Color guaranteed - survival, not so much

It's been a while since we've focused on a Krazy Kolor Breeder here. We all know who they are. They claim their stallion produces 100% color (because they don't register the plain brown ones), or they have a HIDEOUS looking cremello. They can talk all day about perlinos, grullas, palominos, buckskins and how you get each of those, but they ignore upright shoulders, backs longer than a dachshund's and calf knees. They can quote you the colors involved in their horse's ancestry, but can't point to a single point earner in the past three generations. The most recent "name" horse in their stud's pedigree is Bucephalus.

Well, I think we have discovered the worst of the worst of Krazy Kolor breeders. Recently, after many years of complaints which somehow resulted in nothing, Jean Marie Elledge was finally arrested for animal cruelty. Here's the news article. Four dead, one near death. The dam to one of these foals was lying dead a few feet away - partially eaten by coyotes. LOVELY.

(Do I have to mention that Ms. Elledge was living in the house, with dead horses right out her window? Oh yeah. She was. Now we're going to have to pay for her to sit in prison. SHE'LL get to eat. What b.s. Just shoot her. It's what she deserves. I am not kidding, I do not understand why our system allows people who are unspeakably evil to sit comfortably in jail and have all of their needs provided for. They have better medical and dental care than most of the hardworking people I know in the horse industry. It's a crock of shit. They should be suffering like the suffering they caused. Send them all to that sheriff in Arizona who makes them live in tents with no a/c, I say...)

These allegedly are Saddlebreds and allegedly Ms. Elledge had a cremello Saddlebred stud which was the probable sire of these foals. Of course she did.

They are now in the care of Save A Forgotten Equine, for those of you who would like to donate. SAFE could particularly use foster homes, if you are local and have space for one of these little squirts. It sounds like they are pretty easy to handle and people-friendly.

Now here's my question. OK, another day, another wacko hoarder. But does anybody see how a lot of this happened? Well, to begin with, CLEARLY the people who sold Ms. Elledge horses did not ask to see her property. She has a LONG history of this kind of behavior and there have ALWAYS been emaciated horses at her house. Numerous people are saying they reported her and nothing was done (what else is old).

Then there's someone who boarded with her and now her horse is missing. Of course, she admits she hadn't gone to see it in 2-1/2 months, even though she's local. Apparently a bunch of people boarded with Elledge. There were normal weight horses owned by others found on the same property with the dead horses and of course A.C. left them there. Gee, don't ANY of you go check on your horses? I sure hope you've moved them NOW!

Here's another question: Did Elledge sell any horses? Who came to her property? Boarders and probably potential buyers, too? How many people failed to report the things they saw? How many of those four dead horses would be alive today if someone had simply taken some discreet camera phone pics and gone to A.C. with them?

How many different people failed this colt?

I think it's human nature not to want to start shit. Well, some of us clearly are better at it then others ;-) but many of us have at least a streak of conflict avoidance. Still, this is life and death and the horses need for you to have a spine. When you see something like this, you HAVE to take action. No, don't do anything illegal. Don't endanger yourself in any way. But do what you can do. Snap those discreet camera phone pictures and take them to animal control. If animal control ignores you, try the sheriff. Try the local newspaper. Talk to a local rescue for advice about dealing with a.c. in your county. All a.c.'s are different and a good rescue probably knows the best way to get action.

Please, don't ever look at something like this and walk away.

Of course, this is yet another example of:

1. Breeding low end horses based only upon color.

2. Having absolutely NO plan with regard to feeding, training, or vet care. You KNOW those mares NEVER saw a vet during their pregnancies. Those babies have NEVER seen a tube of dewormer or a farrier before now. You should see the worm pics, they're on SAFE's message board. Ewwwwwwww.

3. Taking on far more than you can afford AND THEN BREEDING MORE. Again, BREEDING means you have MORE to FEED. It is not something you should do when your finances are shaky to begin with! BREEDING LOW END HORSES DOES NOT MAKE MONEY. IT DOESN'T! NOT EVER! If you are a lowlife with no morals who can't possibly bring yourself to get a job, DEAL DRUGS or BECOME A PROSTITUTE. Those things actually MAKE money. Feeding a mare for fifteen months to get a foal you sell for $150 at the auction does not constitute a profit!

