Arabian Horses Target of Senseless Attack

I'd hope to get the series on my US National All Arabian Horse Show trip wrapped up but it will just have to wait. I can't ignore the senseless attack on two aged Arabian mares (one twenty-three and the other twenty-five) at Varian Arabians last Wednesday night.

My understanding from the multiple press releases I've read on this subject, including this one, Horses shot at Varian Arabian horse ranch in rural Arroyo Grande is that one mare, Sweet Sanadika V, suffered multiple gunshot wounds and had to be euthanized. The second mare, Mosquerade V, had one gunshot wound and is in serious but stable condition and is expected to survive.

Both mares have achieved the status of Dams of Distinction in the Arabian breed having each produced a number of national champions. While aged they may be, valuable was still a viable word when describing either of these mares. Given the fact the gene pool of the Arabian horse is the most limited of all equines, the loss of such a mare is not only a loss to the breeder but a loss to the breed as well.

While the mares were shot around 8:30 Wednesday, the crime was not discovered until the staff arrived for work Thursday morning. Those on the facility when the shots had been fired believed the noise to be early fireworks celebrating the new year.

Understandably, this attack on Arabian horses has caused outrage in both the Arabian horse community and the community at large. A reward fund has been established to aid in the capture of the perpetrators. I have contacted Varian Arabians farm manager, Angela Alvarez for information on how to donate. I heard from her this evening and she still needs the specifics from Crime Prevention. As soon as I have the specifics I will post here.

For those not familiar with Arabian breeders, Shelia Varian is one of the best know in the Arabian Industry. The champions to her credit as a breeder are beyond the scope of my comprehension and those numbers rise each and every year. The Varian horses are known and respected world wide.

I heard Sheila Varian speak at an AHA Convention many years ago. I still follow the advice I got that day. Sheila said, "Don't listen to what others tell you is good. Breed what you like! If you do that, you will get where you are going!" It was good advice then.....and it is good advice today.

One of Sheila's early herd sires, Huckleberry Bey, became a Breyer horse model. "Huck" wasn't just a talented horse and a great sire. He was something of a ham and had many, many fans. It was no surprise when, after the horse's death, Huck was honored by Breyer.

I'll bet those of you who know nothing about Arabians probably remember the fancy Breyer model trotting chest level with only two feet on the ground........pretty tricky accomplishment for a model horse. I'm told Sheila had approval over the final mold for this horse and she didn't let them go into production until the horse passed her inspection. Her tough criteria resulted in a model that really depicts the great horse Huck was.

The picture on this post is Huckleberry Bey. I am fortunate enough to also have a video of the great horse but I don't have the technology to get it uploaded.


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A Different Sort of Rescue Story - Thoughts

Part 1

OK, I've got to be upfront here and admit I've probably jumped to some conclusions here. I've been caught at least a couple of times in this series and I find the "reporter" within me cringing. I know better.

With that said, I got a call from John Edwards from Hope for Horses today. He asked me if I was interested in the other side of the story. Because I believe myself to be a fair person, I think it's only right that I give him that chance.

While we only had a brief conversation, I could see where there are communications issues with the three parties involved. Maybe the opinion I have drawn is affected by that. I would like to know more so I am going to speak with Mr Edwards and see if I can understand their point of view.

In the meantime I'm going to discontinue posting on this issue. It's clear from the comments that I am not the only one making assumptions and also I have led some of you along with me. I don't want to be responsible for "assuming" any more things that are not accurate nor misrepresenting anything. A lot of damage can be done that way and that was never my intention.

This, however, does not change my opinion that the two horses, Valor and Teddy, should never have been taken from Rose Corey's. The horses have thrived on her and Kelsey's care.

As for Hope for Horses there is a lot I don't know. I have lots of questions, tough questions and so far Mr Edwards has expressed an interest in answering those questions. He would also like people to know about the other horses that were rescued from that Waller Road atrocity that Valor and Teddy Bear came from. I think I'd like to know more about them too. So I'm going to take the time to give him the chance.......until then I'm going to open my mind to see if I can learn something.

The fact that I am open to more information doesn't change my opinion that the county made a royal mess out of this thing. They were not then, nor are they now, equipped nor prepared to deal with the rescue of horses. Finding a solution for THAT problem is really what was at the bottom of my posting about this subject in the first place. I think if the problems at the county level can be cleared up, things will be better for all concerned.

With the economy being as it is, this is a horrible time for horses. Having a county not set up to deal with this issue is a very sad situation under normal circumstances. At times like these it is devastating for horses and my guess is for the rescues as well. I sure don't want to add to their problems because I've only written one side of the story.

To be continued............

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A Different Sort of Rescue Story - The Second Rescue

Part 1

Just taking the horses away from Rose Corey and telling her it was no longer any of her business was not enough to dissuade the woman from getting to the bottom of what was going on. It didn't take Rose long to find out that although Hope for Horses was supposed to be a 501 (c)(3) charitable organization , they were not actually in compliance with those guidelines for the state of Washington. (This situation has since been corrected.)

As for Hope for Horse's motivation wanting to have all of the horses in their care, the organization was getting $4500 a month from the country for the care of these horses. Yet as you saw on the news clip they were soliciting funds from the public to care for these horses as well using the hard luck story to tug at people's heart strings. There's no indication what so ever in those stories that Hope for Horses is being reimbursed by the county, only the impression they are relying on the sympathy of the public for donations to care for abused horses. I wonder if the reporters had any kind of clue that the agency was being paid by the county.

Just for the record with my nearly 30 horses do you know what I could do with a budget of $4500 a month. And most of my horses are growing youngsters and pregnant mares that require more groceries. The rescue horses I've seen haven't required any more feed than some of the horses I feed here. Heck, even with the traumatic impact of the birth of my Arabian horse twins, I would have been in good shape. You're not going to tell me that those 15 horses impounded (with the one's needing the medical care being Valor and Teddy) that's not an adequate amount of funds.

So my question is what's with that? Is that how these things work? Do other rescues get paid to do what they do? Or is this person someone who's figured out how to work the system? What do you think?

Once the horses were taken, Rose wasn't just trying to figure out what was going on with Hope for Horses. She was also working to find out "who" this Arabian stallion really was. I'm not sure how she ever managed this but she did. I do remember her referencing his markings but she would have had to do a lot of searching to get the field narrowed down for markings to be useful but Rose managed to find the horse's registered name.

