Posts Tagged ‘backyard breeders’
Three horses die in dramatic attempt to escape and get help for the rest!
That’s how I read this story, anyway. Watch the whole video to see the sad pictures of her matted, thin and wormy looking herd that did not die on the highway this morning.
Three horses die on Oregon highway
So, Portland, Oregon area people – who is this Marge Smith? Has the situation always been this bad?
BTW, since we’re talking Arabians again, look at the Scapa post’s comments for an update post from his owner – who admits the horse did have a bad experience with another trainer – again NOT Matthew Gales, who has a good reputation and was the victim. I want to make it clear that no one here thought he was at fault, and also that I am very impressed at the owner’s post and believe it to be 100% truthful and that the horse’s owners did not knowingly allow him to be abused. Since I assume all of you in the Arab breed show world know exactly where this horse was last fall, now you can avoid that trainer and avoid having your horse similarly brain-fried. I feel that we did get the whole story here, and in light of that, I commend his owners for finding a more humane trainer and for that trainer’s efforts to overcome the horse’s (justified) fears.
Really, folks, I’m not the enemy some of you think I am. I just want the truth to get out in situations like these so that other horses aren’t tortured by the bad trainers – and if I don’t scream and shout, these things tend to stay under wraps and then innocent people (like poor Nicole Marr) take their horse to the Big Name Trainer without a clue of what is about to happen to it. And sometimes those horses suffer damage that can never be fixed.
Obviously I’m … pooping?
Happy Friday! I’m super busy but I had to share this one! Here is the ad.
#1 – Really, you couldn’t have waited two minutes to take the picture?
#2 – That’s not a halter horse butt, but I see he did get the halter horse post legs.
#3 – I know his neck is set on low, but a fat “nest” does not make for a pretty western pleasure horse. You might want to pick up a QH Journal and compare those pictures to your horse. One of these things is not like the other!
#4 – Whoever crossed the Obvious Conclusion son on a Hancock bred mare…I hope you learned from your mistake. This could be described as the worst of both worlds. Except that he does have a cute face – I’ll give you that.
#5 – Again, people, if you’re standing it at stud, you can’t spend a little time actually grooming it, and maybe pose it somewhere with less livestock in the background?
I suspect he’s a nice boy. He just has that “I’m a nice boy” look on his face, and nothing about his stance or expression leads me to believe his handler’s in any danger of being eaten for lunch. But this is yet another one that needs to be a much-loved open show gelding, not a breeding stallion!
Oh, and folks? It is just tacky to have a Free Dogs Page on your web site and claim you don’t have time for them when you apparently DO have time to breed horses willy-nilly. C’mon. Lame.
Some, er, LOTS of things never change!
As the old saying goes, a leopard does not change its spots. We see this all the time in the horse world. People who neglect horses don’t typically reform their evil ways. They just swerve punishment for them however they can, usually by moving to a new place, or just laying low for a while, and then they return to doing the same old crap that got them featured on the Fugly blog and/or prosecuted the first time.
You have probably already guessed that this post contains an update on Dean Solomon. Yes, Dean simply cannot stay out of trouble with Animal Control. New cruelty charges were filed against her and accomplice Nancy Pacey in January. I wonder if they’ve caught Nancy yet — she failed to appear and they had to put a warrant out for her! You can download the details here. I know some of you locals think A.C. has been asleep at the switch when it comes to Dean, but really, they’ve been watching her this whole time and her refusal to obey the order that does not allow her to own horses has been duly noted. Pats on the back to KCAC!
Now, remember the moron who was trying to argue she had a tobiano purebred Arabian? She didn’t, BTW. She has often come up in the comments as a classic example of virtually everything we hate about BYB’ers — the horses are low quality, it’s all about color, not a one of them has accomplished anything more complicated than pooping and walking at the same time, and now for the final but not surprising nail in the coffin, I have proof they’re living in crappy conditions and she won’t pay her bills. Yes, Shatormar Arabians‘ Tory Morgan has shown herself to be the epitome of a piece of shit backyard breeder — not only is she not paying board to the 80+ year old man currently housing her 30+ neglected horses on his property, but the bee-yotch owes him for three grand of hay as well! Poor old guy does not know how to get rid of her and everybody feels sorry for the horses.
