Yeah, but what's wrong with her customers???

Here at FHOTD, we often see cases here where starving horses are blatantly put on the farm's web site. Even more often, I hear about beautiful web sites hiding bad conditions. In those cases, I tell the person to get pictures of how things truly are. After all, I need some evidence more than your word that things have gone horribly wrong at the facility.


In this case, a determined reader researched and researched until she found pictures showing what was really going on behind the pretty web site at this New Zealand facility. These scrawny horses are shown at "camp" on a cross-country riding vacation sort of thing. They are both underweight and the bay is certainly too much so to be ridden, but here they are - out on a four day trek, carting riders around and putting money into the pocket of the proprietor. Too bad she is not spending it on feed!


(You know, if I came there to ride and found this, I'd snap pictures and go straight to the SPCA. Why hasn't someone else?)

Of course, this lady also thinks it's just fine to "break in" the yearlings. Even for those of you who do ride your 2's, wouldn't one look at this tiny creature tell you it wasn't ready to hold weight? If it looks like a baby, LET IT BE A BABY. Good grief, I think that rider is about one third of its weight! No wonder its ears are back.







The proprietor brags on her main page that the horses are "safe" and "quiet." Well, yes, they typically are when they are this thin. Not much energy left to buck or run off, which may be the plan here. It would certainly not be the first time I have seen starvation used as a training substitute!

The one thing Sarah seems to be good at (clearly it's not feeding) is collecting money. Her newsletter notes that cans of soda are $1.00 and that you'll be charged $15 if you cancel a lesson. Uh, do you think you could throw some of that cash into hay purchases? I am amazed she is showing her horses. Hey, New Zealanders, does she show up at shows with horses who look like this, or does she feed the show horses and just starve the lesson/trek horses?

How does this continue? Well, by people continuing to patronize her - it sure sounds like business is booming - and, I am sure, accepting excuses for how the horses look. Oh, that one is thin because he's a cribber. You can't keep weight on an old horse. The one over there has bad teeth. When you accept the excuses and say nothing, you allow this to continue. I've already put up a guide to choosing a reputable trail/trekking facility even if you don't have horse knowledge, but I'm guessing most of the people at this barn have enough horse knowledge that they know things aren't right. Or they have already fallen into the trap of putting money into her pocket in an attempt to help the horses.

Remember, the horse can't call for help. You may be the only chance he has. And sometimes all that's needed is for the authorities to put a little pressure on someone and the care improves. Most (sane, non-hoarder type) people do not want to be driven out of the business or have their horses seized, and I've seen people who are good riders/competitors simply have huge holes in their horse care knowledge that lead to these situations. No, the person who gets reported won't love you if they find out it was you, but ten years down the road they may be a much better horseperson because of it.

It's up to you...I can talk about this stuff all day but ultimately we need whoever is local to have the guts to report. Do you have what it takes to do the courageous thing for the horses, or will fear of discovery or of being yelled at (oh noooooooes) keep you silent?

P.S. Yes, I know some horse abusers/neglecters are batshit crazy and I do understand trying to find someone else to intervene if you are their next door neighbor and they have guns.

Horses and Highways: Not a good combination

So my mailbox is full of the story about how the guy who was traveling across the country in a horse-drawn wagon got hit by a semi. Video (non-gory, prior to the accident) at the link. Another news story.

While this is a sad story and I hope that he and the remaining horses will recover, it brings up a point I almost brought up again when we did the carriage horse story -- which is that I do not believe horses and cars are ever a good mix. I mean, look at the video -- it looks like an accident waiting to happen, and it was.

Sure, many of us grew up in the days when it was safe enough to ride your horse to town for an ice cream cone. Even today, I have a neighbor who rides his horse down the road. We all know to watch for him, slow down and pull wide, and nobody on our street drives like a fool. But it's a 35 mph in the country - not a highway with semi trucks!

Riding or driving a horse on heavily-trafficked roads is a recipe for disaster, in my never-humble-opinion. Look at the dangers we face on the roads. Drunk drivers? Everywhere. Stoned drivers? Check. People jabbering away on cell phones, texting, arguing with their spouse or trying to discipline their kids in the back seat? Everywhere. The only reason I feel semi-safe on the roads is the large hunk of good old fashioned metal that encases me and helps protect me from the idiots. On a horse, I would have no such protection - and neither would the horse.