Once she knew what his registered name was, then she had pertinent information like the stallion's breeder and who had owned the horse in the past. She located the last recorded owner and found the horse had been sold on a contract to the people who had neglected him. That contract had never been paid off and there was a clause for repossession. The necessary persons were served with a notice of repossession.

That meant the person holding the contract was still the legal owner of this horse.
Despite the condition of the stallion, to save Valor, Rose paid the owner what she asked. Then that owner signed over the horse's registration and a written bill of sale. Valor now belonged to Rose even in the eyes of The (Arabian Horse) Registry.

Again by Bruce Smith in the Eatonville Dispatch Stymied by County, Graham good samaritan purchases abused horse It was clear the county wasn't really interested in what was right, only about being in control.

This took place in February but even then it took a lawyer and court hearings, not to mention more time, before the county returned the stallion to Rose. Still claiming they needed to "preserve their prosecutory evidence" it wasn't until April 2 that Valor was returned to Rose and Creekwood Farm. Although the Appy/QH foal known as Teddy was not released, Rose was given the right of "first refusal" for that horse as well. All of this was accomplished in an out of court settlement.








Now, if you ask me, a glaring issue with Hope for Horses comes up here. Valor had been in their care for around 2 and a half months. With the huge improvement the horse had made during his approximately 20 days with Rose, you would think with 2 and a half months of good care Valor would have been looking pretty darn good. However, that is not the case.

Bruce Smith wrote his fourth article in his series for the Eatonville Dispatch, Equine good Samaritan reunited with her horse It tells about the condition the horse was in when he arrived back at Creekwood Farm.

The horse looked worse than when he had left Creekwood in the first place. You can see the difference by the above 3 pictures that were taken when the horse arrived back at Creekwood Farm. Compare those with the one at the very top. It was taken at Hope for Horses when they did his intake after taking him from Rose. It's from the country records. While the picture quality isn't great, it's still obvious the horse was carrying more weight then than he was 6 weeks later.

There was a problem with the trailer ride too. The horse wolfed down a handful of food that had been in the trailer. From that the horse choked. The horse got off the trailer convulsing from the choke.

There's been a lot of accusations about this incident with the horse choking. Fingers pointed from Hope for Horses have blamed it on Rose saying she gave him the food so she caused the problem.

For me, I think putting the focus on the choking incident is a diversion to get away from the real issue, the condition of the horse. And the condition of the horse certainly plays a big role in the horse choking in the trailer in the first place would be my guess. If the horse didn't feel like he was starving for food he never would have gobbled food down in such a manner as to cause this type of choke in the first place. (This conclusion would be based on the fact the horse did not wolf his food down when he was first rescued. Despite his terrible condition, he ate his food at a normal rate.)

I think if a horse is so hungry that it can't have any food in front of it to travel because it will wolf it down and run the risk of choke, there is really something wrong. I transport my horses all the time with food in front of them. It's even recommended by some experts to help alleviate stress on trailer rides. So why should it be an issue as the Hope for Horses people implied against Rose?

In my book that would go onto the people who had been responsible for the care and feeding of that horse. They would be the ones responsible for the horse being that hungry. In this case that would be Hope for Horses. Wouldn't you say?

But again, let's not get lost in who caused the choke. The real question is why was the horse returned from a rescue in worse shape than when he was taken from the Good Samaritans? And why would an agency that took care of a rescue horse in such a manner still be considered for further work for the county?

This story isn't over yet..........

To be continued......................

Thoughts

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A Different Sort of Rescue Story - Another Seizure

Part 1

You would think from here the two horses my friend had rescued were out of the woods. She was interested in keeping both horses despite their health issues. Both were responding to the great care they were getting. Certainly you would think things were going well, you would never guess where things would go from here.

With the way things did go, I can't help but have some observations and reactions of my own. So I'm going to be interjecting those along the way as I try to relate what my friend went through trying to protect these horses. I think it takes wading through ALL of the junk, to see who is interested in the horses and who has other interests. So here goes........

With the entrance of Hope for Horses in this situation is really where this whole story begins to get hinky in my book. The rest of the herd (13 horses) were rescued and whisked off to unknown places as mentioned in the news story.

I knew at the time I saw this story on the news this was the herd the Arabian stallion and the Appy foal had come from. However, as I heard the broadcast I remember thinking there appeared to be more than the usual amount of drama.

My third rescue in less than a year and this was the first time such extremes were being taken. Horses in hidden locations and blah, blah, blah. Something about it was unsettling to me. Later on I was to find out that my gut feelings were justified.

In later broadcasts, the reporter mentioned the horses were not all at the one Hope for Horses location she was reporting from. It only had limited space so the balance of the horses had been moved to still more other secret locations of volunteers for care.........As you will see later, this information is a contradiction to what was stated by Hope for Horses as being important to the "integrity" of this case.

Shortly thereafter was the Region 5 mini convention along with a Board of Director's meeting. By then everyone on the board was aware of the confiscation of the entire herd because of the press coverage. Most at the meeting, however, knew nothing of the Arabian stallion or Rose Corey's involvement with the first two horses that had been confiscated.

It was at that meeting my friend made her request for funds. She came with past and current pictures, vet reports, the works. The board gladly granted funds to help defray the cost of dressings and medications for this horse and left it open for more help in the future if necessary.





Rose went home from the meeting and with the help of the local feed store, ordered (at cost....thank you King Feed) the supplies she needed to continue caring for the stallion. In addition to the supplies from King Feed there was a special item "appropriated" and altered to safely and properly support the horse's penis, a $130 mosquito net. It had taken being resourceful to something soft enough yet strong enough to do the job.

And then out of the blue on Saturday, January 19, Animal Control informed my friend that they were coming to get the two horses. Despite Rose's objections claiming both veterinarians thought the animals should not be moved because of health issues, the county agency moved the horses anyway to a Hope for Horses designated location. The officials even threatened to arrest Rose if she didn't assist officers and relinquish the horses.

As this time these horses had been in the care of my friend, Rose Corey, and her daughter, Kelsey, for 20 days. That was more than enough time for Rose and Kelsey to have given their hearts to these horses. Having the horses jerked away in this manner broke their hearts, not to mention what kind of jeopardy it may have been for the horses. These actions just really didn't make sense to those watching this story unfold.

