The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread FIVE

See our who's who page! ^

[HairOfTheDog]

*New* The FreeRepublic Saddle Club - Who's Who *pics*

This is a horse chat thread where we share ideas, ask for input from other horsemen, and talk about our riding and horse-keeping. We have a lot of different kinds of riders and horses, and a lot to share. In the previous threads we have had a great time talking through lessons, training, horse lamenesses, illnesses and pregnancies... and always sharing pictures and stories.

I always have a link to this thread on my profile page, so if you have something to say and can't find the thread in latest posts… look for it there and wake the thread up!

I also have a ping list for horse threads that are of interest, and Becky pings everyone most mornings. Let Becky (Paynoattentionmanbehindthecurtain) and/or me know if you would like to be on the ping list. As FreeRepublic is a political site, our politics and other issues will probably blend in…. There are many issues for horsemen that touch politics… land use, animal rights/abuse cases that make the news…. Legislation that might affect horse owners.

So... like the previous threads, this is intended as fun place to come and share stories, pictures, questions and chit-chat, unguided and unmoderated and that we come together here as friends. There are lots of ways of doing things and we all have our quirks, tricks and specialties that are neat to learn about.

Previous threads:

The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - thread ONE
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - Thread TWO!
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread - Thread THREE!
The FreeRepublic Saddle Club thread! - Thread FOUR

New folk and occasional posters, jump right in and introduce yourselves, tell us about your horses, and post pictures if you've got them!

[CindyDawg]

I have a question. I'm looking at log cabins and see a package price. I figure that isn't foundation but is it turn key or just a frame?

[Beaker]

He has a nice family.

[Beaker]

Maybe I should just rip out my roses and buy a herd of goats.............
Nah. Then we'd have to call you "Goat of Sharn" and somehow that doesn't have quite the same ring to it....

[tuffydoodle]

Why don't you move up here by me? Doesn't your family live in the metroplex? I need a riding buddy!

[tuffydoodle]

His daughter looks like a model.

[Centaur]

I haven't posted much (work and farm have been so busy) but I know how you guys love pix and I simply have to post a few. I posted the pix (poorly, I'm afraid) of the Canadian warmblood weanlings we bought last year shortly after we got them but they've grown sooo big...BIG BABIES :)

Below are their yearling pix ...first bath, first birthdays:

Deniro:

his half-brother, Pacino:

their half-sister Servino:

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Wow those are big horses, and very pretty:)

BEcky

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Good morning

Becky

[Centaur]

They really ARE yearlings. The two boys we bought last fall and the filly we acquired in a rather round about story...and fun.

The easiest way to tell the tale is to post an entry to a diary I keep:


I scammed a con artist last week.

The breeders we bought our lovely boys from contacted me about a Georgia buyer who had bounced two of three checks for the three foals she had purchased. They asked for my help collecting and although the case was complicated by the 700 miles that separate me from her and the thousands of miles that separate the breeder from all of us, I agreed to bone up on Georgia law and send her a certified letter, two in fact, demanding payment and warning of dire consequences. I enlisted the help of an attorney friend in GA although it was more for name recognition than anything else, knowing the cost of litigation would be prohibitive.

When this woman didn’t pick up her letters, it was time to re-think the straight and narrow approach and I did some searching. Found this buyer had a website proclaiming her love of horses, her undying devotion to rescuing horses in need, declaring her 501(c)(3) status, begging for money and also offering for sale for outrageous money the three foals she stole .

Having gotten the flavor of this woman, I checked my alternate email addy for any identifying info and satisfied it was clean, joined this woman’s group as “Leo”. I chatted for a day or two and finally expressed interest in one of the foals. I let that hang for a day or two and then emailed her off site, asserting concern that I not disrupt her board by inquiring on the board why the same foals, same pictures, same names appeared on another site from Canada, and that her name was also listed on the site as being a horrid customer…if she didn’t mind my asking.

She didn’t. She gave me a story about how her best friend wanted these foals and asked her to keep them till she had her own place. She was merely stuck in the middle when her best friend split and she hadn’t heard from her and didn’t know her whereabouts. Uh huh! Her best friend just happened to be an alias that she had used with the breeders but she didn’t know I knew…I was Leo after all.