Every time a car and a horse tangle, the horse loses. That's a fact.

Putting a vehicle that travels 3 mph on roads with vehicles that travel 60 mph is a very bad idea. You can scream all day that it's legal and that other drivers should simply be more careful, but that doesn't change the reality that you've set yourself up for a bad accident. At least with the carriage horses, everybody is going slowly, in downtown traffic and there is a lot of pedestrian traffic as well, so drivers are more likely to be on the lookout for obstacles. (I'm still not crazy about it, but it's not as bad as driving them down a 60 mph highway)

The world is full of arenas to ride horses in, and trails of all sorts - well maintained or rocky and challenging if that's more your speed. There are wide fields with no vehicular traffic. I simply don't understand the appeal of riding or driving a horse around cars, when we all know how people drive and what kind of damage a typical car can do to flesh and bone (much less a semi!).

"Bob Skelding, 49, was driving his team of horses on a stretch of roadway that had little or no shoulder. Two 18-wheelers traveling side-by-side crested a hill, and one of the trucks hit the RV from behind."

Yeah, I feel sorry for him. But I feel more sorry for the horses, who did not sign on for this ill-considered journey and now are dead or suffering as a result. And I feel sorry for the semi driver, who had no reason to believe he was about to encounter a vehicle moving way below the speed limit over the top of that hill, and now has suffered a traumatic accident that I am sure will haunt him forever.

C'mon people...it's 2009, not 1909. There are better places to ride and drive your horses. Stay off of busy roads! If you want to "slow down" your life, WALK across the country.

P.S. For any newbies to the blog, I've posted before that I care about horses' welfare much more than I care about human feelings. Horses are innocents who cannot protect themselves, and humans do not die from hurt feelings. So feel free to tell me I'm just horrible to criticize a man who's in the ICU but it won't change my feelings on the matter.

OT: It's the middle of the week...

And I know everybody needs a good laugh so...be grateful you're not dating these guys!

Psychotic Letters from Men

The latest from the guy behind "Why Women Hate Men" and I think it's even funnier. You can't make this stuff up!

Our WTF Equine Product of the Day!

Joining the ranks of crazy horse-related contraptions like the No Buck Trainer, we now have the EZEE WEAN Halter and Strap.

Yes, it's what you think. It's a baby halter with PRONGS on the nosepiece to keep the mare from allowing the baby to nurse!

"When the baby attempts to nurse, both animals are made uncomfortable because there are several soft flexible prongs (blunt ended) that touch the mare in the flanks and it also bumps the baby in the nose."

WTF?

Here's a video of it supposedly working. I only see a very annoyed mare, who finally gives up and lets the baby nurse anyway.

A quick look at the web site copy reveals just who this product is being marketed to...the same middle-aged, overly emotional ladies who give Pat Parelli their life savings because they want to have a relationship with their horse and be their horse's friend.

"Most often the caregiver is reluctant to start the weaning process because of the undesirable symptoms that occur when using the abrupt separation method. The heart wrenching whinnying is very disturbing for the passionate caregiver."

Heart wrenching whinnying? I'm sorry, weaning doesn't exactly wrench my heart. I have been around for plenty of it. Most babies whinny a little. The real wimps whinny for a day. Two days out, they are all hanging with their baby friends and have forgotten Momma ever existed. "Forced separation" as this overly-dramatic web site calls it is actually quite a bit kinder than nature, in which Momma gets fed up with baby eventually and starts chasing him off of her with bared teeth.

I can only imagine how Momma will feel about future foals nursing after she gets poked about a zillion times by the rubber prongs on this thing. Nurse mares are expensive!

And yes, a few paragraphs down, we see proof that this person is yet another Natural Horsemanship Wacko:

"I feel the application of “natural horse savvy” to a foal will increase the animal’s marketability. Horses that have been imprinted at birth and with continued handling using natural horse savvy techniques are commanding and obtaining high prices."