The news articles blame the starving horses on the price of hay, ignorant beginner owners, and even the PMU industry. Well, the price of hay is not honestly that much higher than it has been for the past several years. Elledge was not a beginner owner. She'd had horses for many years. And the PMU industry is not relevant to this case.

This is just plain old hoarding, enabled for years by plenty of perfectly sane people who didn't care enough to speak up/were afraid to speak up and/or had some kind of misguided loyalty to Elledge. And somewhere, I am sure, a fast talking horse breeder/seller who sold Elledge that cremello stud with promises of how much money she would make breeding golden Saddlebreds...

For anybody not familiar with this glitch in Blogger

Blogger allows duplicate screen names.

If you see a comment by me, click the name (fuglyhorseoftheday) and if goes to my profile, registered May 2007, that's the real me.

If not, it's a troll pretending to be me. Clearly school let out early today! Gosh, I had NO IDEA that opposing an equine event that kills horses pretty much every year would be so controversial. I guess you never know what will tweak the psychos of the horse owning world!

Hey, Chief Asshat? Suicide means you CHOSE to die!

(I know I'm gonna get in trouble with that subject line...shall we all take bets on how long it takes someone who's 1/32nd Cherokee to come here and tell me I'm a racist?)

All right, since it came up in the comments, today we're going to talk about my A-1 LEAST FAVORITE horse event. I actually think this is marginally worse than horse tripping. And horse tripping is one of those things you have to be lower than scum on the bottom of the sewer to involve yourself in, kind of like dog or cock fighting. Unfortunately, America has no shortage of scum among its population and the Omak Suicide Race shows us that the Native Americans have no shortage of scum among their ranks, either.

For those of you unfamiliar with this disgusting event, let me share this information lifted from the PAWS page:

"Over a span of four days and nights, riders repeatedly send horses off "Suicide Hill" with a 120-foot full-galloping start. Horses plunge blindly more than 210 feet downhill, at a slope organizers have boasted is an "almost vertical…62 degree angle." At breakneck speed horses then meet, with concrete force, the rocky Okanogan River. After a panicked swim of more than a football field in length, the horses face a final, grueling uphill sprint.These horses, many 'on-loan' for the event, have suffered heart attacks from over exertion, broken bones from collisions and shocking tumbles, and even horrifying death by drowning."

Here is a list of all of the horses who have died. I'm assuming it's a partial list since they have no way of tracking horses who died later from injuries received or wound up shipping to slaughter after being crippled in the race.

Listen to this stupid motherfucker act like he's compassionate. This is from the Wall Street Journal:

"When the dust settled, Chavez, a 7-year-old running quarter horse, thrashed frantically to keep from drowning. George Marchand, the horse's owner, dove into the river in his T-shirt and jeans, and after a rescue boat ferried the horse to shallow water, he pleaded with his horse to stand up, his voice filled with despair: "Come on, son. Come on, son."

The horse had broken its back in a collision during an elimination heat in preparation for this weekend's Omak Suicide Race. After half-a-dozen men struggled to load the horse into a trailer, Mr. Marchand took Chavez home, where he ended the animal's life with a shotgun. "The one thing I will not let a horse do is suffer," says the 31-year-old Colville Indian."

HE WOULDN'T BE HURT IN THE FIRST PLACE IF YOU HADN'T CAUSED IT, YOU USELESS, SELFISH, ASSHAT FOCUSED ONLY ON YOUR OWN ENTERTAINMENT! DON'T ACT LIKE YOU CARE NOW! YOU ARE NOT A GOOD GUY!

And while we are at it, how is dragging a horse with a broken back into a trailer and hauling him home to shoot him NOT letting him suffer? What, you people can't have a VET at the event where you kill horses so at least they can be euthed at the scene? *snort* And people criticize traditional racing!

