The Worst of CL Horse For Sale Ads

Part Deux...

2010-11-13T17:54:00.002-07:00

In the last post I mentioned an email I had received regarding one of my past posts. The ad in question was for the HYPP H/H gelding out of the H/H stallion Wincredible.

When I first got the email, the writer stated that she owned the horse in the ad. She was not clear on when she had purchased the horse, and I instantly wrote that she had purchased the horse after the ad.

Well.....

She was not the purchaser, but rather the seller. She apparently STILL owns the horse after attempting to sell the horse over the last several months.

So, to the owner in question, THAT I will apologize for. We all know about the statement about the word 'assume', right?

Now that thats out of the way, lets get to the real issue here.

She's claiming slander, libel, and defamation because I put her publicly accessible craigslist ad and YouTube video on this blog, along with the show picture of the gelding and her trainer.

"No I purchased this horse in 2009 (you can pull up the AQHA record if you don't believe me) Yes you are there is a pic of my horse and my trainer up so you are mentioning a person! and i will remind you that i am PROTECTED by a LAW called Defamation, Libel and Slander. I do not want a fight or to have to involve the law im am just asking nicely to please remove my horse from your blog. I don't care if you keep your opinions up about the HYPP just please remove my horse, my horses video an my trainer from it. Feel free to contact me via phone if you wish. Like I said I'm just asking to please remove my horse, my trainer and my horses video from it. "

I have no idea who the trainer is, etc. The video was mentioned in the craigslist ad, and the picture was ALSO included in the ad. I didn't search them down, etc. It was posted on a public free classified ad site.

If anything, maybe I should start listing copyright info for the pictures shown on this blog. Never do I ever claim those, that I took them, that I own them, any of that.

But I want to break down what she said for a min. Just briefly.

–noun

defamation; calumny: rumors full of slander.

a malicious, false, and defamatory statement or report: aslander against his good name.

Law . defamation by oral utterance rather than by writing,pictures, etc.

I would literally have to go up to all of you readers and stand in front of you and speak untruths that I believe are true and are malicious in nature.

Which I didn't, couldn't, or can't do as most of you don't even live in the same state as I do.

–noun

Law .

defamation by written or printed words, pictures, or inany form other than by spoken words or gestures.

the act or crime of publishing it.

a formal written declaration or statement, as onecontaining the allegations of a plaintiff or the grounds ofa charge.

anything that is defamatory or that maliciously or damagingly misrepresents.

Now this one is a little bit more tricky, as this blog IS written.

There was a case that went all the way up to the US Supreme court last year that dealt with this very issue. The case was Cohen Vs. Port (Google), and the argument was this: A google blog named "The Skanks of New York" was written by Port. The blog had a total of 5 posts on it, all centering around one person, Cohen. Cohen sued the blogger and Google, on the grounds that she was a victim of Libel. The Court upheld Cohen's side, and changed the idea that a blogger can say and do anything under an 'anon' name on the net.

But how does this affect me? That particular blog was a rant against ONE single person, named by name, with multiple pictures taken in stalker-like fashion. I have read a lot of articles on the topic of Libel in Blogging since this email was sent to me. What I've learned is that where a true Libel case comes to play is when the blogger does several things.

The blogger has to name names. The blogger has to make up or grossly exaggerate events, stories, or incidents regarding a person, entity, or group of people, and most of the time claim what they write is TRUTH. Calling someone, an entity, or group of people vicious names is also part of it.

So what DID I say exactly?

Link to the blog post in question.

The post is 90% information regarding HYPP taken from different websites, which I documented and listed sources on. I didn't make ANY of that up.

Then I got into her ad.

(And this is why the halter industry keeps breeding these sick, doomed horses, because AQHA, at the top showing levels, will NOT stop pinning these horses top ten!!! Dont believe me? Check out this link! She goes into the finances behind breeding HYPP Positive horses, and goes on to list on the site Well Known Currently Breeding Stallions that have owners NOT disclosing their Postitive HYPP Status. Oh, and Wincredible is one of them. His owner will gladly accept a $2,500 stud fee though!)

No mention of the horse in question there, just the sire, and thats a comment that is easily proven.

(What magikal medicine is this? There are several drugs that can help prevent attack, but its like taking Vitamin-C to prevent ever getting a cold or the flu. You can take massive quantities of VC and eventually you will get sick. A HYPP H/H horse is eventually going to have an attack. There is nothing any vet can do to prevent that. Its just managing the horse as best as we can to put it off as long as possible.)

I didn't mention it originally, but I did HOURS of research on the net trying to find out what this medicine was. When I finally found the drug I thought it was, not once did I find anything saying that the drug was a cure. There IS NO cure for HYPP. So the above is my opinion based on a lot of research done on my part. Again, no mention of a trainer, horse, or the owner.

(This is the sad part where some unknowing parent is going to seriously look at this poor gelding and consider purchasing it for their up and coming 4-H'er, not having a clue what HYPP is, and what it does to the horse...not even mentioning what it does to the poor child who has to watch his/her beloved horse suffer through an attack! There are several experiences recounted on bringinglighttohypp.org that tell of parents unknowingly buying HYPP horses for their children, and the horror their children have to witness when the horse goes down. Some children never recover emotionally from the devastation and sheer helplessness they feel toward the horse/attack, and never ever go back to horses again. Thats then one more child that doesn't grow up to defend horses against abuse or breeders of HYPP. One more child that will not save a horse from nearly being slaughtered. One more child that will spend their hard earned dollars outside of the horse industry.)

Again, same thing. My opinion, based on hours of research.

(Nearly all HYPP horses are easy keepers because they sit there in their stalls and their muscles twitch and grow and it looks like they put on weight from air!)

Ditto.

(What can I say here except what I already have said? This bloodline has a genetic defect that will kill this gelding. End of story.)

(Possibly because you have witnessed this horse experiencing an attack and maybe someone said something to you about having/breeding a H/H horse? Or maybe you are just looking to dump him because the owners don't want to deal with the disease?)

HERE is the first mention of anything to directly do with the ad itself. When I write these answers, I use "you" to mean whomever is selling the horse/writing the ad. Sometimes is the same person, sometimes its not. Its not always the owner either. I never know who is writing the ads, and frankly, I don't care. And again, there are no facts here, just my opinion.

(um, NO he wouldn't!)

And now I will take a block copy from the rest of the post.

So why is it that not once on his entire ad, did the seller mention his show name? If he was that accomplished, that well shown, and I had to sell this horse (sans the HYPP), I'd be blasting his name everywhere to attract those other competitors that saw him compete, hoping one of them would remember him and remember how much they would have liked to have own him themselves. Wanna bet that the owners don't want to be attached publicly to the sale of this horse?

(Quick Self Edit). I am guessing this horse's name is "Sir Wincredible". As I have been writing this, I've been following links all over the place, and checked out the you tube video mentioned in the ad.

This is the video. It appears they have had him up for sale for some time, and have dropped the price down quite a bit... the video lists it as $8500 OBO, the CL ad is $2500 OBO. Owners must be getting desperate to dump this poor gelding, wonder how long it will take for this guy to find himself at the local auction, paperless and amazingly enough, HYPP-status suddenly unknown?

Apparently, Wincredible's website, wincredible.com, has also been pulled, no where could I find any website for him. Now I did find the currently listed owners on the quarter horse directory, but as you can see, Wincredible is no longer listed on their website.

Owners must be getting desperate to dump this poor gelding, wonder how long it will take for this guy to find himself at the local auction, paperless and amazingly enough, HYPP-status suddenly unknown?

Ok, I was harsh on this one. Some would say a bit too harsh, but again, Libel by definition is claiming something malicious that is false, as TRUTH.

Never once did I claim to say that anyone to do with this horse was going to do, without a doubt, anything with this animal that would be sketchy, immoral, or unethical. (IE, dump paperless at an auction or feed lot.) What I said was my opinion of what could possibly happen based off of the thousands of horses yearly that DO get dumped into auctions and feed lots without papers - and yes, the majority of the time its by THE OWNERS of the horse being dumped. That was a generalized statement that can quite easily be proven as true very quickly by lovely google. However, I did NOT make a definitive statement that the owners of this horse were going to actually take the horse and commit to that type of activity.

Did I ever ONCE say anything that I claimed to be a fact? With the exception of the selling price of the horse, No. It was me ranting about a gelding that I felt was being advertised in the wrong manner, to the wrong crowd, and EXPRESSING MY OPINION on that matter. As for the selling prices, I was simply restating what was on the multiple ads for the horse, at the time of writing. The people that were selling this horse, no matter who they are in relation to the horse, obviously thought that they would start with a specific price, and they changed that price several times, lowering it with each newly posted sales ad WITHOUT changing the previous ads to reflect the newer, lower price. Thats not libel either, because its not malicious in nature, I didn't make it up, and its easily proven to be true.

The YouTube video is still active, though the comments have been shut down. I don't remember if there were any comments on the video when I first posted this, nor do I remember what they said, if there were.

Either way - here's the gist of all of this.

If you sell a horse on the net, like so many people do, and the horse HAS a major flaw, one simply cannot expect for others to ignore the flaw. This gelding's flaw is that someone bred his sire to his dam who were both AT MINIMUM N/H, and the resulting horse is now H/H.

They posted sales ads everywhere they could, I'm sure. Craigslist, YouTube, who knows where else. Thats normal, expected, and boring.

YouTube is a public domain. Craigslist is a public domain. I did what millions of people do everyday, and linked something I wrote on the net to a YouTube video. Big deal. Don't want people to link to your videos, talk about them, share them, and VIEW THEM? Then don't POST the video in the first place. Or, send it out via email to people that ask, or spend the money on some cheap DVD's, and mail / give them out. But to demand that I remove the link to a public video, on a public site? Nah. Take the video down if you're that unhappy about it.

As for the trainer, where exactly did I post his name? Oh, right, I didn't. Hell, the video has more pictures of the trainer with the horse in it, PLUS his name and contact PHONE at the end of it.

BTW, if a horse trainer has a horse he's representing for sale, and gets pissy about what some two-bit, joe blow says about the horse in the internet some half a continent away? Then maybe its time to find a new trainer, yes? Ya think? Professionals SHOULD have much thicker skin than that, and quite honestly, if this trainer is good with having H/H horses being actively campaigned in his barn, then there's a pretty good bet that trainer has heard much worse than anything I can ever say here. ESPECIALLY at the highest levels of the sport, where you get some VERY vocal people on the subject of HYPP.

I guarantee that there have been a lot worse things said about other horses and other ads. But hey, guess what, don't post it if you can't deal with it! This gelding is just ONE example of why people against HYPP, are against HYPP. I personally believe that every horse that has HYPP needs to be sterilized and amazingly enough there WON'T BE ANY MORE HYPP HORSES.

Thankfully, as I have said before, this one is a gelding. So thats a non-issue here. He's a gorgeous horse otherwise, and he's probably the darling of the barn. I sincerely am thankful that at least he's GOT a home, clean warm barn, hay, scritches, carrots, hugs, etc. In the video he sure looks happy, healthy, well taken care of, etc. Thats more than we can say about so many more out there.

Did I cause Defamation by my post? I have no idea. It would be rather difficult to prove that JUST because of my post the horse hasn't sold yet, wouldn't it? I really don't think I have that many readers, nor that much influence. Fugly over at Fuglyhorse might - but not me. And she's said MUCH worse about HYPP horses than I have.

Well, just for fun, I did a google search on the horse's name, and my post on HYPP with him in it comes up as the number one hit. What that means, again I have no idea.

So, to wrap this all up, I'd love to hear thoughts, views, opinions on this. No Slandering, defaming people, or committing Libel though kiddies! We don't want to get in trouble, now do we!

*definitions taken from dictionary.com

P.S. After publishing this post, I got curious, and googled wincredible.com. The site is still taken down, but I did find an 'In Memoriam" page to Wincredible that listed him as deceased as of Jan 2008. No mention of cause of death, of course...

Why I started this blog.

2010-11-10T20:22:00.000-07:00

So I open up my email and have a email from a person who purchased a horse who had been in one of the ads featured on this blog. The email says that if I don't take the blog post down, authorities will be contacted.

Hmm.

Ok.

Yea, I REALLY don't think that's gonna happen.

