Thursday, June 20, 2013

The Bombshell




  Part 1

The next tool I recall this woman pulling from her bag of tricks was guilt. I had plenty of that knowing that Dave and Lindsay were carrying the entire responsibilty for my horses so when she stated that no one could take care of this many horses and I was being totally unfair asking them to do so, she got no argument from me. I had been beating myself black and blue with the bludgeon of guilt from the day I got sick over two months earlier. All she had to do was broach the subject for me to fall in line.

With that out of the way she went on to the condition of my herd. It was there she got an argument from me. Yes, I was not happy about the weight of the horses and particularly Aana's but I was not alarmed by any of them and I said so.

It was then she pulled out the "rescue" card. Claiming she had worked in such cases for many years, she told me all of those people were well intentioned people who never intended for any hat. To befall them. Life had just crept up so they did not see the deterioration of their horses because they were looking at them everyday.

She reiterated that I could not trust Dave or Lindsay because they obviously did not have the skills to see what was right in front of them AND that I was too sick and too heavily medicated to be trusted. That's all there was to that!.....or such was her implication. My herd was in bad shape and we just were not seeing it.

This just did not set right with me. I ran over in my mind what I had seen in my barns. There was nothing there I had not seen at one time or another and nothing I had not seen when I worked at training barns. Stallions, particularly,  can run off weight in one turn out. Nervous horses like Aana can drop weight because of heavy traffic congestion on the highway or a buddy being moved. Adjustments in feed need to be made sometimes. There was nothing I saw that said my herd was in trouble.

The only horse I saw that concerned me was Aana. Because she is an aged mare, I try to stay on top of her weight we don't fall behind that old horse curve so we can keep her around as long as possible. For a hard keeper of her age, the mare did not look alarming to me but she did look like some changes needed to be made to assure she stayed healthy.

It was when I dug in my heels about the condition of my here that this woman dropped her bomb on me. She told me if I lived in her county Animal Control would seize my entire herd because of the way the one horse looked. They would  not consider her age.

I was literally struck dumb by this statement. I could not believe that anyone would sit in my living room and tell me such a thing if it was not true.

My mind raced searching for pictures of the horses as I had seen them in the barn that day but they just would not come. The memory blur that comes with opiate use blocked all clarity......or maybe it blocked my trust in what I remembered.  I don't really know. What I know for sure is I could not reconcile what I remembered with what this woman said. Because of this I knew I was in trouble and I desperately needed help. 

By this time I was also in excruciating pain. All of the afternoon's confusion had caused me to miss the scheduled time to take my pain meds, not to mention my pain was intensified by all the standing and walking I had done.   That meant my thinking was impaired by the pain too.  I was so focused on the severity of the conversation I was oblivious to how badly I hurt so I didn't realize this was a contributing factor in my inability to find my way out of this trap.

With her bombshell dropped and her target totally off balance, this woman swooped in for the kill. She let me know she intended to help me out by taking a couple of horses off my hands.

To be continued...

Choices.........

24 comments:

  1. I remember seeing a couple of your horses up for sale on a trainer's website last year. I hope beyond hope that she is your trusted friend and that it all worked out. I remember wondering what was going on when I saw them.

    I am so sorry to hear that this ... person took advantage of you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, she is not a trusted friend. At this point not someone I would use in the same sentence as "friend." Her part in all of this is coming. As far as I am concerned, her behavior is every bit as reprehensible at this woman's.

      Delete
    2. There's nothing good to say. I'm so sorry. This is making me feel even sicker than Storm's story. At least then I knew he was back with you. I hope all your animals are safe and in good places.

      Delete
    3. Actually, I guess this makes me feel sicker than Storm's story too. At least I was healthy then. To exploit a sick person like this is unfathomable. And no, my animals are not all safe in good places. I will post what I have learned as it comes up in this story.

      Delete
  2. Oh dear this dont sound good. I cant or dont want to belive someone could be like that! How awful to kick you when you are down

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I didn't want to believe anyone could behave like this either but now I know better In hindsight I would say not wanting to believe put me definitely worked against me.

      Delete
  3. It's hard to believe people can be so deceitful for their own gain. There's a special place in hell for people like this. Why didn't your friend step in for you and get her the hell out of there?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I cannot explain why my friend was unable to step in without disclosing things about her that would be betraying her confidence. You will just have to trust me when I tell you, she believed she was helping me and did not see the scam. Unfortunately, she did not see the manipulations and she has known this woman for much longer than she has known me so they had a lot of trust built between them. Up until now, this woman had not done anything to violate that trust. She had skillfully built her persona as a caring person so my friend saw no reason to question it because of their history. As the story unfolds, you will see that this woman hid things she was doing from my friend.