And of course, they try to cover up all the shit they do. Also from the WSJ article:

"After the hill collision two weeks ago involving Chavez, organizers and the local police cleared the riverbank of a few hundred spectators to prevent anyone from taking photographs. During night races, organizers turn out the floodlights when they clean up a wreck. In 1999, Okanogan County and the Stampede organizers were forced to pay $64,500 to an animal-rights activist whose cameras had been thrown into the river as he tried to document the euthanizing of an injured horse."

People, there is no excuse for this taking place in the United States in 2008. I know I've shown you a lot of the dark side of the horse world here, and some of you are so burned out you have stopped reading, but if you're still here and you care, do this one thing if you do nothing else: Write the sponsors and bitch. We need public pressure to shut down this outrageous event for good. I have been writing for years and we HAVE had sponsors pull out.

If you want to jump off a damn cliff as a test of your manhood, HAVE AT IT. Just don't take an innocent animal with you to its death. The horse did not sign on for that. (Personally, I think REAL men are good to their animals, don't you?)

It would be especially helpful to protest this if you ARE Native American and are disgusted by this cruelty masquerading as "your heritage." Many of us have ancestors who practiced bad things - slave ownership, child labor, there's a huge list of atrocities to choose from - but we live in 2008 and know wrong from right. It's time the Native Americans who have similarly evolved take a strong stand against this appalling display and demand that it be stopped.

Safe at last

For those of you who don't think there are good horsepeople involved in racing, read this.

General note: I talk about a lot of different disciplines here and the things that exist in them that I'm not fond of. If you are involved in that discipline BUT do not do those things, I didn't mean you. I do believe that every discipline has abusive individuals and abusive practices used by some individuals. I do not think certain disciplines are immune from all human bad behavior, nor do I think others are abusive and bad news for horses no matter what (with the exception of riding yearlings. I really really really do not think it is EVER ok to ride a horse before 24 months of age, in any discipline/form, and I do not ride my personal horses until their 3 year old year.)

OK, horse tripping? That's abusive no matter what. But you know what I meant.

Enumclaw Auction Report - 3/2/08

Thanks to a reader for this report. I didn't make it over there this time - probably just as well, there were a few I know I would have wanted to drag home and as I've said before, I'm at capacity at present. Check out the HUGE range in price - from $40 to $3500. The good horses are still selling well, as I've said before...although it does sound like that high seller was at the auction for a reason.

It was a particularly emotional auction for many, as we just had a very bad starvation-related seizure of horses from up in Snohomish County, and Snohomish was boarding some of the ones they couldn't find rescue space for at the auction yard. Needless to say, this was not ideal for the horses and the people who saw them were pretty much completely flipped out. These horses HAVE been moved since Sunday, and WERE all under a vet's care the whole time - the problem is, a starving foal lying on the concrete is going to freak out pretty much anybody who sees it. It would have had the same effect on me. Save a Forgotten Equine has a bunch from this particular seizure if you'd like to make a donation.

Now here is the report - again, this is from a reader so the comments are hers, not mine, I was not there. (Emphasized because I've learned people don't read and then bitch at me for stuff I didn't say)

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

As a side note...the back pen where they usually keep the worst horses was holding a small herd of VERY emaciated horses...most of which were a two or lower in body condition. One of which looked to be a bay weanling or yearling that was down nearly the entire time I was there...barely breathing. Myself and several others were QUITE concerned for their welfare, but after I did some digging I was informed by a COMPETENT and trustworthy person that they are part of the herd in the Elledge case that Snohomish County Animal Control and Hope for Horses is handling. For those who were concerned as I was, these horses are there for temporary holding(which Ron, who owns the Pavillion, does as a service quite often), and ARE receiving vet/farrier care as well as quality food. The young foal that was down, as well as another foal and a very thin mare were taken off the premises for onsite vet treatment last night and ARE currently alive and stable. I have asked to be kept in the loop on this one since I live so close to the Pavillion, in case they are in need of any assistance.