Isn't this blog, and millions of others, basically considered to be the opinion of the writer? I never claim to say anything on there as fact, indisputable, undeniable, etc..... Its just me blowing my hot air over things that irritate me, and I use CL ads as the foundation to blow that air out.

This is the written equivalent of me standing on a street corner on a soap box, screaming to people about what I believe. It just so happens that a LOT OF OTHER PEOPLE think the same darn way I do!

I don't have to take down anything I don't want to on this blog, because this blog is my OPINION. I ripped on this ad because the horse was by a known HYPP Positive Stallion, and they were trying to sell this horse as a YOUTH HORSE when it was HYPP H/H.

So, go ahead, contact whomever you want to contact. You can disagree with what I say, but its still my OPINION.

Do I need to say it again?

I sure hope not.

I am alive, I promise.

2010-11-03T15:17:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the cliffhanger last post. I simply have not had the time to sit down at my computer for more than 5 minutes a day for the last several weeks. The model horse prepping/customizing side business has just completely taken off, and I am surrounded by plastic ponies that don't belong to me. I just finished one to be mailed out the week before halloween, and I have another that has to be done and mailed out by Nov. 20th thats a semi-time consuming job.

So, while I am very sad that I can't quite make it here daily, or even weekly it seems like, I am still holding on to the idea that one day I will be able to come back to this blog like I was.

I still welcome guest writers - it doesn't take that long to copy and paste and whatnot - so feel free to rent and rave and I'll post it and give you the writers credit.

However, until things slow down - which very well might not be until after christmas with the way things are looking, this blog will be silent.

If anyone is interested in seeing what I'm up to otherwise, check out the art blog link on the right side, as that is buisness related, that will get a bit more attention for now.

Until then!

Beth

Gonna Change Things a Little Bit...

2010-09-29T19:17:00.000-07:00

Things have gotten more than a bit insane here at my house and Things. Just. Won't. Let. Up. Big giant capitol letters on that for sure.

My model horse prepping services are taking up most of the free time I have. Which is good, but it just doesn't leave much time for other things. Once I get past the crush of what I have to do and send back out, I'll be a bit more conservative in what orders I take in. However when just starting up a new business, you take what you get, when you get it. There is NO room to say "No".

But be still fluttering anxious beating hearts out there reading this that might have automatically thought that this blog might be going away! Oh no my friends, I'm not shutting it down. I'm simply just going to start posting once a week, with multiple ads. One big post a week instead of daily posts. I Love the daily post format, and one day I might go back to it. But until then, or at least until the holidays are past once a week is all I can do. I think Jan/Feb sometime I'll resume daily because I *DO* work for the "R" Us corporation, and even though I wear the Purple side of things (Babies "R" Us) and Purple doesn't really have a crushing holiday shopping season like Toys does, because I started out working for Toys during the seasonal months I am very sure I will be asked to help out and go back to the 'Dark' side, and wear Red for Toys once more.

That means Midnight opening on Black Friday (which is something I SWORE I'd never do again, and here we are a year later almost....) and midnight closing times.

On top of that, October means three Girl Scout meetings, my daughters birthday, MY birthday, making halloween costumes, and finishing/shipping deadlines for the model horses sitting in my living room right now.

ME BUSY?

Nah.

So, tonight I'm going to go through my lovely glorious beautiful stack of emailed ads, and tomorrow I will post for you all to enjoy.

See ya then!

I need a giggle, what about you?

2010-09-14T11:45:00.004-07:00

Sooo..... as my car is sitting in the driveway with a broken water pump and a non-functioning timing chain, I thought it was high time we shared a bit of a giggle.

I just went through my email and I can't seem to find the original message, so forgive me that I forgot who sent it in to me, but I simply can't resist this. I also cross posted it in a few places as well for the laugh!

Serious buyers only need reply to a flaccid anatomically correct equine toy? Doesn't THAT put a picture in your head?

Bet its nowhere near the truth.....

Its a Schleich Horse Toy that retails for about $5-$6!!!

Here, look for yourself!

Toys R Us has him in Grey for $6.99 + shipping.

I really can't help but wonder if someone really paid $10 for him?

My question is why advertise it as 'anatomically correct" yet use the word 'flaccid'?

Really got to wonder about people sometimes.....

The Catch Up Post

2010-09-10T00:27:00.000-07:00

I'm going to do something rare - as in I've never done this - just to try to get things caught up a bit.

I'm going to directly post some links to some ads I was sent, and hopefully they will stay active long enough for you all to read them.

Rare Color POA mare!

The 'rare' color is reddish roan - is it just me or is this really not a rare color / pattern for a POA? Besides, check out the pictures - they are classic CL.

We can't speak legible english!

This one has to be from a minor... again we have kids backwards on a non controlled horse without helmets.

We's done gonna ride that thar baby hoss otherwise known as YALL GOTTA SEE THIS HORSE!!!!!
9 month old QH COLT with 3 months of ground work training - AND has already been RIDDEN BY THE 8 YEAR OLD WITH A WESTERN SADDLE!

Attack of the killer ponies!

It was pointed out that the ponies REALLY don't look happy to be messed with....

Another baby under saddle... what is WITH people?

At least shes not 9 months old....

SOMEBODY GO SAVE THIS MARE!
Ad calls her an easy keeper... I call BULLSHIT! I meant to post this mare as a separate emergency type post, but if anyone is in the area and can go grab her... she needs help and fast!

Another skinny mare...
Just like women... if they bleed they can breed, right? Well in this case, a 20 something, supermodel skinny mare would just LOVE to have a foal of her own!

Rember Melissa? She's got babies now!

This is one of two I've seen her post pictures of. The sire of both was that black mustang stud. She says this foal is correct and quality... you all tell me what you think. Oh, and the other foal is out of the mare she claimed had the stillborn!

Wormy or Cushings Disease?

**************************

Now on to some awesome updates... Been sitting on this one for a little bit but need to get this out!

Remember Otie the donkey, the donkey living in the back yard with the kids that had totally neglected his hooves?

This is his update!

Hello!

I wanted to send you some pictures of the Donkey I sent you the CL ad for earlier in the year. He is doing really good. He has had a few issues socializing with a couple of our horses (ran one of our pony mares into a tree and she punctured her windpipe, also pinned a large draft-x mare to the ground and was standing on her)...but he is getting much more social, especially with his new owner.

I don't care if you post the pics or not, I just remember you were especially interested in him when you posted it. =)

Thanks!

That was sent by Fran, the same lady that sent in his original Craigslist ad.

How awesome is this!!! His hooves are ten thousand times better - and look at all that green grass he has now to play in! So happy to hear stories like this!

How about one more just for fun?

Clicky to embiggen and read.

Thats some serious wishful thinking there!

Thanks to the many many people that sent ads - I didn't mention senders by names because I was pushing this post out pretty fast, but you all know who you are and what you sent me. I appreciate each and every one.

**************************

The male parental unit is back at home again after his stay in the nursing home, and is back to all his old habits. It is really as if the whole incident never happened! At the grocery store earlier tonight, he spent 80 bucks on all high fat, high grease, high salt food. Everything he is NOT supposed to have.

It's sad to say, but I've given up on him. I really don't think HE cares anymore about what he does or eats. Its just a matter of time before the next attack hits, and that may or may not be the end of things.

Lastly - and a much happier note - for those that don't know or didn't see previously, I now am the proud leader of Girl Scout Brownie Troop 560! I have 8 girls in the troop, and one of the planned events in November that we are going to as a Troop is a Equine Youth Fair out in Queen Creek, Arizona on the 11th. CNJ - we'll be in YOUR backyard pretty much so you should come out and say hey too!

I just had to brag ;).

G'night!

THIS is why I can't stand NH "Training"

2010-08-31T23:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, I don't normally post and comment on videos but I couldn't help myself on this. I was cruising around on some of the linked blogs just wasting time when I came across the Bad Riding blog and found these two horrors posted there.

For those of you that know what Parelli is, and the reasons behind his methods, PLEASE explain this madness to me?

We have a fat, lame horse that has learned he walks 5 steps then gets a treat out of a bucket? Goodness gracious - if this horse was ever asked to to go OUTSIDE of the arena he'd not know what to do without his bucket and treats! There are so many things wrong with this short video its sad. I'm not going to comment on the rider - though I could really rip her 'riding' apart here - but I won't.

What I am going to rip on is the so called 'emergency dismount' at the end. This is NOT an emergency dismount - its a lazy persons way of getting off their horse. (And by the way - if you are going to flex the horse's head to one side - for the love of symmetry - flex them to the OTHER SIDE TOO!)

I, like many of you out there I'm sure, DREADED emergency dismount day during my riding lessons. That meant PURPOSELY JUMPING OFF OF YOUR HORSE WHILE GOING AS FAST AS YOU DARED TO GO.

Only a crazy insane person would do that, right? (That's actually what I think of skydivers, but thats another topic completely...) Knowing how to properly remove yourself off of a fast moving horse is very important when its your spine, neck, legs, arms and head that will take the brunt of the fall.

This is NOT an emergency dismount. Not even close. I'd really hate to see what would happen to this woman if she were ever to really have to get the hell outta dodge when the shits flyin and that fat horse is actually moving. But lets not go there, shall we?

Because I have so much MORE fun to share starring this woman and her poor fat lame horse!

I will stand up and applaud you vigorously if you manage to make it all 8+ minutes - or however long it is. I will also feel very sorry for you as you will never get that 8 minutes back in your life.

Shall we go "scene by scene" here?

She starts out 'lunging' her obviously lame and in pain horse. On the Bad Riding site, there was a slight bit of debate on whether or not the horse was gaiting, or just walking funny. Since its the same horse as in the FIRST video, I'll go with lame. Possibly foundered, judging by the looks of the front hooves and the ouchy, tender way he moves on the turns.

Oh, wait. My bad. (haha, someone needs to tell the silly person behind the keyboard to actually go and WATCH what she's talking about...maybe she won't make a giant ass out of herself....)

She starts off with .... THE CARROT STICK!!!!! Where's my "DUM DUM DUMMMMMM" music?

I firmly believe every horse should have a generous, healthy, sustaining dose of desensitization during its basic ground training. When done correctly, this will last the horse nearly its entire life. One does not need to desensitize the horse when its 20 years old and is obviously BORED with what is going on because its the 2 gazillionth time he's had to stand through it!

The Carrot stick really needs to be shoved up....

Moving merrily along, she spends several loooooooong minutes on this while the horse is constantly looking for treats. This bugs me to no freaking end! The horse is so fixated on getting its treats, that he repeatedly invades the woman's space to lip at her hands, arms, and even a time or two on her torso.

Ooooooooo..... this is SOOOOOOOO one of my big pet peeves! A horse has his/her space. YOU HAVE YOURS! End of story. No ifs, ands, or buts! They DO NOT go into your space unless YOU TELL THEM TO. This horse is like the bad annoying sibling that won't go away. There is no boundaries between this woman and this horse.

"Oh, but you can't tell the horse no! thats disrupting the space time continuum of natural horseyness and humanness and the bond that is between them and we can't do that because it wil hurt the horsey's feeeeeeeeeeeeelings! " YEA, NO! I don't freaking think so.

This horse needs to be told no, not meanly, but firmly and strongly. I can't WAIT until the video where dear mr. gelding gets mad because he didn't get his treatytreat for simply existing, and decides to take a chomp out of missy's rear end instead!

Oh, and if she shakes that lead in his face any more, the horse is gonna start doing the jello dance, I swear. Totally unnecessary and what the hell is the point? If its to get him to back up, well that sure as hell ain't working very well, now is it!

And there is so much more. We finally move to picking up feet! Cause yes, cleaning hooves out is such a difficult task on most of our horses, isn't it. *can you SEE my eyes rolling furiously in my head?*

I literally (NO JOKE!) smacked my hand against my head watching this person pick up this gelding's feet. She tries to pick up the off side front foot from the near side, and -OK, I taught my old mare to do this because I could. It gave us something to do and was such a simple thing, but it helped her to learn to trust me. BUT! Once she learned how? I went back to the old fashioned going around the back of the horse to the off side and standing there to pick up those feet! Cause its such a difficult thing to do, apparently. What this woman is doing is so far from the 'trick' I taught my horse its on a completely different planet.