THEY ARE NOT. What are you smoking? I can show you hundred horses that can do 684 levels of Parelli that nobody wants because you can't walk, trot, and canter on them without drama. They know every game in the book but they don't have manners and aren't ready for any competitive discipline. Please, please, please show me where a horse trained this way has commanded a "high price." I've never seen it.

"The first time horse owner has a greater chance of having a positive riding experience when natural horse techniques are understood and practiced."

The first time horse owner has a greater chance of having a positive riding experience when they TAKE LESSONS so that they can stay on, discipline the horse, and the horse can't WALK ALL OVER THEM.

(Please refer to Mugwump for further clarification on this)

"Owners using their animals for competition have reported a greater improvement, overall, believing the results are directly related to the use of natural horse techniques."

OK, those of you who seriously compete - how many of you would agree with this statement? Can someone please point to a single World Show top ten or Nationals top ten horse trained with "natural horse techniques?" (Or weaned with a freaking prong halter?)

The lunacy continues...along with the bad spelling.

"When separation of mother and baby is too soon and granny mare was not available, I have found the foal will typically mature having a personality of either extremely aggressive or extremely timid. As an example, can you remember your horse be attack by another horse for no apparent reason while you were moving along peacefully on a trail ride? Your horse didn’t make a single wrong move and the other horse came, ears pinned and bearing teeth. That’s an aggressive personality."

Yes, and it's not caused by early weaning, it's caused by a rider it has no respect for. Do you know what I'd do to a horse who thought he could attack another horse while I was in the saddle? Again, refer back to RIDING LESSONS.

"Can you remember when you had to hand feed a horse separately? It stayed off to the side and it would not move up to the feeding area with the rest of horses. This is a timid personality. I believe both of these examples are typical of horses that were forced from their mother to soon."

Well, you believe wrong. I've seen both personality types in horses that were NEVER weaned and grew up with their dams...particularly in hoarder/BYB cases. I have worked with numerous horses who were never separated from their dams or even handled until 8-10 years of age, and their personalities were...middle of the herd. The idea that traditional weaning causes personality extremes is just plain silly.

The truth is that the mare's personality often dictates the foal's personality. An alpha mare will tend to raise little alphas who are bullying the other babies from day one. A pushy mare will raise a pushy baby that will be a little harder to teach manners to. A timid, spooky mare will transfer her fears to her foal who will often be the bottom of the pecking order his whole life. This isn't true 100% of the time, but it's true more often than not.

Another truth is that separating mares and foals using SAFE fencing and ideally getting them out of earshot of one another works just fine. However, that's a method that doesn't put $75 in this chick's pocket!

Unbelievable. I wonder how many people will actually fall for this one?

This is just a dream...er, more like a nightmare!

Before I even start, NO HATE MAIL as I'm going to assume today's posting will lead to a desire to extract some of these horses from their situation. Whether you hate me personally or not, please think of the horses' best interests and refrain from hate mailing the owner. Trust me, your hot air would be wasted anyway, looking at this.

I've observed before that pretty much any time you find keywords like "dream, fantasy, magical or mystical" in a farm name, what you're going to see is a thoughtless breeding or incompetent riding program that sprung from the horsey dreams of a 12 year old girl who apparently stopped maturing mentally long before puberty set in and still thinks anything with a long mane or spots is BYOOTIFUL! Today's featured ranch is no exception.

I've also observed that I don't have a problem with someone both breeding horses and rescuing horses, assuming they are breeding high quality horses. In small animal rescue, it's normal for the top breeders to run the breed rescue efforts and I see no reason to discourage that in large animal rescue. However, when I see a rescue that proudly proclaims "meet the breeders" and then I see something like this, oh lady, you are SO making the Fugly blog!



Holy shit! It's the Humpback of Nevada! This hideously malformed mare is at a so-called rescue in Pahrump (love that Rump is in the name since the folks running this clusterfuck are clearly horses' asses) called Dream Chaser. I don't know what kind of dreams YOU have if this is a broodmare in them, but all I have to say is y'all better lay off the hard stuff before bed!


Here's another of their broodmares. While this is the best of the three (scary but true), click to enlarge to see her scary hooves. When was the last time they bothered with a hoof trim? She's also a pretty good anatomy lesson - I can count every single rib!