      I do think her reactions to this woman were colored by my friend's own fears for me. Every fear I had, my friend knew about and she was as worried about me as I was. I believe she was probably thinking that having thirty horses with Dave out of work could end badly and for the average person that would probably be true BUT I am not the average person so this story is all good for the horses I still have. But my friend was ripe to be manipulated into believing this woman knew best and she had enough history with her to know exactly which buttons to push when to get away with this.

      As blind as I was about this woman, I am not blind about my friend. She has earned all of the trust I have put in her and nothing this woman did will ever change that. My friend still does not understand the depth of betrayal she experienced but when she was faced with undeniable facts to prove I was betrayed, she responded exactly how I knew she would. That story will come.

      Delete
  4. Have you pursued legal action against these people? You were certainly not in a position to make such decisions regarding your personal property.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes and no? You are right about my situation and what happened here is against the law, both civil and criminal. If I had the funds for a filing fee I would begin a civil action so if anyone is interested in donating to that cause, I'd be more than happy to go down that road again. LOL

      Delete
  5. Replies
    1. oh yes..... Unfortunately this woman is not alone and the damage she incurred didn't stop with horse flesh.

      Delete
  6. How very nice of her. I'm sure she took only your high-needs stock - the older, retired horses who couldn't sell as easily, who required meds and whatnot.

    Cough. Sarcasm. Cough.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unfortunately, you got this right. I wish I'd have had your vision. It could have saved me some major heartache.

      Delete
  7. And with that she should have been met with only a few words- Get the F OUT! But pain, missed meds and the lunacy she is projecting may have only fed into all of this should the authorities have been called.

    Sorry to hear this is how it went down. Was this woman the one we talked about before that had been training a certain, (well how shall I put this to not make it too obvious, but yet crystal clear?) 'bottom feeders' horse? Because from what I seen of pictures of him- she's a nutcase too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If it's the trainer I saw selling some of MiKael's stock, I found said trainer though on one of her "web famous" clients and her stallion. Said client also how I "met" most of you and get to vicariously share in your horses.

      Delete
    2. Sorry, but to say those words, I would have had to understand she was manipulating me. She had me convinced she had my best interests at heart. Sick, I know, but this is the fastest growing crime in the country, manipulating the elderly to get at their assets. In my case, the assets were horses.

      Delete
    3. Sorry, I forgot to answer your question about the trainer. If you are referring to the one Laura is talking about, yes, same woman. I will get to her.

      Delete
    4. Laura, did you find me through that site?? I think I only commented there a very few times and I am unaware if I ever ended up being a blog post there. Did the trainer claim to have "web famous" clients?

      Delete
    5. Most of the horse blogs I currently read I found from reading fugly horse of the day back before it got weird. Either you posted there or you posted on someone's blog I found from there. And then I followed back here and started reading.

      The trainer I found because she was training C. A.'s stallion for a season. C is who I meant by "web famous." I don't know that the trainer ever made a big deal about it.

      Delete
    6. Hahaha Laura, I was thinking of the same one. I just didn't know how to phrase it without naming it or referencing the blog (which is now gone?). Reading back thru missed posts and apparently it's not the same one we were thinking of.

      Delete
  8. What a horrible person. I was worried about you, and about how your horses would be cared for, and I was hoping that you were able to downsize, but not like this! I hope that you are in a better place now with your herd. Get better.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I think you're right about her. She is a horrible person as is the woman she threatened me over when I first met her. I sure wish I had remembered about her loyalty to Vicki in the first place. Even if I had remembered it after she was here, I would have had a reason to question her legitimacy.

    Things are far from perfect here but the horses are doing well. There are three exceptions that have more to do with my granddaughter than me being sick. I will be telling those stories too as they fit into the timeline of how this all happened.

    What surprised me the most about all of this is the people who saw this experience right here as an opportunity to get their foot in the door to further their own agenda at my expense, of course.

    ReplyDelete
  10. That just makes me sick to read that someone would intentionally take advantage of you, or anyone, who is ill and clearly not in the best postion to question their direction and motives. If you find yourself in that position again, reach out to us, and we'll try to help you out (to YOUR benefit). Through your blog, you have made some friends and have a loyal following. You've entertained and informed us for years, and I suspect that most of us would consider it an honor to be a sounding board for you. You have a good weekend, and try not to dwell on the rotten people that you've had to deal with. It happens to all of us, so don't beat yourself up.

    ReplyDelete