Bruce Smith wrote this article (his third in what turned out to be a long series) about these horses for the Eatonville Dispatch County pulls abused horses out of foster care, causing uproar The community was outraged at the treatment of these horses and the good Samaritans who had taken on the responsibility of the animals in the first place.

I missed the article in the Dispatch. The next think I knew anything was amiss was when I asked Rose for an update at the next board meeting for the Daffodil Arabian Horse Association. It was then I was told the stallion and the foal had been removed from my friend's care.

The only reason I remember being given was Hope for Horses had convinced our county officials having the horses in separate locations would jeopardize the case. The county officials not having any experience with such cases did what they thought they had to do with little regard for the welfare of the two horses. Not having horse savvy people involved in this process was obvious.

For me, considering the condition these horses had arrived in, the recommendations of the vets and the care they had gotten it really didn't make much sense. It would seem to me you wouldn't want to be stressing horses who had been through such traumatic neglect by moving them again without it being for their own health purposes.

This decision by the county made no sense to me particularly when Rose had already made it clear she was interesting in keeping these horses. Like I said, it made no sense to me............and it didn't make much sense to lots of other people either.

Having been involved, albeit second hand, with rescues, I knew that most of the time herds seized are split up. My friend, Lilly, had housed one stallion out of a herd of around 50 because she was equipped to deal with a stallion.

Finding facilities that can accommodate an entire herd just doesn't happen. It is the norm for horses to be spread out...........it sure hasn't hurt any of those cases. I know the horse with Lilly was found a new home and moved long after he had totally recovered from his neglect. Each one I have followed has ended with the owner's rights being terminated regardless of how many different places that herd went.

Then there was that broadcast where it had been mentioned those horses were not all under one roof at the Hope for Horses facility. So much for they all need to be in one location for the integrity of a court case. So what's with that? Why was the health of these two horses jeopardized and what would become of them?

To be continued.............

The top two pictures of of the stallion's feet when Rose rescued him. The third picture is most of the supplies used to treat these two horses at Rose's.

The Second Rescue

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A Different Sort of Rescue Story

Unfortunately agencies that rescue horses are not always in it for the horses. This is one of those stories. I am not telling this story to cause harm to legitimate horse rescues. Stories like this need to be told to protect the honest rescues. When rescues like the one here are allowed to continue to function they suck up funds and kill support for the dedicated people who really deserve them. The story I am telling is all part of public record. It has been documented in the press and in court proceedings.

I want to warn people up front. These videos are graphic.



I've been wanting to write about this rescue story for a while. Ever since I first heard about the plight of this Arabian stallion I couldn't help but care. Then the system that was supposed to be protecting the horse managed to be manipulated with the horse getting caught in the crossfire. That made the Arabian horse's story all the more compelling.

Since I know the woman who ultimately saved this horse I have had somewhat of an inside seat since this whole process started. I've been hoping for more specific details to do an informed post. However, this first video was recently posted to YouTube so I figure it's best to just go with what I know. There's much more to this story than the video tells.

This rescue all began late in the evening on Dec 31 of last year. My friend got a call from county authorities asking her if she had room at her horse boarding facility to take a couple of recue horses that were in dire need.

My friend immediately arose to the challenge, hooked up her horse trailer and went to pick up the horses. With her teenage daughter, they arrived at the designated location to meet the sherriff and a veterinarian.

There was a small band of horses out in several paddocks in deep mud. The smell was atrocious. The horses were covered with mud, manure and urine and they were eating whatever wood they could find. These horses were so hungry they were even seen eating their own feces.

The vet had determined that two of the horses were in such dire condition they would not survive if not seized immediately. The other horses would have to wait for the slow wheels of the system to grind to get the court orders it would take to seize them as well.

The two horses seized were a bay Arabian stallion grossly underweight with a badly infected penis. It was clear from the extent of the infection this condition had been ongoing for some time. The horse's penis was so inflammed and swollen the horse was incapable of retracting it. In addition the organ was oozing blood and pus.

The second horse was a malnourished Appaloosa (possibly mixed) foal that the neighbors thought was about 5 months old. It was impossible to determine age due to the stunted stature of the colt. Not only was the animal extremely underweight but he had very substantial angular limb deformities. This foal was still nursing from his mother who was also in dire straights but since the authorities wouldn't let both animals be seized, the foal was taken hoping the mare would rally without the drain of a nursing foal.

The two horses were carefully loaded up and taken back to Creekwood Farm, the facility of my friends. The next morning both horses were inspected by another veterinarian and the long process of their recovery began.

While these two horses were getting loving care, the plight of the other horses came to a virtual standstill. The neighbors who had been complaining about the plight of these horses, final took desperate steps and posted this second video on YouTube.



As you can tell by what's said in the first video there is a lot more story to tell about the rescue of these horses. As much as I hate to say this..........

This story is to be continued..............................

Part 2

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Hero.......a horse

After receiving an email with this link, Our Hero is coming home (Please be warned this story is very sad and disturbing) I find myself speechless. Even though I have my usual horse posts lined up to write, I just can't seem to clear my brain of the picture this story conjures so I"m not even going to try.

I don't even know what to say about the terrible circumstances that befell this horse. But in my heart I know that a horse with this kind of courage and heart needs to be honored somehow. I don't know exactly how to do that.............but I feel I must do something.......maybe acknowledging this horse and his story is the first step.

A Baby Boomer Dreams of Arabian Horses - The Maiden Season Part 8

Part 1 of the Baby Boomer Series

Part 1 of the Maiden Season

The vet made extensive records of the mare's condition. We also took pictures for documentation. Even in the photos you can see that bump on her back. I will never forget the condition that mare was in when I got her. As far as I'm concerned the pictures don't show anywhere near how bad this mare looked to me.

I was concerned about breeding her in this condition. My plan was to get her weight up at least 150 pounds before I even thought about breeding. But the vet assured me that mares settle much better when they are recovering from being this down. He really thought I should go ahead and breed as soon as she came into heat.