Feigning understanding ‘having been in the situation where a friend had stuck me’, I offered a solution (a farce really, but cleared by the Canada folks) that I would pay for the one filly directly to them (which I wouldn’t) and she would transfer the filly to me, and then owe only the difference to Canada. The breeders sent me the appropriate email acknowledging receipt of the “wire transfer”, approving the deal; promising to remove derogatory info from their website and to discontinue any legal proceedings if the difference was given to me in cash when I picked up the baby, ostensibly to wire the same to them. The woman bit and blessed me for getting involved. I knew she knew Canada was on her case as I (not Leo) had sent her two certified letters to two different addresses and she never picked them up…she sensed they were after her.

Originally the plan was just to get the filly out of the south and board her till we could arrange some sort of shipping arrangements back to the breeder. As soon as I informed them that the “deal” had been struck, they emailed me that they were so grateful to have prevented this woman from basic horse theft that we could have the filly for free as payment for collecting the balance and stopping this woman from “getting away with it”!!

L and I immediately cleared our schedules since we didn’t know how much time we had till this woman caught on. The filly’s picture was outrageous…gorgeous! G remembered her as one she had also wanted and this was too good to pass up. A long trip for all of us, but what fun thinking we had conned the con.

There was that brief period where I reined in my gloating as the realization that I may have driven 700+ miles on the word of a con artist came to the fore. Pride has a habit of smacking you in the face just to get your attention.

There was also the problem of using my pseudonym with her. I am such a talker I had to be careful not to blow the cover…tough one that.

Driving up the dirt road to the well appointed home, I searched the 25 or so horses in the newly constructed paddocks; most sad looking, but then they WERE rescue horses, weren’t they? I met this gal at the end of the walk and only briefly stumbled over my name. She seemed friendly enough but trembled as we signed papers despite the 50-degree morning and offered, as she thanked me for intervening, that her problems were the result of an ongoing divorce…new story.

I searched the lots for the filly and when a large bouncing youngster came running down the paddock I was sure it was her, till I noticed she was a he. I was taken to a ramshackle supposedly temporary stall where the once magnificent filly was barely visible over the stall gate. She was 2/3 the size of her brothers in my barn, shy, long coated despite the arrived spring of the South. She had longish feet, a totally bleached blond tail where it should have been deep black. Her mane was long and brittle and I would never have paired her with her pic but for the unusual half star on her forehead and the symmetrical blaze that ran down her face to tickle her nose.

So shocked was I that I struggled to maintain composure to pull the filly away from this person. The filly came hesitantly at first and then totally willingly. Approaching the trailer I prayed for few problems. I had no idea how she would load and the trailer ramp was on uneven ground, making it wobble when stepped on. This motion defeats many loading attempts as even seasoned horse travelers caution at the movement underfoot. This filly walked up the ramp and straight for the new hay as though she hadn’t eaten in days. We locked it up, got directions and the cash and left. The more we talked, the angrier L and I became. We saw the other two foals she purchased from Canada and although not as pathetic, they were nothing, I mean nothing like our foals although all the same age and related to L’s and mine.

At the first stop we tended to the filly who was cautious but hauling like a trooper. We spent several minutes with her in the trailer and on the inspection we forewent just to escape, found the filly to be severely malnourished and wormy; there was no muscle or meat on her frame, you could count her ribs and bruise yourself on her protruding hip bones. Apparently in an attempt to hide her condition, the bitch had sprayed “show sheen” on her rough coat to make her appear “shiny” and thus healthy. Obviously she hasn’t dealt with many people with any knowledge of horses if she thought shine over ribs would signify health.

More discussion and L and I realized how poorly all the horses were, not all of which could be explained by their rescue status. I had seen the three foals she supposedly “rescued” but purchased from Canada when we picked ours up. I know what they looked like. I also knew that some of the supposed rescues had been on other sites as rescues months ago. Apparently this woman, as best we can surmise, “rescues” horses, begs for 501(c)(3) donations to foster her wards and then spends the money appointing her home and bejeweling her boyfriend who happened to be there when we arrived. (She told us she had to leave by 9:30 and we didn’t leave her place till 10:15…guess the boyfriend was supposed to arrive at 9:30).

Twelve hours in a truck can jog the memory of what you took in peripherally; can reprint the mental notes that you filed as you played your part in the mini-drama. The one that most pointedly hit me around North Carolina was the silence…the utter silence as we left. After 33 years of horse ownership, I have never arrived at a farm with a horse or left with a horse, even one despised by the others, where they didn’t whinny back and forth as the trailer ramp closed and the truck inched down the drive. There’s ALWAYS a whinny, always. Not that day. Not from the trailer. Not from the paddocks. Not from the dozen or so foals she shared an unsheltered paddock with. Not from her brother or sister she spent the whole of her 10 month life with. I didn’t understand the depth of Lecter’s phrase of “the silence of the lambs” until I heard the silence of the foals.