What happened to her tail? Was it lopped off for slaughter a few years ago? Wouldn't surprise me. Repeat after me..."riding quality." This mare is riding quality. She deserves a good home, but should not be making more of herself!

Here we go, I found a pic with Debbie, the proprietor of Mutant Acres. Is this fugly colt a new rescue? Nope, it's one of her sale horses. Probably a homebred! Not only is this a crappy quality colt who'd sell for a whopping $75 at our local sales, but she didn't even try to clean him up for the pic - he's covered in caked on manure from lying down in filth. LOVELY. Debbie, waddle your lazy butt over and pick up a fucking currycomb or a hose before you take pictures of horses that you are trying to sell! Trust me, the exercise won't kill you and you can DVR "General Hospital" for later. I know, I know, it's hard to wait an hour or two to find out the latest with Sonny and Carly, but you are the one who chose to have twenty horses in your backyard.

The one thing ol' Debbie DOES have time for is making the most elaborate donations page I have EVER seen on a web site. Though I question if anybody is using it, because every single rescue horse looks like shit! Yes, we all take them IN looking like this, but there are no "after" pictures showing ANY improvement, ANYWHERE on her site so I can only assume they CONTINUE to look like this or look like this after months or years in her care. Poor old Charlie...he really wants a home with someone who can afford feed!

(P.S. I think Tanacity is an OTTB and he would like someone to get him the hell out of there! Could he be Tenacity (2002)? The color and gender match...if so that's a well bred horse that slipped through the cracks!)

Sheesh. Enough already. Paging animal control! Debbie, you need to stop making fuglies and leave the rescuing to people who know how to care for them. What a complete and utter disaster!

The non-negotiable elements of a good rescue web page:

1. BEFORE and AFTER! Show your results! Frequent pictures! We want to see what the horses look like NOW, not in 2006. I am so sick of excuses...if you are all that computer illiterate, have a link to a Photobucket with the newer pics. Anyone can master Photobucket. Really.

2. If you are going to breed, your breeding operation must prove all the more that it is a high quality operation... i.e. clean horses, well posed, pedigrees posted, evidence that you are actively riding, training and showing easily accessible. Most people I know who both breed and rescue have two different sites and I highly recommend that.

3. Clean up your damn facility. It shouldn't look like Shantytown from GWTW.

4. Clean up your damn horses, trim their damn feet and get some quality pictures if you are actually trying to sell them or adopt them out. It doesn't take an expert. There are tons of resources online explaining how to take a good picture of a horse.

5. Happy endings and adoption stories...also not negotiable. No adoption stories is pretty much a big banner saying HI, MY NAME IS SUZY HOARDER! The best is when you have pics of your adopted horses being ridden by their adopters. When Joe at TB Friends puts up a show pic of a former TB friends horse, that illustrates that you can obtain a show quality horse there - and drives adopters to him. That's smart rescuing.

*sigh* OK, anybody local who can investigate this further? If those are the pics she puts up, I shudder to think what they look like now...

Dear Media: Please stop making us look like wackos

*sigh*

Who wrote this?

"Officials say the horses were removed from unsanitary conditions, where the horses had little water, insufficient food and were living in dirty stalls. But it was the cold that bothered Debbie Hay, who owns another carriage company.

"We've had a brutal winter. They shouldn't be on the outside. They're animals that live--this is just not good for them," said Hay.

"The horses weren't working in a barn. It's actually quite warm in there," said an owner of one of the horses. But officials say there was no heat in the makeshift barn.

According to trainers, horses can be in the cold, but not for days at a time. For weeks, the horses have lived in the tent during the frigid temperatures. "

OK, I have very little doubt that if there is a history of complaints, there is a REASON for them. Most likely this company is guilty of the other things they are accused of. But when you post something as utterly moronic as the idea that horses need HEAT in the WINTERTIME, it invalidates your entire argument because - say it with me - you sound like a WACK JOB.

Horses are designed to live in the cold. That is why they grow long coats and look like yaks in the wintertime. If we do things to prevent that coat from growing, or we cut it off, we are then charged with the responsibility of providing a fake coat - i.e. a quality blanket, waterproof if they will be living out or partially out.