On the ride home back across that long, long bridge, I remember thinking about the twists and turns my dreams had taken. The loss of Scandalous had been so devestating with only the possibility of acquiring this particular mare being enough to bring me out of that darkness. Yet, here was this very special mare now in a nightmare of her own. I wondered where life's twist and turns would take us next.

The next day, the womam who owned this mare came by so we could do the paperwork on the lease. I know that you probably think I ripped her a new one, but I did not because to do so meant I jeopardized this mare's safety. I did tell her that I had taken her to a vet to have her condition documented. I didn't go into any details however.

That comment was enough. Her response was "Oh my, all of our horses had a tough, tough winter." Then she went on to explain how the farm they were moving to had burned to the ground before they could take possession. The insurance company suspected arson so there was not going to be a quick settlement.

In the meantime, the family was allowed to move onto the grounds to live in a trailer. However they would not let them move any of the horses onto the property. That meant they had to find pasture they could rent for their entire herd. The only way they had been able to do this was to rent several different fields. Of course, not one of those fields was in close proximity to another.

According to this owner, they would drop the kids off at school in the morning and the go make the rounds to each field to feed. By the time they had feed all of the horses it was time to pick up the kids from school and begin the rounds again feeding the horses.

Taking care of this many horses under this circumstances along with this being their first experience with pasture on high desert, it had just gotten away from them. By the time they realized there was a problem it had already gotten away from them.

We went ahead and finished out our paperwork and she went on her way. I never voiced my concerns about the fact they had planned on riding this mare in her current condition. As far as I was concerned, swallowing my words was worth it if I could save this mare. I was just going to bide my time, bite my tongue and wait to see how things washed out.

It didn't take long for the Dare Malik daughter to begin putting on weight. Once she was wormed and feed good quality hay regularly, the pounds went on pretty rapidly. Even though it would still be a whle before she looked like the exquisite Arabian horse that I remembered, the mare was happy and played just like that healthy mare I'd seen last fall.

It was only a matter of days before the mare came into heat. I still debated about breeding her this thin but ended up going along with the vet's recommendations. To say that Legs was excited about getting to breed another mare, would, or course, be a huge understatement. From the moment the young stallion laid eyes on this gray mare, he was in love. It didn't matter if she was in heat or not, just the sight of this mare made him drool. I was figuring our next breeding was going to be different from the last.

But the horse remembered me falling to the ground. Even though he hadn't gotten into trouble as far as I was concerned, the horse clearly remembered the whole incident as trouble. I didn't have to worry about him coming into my space. It was clear he was keeping his distance from me.

However, the young horse was so excited about the new mare, I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to get her bred. The horse wanted to jump too soon, he wanted to jump too late. He wanted to just lay his face across her croup and drool all over her. It looked like he didn't really care what he did as long as he could do it close to her.

Finally the mare began talking to him. I wasn't really sure if this was a good thing or not. The horse was already so excited he couldn't figure out what to do. But it must have been just what he needed to hear. I don't know what she told him. Whatever it was, he shook off his confusion and got up and bred her.

I remember as his weight came down over her, the mare stumbled forward as her back gave under his weight. For a brief instant I thought she was going to collapse to the ground but thankfully she didn't. She stumbled forward a couple of steps almost knocking Dave to the ground but finally caught herself.

Legs was so excited it hardly took a minute and I was pulling him off of the mare. That was it for me, even if this mare stayed in heat, I wasn't breeding her again. Not until I knew her strength was back and she could support the weight,would I even consider breeding her. There was no way I was going to jeopardize her life or anyone else's. Next time I was listening to my own instincts. It just doesn't seem that things work out all that well when I don't.

To be continued..........

Part 9

baby boomer Arabian horse Arabian horses horses horse dream horse maiden stallion horse breeding abused mare An Malik

A Baby Boomer Dreams of Arabian Horses - The Maiden Season Part 7

Before I get on with my story, yesterday was The Great DeLurk which I found posted on Give It a Try who in turn picked it up off



I have to say I agree with both of these blogs on the issue of lurking. As a blogger it's hard to figure out what to think when so many people stop by and few if any comment. So I maybe a day late and probably lots more than a dollar short, but I'm totally behind promoting The Great DeLurk day. If you're here, please leave a comment and check out what these other bloggers have to say about how lurking affects them.



And while I'm off track, I also would like to take a quick moment to brag. This picture is my son's volleyball team. Obviously those are girls in the pic, so where does that leave my son, Bil Cailler? Well, he's their coach and his team, Kentwood High School ranks this week number 26 in the nation! That's right, the nation.

This picture was displayed on the prepvolley.com site. I would give a link to the rankings but you have to be a member to view. But here's what they had to say about Bil's team this week.

"26. Kentwood (Covington, Washington)
Current record: 15-0; Last week’s ranking: 22

Random note: No, Kentwood, you didn’t do anything wrong to drop five spots in the rankings. In fact, you did a lot of good, notably your big win over Megan Ganzer and Tahoma on Wednesday, led by Savannah Feist’s 11 kills and nine from Lauren Campbell. But with Mead dropping six spots while losing out of state, and the Panthers still No. 1 in Washington, you had to drop. "

Now back to the Arabian horses




Part 1 of the Baby Boomer Series

Part 1 of the Maiden Season

Shortly after the incident breeding Heiress, it was time to ultrasound Kurra. Well, it turned out that Kurra did settle on just one cover. There was only one pregnancy and it was time to send her home to Oregon. I was really excited about that because it meant we didn't have to breed her again.

Heiress had gone out of heat right after we bred her. So we only covered her once as well. Now we were waiting for the 14 day mark to ultrasound the mare. Again I was hoping for a pregnancy so we didn't have to breed again. What were the odds we would catch both mares in the first breeding season for this young Arabian stallion on just one cover each?

Around this time was also when the Dare Malik daughter was supposed to be arriving from Oregon. I had made arrangements with a friend to haul her up but at the last minute the owner asked if I would pay her to haul the mare instead since she was planning on coming to the area to visit her father. It didn't really make much difference to me who did the hauling as long as the mare arrived safely so I agreed.

As it turned out the day the mare was to arrive was the same day I was supposed to go the the racetrack with Dave. His company had one of the corporate boxes and was having an appreciation party for the hourly employees. It was a really big deal and Dave really didn't want me to bow out. So I ended up going to Emerald Downs when I really wanted to be home to greet this special mare.