Did you catch him turning his head to her and nipping at her? Did you see it? If you didn't go back and watch it again. She doesn't correct him, AND - OH GET THIS - after she picks up his off side foot? She GIVES HIM A FREAKING TREAT! Yes, for the monumentally horrific task of lifting his foot upon command. And, its not even all four feet either! We're talking just the fronts!

This cluster F gets better, and its not even halfway through the video yet. She moves on to the hind, and if this isn't the picture perfect poster for "How NOT to pick up your horses hind feet" or actually lets call it - "How to see your brain while working with your horses! :D" I don't know what would be.

Shes holding the 6000000 foot lead. The camera person is either on a zoom, or is within kicking distance of the horse. Lets hope its on zoom. She walks to the hind foot, and the horse steps backwards, and places his near front hoof square on the rope. She puts pressure on his hock (wtf?) so surprise surprise, he refuses to pick up his leg! It really doesn't take her long to give up on that one, so she moves on to the other leg. Lets go back to Hoof Picking 101 here - OMG. This woman is seriously going to get her head smashed in one of these days if she keeps this up.

She leans across the left hock to reach to the right one. The center of her face is literally about 3-4 inches above the near side hock. He does pick up that far side leg, but then decides to be a butthead, and kicks out a few times. Whatever angels she's got riding on her shoulders to keep that horse from simply raising up that near hock need to come my way for a while! When THAT doesn't work, she leans across his near leg, and tries again, just to get him to lift and kick, again!

So what does she do? What any good NH owner would do! Pats him on the rump for being a good boy!

I really don't have the words for this folks. This is pure dumb stupidity at its worst. Whoever convinced this person that it was ok to pick up hind feet like this needs to be smacked with C-N-J's clue bat!

Do I really need to say this? She's more than 3 inches away from the leg, she's got her hand on the wrong part of the leg, she's not wearing shoes that will keep her toes from getting shattered should he decide to kick out to the side and land his foot funny - shall I go on?

This all is happening while the horse is still standing on the rope with his front hoof.

Of course.

So then we move on to Lunging. If you've made it this far, grab yourself a carrot. You deserve it. Preferably NOT one on a stick. Or that has been anywhere other than your fridge.

How many of you have spent literally hundreds of hours in a round pen both free lunging and on a line? I can honestly say I have. 5-6 days a week, between 2 and 10 horses a day, 30-40 minutes a horse. For about 14 months. And yes, I got paid for that. :D Needless to say, I got really, really good at lunging horses. Its also an amazing place to study horse body language too, because they really are talking to you every single second they are in there with you. Most of them don't shut up, to be honest.

One gelding I worked with, an imported giant gorgeous Irish Sport Horse, got so good at reading ME and MY cues on the line that all I had to do was think the command, and he'd feel it through the line and see it in very subtle physical cues I didn't realize (until him) that I was sending out.

He was one in a million, loved me as much as I loved him, and his owner really didn't deserve him, but thats neither here nor there. What this lady is doing is not only lazy, but dangerous.

My first rule of lunging is you never, ever turn your back on your horse. Never. Some horses will take that as a sign that they are then higher on the food chain than you, and will not only take advantage of it, but some will literally run you down because they can. No other good reason other than you opened up the window of opportunity. The entire FOCUS of lunging is to drive the horse forward with your body, and to do that you have to face them. Not stand in one spot with the line going up and over your head so you don't even know that the horse is coming into the inside of the circle, towards your back, and looking for treats with teeth that hurt! Hey, while we are at it, throw in there the whole 'invasion of human space thing' too.

His reverses, roll backs, or whatever you choose to call them are beyond painful to watch.

Next, on this wonderful journey of excelling horsemanship skills, is about the ONLY thing I thought wasn't a total waste of time. She asks the horse to side pass on cue while standing a decent distance away. She gets maybe a point and a half for this, but so far she's negative 326536196584651. So her 3 positive points won't even make a dent here.

Does anyone get the whole garage thing? Is this to desensitize the horse to going from light to dark spaces? I really never thought that horses needed that? Correct me if I'm wrong here.... but don't they kinda just deal with it themselves if you stop for half a sec, and just let them do something weird called BLINK?

Finally, she starts rubbing that brand new ... I think Its a saddle pad or bareback pad ..over this horse ad nauseum. Seriously, she should have taken the tag off of it before filming. She lets the horse sniff it and thats all the horse needs. A quick sniff just so they can think, "Oh,Ok, its not a giant horse eating black alien, and I'm not going to die today" is enough to suffice!

At least here, she edited out the treat giving part.

I really don't hate NH. Really I don't. The core idea - using humane, non-confrontational methods to be a true partner with your horse - is GOOD!

But this crap? This is just stupid and dangerous.

Todays post was NOT sponsored, brought to you by, or endorsed by Pat Parelli. Pat Parelli, if you are reading this, shame on you for creating an entire generation of women that can't think safely for themselves around their horses, and believe that its safe to do the crap that is shown in this video. I am amazed there hasn't been any lawsuits thrown your way for some of the nearly fatal injuries people have suffered doing this nonsense. There needs to be a giant one, and a refund of every dollar spent on one of those damned carrot sticks sounds like a pretty good idea to me, eh?

Look for 2 neat-o updates later this week - one on Otie the donkey; one on another horse that was not featured on the blog, but was in such horrible shape, that a reader was compelled to save him. I also still have the other ad I was *planning* on putting up today as well to get to, so this week should be fun!

Is Honesty Always the Best Policy?

2010-08-31T00:17:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you gotta wonder if being a little TOO honest is such a great idea... or at least up front ...

I am way too not feeling going to hunt down the ad right now to grab the text and copy it but if you can't read it from the x-large piccy, it says basically this:

"does not like people, no trainer on earth will make him a working pony, never got over abuse / starvation as a foal ... rescued years ago"
"no comments needed ... only those who need a pasture mate or lawn ornament"
"is a pony so NW pasture must be limited"

(by the way - what is a NW pasture? I read it and thing North West .... but if it stands for something else please enlighten me)

Basically you have a very smart pony that has figured out years ago that if he plays the 'cranky pony' card every time someone wants to do something with him, he gets away with it. This attitude only gets worse over time - heck its just like with kids - and after a while, you have a bugger that basically says "F _ U" every time you want to go play.

I really doubt the whole abuse/starvation thing has anything to do with the way he acts now. I really don't. Starvation cases often don't come out of it hating people - they might have some mistrust issues, but anyone that knows what they are doing can fix that pretty easily - and guess what - you don't even have to take the horse out of his stall to do it!

Its quite amazing what you can accomplish sitting 10 minutes a day on a bucket of grain...

But I digress. We have a pony that needs a home.

Now really, how mean does he look? (ok, don't kill the messenger with stories about your mean horses that didn't LOOK mean.)

He actually still looks unkempt and un-loved.

I so have to wonder in these types of ads how much of it is the dogs-honest truth. LIke I said earlier, you put his spotted butt in a stall for a few days, give him some time to acclimate, then start going in with a basic 10 gallon bucket as a seat - put a small scoop of grain, sweet feed, oats, horse cookies... heck it can be shredded or chopped carrots, apples, and honey for all I care. As long as its some sort of horsey-dessert that they don't get on a daily basis.

Stick your hand down into the bucket and rattle the goodies around. Even if the pony/horse is back in a corner giving you the evil eye - most of them simply can't resist the sound of OATS rattling around that close. Granted it might take a few tries, and this doesn't always work 100 percent. But within a week, maybe within a few days, that pony/horse will be sniffin' your hand or around your body for that treat. And YOUR scent is gonna get mixed up with that goodie smell, and pretty soon humans aren't that bad! Huh! Fancy That!

I learned that technique from a lady I have known for years who's love in life is Classic, traditional type quarter horses. She's tamed many a 'wyld stallyion' with that method, and halter broken babies that way too. (OH JUST TRY NOT to have a baby NOT stick his head in a halter placed strategically between your legs to get at the good stuff! I dare's Ya!)

My point here is that unless this pony has a proven hard and solid track record of sending people to the hospital, there is still hope for him left. And the seller's comment about how "No trainer in the world could make him a working pony'?

I call BULLSHIT!

Sarah sent today's and tomorrows ads. Thanks!

FFFS: The Cremello Stud!

2010-08-27T12:25:00.000-07:00

I have ads now! Thank you so much everyone!

Lets jump right in, shall we?

MAKE AN OFFER! Thunder Head is coming 3 year old stallion who will be expectin his first foal as of 2011. He has not had any training other than leading, and trailering. He is a very gentle stallion with a very mellow personality. He is never rough with the mares and he is pastured with another stallion so you can see how dosile he is. Built very well, with a big round rump and wide chest he should mature between 15 and 16 hands. With his pedigree and color he will make babies worth $$$. Email for pictures.

This sounds so promising, doesn't it? Do we really need to see the pictures of this one?

AQHA cremello stallion, barely 3, bred already, barely halterbroke, and his greatest claim to fame is he goes in a trailer and gets along with another stallion.

Let me jump right ON THAT!!! Right?

Ok, we all know that the best place in the world to sell your fugly, dirty, un-broke colored baby stallion is right next to the...

What the hell is that thing? Its got hay in it - or what once WAS hay - now it looks dried out and has as much nutritional value as cardboard. Some sort of metal/iron contraption that is made to do... something.

Either way it makes a GREAT hay rack, doesn't it!? *insert dripping sarcasm here*

And - I'm hoping its just the picture - but is it just me or is his front legs toed out some? That off side front leg is at a really weird angle for the way he's standing - he's about as far from 'squared up' as a trapezoid, but that hoof definitely ain't straight forward.

Its got a funky semi-not-quite-so-rare-anymore color on him. Cremellos are becoming more and more common only because people have figured out what genetics create them. The sad part, just like every other 'color' thats rare or dilute, people breed just for the color and forget things like straight legs! We don't need no stinkin' straight legs! Who really cares if their horse can't walk for 4 hours without going lame on soft arena ground!

He's purrrrrrrrttyyyyyyyyyyy.

Most of the fugly stallions I have posted on here would make cute geldings. This guy? I can't even bring myself to say cute! He's depressed, his head shot shows that in his eye, needs some TLC, a bath, and some decent quality hay, and he might actually be a pretty sturdy mount.

But not in the condition he's in now!

Thanks Nancy!

OT: Things That Are Annoying Me

2010-08-25T08:43:00.000-07:00

The kitten is trying desperately to get to my cereal bowl and is determined to run over my keyboard 653214.58798 times every second but I myself will hammer this out in the 10 minutes I have before heading out the door to work.

I rarely watch the news any more - I used to be somewhat of a news junkie - but I kinda got a way from it for a while. However this past few days I have paid a bit more attention and I was completely shocked at what I was missing...

The 33 Chilean minors trapped 2500+ feet underground and they can't get them out until CHRISTMAS???? The BF and I were talking about this after we heard CNN Report that nice little tidbit. Neither of us can believe that it would take that long to get them out - our thinking is if they can get food and supplies and ELECTRICITY down to them for the 'long haul' why can't they get the people out? I'll have to look into that further I think but later. It just astounded me to hear that.

Then, same day, there was this story about the British woman who put the cat into the dumpster. If you haven't heard or seen this - its mind boggling.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/world-15749633/outrage-over-cat-tossed-in-trash-21579767#video=21579767

The cat was fine, a little hungry and thirsty after spending 15 hours at the bottom of a closed GARBAGE CAN, but otherwise ok. The part of this story that really pisses me off is the local authorities are not only NOT charging her with any type of cruelty - but instead are GUARDING HER from harm!!! Ok, I get that there are a lot of people that feel strongly about this (I'm one of them) but I would never fly across 'the pond' and do anything about it. However, there are people that will, and I get that she might be in danger. But not charging her for the act? Thats one of the most ridiculous things I've heard in a long time.

What else was on my quicky "Thats Annoying!" list for today ....

The lady that won the Clinton Anderson DVD has not paid yet. Today is day 6, and still no word that she even got the 2 invoices I sent her. She contacted me prior to the auction ending and wanted proof the DVD's were not counterfiet, and she had no problems replying to that but now that its time to pay - not a peep. I'm starting to get worried.... its $65.00 I really need right now....

And really quick ...

I NEED ADS! Lol.

I just can't get the time for some new ads right now. I have a few that have been sent, but I don't even have enough for a full week right now. To make my life even MORE fun, my daughter wants to join Girl Scouts and because I was a Girl Scout for nearly 20 years, I have this crazy thought that I should start a troop... as if I don't have enough to do.....