[Centaur]

...and the before pix of the filly taken 3/24, one week after we rescued her:

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

What a wonderful story. She has made an astonishing comeback. Funny what a little food will do for a horse:)

Has anything been done about reporting this woman?

Becky

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

You would never know those were the same two horses. You have done a great job?

I've wondered before about horses that size. They are yearlings now, but they look to be close to or even bigger then my full grown QH's. If you have youngsters that size can you go ahead and start breaking them to ride? Or is it that even tho they are so big, their bones haven't finished developing so no matter the size you should wait till their 2-3 like with the smaller breeds? What do you plan to use them for?

Becky

[Centaur]

Thanks Becky

I reported her to the local large animal protection society and asked them to report it to their local affiliate...and we sent a notice to the IRS that we were suspicious of her.

When I got back home and she emailed me about how the filly was doing, I gave her both barrels. She immediately gave me some excuse that her hired hand must be stealing food from her, which of course is BS since she lives there on the property.

There is now some dissension on her board about something else she pulled and its a local gal...I'm going to tell her my story off-board and see if she can get the locals involved.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

I don't know why I put a question after, you have done a great job, It should have been an exclamation point:). That makes it look like I'm questioning your great job:). I'm not, the horse looks great, it's funny how with good care and food they actually change colors. I would not have thought she would get so dark if I had seen the second picture first.

Becky

[Centaur]

We wouldn't even think of starting them until they are late 2's but probably not til 3...babies are babies, after all.

We started their ground work and these kidz are the best balanced animals I have ever owned, and sooo calm. We plan on showing them in jumper breeding classes this summer. It's a ground and confirmation class and they have to be shown in bridle. Both boys took to the bit as though they had been born with them.

We don't know what discipline yet for sure...it depends on how their talents reveal themselves. We are sure the chestnut colt will be a jumper and probably the other two also, although Deniro might end up being for dressage. We have some wonderful pix of his jogging where he looks like he is in the Olympic ring already...haha.

[CindyDawg]

That would be nice but I'm horseless right now:').

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

That's pretty much what I figured.
Becky

[Centaur]

Becky

When we got her, her hair was almost 3"long and sun-bleached. Her mane was down the full length of her neck and her tail was almost to the ground. You wouldn't have expected that for being in Georgia!!

We are theorizing that she had so little meat on her bones to protect her last winter that her body said "we have to get some protection here" and just grew all that hair!

She was so full of worms we wormed her twice (even though this "person" said that she had all her shots and was wormed monthly). She claimed her feet had been done regularly, but our farrier said she'd never been touched. She was full of lice and the first thing we did besides feed her and call the vet was to chop off that dead hair. We knew that she was a dark bay cause you could see her color on the part of her face she scratched the dead hair off.

I am so angry with this woman...she was feeding them 10% feed...for babies! and I didn't see a bale of hay or a blade of grass on the property.

Anyhow, she has turned around 500%, doesn't have that sad look in her eye...actually goes for the feed (she didn't half finish her feed the first week and only picked at it). She's quite a bit smaller than her brothers, like 2+ hands smaller, but she has those wonderful long legs of her dad and brothers and I think with being out in a huge pasture for exercise and my boyfriend being a world class "feed master" she'll still get some good size to her.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

She should be able to reach her full potential now.

I have one that was in very bad shape when I got him. Long story short, there can be some after effects that show up, at least they did in him, when they haven't been taken care of well. I've battled anadrosis, respritory infections, ulcers, that all come from the poor care. He looks good and healthy now, but he is a bit of a hard keeper requires lots of feed. I've had him now for going on 4 years. I keep my fingers crossed that eventually he will get totally healthy. It seems he goes in cycles. I get him healthy and start working with him, and some problem shows up. It makes it very difficult to ride him, when you don't know what it will do to him....

I hope your mare stays healthy.

Becky

[Centaur]

Oh Becky, I am sorry to hear about the problems. It's so wrong what some people do to horses. Here's hoping for the best for you. We have our fingers crossed for the filly. So far so good...that's one of the reasons we stalled her nightly until she put some meat on her and now we have her out 24/7 for exercise and just doing her thing. The only time she is in now is when there is a cold rain expected. We're letting nature take her course for the most part cause we think She knows best :)