All during my time at the track, I kept wondering if the Arabian horse had arrived yet. I had visions in my head of the lovely mare running in MY fields. If everything went as planned, this mare would never leave my farm. I would breed her, have a great foal by Legs and then exercise my option and buy the mare. The dream was again running rampant.

When we finally got home that evening, I couldn't wait to get out to the barn to visit with the mare. Lindsay told me what time she'd arrived and that she'd gone ahead and turned her out for a while. But that was all she told me.

When I got to the barn I couldn't believe my eyes. My heart sank! If it hadn't been for the "bloody" marking on her neck I wouldn't have even recognized this mare. The Arabian horse was in deplorable condition. She was so thin that even her face was gaunt and drawn. And, of course, like most starved horses, she was very wormy.

In addition she had some kind of injury to her back. Along her spine right about at the coupling with her back and her hip there was a large bump. It felt hard, almost like a calcium deposit of some kind. It was clear that something bad had happened to this horse since the last time I had seen her. I just wanted to cry, not for me or my dream, but for this poor mare.

The first thing I did when I got back into the house was to call my vet. I wanted him to examine the mare asap. Since I was leasing the mare I wanted documentation of her condition. That way if I could not get her returned to normal health, I would have proof that this condition had not been caused by me.

The only way the vet could work us in for the next day was for me to take the mare to him. I was concerned about even hauling the horse, her condition looked so poor to me. But at the same time, the longer she stayed in my care before she was examined, the less protected I was. Also I needed to know the mare's exact condition so I could deal with it correctly. Having never dealt with a starving and neglected horse I didn't know if I should be starting off slowly or what to do for sure! I didn't want to make any mistakes in her care.

So despite my trepidation, I hauled the mare across the Narrows Bridge to my vet. This is not one of my favorite trips. I have always been intimidated by that bridge. I could feel it swaying in the wind as I drove across. It doesn't help that from time to time the tv news will run pictures of the time it fell into Puget Sound.

Thankfully, the mare hauled just fine. She was nervous when I'd loaded her and she was nervous when I took her out of the trailer but she was totally dry. The horse hadn't sweated at all. For that I was relieved. She had eaten every last piece of the grass hay that I had hung for her. Her appetite was good, I was relieved about that as well.

The vet examined her thoroughly and confirmed that she was indeed loaded with worms. Also, she was nearly 300 pound under weight. But the injury to her back was a real mystery. That lump was definitely a calcium deposit on a vertebrae and had to have been caused by some great impact. All we had were guesses like maybe a tree had fallen on her or she'd been struck by another horse or she'd fallen over backwards and struck something in the fall. Whatever happened, the mare had a serious injury to her back and it was NOT brand new.

I remember thinking at the time about my conversation with the breeders when I had called to arrange the lease. They told me they had just put shoes on this mare because they were planning on riding her. I just couldn't imagine how they could have thought they would ride a horse in such deplorable condition let along how they could have missed this injury. Riding this poor mare in this condition was something I couldn't even imagine. My call to lease this mare had saved her from more difficult times.


To be continued...............

Part 8

baby boomer Arabian horse Arabian horses horses horse dream horse maiden stallion horse breeding Maiden Mare horse abuse

More on the Abuse of Arabian Horses

There has been a lot of buzz since my post yesterday An Arabian Mare's Death Due to the Halter Division's Dirty Little Secret. From what I can tell, the discussion has taken place mostly outside on private forums and through emails. While I encourage any and all discussion because it helps to enlighten people, I would hope that you would share your reactions here as well so that more folks can benefit from the input. This practice is just one of the horse industry's dirty little secrets. While I may have posted it in regards to the Arabian horse, you can bet that equally as egregious occurrences are happening across the industry. Our best weapon against them is exposing them.

Much is being written about the age at which horses are being campaigned. This morning I came across this blog post Must Read. This post is a copy of an article by Robert M Miller DVM that talks about Barbaro, his injury and the race industry. In the article Miller explains the injury that Barbaro experienced is common for young race horses but it's only the famous ones like Barbaro and Ruffian that ever get noticed by the press. Miller also talks openly about the problems for the horse when it is started as young as horses are today for both racing and show futurities. This article really is a Must Read and I thank The Equus Ink for the post.

While some may think that showing and racing horses are the culprits here, there really are responsible people out there participating in these activities that are not doing so at the expense of the horse. Stopping these activities all together is like throwing the baby out with the bath water. There is no reason why a horse cannot be shown safely and humanely. Whether or not that happens depends on the trainer and the owner and their ethics.

Despite the belief of some people that there is no such thing as an honest trainer who cares about horses, that is just not so. There are definitely responsible horsemen out there. In the Arabian industry look at Tommy Garland and his series on RFD-TV. Tommy practices what he calls CPR for horses and owners. Confidence Patience and Respect. The Arabian Horse World has just run an article on Tommy in their Feb issue. I know Tommy personally, I have worked with him in a couple of clinics. If he and I lived on the same side of the country, you can bet I'd be a regular at his barn for lessons. If i won the lottery tomorrow, I'd be sending my horses to him for training and marketing despite the fact he lives on the east coast. The man has integrity. (Since I did this post, I have come to change my opinion about Tommy Garland. His methods may be useful to the horse but I'm no longer sure that the man has integrity. It is possible to have the skills to be a good trainer but still not be a good human being. )

The whole fault with what is happening to show and race horses does not lie solely on the trainers. Owners are equally responsible. Owners pressure trainers to get the job done faster. They complain about what it costs to train a horse and they pressure trainers to win. Winning at all costs is not a thought process exclusive to trainers by any means. Many clients are just as driven and don't care about their horses.

The hard part of this issue is how do you control these kind of people and get them in check. Well, one place you can't fault the Arabian industry is for trying to make things better. You only have to look at our rule book to see that it is the biggest most complex thing in the darn industry. The reason is people wanting to make things better, leveling the playing field and protecting the horse. Now, whether or not they have been effective is another story. No matter how hard you try to stop the cheaters, they will find a way to cheat. That's for sure.

The only thing that I have seen over the years that has been effective at all is public opinion. When I first started showing, ginger was a way of life in the Arabian halter horse's life. It was illegal but everyone accepted it was done. But as people have gotten more outspoken about their oppostion to the use of ginger, it's use has diminshed. As more and more owners have ordered trainers NOT to use it on their horses, the trainers have backed off.