But send them in. I'll start posting them again, I promise!

A Different Kind Of Fugly Featured Stallion...

2010-08-20T14:58:00.000-07:00

Today I am going to poke a bit of fun at myself.

I have my own 'Fugly Featured Stallion' sitting in front of me, staring at me, saying 'fix me, fix me!'

So this is one of the Breyer horses I have being worked on currently, and for those that don't remember, he started out looking like this:

Then went to this:

Then he got the start of wings, a better tail, and A HEAD!

Those wings took the better part of 2 hours to put together. The shape kept eluding me, and finally I had to cheat a little bit by printing out a skeletal outline of a hawk's wing structure to get the general idea of what they needed to be shaped like.

That is what he looked like till last night.

The wings got bulked out with Amazing Sculpt, and then I had the thought to create a thin 'membrane' to sculpt the actual wings over but wasn't sure how to do it. Some digging around in my sculpting box uncovered a brand new package of cheesecloth, so it got picked for the job.

My hope was that I could squish it into the under bones of the wings, and when the Amazing Sculpt dried, it would be permanently affixed. Which is mostly what it did. About halfway through the curing process I tested it in a corner and found that it was sticking, but with enough force, would lift up.

So I grabbed my super glue, and ran a thin small line of glue down the long, main bone on each side. That did the final trick, and now that cheesecloth isn't going anywhere.

Now, I need to figure out what to put over the cheese cloth to make it look even more wing like. I was originally thinking more Amazing Sculpt, but a quick test on that last night proved that it won't stick to the cheese cloth very well at all. Initially it would, but when I started the attempt to smooth it out, it lifted right up.

So, now I'm thinking maybe liquid latex or something of the sort. I'll have to search around some and see whats out there to use.

So, while he's not an actual 'real' horse, he still started out as a stallion, and I'd say right now he's still in some pretty ugly stages! *giggle*

*****************************************************

I am also going to take this moment for a shameless promotional plug, and inform everyone of something I have currently on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Problem-Solving-Clinton-Anderson-DVD-/170528219017?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0#ht_634wt_930

Two years ago, I bought this off of his website, watched it once, realized I already was doing or knew how to fix all of these 'issues' and was a bit mad at myself cause I wasted $160. Its been up in a closet since, and I'd rather use the money to fund my sculpting habit.

Its got some bids on it now, so I'm not so much looking to 'drive up the price' but if there is anyone out there looking for this, or might be interested, there you go. If someone on the blog ends up buying it, I'll take the shipping charge off.

Ok, Well, Maybe Not Yet

2010-08-18T23:17:00.000-07:00

Please forgive the sudden start and then nothing for 4 days.

I feel like a car where the starter is beginning to fail, but its intermittent. The car wants to start, it turns over, the desire is there, and then something fails somewhere, some spark that is supposed to happen, doesn't, and then it just dies.

I just need a few new spark plugs, a new starter, maybe some new wiring in there somewhere too -

or maybe just one good nights rest.

Keep hanging with me, I'll get this jump started back to where we were!

And hopefully - it won't cost me $300 to repair! hah.

Time To Restart This Thing, Yes?

2010-08-16T11:23:00.000-07:00

Today is a good day. The kids started school today (all five of them! and no, only two are 'mine', the other three are unofficial step-kids) so all you parents out there - shouldn't the first day of school be granted national holiday status?

I sure think it should!

So, while the house is blissfully quiet for the first time since MAY, I thought it would be an excellent time to restart this blog.

Before I do that, for those that have been following along, My father is doing better, he is in a temporary nursing facility due to some complications, but they are not life threatening, and overall his outlook is pretty decent. Thanks for all the kind words and thoughts, and for being so understanding when blogging had to take a backseat to everything else for a while.

But now life is slowly returning to some sort of normalcy around here, and that means its time for us to return to our regularly scheduled blogging fun!

I was on craigslist this morning (actually not looking so much at horse ads, but instead posting an ad of my own - more on that later) and was checking out random ads for fun.

And then fell in love. hehe.

I think she's gorgeous - and I have to say I'm not a huge fan of dappled greys, or really greys in general. Too hard to keep clean, IMO. But the owner of this mare has done a great job of that - the first thing that caught my eye was that WHITE TAIL! If you've never had a white tail before on a mare? UGH! Trying to keep the yellow out of that white is a daily battle. Even putting it up they still manage to get urine on it! (Trust me, I've tried every trick in the book.)

They even have a decently worded ad for her, and it looks like in a better market, this mare would be a really, really, REALLY high priced horse.

Miss Frosty Jay *** What a Beautiful Girl (She has pnts with AQHA ) 8year old Grey sired by *** Master Jay *** , check him out Has Her Reining CERT. Also trained in Cutting Roping and even has a Halter point!!! She is very quiet and Anybody can ride her even Bareback to go check your mail !!! Such a Sweetie. No bad Habits. 15 H ..... Vet checks welcome. asking $5,500 602 --- 1258 Bring Your Trainer / Vet/ Girlfriends and Boyfriend/ Husbands and Wives They will All Approve!!! ((( May Consider part trade )))

I have contact info if anyone wants her lol!

*********

So why is the CL Horse Ad Queen posting an ad on CL?

Actually because of this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170528219017#ht_552wt_930

I also posted an ad locally in the Farm & Garden section for those that might be interested.

Have a good monday all!

Update

2010-07-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

Chrome is still really screwed up when it comes to blogger. I haven't yet contacted the support staff about it because of other events in my life this past week. I'm using IE to do this and I absolutely can't stand IE.

My father had a pretty big heart attack Friday night. He had been having chest pains on and off all day since around 1 or 2 am that morning but didn't mention it to me or my boyfriend - just his kids. Dont' ask why - I have no idea. Of course they didn't say anything to us about it - and it wasn't until around 6 ish that night that he knocked on our bedroom door and said he needed to either call 911 or be driven to the hospital. Luckily for us the hosp is less than 2 miles away, and we got there really fast.

He walked into the ER, leaned on the wall, and pointed to his chest. I had just dropped him off outside and had run to do an errand that I couldn't put off any longer. If I had known of course I wouldn't have done the other errand, but oh well.

I got done with the errand, and went home. Total time was about 30 or so min. Ten minutes or so after I got home, the hospital called with the news that he had had the attack right in front of them. He had just made it in time - another 10 minutes at the latest and he would have had it at home or in the car - and they figured that it would have killed him.

As it happened, they caught it starting, and were able to quickly get a balloon pump and stint into the right side of his heart to open up that side. The images of his heart show a severe amount of disease on the left side, including a clot just below the main fork (below the artery they call the 'widowmaker'.) That was about the ONLY good out of this.

They stabilized him, and he spent Friday night in ICU, awaiting transport to another hospital in the same network that is a heart specialty hospital. Tomorrow he will have double bypass surgery, and if he makes it through the surgery he will have three days of in hospital recovery.

During that time they will evaulate everything about his life, his fitness level, his health, and a decision will be made whether they will allow him to come straight home, or put him in a temporary nursing facility for further care. He'll have physical therapy sessions several times a week, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

If he doesn't make it, well - that will be its own mess.

I appreciate all the messages from before - basically I was contacted by someone in another state who had an issue regarding a comment on a blog post from like last month. She threatened a lawsuit if I didn't reveal who the anonymous poster was - which would be nearly impossible for me to figure out.

It was about 36 hours after that inital message that I had issues with Chrome and the blog. I don't belive now that they are related, but the timing was just a bit too weird. Especially since the intitial contact from this person wasn't even sent to the blog email - it was sent to my other, professional, non-blog related email. An Email that I couldn't figure out at first how they got, but I was able to figure it out sometime later.

As soon as I can get blogger on chrome fixed - I'll be back posting regularly again. But at least through this week, its not at the top of the priority list - as I'm sure everyone will understand.

I will turn off the comment moderation and see what happens. I am sorry I had to do that to you all - I hate it myself.

Have a good week everyone. I'll post updates when I can.

Beth

My Chrome has gone insane?

2010-07-21T15:20:00.000-07:00

Ok lets see if this works.

Chrome apparently has hijacked blogger?

I have NO CLUE what is going on but I log into blogger through chrome and I get nothing but text based html pages, and a frames script that keeps 'eating' my words. I tried to post at least 6 times, and each time the post was 'eaten'.

I am doing this through IE just to see if I can post through IE - but as I have to go to work in less than an hour, I don't have the time to sit here right now and mess with it.

I was actually going to post today that was planning on taking a break from blogging until my kids went back to school early next month. Life has gotten beyond hectic, and since I only have my kids from Sat-Tues - its been increasingly difficult to find time to go online on those days. Add in that my work schedule gets heavier during the rest of the week (because I don't have the kids, no worries about a babysitter then) that poses its own issues sometimes.

Then today, I go to log in to blogger via chrome, and everything is upside down, and I am getting some really weird screens - If I can't get that figured out I just MIGHT end up moving over to wordpress. I'll announce if that happens. The fact that this happened just days after I got some nasty emails - well I won't get to much into that but its starting to really make me wonder exactly HOW secure Blogger is.

Anyways there won't be any new ads posted till August most likely, save for a few random ones if they hit me hard enough to scream about - and I need to get this other issue fixed.

Those of you that wish to know more, can email me at the same email on the side bar.

Comments will be switched to moderated, please don't take offence, there is a reason for it. It won't last forever, I promise.

Until August - sionara!

The CL Horse Ad Queen.

Something is Very Wrong.

2010-07-21T15:08:00.000-07:00

FFFS: What....?! OH NO You Didn't...

2010-07-16T02:05:00.001-07:00

Gak. Its 1 am Friday morning, I have to be at work in ...... 7 hours? Such is the life of an insomniac.

Ok. Friday. Friday Stallion time!

You'll all just LOVE this one! Especially those of you that rescue horses...

Haflinger Stallion for Sale 500$ - $500 (Clayton Ny)

Tony was a rescue and he was severly underweight when I got him. I was told that he had come off a 600 horse breeding operation. After much TLC and groceries he is in perfect health. Tony is 17 years old and a proven breeder. He has breed both my mares and the one is due in a few short months. He is pastured with my mares and cows of all ages at the moment. He shows no aggressive tendancies and when he breeds he is very gentle. (no biting or kicking) My younger sister can walk up to him. He is a beautiful horse and very sweet. When I got him I was told that he was broke to drive. I do not know how to drive so I have not testeed him in that area. I know that when I put someone up on his back he had no idea what was happening so I am assuming he is either not broke to ride or has not been ridden in a very long time. I have gone off to college and cant expect my mother to be taking care of both of my mares and foals, along with a stallion so a good home is what I am asking for. If you have any questions or want more pictures just email me at IMATOTALMORON@IDIOT.COM

Don't you just want to go up to that person, and to borrow a very fun phrase - whack-a-moron-with-a-clue-bat?

I know Halfies aren't supposed to be draft horse heavy, and if this guy needed some serious groceries then I WILL give her props for getting him back to a normal weight. He still looks a bit beat up around the edges, but thats pasture condition for you.

What I want to know is why the HELL are they breeding a RESCUE HORSE?????

Does that make a LICK of sense to anyone out there?

Generally as a rule legit 501(c) horse rescues will NOT EVER adopt out a whole male horse. Boy Bits get removed as soon as the horse can handle the surgery.

So that is telling us that this person did not get this horse from a legit rescue org, but instead privately.

We need more people rescuing horses. I'm not against that.

I'm against the BREEDING OF RESCUED and REHABBED STALLIONS!

For $500 I would be ALL over this guy if he wasn't on the other side of the country from me. Another $300 for the snip snip, and for less than a grand I'm in with an awesome project gelding who already drives? HOLY COW. Throw him into a refresher course with someone that knows what they are doing, retrain/refresh with some basic under saddle lessons, and you'll have yourself a heck of a horse!

(P.S. - Halfies are some of the hardiest trail horses you'll ever find - and most of them are absolutely AWESOME with kids too!)

JUST STOP BREEDING HIM!

Oh, and by the way, who the hell nowadays has a 600!!!!! horse breeding operation that starves their horses, and why hasn't THAT been in the horsey interwebz news gossip rounds????