THAT said...down to business..I have done my best to describe each horse in looks and personality...so as to accurately depict what is selling and what is not. If I do not list bloodlines assume unknown or poor working lines, or grade (even if not stated) as I wrote down most recognizable names when read....there were probably about 10 horses who CERTAINLY would have benefitted from a lot of feed. The rest were either fat and healthy, or within reason for us being at the end of winter (if pasture kept...perhaps just a tad low on weight)...most were fuzzballs. A few had very bad feet....the rest were reasonable. Only about 4 looked to have injuries. I'd say a good 5 were OBVIOUSLY drugged...another five were possibly. I saw at least 3 I would have bought for resale projects. Many others I would have taken home just to feed and upgrade. Unfortunately with my guy in training, and on such a small paycheck it would not have been right to try to do...so I held back. I hope the few I liked were given good homes!

1- Buckskin AQHA 2yo (colt?) crooked front legs, plain head. Passed out at $1800

2-12yo Appendix mare BIG pretty mare, great minded, rode nice and quiet $1000 (this is one of the ones I'd have taken home)

3- 3yo chestnut AQHA filly, skinny w/gash on face...maybe drugged? led through $225 (wanted to upgrade this poor girl) (FHOTD in: My other friend reports this was a TB. Not sure who's right.)

4- 14 year old Pinto grade trail gelding, head tosser $950

5- AQHA gelding, 4yo broke nice little sorrel $1300

6-Reg pinto gelding, good minded but fugly $500

7 Roan AQHA colt...not real pretty, but VERY quiet and seemed to be a decent moving guy $ - not sure! SORRY!

8- Bay mare, broke $200

9-Youngish bay APHA mare, broke, quiet. $2100

10-Broke TB gelding, very tall $1150

11-Sorrel gelding, broke $650

12-Bay registered AQHA filly $125

13-Sorrel pony/horse grade, led through (small horse) $140

14-Bay pinto arabian reg Pinto and AHA good looking, quiet gelding, little close in the front, but clean legs. Decently bred! Sweet guy,,,liked head rubs $475 (this was another i'd have brought home)

15-Pinto gelding, broke $950

16-Sorrel gelding foxtrotter/QH - passed out at $450

17-Grey arabian/QH Sound, not ridden in 2y...tossed head a bit but seemed quiet $400

18-Sorrel AQHA mare...unbroke, not well bred was quiet and healthy $150

19-Mare w/ Hollywood Dun It granddaughter at side (7 days old) mare was APHA and cute, but thin and dirty, filly was very nicely put together, a solid buckskin, but seemed to have maybe slightly contracted tendons behind...both seemed very quiet minded. $700

20-10yo paint mare-trail horse, really cute, and friendly $ - missed it!

21- AQHA G broke, nice looking, a little bit spooky $ - missed it

22-Bay stud (and I'd say undescended testicles to boot...probably why not cut)-grade, fugly, and couldnt find a thing I liked poor guy...paced the entire time he was tied in his pen $40

23- Liver AQHA gelding, grandson of Sir Quincy Dan. VERY well put together, extremely quiet, and had a great walk/jog...groomed and clipped, slicked out...seemed like a genuinely kind horse...found out from someone who knows the horse later that he probably has a stifle issue as he tends to lock up at the lope and go to hopping...doesnt seem like the "nasty" type...so I would tend to agree sold to a mom and daughter for $3500

24- Appy mare...nicely built, blanket with varnishing and lots of appy traits seemed quiet $550

25- 11yo Palomino Foxtrotter...hock/stifle issue? "hopped' in front when asked to back or turn...didnt seem rude...just a learned habit from pain $350

26-Bay overo medicine hat...3yo filly...not great looking, looked sick...decent size $180

27-LOUD leopard large POA with no tail, cowy, been roped off of and trail ridden, shoot off him, solid built, cute headed, broke to death, been used as a kids playday horse $1250

28- Chestnut pony mare...VERY nicely built, super cute and quiet...they said half arabian half shetland and I think they got that right...seemed young, had been used as a leadline pony...dumped at auction...front feet had been COMPLETELY rebuilt....looked as if she'd foundered at least 2 times before.. $130 (FHOTD in: My other friend who was there also described this mare's front feet as probably resected so could also be bad WLD. I know a dealer/KB got this one.).