Tory’s got 34 head of horses out there, plus a dozen or so foals on the ground, and every mare is bred back. There are studs just running loose with the mares, eight foals in a 40×40 paddock and eight 2/3-year-olds in a 20×30, and the six or so yearlings in a part of the dairy barn that is 
about 8×30 .Of course, Tory, like all pieces of shit like her, knew exactly where to locate her Pinto Puppymill — in a county that doesn’t have an Animal Control. And – are you ready for it? – Guess how Miss Tory supports herself? Wait for it – YES, she is on DISABILITY! Your tax dollars at work, funding her pinto puppymill! I don’t know WTF is supposed to be wrong with her, since I’m fairly sure Irresponsible and Lazy aren’t disabilities (yet) but what a crock of crap.
From the person who reported her: ”The turd of a woman has No Trespassing, No Pictures, No Video posted EVERYWHERE. NO WATER ANYWHERE!!!!” Yeah. How’d that no pictures and no video thing work for you, Tory? NO ONE CARES WHAT YOU SAY. Since I know legal threats are forthcoming, may I suggest you pay up your board and hay bill before attempting to retain an attorney? They aren’t as easy to avoid paying as the senior citizen that you are victimizing.
I just can’t get over the classy facilities. It’s like an obstacle course for those poor horses – a dairy barn full of old equipment, ladders on the ground, barbed wire, etc. And her web site says they hope to be moving to a new farm in 2010. I hope they think about paying the poor old man they’ve been scamming, but I won’t hold my breath! By the way, Tory, love the browband in your stallion’s eyes. It’s amazing how you’re healthy enough to ride, reproduce and breed horses yet somehow unable to work. What, do you have an allergy to gainful employment?
Yes, this is being reported and yes, I will let you know what happens!
All right, moving on…while we’re talking about wastes of oxygen, you may remember one of the worst scammers to ever suck money out of the ABR board, Catherine Petersen. My original blog on here is here: http://www.fuglyblog.com/2008/im-afraid-to-call-myself-a-rescuer-anymore/. I just got an update that she goes to trial in June. She is still in jail in Kentucky so the horse world is safe (for now). Sounds like she may plead her way down to 3-5 years of prison but the good news is that there are warrants out for her in four other states, so her legal troubles are far from over.
I don’t believe I’ve discussed her on the blog before, but Terry Lynn Sullivan from Staunton, Virginia is a repeat offender in real life…this woman is just a nightmare. Here is a recent news story on Terry: http://www.nbc29.com/Global/story.asp?S=11979006. Another: http://www2.newsvirginian.com/wnv/news/local/staunton/article/horses_recuperating/52338/
From the story, “Officers seized 19 Sullivan horses back in 1996, leading to her first conviction of animal cruelty. Another of her horses was found dead in April 2008. That summer she was again convicted, An Augusta County judge barred Terry Lynn Sullivan from owning horses for two years. Her attorney appealed that ruling, and now awaits a decision from a higher court.” OK, folks, HERE IS HER PICTURE. STOP GIVING HER HORSES!!! She is getting them from somewhere. STOP! Terry uses the business name Shaner Lane Farm. She also had (OF COURSE!) a “rescue” called the Fern Leigh Equine Foundation. I’ve said it before but I need to say it again: a 501(c)3 is not any kind of proof that you are a decent animal caretaker. None at all. It only means you are good at paperwork or hired someone who is. Read this description of Sullivan letting a mare lay in her field and die and then claim it would not get up because it was “stubborn.” That poor Brigette Berbes woman has been knocking herself out for years trying to put this bitch in a cell. I’ll bet somewhere on the Internet, some asshat is talking about how Brigette is a meanie and is harassing poor old Terry. Brigette, the Fugly blog would like to give you a medal! Thank you for your persistence, heaven knows these horses would be dead without it.
Oh, and approximately three people a week e-mail me in horror about the Bedonna chick. I know, I know. She has twelve stallions at stud. Some are nice – I sure wouldn’t kick Our Cash Policy out of the barn – but some are not – Go To Moons has got to have one of the ugliest necks I have ever seen on a QH stallion. She’s expecting approximately one kajillion 2010 foals.