{EDIT: You know, I had to come back in to add this - if they are that close to the Canadian border, would the PMU farms use Halflinger stallions as crosses on the draft mares? I thought they were using higher quality Quarter Horse, Warmblood, a Thoroughbred stallions to improve the quality of the foals they were producing? Was just a thought. A PMU farm would produce that many animals per year, but I doubt they would starve the horses that badly? Am I wrong there? Ok, this is going into an entirely different topic.}

I also have a friday bonus for everyone. Yea! This is something for everyone to really ponder the absolute asinine moronic senseless dangerous kid killing mind numbing (ok, running out of appropriate adjectives here...) stupidity.

Yes, ~~I blew it up as big as blogger will let me~~ {Edit: had to reduce the size down to the Large, not X-Large, it didn't all fit} because I think this needs to be a HUGE MASSIVE GIANT ENORMOUS poster with a huge red circle/slash for why some people should NEVER EVER OWN MINIATURE HORSES OR ANY HORSES EVER AT ALL. NEVER. We can roll it up and use it as our own 'clue bat', yes?

Do you see the lead rope and where it goes? Tied to the fence, 10+ feet long, running UNDER the belly between the legs and attached to the halter. When I saved this picture, I actually named it 'lets kill our kid today' because thats exactly what I see happening here.

I don't care how big or small your horse is. This is an accident waiting to happen. Even a mini of this small stature can seriously harm or kill this kid if he makes the wrong step, gets caught up in that lead rope, and freaks out. There is a fence behind him that can easily trap that kid, and even a mini's small hooves, when driven into a child's skull, can kill, or at the least, disable the child to a vegetable fed by tubes the rest of his miserable bed ridden life.

Let us also throw out the fun fact that I happen to know this miniature is..... wait for it ........ A STUD! I know, I know, total shocker, right?

I"m going to make an educated guess and say that the guy with the three spare tires is either dad, granddad, or an uncle. I doubt it would be anyone else - I certainly HOPE its not the owner/manager of whatever property this happens to be because DAMN. Talk about a total and complete lack of common sense. Well, actually, let's rephrase that.

The guy is a complete air headed idiot if he doesn't see the danger in this situation.

Do I really even have to say that this should have never been taken to begin with, because anyone with 2 salt shakers worth of intelligence would see the inherent danger here and not just yank that child off of this animals back, then carefully un-tangle the lead from under the barrel, and shorten that lead up about 16,656,572 feet.

The very, very,VERY first rule I ever learned about tying a horse up is you never ever let the lead rope go beyond the length of your arm. That was the very first thing I ever got drilled into my head when it came to safety on the ground. That was even before the slip knot - because us beginner kids weren't actually tying the horses leads to the hitching posts, the adults did it. The knots came after a few lessons, and only if the kid/student showed common sense in actually retaining the safety lessons being drilled in mentally. The second rule was always tie at eye level or higher. (Those of you with chronic pullers/set back-ers (?) will understand that one very well!) Third was the slip knot. Fourth was never tie on slick, untextured surfaces if you can help it, etc. There were ten altogether.

My childhood riding instructor was a professional level 3 Day Eventer who was extremely strict about safety both on the ground and mounted. I have no regrets whatsoever being started out by her, because she created a foundation of safe handling practices that to this day, I will never forget - but more importantly, STILL FOLLOW.

I sincerely hope that anyone out there that sees this, and thinks I'm being too harsh/this is just a cute photo opportunity picture, please speak up in the comments. I'd love to discuss the topic of child / horse safety with you and find out why this situation is "OK" to have happen.

I will come back with evidence after evidence of accidents that happen from situation just like this one where the kid ended up a permanent disabled person, or six feet under. As will several other people that read regularly.

This picture came in an ad, the mini is for sale:

We have a miniature paint horse in need of a good home. We do not have the time for him that he needs and deserves. He is a stud but he is very sweet. He is cart trained and broke to ride. The price is not firm. If interested let me know ASAP. $300 OBO

This picture is one of the biggest examples of the words YOU FAIL I have ever seen!

On that so joyous note... I'm off to bed!

(The Halflinger stallion from today as well as yesterday's ad were picked out of rescueahorse's daily email. She picks out ads from all over the country and puts them in one long email - I know she doesn't do this just for me but WOW, thank you very much for adding me to your list! Makes my work so much easier here :). Thats also how I knew the city mentioned was in or around NY, it was in series of emails of ads from NY that took several different posts to get out completely. Thank you very much Lynn for your hard work, and I hope you don't mind me ripping some of them apart here. :)

The miniature stallion picture was provided by Boyfriend Chant du Coeur.)

Dear, Maybe You Shouldn't Have Gone To the Auction Then...

2010-07-14T22:51:00.002-07:00

Most of us when presented with the opportunity to attend a livestock auction have one instantaneous reaction - but that reaction can be one of two things. Its either grab the wallet and hitch up the trailer, or freeze the bank cards and find the smallest car to ride in possible. Cause if we take the wallet, and just take the truck, we all know that there is that very very high chance (nearly 100%) that we will end up bringing a four legged critter home - whether we INTEND to or not! lmao.

I'm thinking that maybe this person should have left the wallet, froze the credit cards in a block of ice, and bicycled over to the auction site. Or better yet, just not attended.

Horse - $500 (Camden)

This is my yearling horse. I got him from an auction and his paper work says he's a quarter horse. I just do not have the time to train him. He is not gelded and walks good on a lead. $500 or will trade for a ride-able horse. Email me if you are interested.

OY VEY!

So if you can't keep a horse you paid bottom dollar for at the auction - and now you are DUMPING him on craigslist because you don't have time to train him.

Can You SEE the steam coming from my ears?

1) The horse was dumped at an auction to start with because there NO MARKET for low bred horses of ANY BREED.

2) This person obviously felt the need to rescue the young stallion, probably paid up front cash for him, but can't PAY FOR GELDING? If they refuse/can't pay for gelding, then you can be pretty darn sure things like regular vet costs, farrier costs, and the like haven't been done.

3) They don't have the time to train him? HE'S A YEARLING!!! There isn't much to 'train', at least not in the traditional sense of the word. Training a yearling is things like handling feet, clippers, baths, trailer training, ground manners, basic commands on the ground such as walk, whoa, back, etc. Simple, easy stuff that DOESN'T require more than 5-10 minutes a day! Most of us take longer than that to take a shower!

4) Whaddya wanna bet that this yearling at auction didn't go for much over $100? And the asking price is now $500? I'm all for making a profit, but this is a bit redonkulous!

5) Anyone out there be willing to actually trade a fully-trained, adult horse for this little guy?

As far as I know, Camden is in NY somewhere, so anyone wanting a little project pony snap this guy up! He's got a whole life ahead of him, and if you start em right, you have a lifetime partner.

You Can't Flag Me!

2010-07-14T10:59:00.000-07:00

This will be unfortunately another short post today, as I am sitting here doing my best to hammer this out before I finish getting ready for a job interview later today.

Erin sent me this, and I have posted a few of the ads she has sent me before but this one really caught my attention.

It is an unfortunate situation that I'm sure many of us have been in before, or at the very least a version of it. I have personally, and thats why I am posting this up for the world to see.

Horse Theft/Stopped Payment on Check (Baxter)
You can flag this all you want!! I want to get the word out to horse owners who are HONEST and don't deserve to be ripped off. This woman from Rockwell city wrote a check for my gelding and stopped payment after she had him home. She has done this to other people... look at ripped off.com. She is on there. Everyone who buys or sells horses should know about her. Donna Bowers, Rockwell City, Iowa. Stole from others, police say she has other civil action suits against her for the same thing. Here at eqivive we are running low all the time... the sale of a nice horse like Smoky the appy gelding was a huge benefit for us until she STOPPED PAYMENT on it for no reason. Thats malicious. Everyone across the country is cross posting... so whoever flags this it will be in VAIN. Amy www.equivive.com if you have a problem with this buck up and contact me instead of flagging it!!! Amy (phone #). www.equivive.com

I guess she's been posting that a number of times, and every time the post gets flagged, and removed. Hmm, well since you can't flag me, its here permanently.

So, to further this conversation, because at least Amy has an idea of where Smoky is, what have you all done to combat a woman like this? In my situation, the mare you see up on the right sidebar with the caption "Mamma Girl", I was leasing out from my former employer in exchange for feeding and cleaning stalls at her boarding property. I was also working as her housekeeper nearly full time, and the house was on the property. I had known her since I was 15, and as a teenager, she was a second mom to me.

On my 30th birthday, after 8 months of leasing the mare and just totally head over heels bonded/in love with her, her owner/my employer gave her to me outright for my 30th birthday. Wrote up a bill of sale and transfer of title to her, had it notarized and it was completely legal. That was October of 2008. A few months after that, I went from being her housekeeper back out to the horses full time like I had been as a teenager, and was working under the horse trainer she had brought in from California. Things were great for a time, then around June of last year things changed. There was an attitude shift in her and she started demanding more, more from me, yet paying the same. I won't get into the details, but at the end I was literally working over 90 hours a week for $300 / week. Do the math and yup...Thats what I was supporting my self, 2 kids, and a horse on.

I decided it wasn't worth it, started looking for other employment, and shit went downhill really fast. I had made plans to move the mare to a facility less than 5 minutes from me but the night before the transport was scheduled to pick her up I got an email from her saying that if I showed up with a trailer the next day I would be arrested for trespassing, and she was not allowing the mare to leave her property. I immediately called the police, and because it was a civil matter, not criminal, the were unable to do anything. I then talked to a local lawyer that specializes in equine law here in Az, and she pretty much echoed the same thing - I'd have to sue through civil small claims court.

So I went to the court. Court fees just to file the case would have amounted to well over $800, money I didn't have. And you can't get a waiver on civil fees like you can for divorce and child custody cases. I was sol, and had no other way to get her back.

That was last year, and July 31st marks the very last day I saw her in person.

This posting up above hit me pretty hard, and I sincerely hope that this amy either gets this resolved, or gets her horse back.

Now, let's hear your stories!

Got this in over the weekend

2010-07-12T02:14:00.004-07:00

Is there anyone out there that might be able to help out? I understand that there are some cases where euthanasia might be the best option, but if someone is willing to make her comfortable for the last few years of her life, then there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Leaving the link live, click for the email through Craigslist. This was simply copied from the email directly, sent by Lynn, who is behind rescueahorse.blogspot.com.

Click here for the original ad.

FREE PONY - or she will be put down (Weare, NH)

Date: 2010-07-10, 9:39AM EDT
Reply to: sale-@craigslist.org ^[^{Errors when replying to ads?}^]

Welsh/TB Mare Approx 12 yrs, 14 hands, Blue Roan. Been diagnosed with soft tissue damage in front right hoor, needs 6 months to a year of stall rest. Will let you talk to vet. She's a GREAT mare, very loving. She's done Pony Hunters in 07 & 08. Daughter went on to horses but rode her consistantly. Too nice of a pony to put down, PLEASE help this pony.

(I apologize for the caps at the beginning of the post. Blogger keeps re formatting it in caps, even though I have gone into the html several times and edited out that part of the code. No clue why it keeps doing that.)

Cyclone Sold?

2010-07-10T14:54:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note before I head off to work, but I am 'subscribed' to a certain teenaged mustang breeder's Photobucket account, and I just received an email saying that she had new comments on two of her pictures.

Those two comments are new as of today, those are the comments I just got the email on notifying me of the update.

I hope that he at least went to someone who will geld him, and turn him into something grand.

There were several ladies trying to get him and the other mustang mare, Twist, out of there, is it any one of you that got him? No need to post in comments, can email me directly.

FFFS - QH Stallion

2010-07-09T12:55:00.000-07:00

This is a case of a stallion that might actually one day be well known - if he had owners that actually KNEW how to market a stallion prospect.

This is so obviously NOT the way to market a stallion prospect. I wonder if they even groomed him for this picture, or if they just simply put the halter on him and took 5 steps backwards to take the picture.

If I were actually looking to breed a mare right now - I would consider this guy just on his bloodlines alone. But, that picture would turn me away in about 2.3 seconds. And I wouldn't give him a second thought.

Sonny Dee Bar/Peppy San Badger QH Stud!!! - $250 Heza Rappin Cowboy 2002 Black Quarter Horse Stallion standing at stud for 2010 breeding season. Ringo stands at 14.3 Jet black with a TON of muscle! Great confirmation and an impeccable disposition. Very calm for a stallion, VERY willing to please and LOVES to be loved on, I believe he will carry down his amazing traits to his foals. Ringo's breeding fee is low because he is new to breeding.

