Well... it is time to respond
to this ... I have tried to ignore
most of the comments as petty and un-deserving of a response, but this has gone too
far... I will respond to individual comments below.
Hey guys, I need some input here.
I have a very nice coming-five-year-old Anglo-Arab gelding that is having
some problems, and I need to figure out the best course of action for him.
A brief background---I bred and raised him myself, he was *perfect*, would
do anything with total aplomb and absolute willingness. This horse is not
an airhead. I started him under saddle and he spent six months with a good
trainer in So Cal learning his basics. And showed in a junior hunter under
saddle flat class where he took everything absolutely in stride, never
turned a hair.
When I moved up to Colorado to start vet school, I was way too gullible and
trusting and put him for 'training' in with someone I thought was a friend,
the now defunct Visions of the Wind business entity. A long and fairly
horrifying story, but the short end of it was that nine months later, the
horse I rescued back was 200 lbs thinner,
When Susan brought this horse
to Colorado, and wanted to bring him to me for training, I recommended a barn
where the people were very experienced horse breeders and trainers. A friend of
mine that lives close to me met Susan and offered to let Susan keep Dakota at
her place since she was much closer to me. I told Susan that this was her
decision, but the other place had the facilities (barn, arena, round pen, large
pasture) and my friend had none. Susan decided to board her at my friend's place
despite my recommendations. I told her that I had no time to be responsible for
the feeding and daily care of the horse over there. The long and short of this
aspect is that *I* was not responsible for the feeding of the horses - yet *i*
am the one blamed here. Also, he was NOT that thin when she took him out ...
untrained or conditioned, his
This horse was receiving two 1+
hour round-pen sessions every week and a 4-5 hour trail ride every week. Long,
slow, and steady. For over 7 hours of work per week, Susan was paying the
enormous training rate of a whole $200/month. When he was brought to me, he was
unable to go more than 3 miles without being pooped - and I only weigh 105 lbs.
He also knew nothing about navigating on mountains. Right before Susan took him
back, she rode him in a 16 mile night-time training ride where he had great
recoveries and a wonderful attitude. She weighs about twice what I do with tack
and all. I find it hard to believe that she could claim that this horse had been
unridden and unconditioned....
floor-length tail had been chewed off from having been turned out with
strange horses willy-nilly,
His tail was gone from her own
horses chewing on it. WHY her other horses were there will be addressed
shortly.
his tack was broken from his having been tied by
the bit and my perfectly behaved and brought up youngster's attitude was a
toal 180 degrees turnabout.
He was tied to a fence once,
during a ride, when we had to stop to have a shoe replaced on the other horse.
My friend was holding him while I held the other horse for the farrier. She
wrapped his reins around the fence for a sec while she went to adjust the girth.
He pulled back and snapped a very cheap brass hook. Nothing major here, just
some problems with cheap tack.
He was afraid of the shoer, startled and
anxious at every little thing, no longer tied without panicking, no longer
responds to the cues and leads he was taught,
He had absolutely NO
issues like this when he left. I am more than willing to get documentation form
the farrier, vet, and chiropracter to confirm this.
and from having shown
successfully at the Del Mar Nationals a
year before, his appearance looked
like something the BLM would be ashamed
asking a $100 adoption fee for.
I DO have photos of this horse
taken while he was here and would be happy to post them for you to form your own
opinion on this comment.
Not
to mention that I was out
thousands of dollars I'd paid up front, but the
bankruptcy courts let you
get away with anything if you get weepy enough and
tell a good bedtime
story. But that's another issue.
Yes, I've filed for bankruptcy
and no, I don't believe that I owed Susan any money back. If she had a
legitimate claim to anything regarding that, she should have come to the
creditors hearing.
The bottom line is that he's been
with Karen Chaton since last August and
she's done a *terrific* job of
working through the unspeakable abuse and
neglect that my horse went
through.
I have yet to understand what
"abuse" she is referring to....
His health is finally back where
it
should be, he's back on track with his conditioning and most of the
behavior
problems (shoeing, etc) have been taken care of.
The only
remaining problem is that when Dakota origially came back
form
this....person....he suddenly had alot of anxiety about being
separated from
other horses, and the problem hasn't resolved with
time.
Ah - the crux of the issue
here.... Dakota had this separation anxiety from DAY 1. THIS is why Susan
brought her other horses to Golden! She had moved them several times in the Ft
Collins area and then asked to bring them here. My friend's place did not
comfortably support that many horses, but
since Dakota had such problems, my friend agreed. He had gotten to the point
that I could take him out alone, but he had NEVER gotten beyond being anxious
about his buddies being taken away. I had to put him in the round pen in order
to take any horse out of the pasture, otherwise he would run right through the
barbed wire. Another trainer that I spoke with commented that he had seen this
with many horses that were being moved around constantly... This is NOT an issue
that surfaced while he was here and I will NOT sit by quietly to be blamed for
problems that this horse has. I WILL state that I believe this is a wonderful
young horse with whom I enjoyed working. He has issues, but nothing
insurmountable. And since I have worked through similar issues with other
horses, including my own, I don't feel that he (Dakota) will always have them if
worked with consistently.
He starts pacing
and calling,
running up and down fences, working up a sweat, the whole
thing. He'd
never done that before. We've given him some time and work to
let him
get the idea that he's in a better place now, but he still seems to
be
really anxious about being alone. H's good out on the trail, alone or
in
groups, but really gets upset when trailered out to strange places,
big
strange groups and so on.
Again, right before Susan took
him out, I trailered him to Ft Collins for a ride and I have several pictures of
him at that ride proving that he had NO issues with being trailered to a strange
place and being in the midst of a large group of strange horses .
My conclusion to my response is
this: I feel that
it is very inapropriate and unprofessional to publicly attack someone just
because you may have personal issues with them. Take what people say in anger
with a grain of salt, and try to keep an open mind.
NOW, Go back out, ride your
horse, and have a wonderful season! *S*
Stephanie
McCray