Now, I'm not saying that it's not used at all anymore. That probably won't happen until they find an effective test for it and for any other substances that have the same effect. BUT I am saying that every horse in the halter arena is not being gingered today. There are a considerable number of horses each year that are escaping that ritual because of public opinion. You can bet it matters to those horses that they don't have to deal with that burning sensation. The horses have outspoken individuals who were not afraid to stand up and be heard to thank for their relief. The day will come when ginger is no longer used on horses as long as public opinion continues to demand it.

The same can be true of any other issue the show and race horses face. As long as specifc abuses are kept in the forefront so public opinion can build and get organized against them, horses' lives will continue to benefit and quality of life will improve. Blogs and posts like this are a great starting point. If we can continue to build readership and built up our search engine stats you can bet we will be able to become a voice for the horse industry and effect change. It's already being done in the political arena, why not the horse industry? That part is up to you, the readers. Mark you favorite blogs. Comment on them, Share them with your friends. Let us know what you want to read about. Help us give the horses a voice.

I for one show my horses but I'm known for not necessarily getting them started in time to make junior horse classes. I have shown horses at halter, and will continue to do so, but I don't allow or tolerate any abuse of my horses. What I do with my Arabian horses is decided by the horse. If the horse has a halter attitude and loves to play on the end of the lead and strut etc, and needs the added stimulation of something to do, I might even show a young horse at halter.

An Arabian Mare's Tragic Death Due to the Halter Divisions' Dirty Little Secret

I've been writing about the importance of being an advocate for your horse. Many of the things that happen to horses happen in public but some of things unscrupulous trainers know better than to do when owners are watching. That is the case here.

A couple of years ago I got a call about an Arabian mare that had foundered. Her owner wasn't in the position to put the money into trying to save her but was willing to sign her over to someone who would be willing to give the horse a chance. I had followed this mare since her birth. She was by one of the top stallions and out of a wonderful mare that had belonged to a friend of mine. A lovely mare who found herself in this position because of one of the Arabian horse industry's dirty little secrets.

There's lots of discussion both in our industry and throughout the rest of the horse industry about the way that Arabian horses are shown at halter. Some love it and think it fun. Some hate it and think it's an unnatural position for the horse. Some hate it because they believe that the horse is abused to get it to show in this manner. There's lots of talk about whip abuse and halter. But how many people actually know about the procedure of tying a horse off the wall?

This method is used to "teach" the horse to stay up high with it's head and neck while giving (relaxing) through the throatlatch. The goal is to get the horse coming as straight up out of the whithers as possible before it breaks over and comes forward resulting in the posture you see on the neck of the top halter horses.

The actual process involves placing a ring on the wall of the horse's stall high over the horse's head. The lead is pulled through the ring and the horse is pulled off it's front feet. The horse is then tied in that position. Eventually the horse will become tired and collapse, relaxing at the throatlatch - which is what they are trying to teach the horse to do.

Some horses will freak out from being tied like this and will flail around. That is what happened with the Arabian mare here. She was frightened and thrashed around, caved in one side of her face, injured her neck and her shoulder. The trainer sent the horse home on a van not telling the owner about the injury. The vet bill arrived before the mare actually arrived back in our state. This was the owner's first hint that anything was wrong with her horse.

Because I know this mare from the time she was a yearling, I knew that she had not been born with any sign of a clubfoot. When the mare did arrive she had the visible damage to the side of her face and the beginnings of a club foot. Over the following year, that foot became more and more club, ending up with the foot being straight up like a stovepipe. The most clubbed foot I have ever seen. From that and probably the discomfort of the rest of her injury, which was still undetected, the mare foundered. The owner did what she could but the mare just got worse and worse until finally reaching the stage that the owner signed her over to a friend of mine.

I picked up the mare and delivered her to my friend, Bev, who did everything she could to make the mare comfortable. Bev had the horse examined by a vet and equine chiropractor. The mare was diagnosed with the equivalent of a soft tissue broken neck and given regular treatments to ease her pain and discomfort and hopefully save her life. It was clear to those who worked on the horse that the only way she could have sustained this type of injury was through something like tying her off the wall. It was also accepted that the founder was most likely a direct result of the dramatic clubfoot, which in turn resulted from the injury. The mare was putting more weight on her heel to compensate for the pain she was in, thus causing abnormal growth in the heel resulting in the clubfoot.

After over a year of pouring her heart and soul into trying to save this mare, the mare finally got tired. From the beginning the plan to save the mare had been to do everything possible as long as the mare was still trying to stay alive. Once the mare had had enough, then it would be time to stop. Bev honored that plan and the mare was euthanized.

The Arabian breed lost a great mare who never had a single foal. All due to the greed of a trainer who values winning more than he values the safety and well being of the horses within his care. To think that there is only one trainer that conducts himself in this manner, would be naive. The technique is widely used and you can bet this horse is not the only horse that has suffered from its use. There are many instances of horses in training ending up with unexplained injuries to their head or broken cannon bones that have left owners puzzled.

Halter, itself, is not the blame for what happened to this mare or for the practice of tying horses off a wall. It is the ethics of the trainer. As owners, we need to know that such practices are out there so that we can be sure that our horses are not being subjected to them.

Note* the picture at the top is of a typical halter pose, but is not the mare in this post.

To be continued
Part 2

Are You a Good Advocate for Your Horse? Part 2

Part 1

I have to admit that in the past, I have been guilty of being a client who allows the trainer to do whatever they want to my horse. Luckily for my Arabian horses most of the time I was dealing with trainers who were responsible horsemen. But that was not the case all of the time.

Regretfully, when my stallion, Scandalous Legacy, was a yearling, I really let him down. He was being trained to show halter for the Yearling Sweepstakes class at Regionals. The horse was not in the usual training situation where he was left with the trainer. I was doing the conditioning and then bringing the colt to the trainer a couple of times a week for training sessions.

One session a couple of nights before a horse show, my colt was gawking around and not really paying attention.. The trainer was responding by hitting the horse on the body and legs with his whip. My stomach was churning but I was immobilized by my own fear of making a mistake. The owner of the facility was standing next to me encouraging the trainer to continue the abuse stating how much better the young Arabian horse was doing because of it. I found myself thinking they must know more than I did. I allowed it to continue.