Sonny Dee Bar, Peppy San Badger, Three Bars, Poco Bueno, Blondys Dude, Reynolds Rap, Win or Lose, Mr Bar None, King are all in his bloodlines!!!! If you want a nice speed prospect or halter prospect with GREAT bloodlines... This could be the stud to breed to!!! :)

Dam: Dudes Fashion Bug
Sire: Rappin Ringo

PLEASE SERIOUS INQUIRIES ONLY! NO SPAM!!!

Like I said, I actually would consider this horse as a stallion prospect if he were cleaned up, presented to show him in the absolutely best way possible, AND if they actually mentioned some sort of performance record. As he is presented right now, we have no idea if he's ever even left that mud filled pasture he's pictured in ONE TIME in his entire life. Thats not a good thought to put into a mare owners head when they are stallion shopping.

I've been over the whole bad picture thing with other stallions before - ad nauseum. So I won't rant over that again here. But this is a perfect example of a stallion that might actually be GREAT, if he was just marketed the right way.

(Again, I have lost track of who sent me this and if it was sent. I need a better system for that!)

BTW, I didn't win the ebay auction on the Breyer Appy that wasn't an Appy that I posted earlier this week. Someone outbid me by a whole $.25 Cents while I was at work 2 nights ago lol. Oh Well. I'm sure there will be others in the future ;).

And, I have listed the Amber CM up for sale on the MH$B. Just curious to see if it will sell as it is. If it doesn't I'll try my hand at painting it and hopefully *not* ruin it ;-).

More Babies Being Ridden

2010-07-08T12:46:00.001-07:00

Since I keep getting these in my email, I will continue to post them. I'm gonna knock out a few in one post today.

Adorable pony, about 15 months old, sweet but needs some attention, I think she has some appy in her, she has changed from white to a grey color with a white mane and tail. She is about 11 hands, pretty small, I don't think she will get much larger. We bought her for our 2 year old and have had her on her back leading her around and she did fine, but just don't have the time to give her the attention she needs to keep her disciplined. To good home only. Call or email. (530) ---------.

"These people sound like they know nothing about horses. This pony is not even a year and a half old and of course they have their 2 year old kid on it. "

Of course!

No Pictures with that one.

I am selling my mini pony he is only 1 yr old he was born May 1st 2009, he is only halter broke, very friendly and very cute. I will only let him go to a good home were he can be taken care of properly. For more info email me and i will answer as soon as i can. I am asking $600 obo,
Thanks.

Oh, just LOOK at this guy!

"This is a cute little TEENY TINY guy! It's too bad he is 'only 1 year old' and 'only halter broke' and yet they have this GIANT saddle on him. I especially love the line in the ad where they say 'I will only let him go to a good home were he can be taken care of properly.' Maybe he can get a home with someone who will use a saddle that's not bigger than him!"

I have to seriously wonder if they were even able to get the cinch completely done up, or if its just been taken off of the saddle. I don't see it on the ground and the leather strap on the ground I think is the strap used to connect the cinch to the saddle. (Forgive me, having a COMPLETE blond brain fart here and have forgotten what the name of that strap is.) I can't see under the stirrup there to see if the cinch is hiding behind it, but no matter where the cinch is that saddle is so not appropriate for that little guy. Its not even cute. Cute would be a saddle made specifically FOR miniature horses - thats a pony saddle. But the fact that the mini is only a year old detracts from whatever 'cuteness' this picture might otherwise have held.

(Both of the above ads, and the quoted comments were from Celeste :D)

And one more, this one has been in my 'to use' folder for some time (since March????), so I have lost track of where I got it from. If you sent it to me, let me know in the comments, full credit to you!

She is a two and a half year old. She is supposed to be black but she is sun bleached and she looks chestnut. If you put her in a stall she will go back to being black. She is a very good horse and will cross anything you put her up against. But yet, she does have one little problem. She tends to throw a little fit when you first get on her. Other than that shes a good horse. She needs to go to a good home where she will be loved as much as she was here. She needs to go to an experienced rider! I was working with her alot but then I got a job and dont really have much time for her. You can email me at -------@hotmail.com and we can go from there. I will only take serious offers on her. If you're not serious then please dont wait my time.

If I remember correctly, the reason this ad found me was due to the 'one little problem'. I know 2.5 years isn't really considered a 'baby' anymore, but in my book it still is. Her issue of throwing a fit when someone gets on her tells me she's most likely got some holes in her training from whomever started her.

I'd also like to mention that getting a job does not automatically mean the animals go. I know of plenty of people that work, many MORE than full time, and still have time for not just one horse, but several. I think that was just an excuse used to help with the guilt involved in trying to sell a horse that has behavior issues. I really had suspicions back when I first read this ad that the 'little fit' was a lot more than that. I'm thinking probably a LOT more, actually.

But, thats the story of so many horses we see on here anyways. Gotta love the picture, too, don't you!

Also, if you haven't yet, check out the Carnival of the Horse post!

OT: This is why I love ebay sometimes...

2010-07-07T10:50:00.001-07:00

So, I've been haunting ebay for the last few weeks trying to pick up breyers dirt cheap. I am bidding (and currently winning) on this item but I had to share, cause if this were an ad on CL, I would so post it.

Does that LOOK like an Appy to most of you? LOL. This is what the description says:

Breyer Horse

I believe this to be an Appaloosa Horse but not making any guarantees! I'm definately not an expert on breeds of horses but it resembles several of the others that have been listed on eBay!

The paint on this horse is very neat and the marking next to it's mane is only present on the one side that shown in the photo. The other side is solid brown.

This Breyer Horse has not been cleaned, so it will arrive with some dirt, I didn't want to take the chance to ruin any of the original paint. I am going to say that there is paint missing from the top of the ear but it could have originally been painted and was missed. It is marked Breyer on the inside of it's hind leg.

Tail & Front Leg are raised as you can tell from the photo.

If you have any questions about this horse, please ask before bidding, I do not accept any returns.

I ship via the USPS on Monday, Wednesday and Thursdays.

Paypal and Personal Checks Accepted.

Thanks for viewing this item and please view my other auctions for other Breyer Collectible Horses.

I find this to be highly amusing! This "appaloosa" (if and when it arrives to me) will be subject to the model horse version of a chop shop hehe. I plan on going very Sweeney Todd on it but I promise she/he will come out just fine. (Hey, I need something to practice painting on!) I haven't yet gone and ID'd the Breyer in the auction but I'm at least pretty sure that the paint job isn't an Appy!

Send Me Your Broken, Unrideable, Fugly Mares!

2010-07-07T00:05:00.000-07:00

I both Love and Semi-Hate Holidays. Love them because, well they are Holidays, and who doesn't Love Holidays. Semi-Hate them because the normal course of life tends to get disrupted and wonky. Start with a major US Holiday like the Fourth of July, mixed with a major MAJOR sale at the retail store where I'm employed, toss in my son's 10th birthday tomorrow, friends that want to go see Toy Story 3 AND Eclipse (2ce!!! :D), top off with some ice cause its just too darn freaking HOT, and shake well; you'll end up with something like the last week I've had LOL. One Giant melting mess where all the ingredients are all over the place and mushed together into a giant slushy.

I'm also working on a new project too, that is becoming a real challenge but I'm super excited about it! (Details soon to come on the other blog.)

************************************************

I got this ad in my email a few days back, and I told the sender (Ok, this is where I get confused because the email header said Nick, but the Email itself said Lisa?) that I would post it up on Monday.

This person is asking for people to just basically hand over their Unsound and Unbroke mares for breeding to her paint stallion.

I am looking to purchase a few mares to add to my broodmare string. I am looking for inexpensive or even unsound for riding 3 to7 year old APHA or AQHA mares to breed to my Paint stallion. They would be well taken care of and would also be willing to work something out if you wanted the baby next year. Color not as important as a good temperment. My stallion will throw 100% color even on quarter horse mares. You could also come visit and play with the babies in the spring. Not looking to spend a lot just looking to give a wonderful home to a few lucky mares. Vet refrences available. In need of minor medical attention and farrier work also alright. Looking to save a few nice mares from going to the sale barn to a uncertain fate. Looking for well built and calm halter broke but no need to be saddle broke, I have the time and training knowledge to work on issues they might have also.Will be looking to find show and or performance homes for the little ones but most will be held over to be sold as started 2 to 3 year olds with a couple to be kept and shown. If you have something you are unable to care for right now and would like to have the opportunity to purchase back next fall we could work that out also. My stallion is well behaved and well bred for a working cowhorse and has started under saddle and on his way to being great. If you have something that might work please email some pics and a brief description of what you are asking and of bloodlines. Thank you and have a great day. Hope to hear from you soon.

Of course there are no pictures to her stallion, no links to a website, basically NO information about the stallion except every mare owner in the area should just RUN over to let their mares have the honor of being bred to this stallion.

PHLEAHSE spare me. Whether this stallion owner is willing to pay to purchase the mares, or keep them on a breeding lease is unclear. Either way, this ad has several issues that I can't leave alone.

I am looking to purchase a few mares to add to my broodmare string. This is fine, but broodmares should really be the HIGHEST quality mares one can find/afford. Their job is to IMPROVE on the stallion. I am looking for inexpensive Read that as Fugly horses, horses that can't find new owners for whatever reason, or those low end horses we constantly see advertised on CL for $100-$300 or even unsound for riding 3 to7 year old APHA or AQHA mares to breed to my Paint stallion. They would be well taken care of and would also be willing to work something out if you wanted the baby next year. Cause the stallion owner probably won't have a market for the foals.... so its perfect to dump them back on the mare owner! Color not as important as a good temperment. The only statement that makes sense My stallion will throw 100% color even on quarter horse mares. Ok, once more - Stallions don't "THROW" anything. Especially foals. They SIRE them. You could also come visit and play with the babies in the spring. Not looking to spend a lot just looking to give a wonderful home to a few lucky mares. Vet refrences available. In need of minor medical attention and farrier work also alright. Does this mean that mares that need regular medical attention and regular farrier work will be accepted? WOW! Looking to save a few nice mares from going to the sale barn to a uncertain fate. BUT you are willing to create foals that will ALSO have an uncertain fate, and THATS OK WITH YOU??? WTF? Oh, but its ok because its your stallion thats siring them, and he's the bestest stallion on the face of the planet, right? Looking for well built and calm halter broke but no need to be saddle broke, I have the time and training knowledge to work on issues they might have also. But I would say you are lacking in common sense here....Will be looking to find show and or performance homes for the little ones but most will be held over to be sold as started 2 to 3 year olds with a couple to be kept and shown. Are you rich? Really? You can afford to keep x number of foals for 3 years and you can't afford a REAL ADVERTISING PLAN FOR YOUR STALLION? You are resorting to this ad asking for inexpensive and broken mares to breed your awesome stallion too? If you have something you are unable to care for right now and would like to have the opportunity to purchase back next fall we could work that out also. Cause that wouldn't be a breeding lease at all. My stallion is well behaved *yawn* they all need to be well behaved, this isn't anything that impresses me and well bred for a working cowhorse OK, then TELL US WHO THE BLOODLINES ARE! and has started under saddle Um, wouldn't this mean the stallion is around 2 or 3 years old? and on his way to being great. See prior comment about your stallion being the bestest stallion on the face of the planet. What about the concept of prove the stallion has talent, athletic ability, beauty, grace, and all that stuff by the one method we have thats nearly fool proof by SHOWING him first? Does he really HAVE to breed this early? If you have something that might work please email some pics and a brief description of what you are asking and of bloodlines. Thank you and have a great day. Hope to hear from you soon.

Sad part is there are actually mare owners that will respond to an ad like this because they are desperate to find a 'good home' for their mares. I always doubt whether the person behind these ads are the real deal or not, will actually give good care or not, etc etc. If you ever consider answering an ad like this do your homework first. Check references, check out the property first hand, and make surprise visits. Make sure you write into the contract that you have full access to all of the veterinary records. Keep your wits about you, and make sure you don't get swindled by an 'insurance salesman'.

HAPPY 100TH POST!

2010-07-02T17:06:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I made it to 100! And People actually read! Thats what amazes me - is you all actually read this!