29-Liver TB mare, scars on front legs, seemed tender on right fore...I suspect an old low bow...but hard to tell without touching...been broodmare $200

30-Bay registered andalusian mare cute $200

31- Very cute, quiet, 21yo stallion....seemed off, person had saddle on but wouldnt ride. He seemed mannerly but did get talkative when some of Rons mares came to investigate...with some weight and no boy parts hed have been a neat trail horse $passed out at $150

32- Solid app mare, head tossing a little, claim shes a kicker but broke $375

33- AQHA filly, cute but not bred very well $NS at $150

34- AQHA mare, dam to above filly. bred to a blue roan stallion due next month...cute mare goes back to Fritz Command--give this gal credit...horses were in good condition, lost her pasture and cant afford board $650

35-Black AQHA colt, 2yo and VERY small (under 14hh) cute, head, decently built, but lots of hair and VERY short cannon bones, but quiet $225

36-Grade liver gelding, seemed pretty quiet (bought by same lady and daughter who bought the nice AQHA gelding) $300

37- grey pony, little feisty but would be cute w/some TLC $missed

37- Cute B&W overo filly with blue eyes, Barlink bred nicely built, small and unbroke. Seemed a little pushy $375

38- Palomino gelding by Goldseeker Bars...good looking guy, quiet, handy $1450 (the third I would have taken home)

39-peruvian mare, ridden through, little wild...bay $200

40-TB mare-broke but no papers, and led through, by Slewdledo $200 (FHOTD in: OK I would totally have wanted to drag this one home. That's why I wasn't there!)

41- sorrel muddy skinny gelding looked like he might be decent if taken care of $100 (wanted to upgrade this one)

42-Black TB mare HUGE, nicely built and super friendly by Slewdledo $no sale at $200

43-Missed

44-Palomino paint mare, cute but green $325

45-Liver chestnut broodmare AQHA $110

46-TB gelding, pony horse, rode nice, solid clean looking legs, ugly head $350 (FHOTD in: Nice to see ONE of the Thoroughbreds didn't go to kill. This is too high for kill.)

47-Flaxen grade AQHA colt 9mo old, quiet but small $100 (almost bought him)

48-RESELL palomino FT gal paid decided he was too much horse for her and wanted to resell....$325 (she paid $350)

49-9yo liver chestnut TB broodmare scars on hocks looked like breeding hobble scars, hesitant to stand on left hind. Nicely built no papers $200

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions

From the comments in the last post:

"Okay, I do have another beef. Lungeline classes. Who thought this up? Yeah, lets take a baby horse, put it on a circle for an hour or so a day, walk trot canter. I personally don't start lunging till they're about 2. I like to keep mine around and useable for awhile."

You know how Longeline happened, at least my perception of it? Everybody was bitching about how early the AQHA (APHA, ApHC, it's all the same) folks were riding their babies. It had become par for the course for trainers to start them at 16 or 17 months. That way they were broke to death (sometimes literally) for the big money 2 year old snaffle bit futurities.

However, AQHA (APHA, ApHC, it's all the same) realized this had created a P.R. nightmare. Lots of people were horrified about yearlings being ridden and seeing three and four year olds who were already crippled from it. But the breed associations also knew that nobody wanted to let horses sit for a year and do nothing. I mean, how the hell are you going to get them sold for lots of money that way? The last thing anybody wanted is a bunch of pleasure-type yearlings sitting around in a field somewhere all hairy and, shudder, natural, without any hope of sending them out the door for $5000+, and we all know that there's no place in AQHA (APHA, ApHC, blahblah) halter for anything that does not look like the equine version of Charles Atlas. So everybody stuck their greedy little heads together and came up with Longeline.