She isn’t going to stop breeding. She’s been doing this forever. She was on the blog in October 2007 – she was the dimwit who had to immediately sell 130 horses due to being pregnant. WTF? She’s like that person who keeps driving drunk, again and again — she just doesn’t care how her actions affect others. The only big picture she understands is the velvet Elvis hanging over the couch. The concept of responsible breeding and reducing the supply so that the demand will perk up is as baffling as quantum physics to her. She doesn’t get it and never will. She only cares that you pay her, or she’ll out you for that on her web site. Well, Bedonna, I’m outing you for breeding way too damn many mostly unspectacular Quarter Horses on my web site…yet again.
Now, as to the Alexis Ingraham story (certainly a case of things that don’t change since the stories go back ten years with her!) – NickerNews is updating and covering it comprehensively, so head on over there to see what is going on and get a lot more information. They are doing a great job with their coverage of this. I doubt the authorities are going to be able to let this one slide! Also check out their other thread about the Searsport horses and particularly the comment of Kathy Carpenter, who explains EXACTLY how to get the attention of your legislators (and she is dead on-target with her advice). You also must read the complaint submitted to animal control on Alexis’ farm – extremely well written and horrifying account. The story about the foal that was down is truly disturbing…it even was for me and I’m pretty jaded by now. Alexis MUST be stopped and MUST be banned from owning horses. If you’re in Maine, please do not give up until this happens. She’s your Dean Solomon, and she won’t stop until law enforcement makes her stop.
I’d be less of a bitch if I were wrong more often!
The first thing I want to say is that this farm has NO RELATIONSHIP to the one in Michigan of the same name, which appears to be a lovely facility. This farm is in MAINE.
This blog is now nearly three years old. For three years, some of the horse community has loved it and some of the horse community has bashed me as a meanie, unfair, nasty, sniping, “no right to judge” and so on. Well, folks, I’ll stop being such a bitch when I stop being right so often about these damn backyard breeders and krazy kolor breeders that I feature! You know, the ones that show up here protesting that their program is awesome and I don’t know WTF I am talking about and they’ve been doing this for twenty-five years and they take GREAT care of their horses and everyone in the whole world loves them and I must just be a bitter, unhappy person with no friends not to love them and their wonderful horses.
Here we go AGAIN! When this story came to my attention, I said to myself ”why does that farm name sound familiar?” I did a little hunting around and, yes, it’s someone I featured in the first year of the blog when someone sent me their fugly sabino Thoroughbred colt as an example of Things Desperately Needing De-Balling.
Original Blog
From the comments of that blog (emphasis mine):
“OK well, I actually forwarded the website the colt is on to [FHOTD]… I am considering breeding my mare again, after she produced a wonderful colt(that is everything I wanted and more), and decided to take a look locally this time. I browsed the “Uncle Henry’s” to see what was close by, so I could see the stallion in person this time, rather than video and going by others oppinions. There are no photos in Uncle Henry’s, but the ad sounded professional, so I spoke with the colt’s owner and she descibed all of her stallions as wonderful sport horses, with excellent conformation and movement, that would complement most any sport horse mare. She answered my questions and refered me to her website (http://fairplayfarm.net/)for photos. The red flag on the phone was she said something along the lines of all her boys being so great, she does not have the heart to geld any of them. I saw the photos on the website and said, forget the Maine “Uncle Henry’s breeders”, I’ll look into stallions out of state.”
Wise choice, Gentle Reader!
So three years pass and where is Ms. Oh-My-God-My-Sporthorses-Are-So-Amazing-That-They’re-All-Stallion-Quality and how are those amazing sporthorses doing? HERE YA GO! Here’s how they’re doing. If that isn’t one of the worst things I’ve ever seen still on its feet…! HOW it is still on its feet, I don’t know, but it needs out of there NOW. If someone rehabs that horse successfully, they deserve a freaking medal!
So call me whatever you want…I’ll stop being a bitch when these asshats stop (a) breeding boatloads, er, double-decker loads of low end horses and then (b) starving them. I suspect I’ll go to my grave still a bitch!
