse in the first place. We must work together to prosecute these people. If you've ever watched Animal Cops, you know how these kind of people will lie and say they fed the horse and they didn't think they did anything wrong. They need to realize they DID do something ILLEGAL and WRONG...and looking at some bars in front of them should get that message through their thick skulls!

(To the asshats who have emailed me recently stating that neglect cases are proof we need slaughter...oh shut UP already. You will never convince me that we can reduce bad behavior by PAYING PEOPLE for it. That's the long and the short of it. You'll never convince me otherwise.)

And yet another good rescue has to knock itself out cleaning up the mess left by some faux rescuer asshat who apparently couldn't buy hay without her husband. I've said it before, YOU need to have enough earning potential to care for 100% of your horses, even if your husband walked out tomorrow. If you can't say that, you have too many horses. We all know how unpredictable human relationships are -they should NEVER be the sole source of financial security for you or your horses. If you're a SAHM, now is a good time to go to college or get an advanced degree online. Set yourself up for success no matter what the future brings - for the sake of your horses, do it!

Final note - Craigslist gets deleted/flagged a lot. The best thing to do is send me a screen capture of the ad. You can do that by hitting alt-print screen while viewing the ad and then you go to your graphics program, open up a new file and hit paste and voila, there's the ad complete with pictures. Save it as a jpg and you can send it to me. (Sorry, those with Macs, I can't tell you how to do it in Mac. I am Mac illiterate.)

Happy ending my ass, you phony bitch

Apparently there is this Pulitzer Prize winning author named Jane Smiley who made as assload of money writing about racehorses, among other things. Her most famous book features a filly named Waterwheel, described as a "sexy, lightning-fast black filly." (Roll your eyes along with me now!) Well, a couple years post-publication, and publication of this interview where Jane tells everybody what a "happy ending" Waterwheel got, where do you suppose Waterwheel is?

Yup! You guessed it! Wound up at an auction where she sold - IN FOAL - for the princely sum of $1000. Which tells me she'd have been a $200 canner if she'd been open. (And yes, I do know that TB names may be duplicated particularly with imports...this is the same mare, you can see in this article that she states that Waterwheel is a Grindstone daughter.)

Jane is like so many people we all know. She says all the right things - "Every horse story is like a love story"...blah blah blah. But when it comes to taking care of the horse whose story put money in her pocket, a mare with a shitty race record, an undistinguished production record and a double-broken sesamoid - where is Jane? Where IS Jane? Well, nowhere to be found after contracting with some bloodstock agent to dump this poor mare at the auction.

Ms. Smiley is clearly more than successful enough to have given Waterwheel a home for life, as a pet if not as a broodmare. But like so many - she just didn't give a shit. She probably told herself the mare would "get a good home." She rationalized all the reasons for sending an eight year old mare who I'm guessing isn't riding sound and so far hasn't produced anything worthwhile down the road. It's a business, right, Jane? And I guess it wouldn't bother me so much if you just admitted that, but no. Not you. You say things like this:

(From the Washington Post)

"Smiley tries to prepare the reader for its basic softheartedness: She threatens that among other things she will sentimentalize her horses, even as she admits that harder-bitten horsemen resist the temptation. She says, "I am going to tell cute stories anyway, in the hope that an accumulation of cute stories will some day change the widespread human perception of horses as Cartesian machines, or lower beings, or unpredictable beasts, or selfish and insensate items of bulky furniture."

How eloquent! How sensitive! So why the FUCK didn't YOU treat your broken-down race mare like something more than a piece of furniture that no longer fit with your decor and had to go? Inquiring minds would like to know.

Waterwheel went to a lady named Marilyn Gursha. I sure hope Ms. Gursha is a more authentic horseperson than Jane Smiley. And Jane, if you want to respond to this blog, I'll be more than happy to publish your response. Hey, maybe I missed part of the story. If you died in an accident a month before the auction, you get a pass. But from where I'm sitting? You're just another shitty horse owner who dumps anything that is broken or fails to perform/produce up to expectations.

(Cue the trolls to come tell me HOW DARE I snark at her, she's spey-shul)