And as promised, I have the update on the horse you all have asked me about.

Comet. :D

And this is him now!

Can you BELIEVE thats the SAME horse?

From Megan herself:

Hi, earlier this year, you wrote a blog about a horse named Comet. I'm the girl who rescued him. I just wanted to update you on how he's doing. He's gained over 100lbs since I got him in March. I'm also starting to break him. I've ridden him a good 5 times, and he's very eager to learn. I have a couple of pictures I'm attaching to show you how much he's changed in the few months he's had with me. '

Then she sent the 'full' story:

So, I was supposed to go to New Hampshire for a riding internship, but things didn't work out, so I told my dad instead of me leaving, I wanted to get another horse. So I went and looked at dozens of horses, came close to buying a few, but nothing really stuck out. Like you, I'm an avid CL browser. I would literally go through days and days of ads for every place in the state looking for a horse that I could get for my mom. Then one day my friend Laryssa and I found the ad for Comet. I immediately called on him and asked to come out to see him. They told me I wasn't the first caller, but I was the first one to look at him. The guy told me that he was only skinny because he had a high metabolism. Well, that didn't seem logical because he was feeding 6 horses 4 bales of hay a day in the winter. That's not nearly enough. I told the guy to hold him for me and I would call him the next day with my answer. I was kind of leery at first because I didn't know what I was getting myself into. But then I looked at his pictures again and I couldn't say no. I called him the next day and told the guy I'd take him. Two days after the ad was posted, Laryssa and I got my trailer ready and went and picked him up. We took him into my garage as soon as we got him to my house to see the damage. The poor guy was caked in mud and skinnier than any horse I've ever seen. We brushed him as best as we could and cleaned him up. His coat was so dull and coarse from the malnourishment he had. He was quiet and just soaked up all of the attention. His belly must have been very sensitive though because every time we tried to brush the mud off, he tried to kick us. So everyday for over a month, I fed him Safe Choice grain and mixed that with Healthy Coat to help him gain weight. Slowly but surely, he started to gain weight back. We trimmed up his hooves after a few weeks then wormed him. Now he's a healthy 150lbs heavier and he's finally shed out into his beautiful summer coat. We thought he would end up being a boring brown, but instead he turned out to be a flashy black boy.

As for his name, we heard the guy say "Griffen," but we thought that was an ugly name. We decided that he had some very similar features to Laryssa's appaloosa, who is about the same age, and his name is Vixen. So we thought it would be cute to name Comet after a reindeer as well.

Isn't he just GORGEOUS now? He is just LOVING his life now - his eyes are completely different now.

Let's all give three HUGE cheers to Megan and to Comet, and lets wish them a long and happy partnership together :).

*********************************************************************

Of course I wouldn't forget a normal blog post, and it is Friday so that means our Fugly Stud of the Week. Erin sent this, and while its short, its full of Fugly.

Horse For Sale: 3 Year Old Buckskin Stud - $100 (Casey, IA)

15.2 hands to 15.4 hands approx. Grade. Green halter broke. You pick up. 45 minutes west of Des Moines, near I-80.

Friendly, first to greet you at fence. Proven stud, buckskin colt on premises. Nice action.

Nice horse but needs work, do not have time to work with him. Motivated seller.

$100 OBO

515------63, leave message if calling before 5PM on weekdays.

He's 3, and already has a foal on the ground. He's barely trained, and is standing behind barbed wire. *smackheadondeskandrepeattillbruised*.

Ok, this guy needs not just an upgrade, but a rescue and pretty damn quick, because if he doesn't slice himself on that wire, at that price, he'll be sliced up for other reasons.

*********************************************************************

HAVE A HAPPY AND SAFE 4TH OF JULY EVERYONE! PLEASE CHECK OUT THE LINKS ON THE CARNIVAL OF THE HORSE IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY.

Carnival Of The Horse & A Bit Of A Giggle!

2010-07-01T00:37:00.000-07:00

I am honored to be able to host July's edition of the Carnival of the Horse.

For those that don't have a clue what I am talking about, I'll do my best to explain. The following is taken from the "Enlightened Horsemanship Through Touch" blog.

A blog carnival is a monthly collection of writer-submitted blog posts about all things horsey.

Blog carnivals are a great way for bloggers to recognize each other’s efforts, organize blog posts around important topics, and improve the overall level of conversation in the blogosphere. Carnivals come in edited “editions,” like magazines or journals. Blog carnivals are edited (and usually annotated) collections of links that serve as “magazines” within the blogosphere, with readers clicking in from all over the world to enjoy each month’s offerings. Carnival hosts can earn a wider readership by providing high quality collections.

Since blog carnivals include a number of posts on specific topics, they also serve as a place to connect with those who are expert (or at least highly opinionated) and those who are interested in that field.

Basically, its a great way to find new horsey themed blogs, and for bloggers (like me!) to link up with each other. I honestly don't remember how I found it originally, but I can tell you how totally PSYCHED I was to learn that I was picked for July - one of my most favorite favorite months of the year!

So, without further ado, I present,

The Carnival of the Horse, July 2010

this to

Welcome to the July 1, 2010 edition of carnival of the horses.

Elise Fagerås presents

          href="http://taktur.blogspot.com/2010/06/make-horse-feel-like-sucsess.html"
>Make the horse feel like a sucsess
> posted at

          href="http://taktur.blogspot.com/"
>Kraften fra Hestene - The Power of Horses
>.

enlightenedhorsemanship presents

          href="http://www.enlightenedhorsemanship.net/2010/06/crazy-name-common-sense-journey-of-the-homing-pigeon/"
>Crazy Name = Common Sense: Journey of the Homing Pigeon
> posted at

          href="http://www.enlightenedhorsemanship.net"
>enlightened horsemanship through touch
>.

theliteraryhorse presents

          href="http://theliteraryhorse.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/the-mother-of-all-road-trips/"
>The Mother of All Road Trips
> posted at

          href="http://theliteraryhorse.wordpress.com"
>The Literary Horse
>, saying, "The Mother of All Road Trips, Pregnancy, and the Mafia, all in one day! Grab some fries and come visit."

Kerry Kelly presents

          href="http://blogs.chron.com/hoofbeats/archives/2010/06/post_1.html"
>How Horses Think
> posted at

          href="http://blogs.chron.com/hoofbeats/"
>Hoofbeats
>.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
carnival of the horses
using our

title="Submit an entry to “carnival of the horses”"
href="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_3973.html"
>carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our

title="Blog Carnival index for “carnival of the horses”"
href="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_3973.html">
blog carnival index page.

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I have to add this one in today. I know I've been a bit off kilter this week and last with the posting, but you all were just awesome and kept sending me ads anyways. Sarah sent me this with the comment "I think somebody is very confused..." and I just HAD to look.

And giggled. Looked at the ad again. Looked at the picture AGAIN. Giggled even harder. Decided that for the Carnival post I just had to throw it out there because it kinda fit with a carnival attitude.

I think this time I'll let the ad speak all for itself.

NOTE TO THE IDIOT OWNER THAT POSTED THE AD: The horse is BLUE NOT RED YOU FREAKING MORON!!!

! Last I checked anyways, BLUE and RED were nearly color wheel opposites...

Ok, one more time.

This is BLUE.

This is RED.

See the difference? Now lets compare to the horse in the picture. Which color does that horse match up to? If you guessed BLUE, you get a cookie!!!!! YEA!!!!!

As utterly stupid as this is, It still made me giggle. The horse isn't even that pretty. Why they want $8000 for that 3 year old gelding is wayyyyy beyond me, but at this point the whole red/blue debacle is so entirely dumb I can't help but sit here with a stupid smile on my face, and laugh at the moron that actually typed that out, KNOWING they didn't take the 2 stinking seconds to double check what it was they just wrote.

How dumb is that ad, really! (Thanks Sarah!)

And to Celeste and Sue - yes, both of you ladies sent me links to yesterdays ad. I believe one of you sent the individual ad links to the horses first, then the other sent me the one I featured yesterday.

Get this ladies - I opened up the 5 or so links to the individual ads, and left them open in my browser window for nearly 6 days. I rarely, if ever, shut my laptop off, and on top of that, since I have the 20 inch flat screen monitor hooked up to it, I just shut the monitor off without even touching the laptop.

So, as I was typing up yesterdays post, I had anywhere from 10-20 tabs open in my Chrome browser. Did I ever one time think to double check what I was typing might already be open? Heck NO! I got Celeste's email first, opened up the ads, left them open for later screenshotting (is that even a word?), and a few days later got Sue's email with the same horses. Did I connect the dots here? Nope, of course not.

Silly me :P. Who is the moron now, right? I WOULD do something like that. Between the heat, the new kitten, and my kids, my brain is just turned to jelly this week, I swear! We are at the start of our summer monsoon (big massive loud thunderous thunderstorms that flood areas fast and can cause lots of damage really fast) season here in Arizona, and the heat is just beyond oppressive. We need rain, and soon!

So, credit for yesterdays ad goes to BOTH Sue and Celeste, and kudos to both of you ladies for your sharp eyes on those horses. On a slightly serious note, they really do need some upgrading and soon, so if anyone is in the area, and can take on a great summer project horse, those paint horses would be perfect!

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And one more quicky note, tomorrow makes my 100th post!

YEA!

I know you all have been bugging and bugging me for an update on one story that made a huge impact with all of you. I have that update, and have been dying to share it. The update will be posted tomorrow for the 100th post.

I can't wait!

A Carnival For July; "They Won't Last Long".... How True!

2010-06-30T13:14:00.001-07:00

So, some while back while cruising through different blogs, I came across a very, very unique blog called Enlightened Horsemanship Through Touch (metta horsemanship). This blog I think is unlike any other blog out there but I'll let you head on over there and let her explain what the whole deal is. The link will go to the page describing the Carnival, btw.

She also created something called the Carnival of the Horses - a gathering of different blog entries from various blogs all horse related thats posted every month by a different host. I am going to be hosting July's Carnival - I should receive the info today sometime and I will put it up at midnight my time. So If you get a few extra minutes today, head over there and see what she's all about - you'll be there for quite a while reading, I assure you!

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Lets get back on track with the ads, shall we? (Well, as long as this half pound stinker stops walking all over my keyboard while I'M trying to type! I guess the clicking of the keys is too much for one ratty little kitten to resist! Oh, its amazing what a few feedings of wet cat food have done to this starving little ragamuffin...)

The ad features 3 paint horses up for sale. They are all in very poor shape, but the way the add is written they could be ALL be your next world champion. Uh huh.

1 Paint Mare, 2 Paint Stallions - $1 (NW Colorado)

I'm selling these horses for a friend on mine

First Photo: Striker is 9-10 years old. Sired by reigning champions, this special guy produces nothing but painted babies even on solid mares. Owner thinks he is possibly homozygous for the tobiano gene, though he has not been tested for it. He is very calm for a stallion, and a very pretty color that looks like cherry glazed chocolate. Could make a nice competing stallion with the right training. He has been ridden a few times a few years ago, so he sells green and untrained. He is a good solid 14.3h, and could build some massive muscle with some nice green grass to chomp on instead of just hay. $800

Seriously folks, there's hay, but if the horses are still looking that rough, there's something else going on here. He might have been sired by "

reigning champions", but he himself will not be that unless a freaking miracle happens. Why they are breeding him I will NEVER understand, because he's a crappy stallion. And its not just because of his weight. Geld him, and turn him into a great pleasure horse, do gymkhana's on him, mounted shooting, roping, heck whatever. Just stop breeding him, and for heaven's sake, a power pack from Panacur would do wonders here!

Second Photo: Silver Lady is a 4-5 year old grey mare. She is out of a APHA Paint stallion and an Arabian mare. She has the height and build of her sire, but is a bit on the skinny side after this winter and could use some nice green grass. She can be registered with PtHA, and I am looking into the possiblity of more from her pedigree. She has lived in the pasture most of her life and thus is a bit wild. She is starting to be halter broke, and learning to lead. She will soon start saddle training in the next month. Get her and finish her your way before training raises her price. Could make a nice trail or endurance horse. $600

This I think is one of the saddest mare's I've ever seen. Literally. The expression on her face - this is I believe one of the worst pictures I've seen on craigslist yet. If she could talk, I really think she'd be saying "just kill me now". With some TLC, this mare could be absolutely jaw dropping gorgeous. Look at her mane!