Gosh, that’s one SOOPER classy “sport horse” operation you’ve got there, Alexis and Brett Ingraham (formerly Alexis Pelletier). I can tell by those pictures that you guys are seriously world class. I mean, just look at that facility! Why, it’s the equine equivalent of Great Mobile Homes of Mississippi. Who could fail to be impressed? I mean, hell, no reason you should be embarrassed or anything. Keep standing your stallion at public stud. Surely no one will come to your property and report you or anything.
Oh, wait, as I understand it, you’re no longer a breeder. NOW you’re claiming to be a “rescue.” Funny how everybody’s personal horses become rescues when they drop enough weight to look like rescues, isn’t it? It’s like magic! Shazam, they’re rescues! Now you’re not a breeder! You’re a rescuer! So the animal control people should go away because, hey, it’s not your fault.
You can’t care for your horses but you still have ALL KINDS OF TIME to post on horsey message boards. Boy isn’t THAT typical. Look who’s pro-slaughter. Honey, even the kill buyers don’t want them looking like this!
Alexis cheerfully playing on PedigreeQuery while her horses starve!
Because you should be all over COTH while horses starve and your place is a total shit heap. God forbid you go outside and fix a fence or anything.
Well isn’t THIS not a surprise. Alexis sold a mare to someone and it was “accidentally” bred. NO, REALLY????? ’CAUSE I NEVER WOULD HAVE SEEN THAT ONE COMING! THAT’S NOT A PATTERN WITH PEOPLE LIKE HER OR ANYTHING! Alexis’ post is on page two of the thread and she states – are ya ready – “ACCIDENTS HAPPEN.” It’s stunning how many of us own stallions and mares and are accident-free, isn’t it? I guess we are all just super lucky that way! Or we just have amazing skillz, like, when a board gets knocked down, we get a hammer and nails and put it back up. I know, it’s just shocking that you can do that, isn’t it? Gosh, can’t expect that from poor Alexis. She might break a nail or something!
I’m so tired of this and I know you all are too. My God, put a bullet in their heads before you let it get to this point. That would be kinder. HOW do you sit there in the cozy house and be all chatty on the Internet while horses who look like these are outside suffering? I will never understand it in a million years. This was all so stupid and avoidable and now it’s going to be ungodly expensive to clean up the mess.
So I just got pictures from a reader proving that Alexis has a long history of horse neglect and abuse. This is a stallion which was leased out to her in April 2002 looking the way you see him in the riding picture. (By the way, that’s Alexis in the riding pic).
He was rescued by the owner in October of the same year, looking the way you see him in the other picture. “It took them 6 months to take him from a gorgeous, sound stallion to a near-dead rack of bones with a collapsed front left ankle caused by a serious infection.” The owner who rescued him back had to pay for six weeks at the vet’s to save his life, none of which Alexis offered to pay for.
Of course she didn’t. This kind of person has no problem leaving a mess for others to clean up and going merrily on her way. If it’s broke, don’t fix it — just get new horses that aren’t skinny and broken! Oh wow, they became skinny and broken again, how sad…but look, there are more free ones on the Internet! We’ll just get more!
OK, readers, here’s what you can do on Monday:
Numbers to call to demand action on this particular train wreck. They’ve gotten enough calls by now that if you mention Alexis and Brett Ingraham in Clinton, ME, Fair Play Farm, they’re going to know which property you mean.
Call the state Department of Agriculture, 207 287-3419
Ask to speak with Commissioner Seth Bradstreet
State veterinarian Don Hoenig, 207 287-3701
Norma Worley, Director of Animal Welfare 207 287-3846
Clinton Police Dept. 426-9192
Other officials to contact:
Evert Fowle, DA for Kennebec and Waldo counties: 207 623-1156
Governor Baldacci’s office 207 287-3531
More about the horses on the NickerNews site.
One final note: Alexis, your horses did not fail to sell because of U.S. slaughter or the lack thereof. Your horses failed to sell because (a) they were mediocre to begin with (as I pointed out in the original blog, if you want to see a quality colored sport horse, look at the True Colours horses…yours do not resemble them in any way, shape or form) (b) no one buys horses in this condition! No one! and (c) sport horses need to do a sport. When they are thin and covered in rain rot to an extent I’ve hardly seen before, they are not sport horses. Shit, they are not even meat horses! They are an expensive mess for someone else to fix, and I hope to Hell the law makes you pay restitution for the costs of cleaning up this cesspool of equine suffering you managed to create.