When the session was over I loaded my horse into the trailer and hurried home mortified with myself that I had not stood up for my horse. When I arrived home, I was even more ashamed. Getting the colt into the light in his stall, I could see that he had welts over his entire body, including his legs. There was not a spot on him, with the exception of his head, larger than a silver dollar that was not swollen.

I was appalled. I was furious at the trainer, furious at the facility owner and most of all, furious with myself. The trainer quite literally beat the daylights out of my horse with me standing there watching. How could that have happened?

Well, like all abuse it happened in degrees. The trainer didn’t just pick that one day and fly into a rage and beat my colt. The trainer was calm explaining each step he was taking in the process of “training” my horse. A procedure he had done each and every session.

In the first session, he didn’t ever strike my horse with the whip. He explained the whip was just an aid and not an instrument of abuse as “some other halter trainers made it.” Over the weeks and months he continued on convincing me that he was a kind and thoughtful trainer and how lucky I was to have him. He applied the whip to my horse only on infrequent occasions in the beginning, always explaining why it was necessary to do so (the horse’s fault, of course). By the time the actual abuse incident happened, I had been effectively brainwashed into accepting the trainer’s behavior at the expense of my horse.

I don’t use these words “brainwashed” loosely. I am well versed in its methods and effects. I can assure you, these words do apply here. Even with my knowledge of the technique, I still missed it at the time. What the trainer was doing seemed so benign it went right over my head. I was inexperienced with halter and I didn’t have confidence in my own abilities as a horsewoman and the trainer played on that. I was the perfect victim and my horse paid the price.

Did my horse show well after this session? Absolutely not, he was so confused he laid on the chain in such a manner that his long beautiful neck looked upside down and thick through the throat. He was so intimidated by the chain, the whip and the handler than he could not relax and be himself. His movement was tight and awkward instead of smooth and flowing.

Did I ever get up the nerve to confront the trainer? Yes, I did, the day of that horse show. The trainer insisted that he had done nothing wrong. He justified his behavior. The horse would never be a successful halter horse because he was too quiet. The only way to show him in that division was to beat him to get him jazzed up. Had he said those things to me the first day I arrived at his barn, I would have turned around and walked right out the door. If that’s what it took to show halter, I was not interested. I ceased my relationship with that trainer.

What were the long term effects on my horse? The first time another trainer stood in front of my horse to see what he knew about standing up, my quiet sweet colt stood on his hind legs and came after the handler. Remember me saying you can’t bully an Arabian horse in Are Arabian Horses Different from Other Horses? My colt had been pushed to his limit.

Luckily for my horse, the handler standing in front of him had been told of the awful beating the horse had received and he was prepared for some sort of outburst from the horse. So when the young colt confronted him standing on his hind legs, pawing the air and coming forward, the trainer threw his arms into the air, screamed at the colt and jumped into the horse’s space. The colt jumped back, dropped to the ground immediately and stood there quietly licking his lips. The trainer had reprimanded his bad behavior but had not hurt him. This was treatment the horse could respect. He didn’t want to be aggressive, he only wanted to be treated fairly.

The signs are clear. Had I not stepped forward and become an advocate for my horse, he would have been ruined. He would have eventually turned into a mean, aggressive horse. It would have developed in stages but with no one to protect him, the horse would have found ways to protect himself.

While most horses would not respond as aggressively as a stallion, if owners do not act as appropriate advocates for their horses, it is not just the horse that will pay. There are lots of ways that not being protected from unreasonable training techniques can affect horses. They can get injured. They can quit trying and not ever reach their full potential. They can get ring sour. They can lose their expression and go from being a dynamic show horse to just another horse plodding around the ring. The long and short of it is the horse will not be happy and it will affect the horse’s work ethic and behavior.

Are You an Good Advocate for Your Horse? Part 1

Over the years I’ve seen all kinds of relationships between horses, trainers and owners, but the one that is most common, I’m afraid, is the relationship between the owner and the trainer where the owner has the trainer up on a pedestal. The owner believes, and sometimes the trainer demands, that the trainer knows everything and is not to be questioned.

The problem with this scenario is there is no one to advocate for the horse. The trainer has free rein to do whatever he/she feels like to the horse whether it is reasonable or not. Like a child, the horse needs someone on its side, viewing situations from the horse’s perspective and determining whether or not the horse is being handled in an appropriate manner. Without this, who knows what is happening behind closed doors to your horse.

I have seen many horses being ridden into the ground in the warm up arena because they had a bad class. The trainer kicks and spurs the horse in a major temper tantrum because the horse was naughty. I’ve also overheard trainers telling their clients that they didn’t win because of politics. In both of these scenarios, the problem was usually not the horse or politics, but the trainer. The horse was not trained properly to get the job done.

This is not to say that sometimes the horse is not at fault. Each horse has it’s own personality that certainly contributes to how it responds in a class or training session. But when you have a trainer who is continually making excuses for his/her lack of success with the horse or in the ring, chances are it’s the trainer’s problem, not the horse’s.

So how do you know if your horse is being treated properly? First off, I’d say look for the obvious, spur marks in your horses side, welts on its body, scars on its mouth. If you horse has thickness or white scars on the corners of its mouth, it’s being treated inappropriately. These occurrences are not the result of a one-time thing; they are the result of persistent heavy handedness. The same is true about scabs on shoulders or sides.

In addition to looking for the obvious outward signs, watch your horse for signs of personality changes. Is it happy? Is it sullen or depressed? Is it grumpy about work? Does the horse not want to be saddled or bridled? Watch your horse being worked. Be there as much as you can to see what’s happening. Is the trainer constantly fighting with your horse or putting the horse down? When you do see a problem between trainer and horse, what does your gut tell you?

If you see or hear things that you’re not sure about, talk to others about it. And not just those in your barn, they are likely to have the same kind of issues as you with standing up to your trainer. Go outside your circle and ask other people? Get all the input you can so you can be an informed advocate for your horse.

This issue of being an advocate for your horse doesn't just pertain to training issues. Do you have questions about feeding, products used on your horse that you don't ask? Do you see things around the facility that you think might be dangerous for your horse? Is the facility taking proper care for fire provention? Do they have an emergency plan in case a horse or person is injured or becomes ill? Do they have a disaster plan? Are these items posted? Dressage Mom in her comments on If Disaster Happens What About Your Horse? worries about such things. Do you?