A horse who is truly cold shivers just like a human who is truly cold. Horses get cold mostly from being wet and cold - i.e. being out in freezing rain conditions with no waterproof blanket or shelter to get under. If it's otherwise dry and not too windy and they have warmed water to drink, the typical horse (not senior, not special needs) is completely unaffected by zero degree temperatures. They do fine. They are not Chihuahuas.

I grew up in the Midwest - I've seen cold. Mere cold does not harm an otherwise healthy horse until you get to the point that you see in some parts of the Dakotas, Montana, etc where things happen like the ear tips freeze off from frostbite. That can happen - but at temperatures much colder than you will ever see in downtown Chicago. Most horses, kept dry and given a windbreak and heated water to drink, will easily tolerate subzero temps...far better than the humans who have to struggle out, bundled up from head to toe, and feed them!

Where's there's smoke, there's usually some fire but this article is just silly and it makes animal welfare advocates look like lunatics to any knowledgeable horseperson. As my reader observed, "just a week ago a Northern Chicago surburb refused felony charges against a woman that STARVED HER HORSE TO DEATH!" Good point. While I have little doubt that the carriage company cited here has some horse management issues, these horses are not starving or dying and while a tent (I assume it was one of those carport deals) may look pretty ghetto next to a barn, it does provide perfectly acceptable shelter. The horses in the news articles are good weight and appear young enough to "winter out" without consequences.

C'mon reporters...a little google search would have told you that the cold wasn't the problem here. Let's put a little effort into accuracy, shall we? As an animal welfare advocate, I'm tired of reading news stories that go, OMG the horse was COLD, or OMG the horse was DIRTY. It's freakin' February. ALL OF MY HORSES ARE DIRTY. I guarantee you, they all have mud on their hoofies - they like to go outside and coat themselves in it. I clean them up periodically and 5 minutes and one much-enjoyed roll in the filth, dirty again. There's plenty of actual abuse to report - get on it, would you? Why don't you go investigate how the prosecuted doesn't want to press charges against that asshat Cleve Wells? There's a story of some actual abuse for you - if you have enough spine to tackle it!

Champagne Til Dawn (1997 - 2009)

For those of you looking for a Champ update, I am sad to tell you that he was put to sleep today. We played with the shoeing/meds/supplements for a month, trying to make him more comfortable, but ultimately there was just too much damage. An adjustment would render him temporarily sounder and then something else would become sore and he'd be back to seriously lame.

When you rescue from the auction, you never know what you will get, but this guy had an adopter ready and willing to help him, who would have taken him as a companion-only horse if he could have become sound enough. We all agreed (adopter, vet, and farrier) to give him a chance to see if he could improve. That did not happen.

However, I still feel this was a success story. Champ would never have stayed on his feet in a double-decker. He had a lot of trouble navigating on any slippery surface, and was happiest in soft tanbark or on the grass. I have no doubt in my mind that he would have gone down and been trampled long before he made it across the border. I am not sure what happens if they unload the truck and there is a horse who is down but alive and cannot get up. I don't want to know. I'm glad Champ won't ever know.

He spent his last month at a million-dollar facility enjoying the very best of everything, from timothy hay to deep shavings that he woke up covered with every morning to homemade cookies with applesauce and brown sugar. We had beautiful weather here this week, so he got to hang out eating grass and occasionally nickering at the "girls" over the fence.

I have never found out who sent this horse to his death for $40 (I think $40 is actually the auction fee so I guess they didn't make a dime). I'm glad so many helped change his course and gave him a glorious, if brief, retirement. He was an unbelievably friendly, sweet, snuggly horse and I wish you could have all seen his personality change as he quickly realized he was safe and loved, and that the feed and the cookies were going to just keep on coming.
This is his last picture, taken on Wednesday. R.I.P. Champ - your name suited you.




Huge thanks to:

His adopter and other donors (name yourselves if you wish or I will assume you prefer privacy)

Dr. Sara Perkins, the wonderful vet who cared for him

Sandy Craig, the terrific farrier who did her best to make him comfortable

Yellow Horses, Inc. for providing a beautiful facility for him to enjoy, and their barn manager Todd, who took care of Champ as if he had Secretariat in the barn.