Can I make a Facebook Group for Stupid Americans Supporting Mexican Slaughterhouses?
More $50 stud fees…because America doesn’t have enough Crappaloosas!
(For the newbies, I don’t hate Appaloosas but that’s what we call the low-end ones around here!)
Ad text:
http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/ghostwind+forest+tlc His parents both been color coat tested by university of california-davis,he is homozydous for black-his coat color is EEaa which is: EE = NO RED FACTOR DETECTED CAN NOT HAVE RED FOALS.REGARDLESS of the color of the mate.Basic color is Black/bay or brown in the absence of other modifying genes.aa =only recessive allele detected black pigment distributed uniformly basic color is black in the absence of other modifing genes .My other stallion .http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/eagle+rockledge+tlc His parents both been color coat tested by university of california-davis,he is homozydous for black-his coat color is EEaa which is: EE = NO RED FACTOR DETECTED CAN NOT HAVE RED FOALS.REGARDLESS of the color of the mate.Basic color is Black/bay or brown in the absence of other modifying genes.aa =only recessive allele detected black pigment distributed uniformly basic color is black in the absence of other modifing genes.The father to both these stallions is BBR My Real King . His color producing, and in particular his leopard producing abilities are a lot higher than the normal formula of statistics for color production. King has at least SEVEN strong leopard bloodlines including Bandido, Money Creeks Rockledge, Prince Plaudit, Bambi E, KK’s Snowcat, Sundance, Dude Dandy Jnr; and many other lines including Mansfield Comanche, Joker B, Shavano (Patchy-Knobby), Starbuck Leopard x 3, Ha-Dar-Shado (Wapiti), Abdull, Chief Navajo (Painter), Snow Cloud-Iron Cloud (Nez Perce Reservation) and many more….I was lucky enough to buy these 2 stallion from http://theleopardcentre.webs.com/foundationmares.htm Here u can see the mares and stallion The parents of my 2 stallions.I have had both these guys since they were 5 months old.I will breed only to registered mares.I am only charging 50 dollars for stud fee this year 2010. Contact growembig41@msn.com
I headed over to the impressive-sounding Leopard Centre to see what they had over there. This paragraph caught my eye right off:
“King” does not stand to outside mares for the simple reason that I dont have facilities that I consider good enough to look after mares and foals that dont belong to me. No, I dont live in a junkyard and no i dont have barbed wire, but I would feel badly about having an outside mare or foal hurt or injured while here so I just dont do it.”
Oooookay lady, so you are more concerned about the safety of other people’s mares and foals than your own? I can’t decide if that is admirable or disturbing. I think it might be both.
Not everything she says about breeding and conformation is wrong but it’s peppered with splashes of total ignorance like: “I definately dont want ‘Impressive’ quarter horse bloodlines, or ‘poco bueno’ – both carry defective genes.” Actually, plenty of them do not carry what you’re talking about. They have this amazing thing called testing which I know you know about since you color-test like mad and the same labs do both kind of tests. But again, overall, she’s not all bad and I like some of her horses and she does ride them. The big problem here is that she sold two ungelded colts to Mr. GrowEmBig who is now going to stud them out at $50 a pop to people like the unemployed pregnant girl I put on here a few weeks ago who wants to breed her mare when she can’t afford to pay for the mare’s needs to begin with. That is a recipe for disaster — and a great way to fill the slaughter trucks. Heck, google his e-mail address – he is selling horses for $200 or trying to trade them for a truck or hay! Yeah, buddy. You’re EXACTLY what we need more of in the horse business. More broke asshats trying to put beer money in their pockets pimping out their done-nothing, no-name stallions. Ugh. Folks, geld your non-stallion-quality colts BEFORE they leave your property. You won’t regret it!
Choo! Choo! Here it comes!