And honestly, some of those people probably HAD good intentions. Hey, we'll give people something to do with performance type yearlings that doesn't require riding them. It would be a GREAT idea if the class were judged on natural talent...hahahahaha, yeah, I know, I know, I crack myself up. I remember when they first started having longeline, seeing some folks trot out their yearlings and let them be normal yearlings on the longe...you know, with their head at a natural level. Guess how they placed, boys and girls? Even if the horse was a GREAT mover and perfectly lovely. Oh yeah. No ribbons for youuuuuu!

It quickly became apparent that longeline was a class where yearlings are expected to set their heads level and dink along with the typical artificially slow show-ring AQHA/APHA/ApHC gaits. Now, how do you get that out of a yearling, who if he's anything like mine is prone to airs above the ground and running like a fool just because it feels good? Why, overtraining of course! Longeing them to death with all kinds of gadgets on them. I've heard tell some trainers are still breaking them out as early as possible to get them broke enough to win the longeline stuff. Hey, it's easier to create that look when you're sitting on them!

I am sure she learned to jog like this loose in the pasture with the other yearlings (though the bucking episode later on here is pretty funny!)

I am sure this is how he goes naturally in the pasture!

This one too. That jog, that's just how he likes to trot!

Oh, that's how they get them to do that!

How do I know they've been trained a lot? Well, I've longed my fair share of yearlings and this is how your typical not-overtrained yearling longes. (And yeah, personally, I'm not a fan of it anymore. I think it is too much torque on their necks and joints. I'll probably pony mine this year rather than longe.)

In the end, it didn't cure the problem of people breaking out babies. It probably increased the problem. But hey, we tried to do something! Yes, we did! Look at our good intentions.

As with most horse disciplines, there is no cure for greed. Yeah, there are horses who naturally go with a low headset, and there are horses who are naturally lazy, but the level of performance it takes to win the longeline classes is not something you can get out of a yearling you pulled out of the pasture, clipped up and gave a bath to. It's become as stylized as any other event at these shows, and just as much training goes into it. It didn't really solve the problem. Until we ban performance classes of any type for the under-3's, we'll never solve the problem of horses being overtrained and broken down early. I know that's a radical opinion, but it's what I truly believe.

It's almost enough to turn me into a socialist

From the TB Friends blog today:


"Here is a documented fact: Storm Cat has a stud fee of three hundred thousand dollars. Since 2001 we have rescued 14 of his sons and daughters for an average price of 35 cents a pound."


OK, I've thought for a long time that the racing industry needs to have 10% of all race winnings taken and placed into a racehorse social security fund that would fund approved rescues to help them care for the horses who break down and/or get too old to breed. What do you think? Should the racing industry, because it overproduces and let's face it is NOT going to stop doing that, have to start picking up the tab and in a way where everybody pays, not just the nice people who understand they have a responsibility as breeders, owners and trainers?



I personally have always wanted to run a rescue aimed specifically at retraining senior Thoroughbred broodmares for new careers. I've had some really good luck getting them started over fences at ages 15+ and I don't think it really takes that much to get most of them ready to pack around a short stirrup kid. No matter what kind of hot potato they were on the track, 10 babies will usually take a lot of the steam out of them.



What are your thoughts? How DO we solve the problem of an equine sport that breaks down its fair share of horses young and that has a lot of people involved in it for the glamor/money who are not really horsepeople and do not give a crap. I mean, check out this quote from the guy who owned Prince Conley, one of the horses who survived the double decker crash last year and got a second chance at life:



"Killian, 80, an attorney living in Mesa, Ariz., said that if a Thoroughbred doesn't work out, 'it's a business and you sell them. They serve no useful purpose.'"



(insert expletive of your choice to describe Mr. Killian)



But you know, it's not an unusual attitude. (Nor is it unique to racing, I could go on all day about the same attitude in other disciplines. However, I think racing attracts the greatest percentage of nonhorsepeople as owners, don't you?) What do you think we can do to stop our racehorses from winding up on a plate in another country? I honestly think it just has to be some kind of unavoidable tax on race winnings and stud fees...I can't imagine anything else that would work. However, actually managing those monies is a whole other can of worms. What do you think?

OK, I'm off to do my part today and hop on an old TB broodmare who hasn't been ridden in sixteen years. Wish me luck!