This is part one in the subject about advocating for your horse. Remember, if your horse can't count on you, he has no one....

Part Two

Are Arabian Stallions Different Than Other Horses?

You bet they are! All stallions are very different from geldings and mares no matter what the breed and Arabian stallions are different from other stallions. The differences between other breeds’ stallions and Arabian stallions are probably not much more than those things that distinguish Arabian horses from other horses. But when the horse is a stallion things can get more complicated.

The number one instinct in all stallions is to breed. They are as simple and as complex as teenage boys. Sex is number one on their mind whether they’re at work or play, standing in their stall or walking on the hot-walker. Even food and water do not outrank breeding on a stallion’s list of things to do. The only way food or water will every take priority over breeding is if that stallion is dangerously malnourished and/or dehydrated.

Since breeding is such an explosive and physical event between two 1000 lb animals, it is dangerous and should never be taken lightly. Because breeding is the priority for stallions, someone who is not accomplished should never handle a stallion, even if breeding is NOT the reason the stallion is being handled. If you aren’t experienced enough to deal with a breeding gone wrong, you shouldn’t be handling a stallion. From an article My Horse Bites , Pat Parelli states that he forbids his instructors to handle stallions until they have completed levels three or four in his program. If you are handling a stallion and you are not qualified to do so, you are not only endangering your life but you are endangering the lives of those around you.

In our part of the country it’s very common for prize rides and donation rides to forbid the use of stallions, just because so many people bring stallions who can not handle them.

While most breeds handle their stallions with chains, you rarely will see an Arabian stallion being lead with anything more than a halter and a regular lead. The horses are smart, sensitive and willing. They are known for wanting to please. They will do anything for you, given the opportunity. But, as I stated in my post about Arabian horses, you can’t bully an Arabian horse and you better be even more careful with an Arabian stallion. Arabian stallions do not tolerate abuse many will fight back.

With that being said, well-trained Arabian stallions are known to be remarkably sensitive and well-behaved animals. The Arabian Horse Association is the only breed that allows junior exhibitors to show stallions in hand and under saddle. (That rule does restrict stallions from being show by children in walkt trot classes where riders are 10 & under.) When I first started in horses about twenty years ago, I remember a remarkable story that was published either in the Arabian Horse Times or the Arabian Horse World.

It was the last night of the US National Championships and they had just finished the finals for the US National Champion Stallion class. All ten of the top ten stallions were still in the ring, snorting and blowing and strutting their stuff. When the announcer invited the crowd into the ring to meet the stallions up close and personal, they went wild. The horses loved it, showing off even more. To make this long story short, people poured down onto the arena floor to see the horses up close. In the crowd was a blind woman, her way to “see” these horses was to run her hands over their entire bodies. As she approached each stallion, the horse got soft and quiet. Standing ever so still while the blind woman ran her hands over his entire body. Only after the blind woman had moved on to the next horse, did the stallion resume its animated display. This scene was repeated as the woman felt her way completely through the line of top ten stallions.

Speaking Out About Horse Abuse

Going back to what I said in my initial post, I really appreciate all horses, not just Arabian Horses. Good horses to me are an important part of life and I know they’re just as important to many other people. Horses feed the soul of those of us who love them – there is no doubt in my mind about that. With all the stress of today’s world, heaven only knows how much we need horses.

So while my blog addresses Arabian horses in particular, the message is really the same for all horses. No horse, not a shire , a paint, a quarter horse, an Arabian, a mini, or anything in between, should be used and abused, bullied and intimidated.

Horses that are being treated in such a manner are unfortunately all too common in today’s society. You would think that with so many years since Black Beauty by Anna Sewell was first published that the treatment of horses would have improved dramatically from the conditions exposed in the book. However, that is not the case, clearly there is a strong move towards natural horsemanship around the world but that evolution in the way humans respond to equines is slow in developing.

Yes, there are some horsemen out there that truly grasp an understanding of the horse and how to communicate with it and train it in such a way as to instill great confidence and trust in the horse. Some of those are very public for the equine community to see; others do their teaching one on one affecting the transformation one student at a time, one step at a time. the progression of the change can only advance as the rest of us learn. Most of us are either rank amateurs or worse yet, we’ve not even started on the journey of finding a better way to deal with our horses.

But what is important here is not that we have a long, long way to go, as much as we are moving in the right direction. Twenty years ago, the magazines had advertisements for John Lyons, Richard Shrake and Pat Parelli and a few others I’ve probably forgotten. Today, there’s a much longer list of those selling themselves as clinicians and trying to make the world a better place for the horse. Their students are teaching their students and so it goes. There are sites on the internet devoted to natural horsemanship like What Is Natural Horsemanship and Natural Horsemanship on Wikipedia For more sites Google "Natural Horsemanship" on the end of this page. There are programs on the television devoted to better ways to train your horse with Clinton Anderson and others.

I know many of us are still a long way from being able to confront that abusive rider at a trail ride or a show or the handler trying to beat a horse into a trailer, or the boarder three stalls down from us in the public boarding barn. My guess is that day will come as we become more confident in our knowledge of how to deal with horses since we, humans, tend to want to keep our mouths shut unless we’re absolutely positive that we aren’t going to make a fool out of ourselves. We'll need to be more educated before we're brave enough to fight this battle one on one.

What's important is that we're on that road... the process of us making a daily effort to make ourselves better horsemen/horsewomen will get us to a safe and happy life for all horses. See this article Horse Racing, Sport or Animal Curelty, Granted the person writing this article thinks that anyone holding a whip must be abusing a horse and needs to be educated also so there is some balance. The use a whip doesn't need to be banned but the mis-use of it sure does. But the very fact the question has been posted tells us we are heading away from the days of Black Beauty and towards the days horses are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.

The key to all of this is education.As long as all of this information is available; there are clinicians willing to teach, horse owners, fanciers and lovers willing to learn, and blogs and other discussion like this where abuse continues to be exposed, with enlightened horse owners seeking it out, learning it and practicing what they preach, the world will daily become a better place for all horses, not just my beloved Arabian horses.