In reading Craigslist, I frequently come across ads that I can pretty much guarantee show the signs of a mess coming down the road that some rescuer, um, kind person, um, sucker will have to clean up (or the kill buyer will). Witness this ad from Seattle Craigslist:
DO YOU HAVE AN EMPTY PASTURE? – $75
Hello, My name is Elisha but I go by Ellie. I am in need of a horse boarding facility for my mare Holiday. I need it by mid Feb. I recently got her back after a 3 and a half years of not knowing where she was. She is an 8 year old Quarter horse cross 14.3HH solid black. I just need somewhere to keep her where she can graze all day. I will do the feeding and clean up after her. We can only afford up too $100.00/month to make sure that we can buy hay and grain as well as have the Farrier out when needed. She is a VERY easy keeper and gets along with most horses once they have astablished who’s boss. If you have a pasture that is empty and you just want a lawn mower then please let me know. I do not have a lisence but I do have a truck. I am working on getting my lisence and we are looking for a horse trailer. So please let me know if you have room. All I want is a self-care place to keep her where I can ride once I am able too. I am a stay at home mother of one and one on the way. I am due june first 2010 and we are intending on breeding her to CPR Cuttin Color in June or July of this year.
Once again all I need is somewhere to keep her where she can graze all day. She only get’s two flake’s of hay/day and a cup of grain and she gets fat off of that.
Please be somewhere close to Spanaway/Parkland/Tacoma area’s
I am very desperate!!
PLEASE HELP US OUT!!
thank you
Ellie
Ellie, I’m sure you’re very young, so I really am going to try not to bash the living hell out of you here, BUT…- you can only afford $100 a month to make sure you still have money for farrier, etc.
– you already have a human baby and another on the way. Ask any parent, that is likely to create additional expenses you did not anticipate!
– you do not have transportation. I have lived in Pierce County, there is most likely no bus that is going to take you out to see your mare.
– AND YOU WANT TO BREED YOUR MARE?
This is the time when I hope Ellie has some IRL friends who can give her a more tactful reality check than I can. Ellie, you are young, you are poor, you have some real hurdles to accomplish in life already. You are about to have 2 kids, you don’t have a driver’s license, and you do not have a job. Even more frightening, when I google your phone numbers, they match ads from a guy who is also looking for a job, so I suspect he’s your husband or boyfriend and neither one of you is employed. While I imagine you took back this mare in order to keep her from going someplace bad, you honestly aren’t in a situation to prevent her home with you from turning into someplace bad, despite your good intentions.
And you want to breed her this spring? WHY? She is a grade mare. She is probably a lovely little riding horse. Let her be. She doesn’t need to make more of herself, and you can’t afford the bills. What if she prolapses? Tears? What if the baby is born needing surgery? If you can’t afford board on one horse, how are you going to afford board on two? Breeding them results in a second horse, you know…a horse that will need 2x the board (which you already admit you can’t afford), 2x the farrier, 2x the vet, and so on. Now, I haven’t seen you ride, either, but I’m guessing that 2 toddlers and no transportation is going to cut severely into your ability to get out there and train that foal appropriately to his age. For the love of common sense, abandon your breeding plans (or can I at least hope that the folks at Circle P Ranch have got better sense than to breed your mare).
Folks, this is how the problem is created. People look at this and say, well, at least it’s only one foal, not a hundred. But if you don’t think there are 100 more, hell, a million more Ellie’s out there, you need to spend more time perusing Myspace and Craigslist. This country is full of people who want to breed horses even though they don’t even come close to having the resources or knowledge to do so, and then they will blame the economy when the foals don’t sell. If you built an ugly car that gets 3 mpg, are you gonna blame the economy too, when that doesn’t sell? That is what people like Ellie are doing, and somehow no one in their real lives is able to get that fact across to them.
So here is an interesting question – as a stallion owner, have you ever refused to breed mares from a situation that seems unstable or unsafe from what the person is telling you or from common knowledge? When I say common knowledge, I mean — look at Tania Herring — EVERYBODY knew that was a train wreck. You should see the e-mails I’m getting on top of what has been publicly posted. Have you said no because you feared the resulting foal wouldn’t receive proper care?
That leads me to yet another question, and I’m not sure what the law would say about it. If I offer a stallion up for stud, am I legally constrained in any way from deciding who I will or will not sell his sperm to? This is a really fascinating topic to me. I’ve heard of people threatening to sue when someone wouldn’t sell them a horse because it might be a bad home, but I’ve never heard of anyone following through – but I’m sure it’s happened. What about breedings? I’d love to hear any stories, and how they turned out!