I think that the person writing up this ad probably got these horses dumped on them. Three half wild, mature horses that will barely lead, much less anything else is a pretty huge problem. I applaud the halter training (thats the long leads you see). Its a trick with mustangs to get them to teach themselves to give to pressure... they step on the lead and can't lift their head, the only way out of it is to back off and take a step backwards, thus releasing the pressure. Its actually a very humane way to halter break an older horse, once you can get the halter on them, that is. Its also an easier way to catch them if need be out in the pasture.

What I DON'T agree with is the saddle training in just a month. This mare will need much much more time than just 3 weeks before a saddle goes on her back. Thats rushing the job, and it will cause more harm than good in the long run when you have a horse that was half wild, a saddle thrown on its back, and so many holes in the training you can stick a car in it.

What "MY WAY" Would be is to keep working with her daily, get her weight up, and when she doesn't have her hips sticking out like that - THEN consider putting a saddle on her back. But my way would take several MONTHS to do that, not weeks.

This mare is still way too skinny for a saddle anyways. She needs at least another 100 pounds before I personally would feel comfortable putting a saddle on her without running a high risk of saddle sores.

The ad suggests you can register her with the Pinto Registry - well right now the Pinto registry is accepting just about any horse you want to throw at them!

Third Photo: Buster is roughly 5 years old, and 14.2h's. Sire is about right about 14.3h's, and dam was 14.2h's. Sire is a sorrel paint (paint listed above) and dam was a black paint. He is being sold as untrained, and he has never been saddled, though he is being halter broke. He is stout and could make an incredible show horse, but could use some nice green grass to really build up those muscles. He's grandsire is a World Champion Reining Show Stallion. Buster is still a stallion, but can be gelded before pick up. He could be homozygous for the tobiano gene but isn't guarenteed. His sire produces nothing but paints even on solid mares. I will provide more information on pedigree and registering him, once he's paperwork is located by owner. His sire is registered with APHA, so Buster can be registered with PtHA right now. $600

And again we have to ask, why is this horse a stallion? Because whomever owned them threw them in to a pasture and pretty much let them live out there unattended, thats why - for a very, very long time. This is the son of the FIRST stallion above - and they figure Jr here is about 5 years old.

I could go track down how much it would cost to register a 5 year old stallion with Paint - though I'm sure its several thousand dollars. It might be easier just to let his registration go at this point, or get him registered Pinto.

This whole ad is just one big screwed up CF, really. 3 Underweight, untrained, mature horses that barely know what a halter is? Yet this is what is everywhere.

The ad ends with the phrase "They Won't Last Long" - I have to ask what would have happened to them all had they stayed with the owner for another year - I seriously doubt they would have lasted that long.

They would make awesome project horses, I can promise that. The prices are actually decent at least - enough above meat prices to discourage those buyers, but not so high that its ridiculous.

I have the reply link if anyone in the area is interested, just mention it in the comments and I'll send it to you.

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The next week will continue to be a bit unusual in terms of posts. Not a normal week by any means. The Carnival will be tomorrow, then Friday will mark the 100th post. I have the update you have all be asking about - so make sure you come back and read the next two days for sure, you won't want to miss it!

KohKoh who has been 'helping' type this entire time, has made creating this post about 3 times longer than normal with all the backspacing, is now totally passed out on the top of her crate. It is totally and completely adorable. Yes, I crate train my cats, makes life so much easier when it comes to moving them. She has taken to domesticated life with a zest and energy that quite frankly, is wearing ME out. Or maybe its those 1 am and 4 am checks to make sure she uses the litter box if needed, and is fed if hungry......I forgot to mention she's only about 5 weeks old, and not nearly quite big enough to go roaming about the house at night by herself yet. Yes, I am a very nervous kitty mommy, and I would much rather her be safe in her extra large comfy crate on the floor next to the bed than worry about what peice of furniture she's gotten stuck behind!

Anyways, life is a bit more entertaining now, thats for sure!

The Reasons Why I Did Not Post From Thursday Till Now...

2010-06-29T23:40:00.000-07:00

....and those reasons would be in the form of two very small white things. Before I get into that, I will be back in the am with a 'normal' Worst of post, I promise.

However, this is just too darn entertaining NOT to share. :D

Thursday & Friday I worked close/open back to back shifts. Didn't get home till nearly 11pm Thursday, had to be back at 8:45am Friday. This normally wouldn't be an issue except I have this wonderful thing called Insomnia. Many, many of you are on intimate relations with that bedfellow, and he's not very fun. So, by the time I was off the clock Friday afternoon, with having to go to the grocery store and a few other after work things - I was about ready to fall asleep standing up Friday night. In all honesty, trying to get a blog post out Friday was just too much to think about.

Now, I am also starting to get involved in the model horse hobby (Breyers), and I purchased from a industry classified ad website a lot of Breyer horse bodies that were in various stages of being cut apart and put back together again. It was cheap, and just what I wanted to practice on. The box arrived Tuesday and I was just itching to get my hands dirty with them.

Between working on that (see more below), a very unexpected surprise at 2 am Saturday/Sunday morning, and my two kids spending nearly the entire weekend playing on my computer (yea, I never get weekend computer time anymore.) - I leave you to the blog post I wrote up for my other blog, faraetaildreamsart.blogspot.com.

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I've been invaded by small white things - some fluffy and some smooth.

That obviously would be the fluffy white thing. This is KohKoh. I think thats her name anyways. The kids change their mind every other second, but thats what they keep going back too. (Better than Muffins or Cupcake!)

Yes, the time on the picture is correct. See, a couple of days ago the boyfriend tells me to come outside to go see something. I'm up watching tv due to insomnia, and figured why the heck not. Cooler outside than inside anyways.

He grabs a small can of wet cat food, and sets it outside in our open carport. After a short wait, this is what comes scampering out from under his Dodge Truck.

We live in an area chock full with half feral and otherwise 'tame' cats that roam the neighborhood - kittens are fairly commonplace.

What is NOT commonplace is for one of those feral kittens to walk right up to a human as careless as you please and start asking for attention! Which, coincidently, is just about what this one did.

We watch it demolish half of the small pop-top can and the Boyfriend wonders out loud if we can pick it up. I look at him, smirk, walk over to it, and scoop it right up, thank you very much. (I come from a LONG line of female cat-whisperers!). It doesn't fight, just settles right in, starts rubbing its tiny nose on my chin and neck, and starts purring as loudly as it can.

Eya.

I need another cat like I need another hole in the head. However, one little affectionate nose rub and that was it. Thats all it took. I was done in - hook, line, and sinker.

The Princess on the Purple Pillow is here to stay, Methinks. KohKoh, meet the world. World, meet KohKoh.

Well, maybe after she wakes up.

For those interested in total gut wrenching cuteness, here is a link to a nearly 10 minute video of her playing on our living room floor. The kids in the background are both mine and the boyfriends. (The girl's legs you see with the blue flowered shorts is my daughter, and you'll hear both my son, myself, and my boyfriend's son talking in the video.)

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The OTHER small white thing is my very first Customized Traditional Breyer!

The box of bodies I bought off of the MH$B arrived a few days ago, and I dove right in.

This is the Amber stock horse foal mold. Traditional sized.

I got her in the lot nearly original, just missing her head. She had some notes written on her from Grace (the lady I purchased her from in the lot), but was pretty much the way you see her here.

This was my very first venture into Customizing Breyers. I had NO idea what I was doing, but with some helpful guides, and lots of reading online, I think I managed to do Ok.

I removed her tail, and cut some more slits in her neck. After I cut the slits, I took a (KIDS DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME) long handled lighter, and pretty much set her neck on fire. I *know* you are supposed to heat them with a heat gun or other forms of non-flame heat, but it was all I had at the time, since I have to do this outside. Thats her head there by my fingers.

While the neck was hot, I moved it a little bit more off to the side, so she'd be looking almost all the way behind her. While I was at it, I needed to reposition that right ear, so off it went.

{Edit that is not on the other blog: the idea was to have a small butterfly or bird 'land' on the hip on that side, and the foal is turning around to look at it. I discarded the idea though because I'm not entirely sure yet if its allowed in live model horse shows.}

I'll interrupt here and mention that when its recommended to wear eye protection when Dremeling - do it. Those tiny little chips of plastic that fly off are not only hot, but they sure HURT when they hit your eyeball! (And yes, I now have my very own pair of safety goggles.)

So this is what the neck looked like after some Amazing Sculpt from Unbridled, Inc. (Its in the background for the unintentional product placement lol.)

Next we have a tail, and the hint of a crease down her back.
I should also mention that I cut off the original mane too.

That head was a devil to put back on. Nothing I did would keep it in place - finally I took a piece of foil and folded it so it would fit snugly into both the hollow head and neck areas, and super glued it that way. The problem was it kept slipping no matter how long I held the head in place with whatever bonding agent. Lesson learned there! Once the quick set glue cured, I was able to go back in and fill with the Amazing Sculpt. Added a tail and a mane, and reattached the ear/filled in the hole where the ear was. I turned the ear just slightly more backward.

And she becomes a he! I also added some detail to the bottom of the hooves, but don't laugh - it was my first time sculpting frogs, and while they are passable, I wouldn't consider them perfect by any means. :) I also fixed ear tips, re-sculpted the muzzle, and touched up a few tiny other spots.

And the finished colt! Lots and lots and lots of sanding later - literally 4 hours worth Sunday afternoon with 2 redbox movies. Every cranny, bump, possible pockmark, everything I could see and some I couldn't. Several (lost count at 10) thin coats of primer to cover all those leftover brown spots also. I followed Danielle Feldman's Art of Prepping DVD as closely as I could, scrubbing with Comet and sanding carefully in-between coats of primer.

I sanded about another hour after these were taken, so the few areas where it looks to be a bit rough, aren't so much anymore. I also see now that the front leg is slightly bent more forward at the knee than would be ideal, but that would take more work to strip, fix, and re-prime and I'm not so sure I want to go that route.

I am debating on whether to try my hand at painting or try to sell as is. If I paint him, I see him as a splash black and white paint pattern - but for the first time out, I'm not so sure about the complexities of that. I haven't yet tackled painting yet - though I really want to learn how. There are other bodies in the box that need work too, that might be better 'guinea pigs' to try painting on.

Anyone out there involved in the hobby? I'd be curious to know what you think!

5 Away..

2010-06-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to apologize for no ad today.

I am literally writing this as I'm getting ready to run out the door to go get some badly needed errands done before going in to work this afternoon. I was hoping to get one up today, but it just didn't happen.

I also just happened to notice that I am at post count #95. Well, now, including this one, #96. That means in 4 posts I will be at post #100 - and that will be something to celebrate.

However I am CLUELESS as to what to do!

Totally open to suggestions, ideas, whatever you can think of.

Ok, out the door!

Oh, real quick - to the one reader that wanted the updated on Comet - I forgot to mention right then when I was reading that but I have attempted several times to get new pictures, and an update from Megan. I have checked into the ABN board at least once a week and nothing has been posted up there either. I've sent emails to her, and no reply. *shruggs*.

Have a good Thursday - and oh man, only one day left till Friday - then I get a 4 day vacation from work! Can't Wait!

Ride A Baby Wed

2010-06-23T12:10:00.001-07:00

So, I've decided to rename WTF Wed into Ride A Baby Wed for a while.

Todays Ride A Baby Ad I honestly thought I already had. I recognized the pictures, but I have just searched through 3 months worth of emails and didn't find it, with the exception of the email that Celeste sent yesterday. So, if you sent me this one, and I just overlooked it, please forgive me :).

I also realized exactly how many ads I have in my email that I need to grab before they go down too. So, if you have sent me one, and haven't seen it here yet, that might be why. I"m about a week behind, and I don't always get a chance to email back and say thanks - so please DO NOT take it personally if you don't get a response. I get an average of 20-30 emails a day, and I'd be sitting here for hours if I answered every one lol.

Throw in the business I'm trying to get off the ground, working part time, 2 kids - yeap. It adds up, doesn't it! (Plus, I have "Remember Me" Waiting in my computer's DVD player and I really want to see it before I go into work this afternoon! hehe.)

Off we go!

Pony quarter mix - yearling
1 yr and 4 months old. She is around 12.2 hh or (48inches)and has not grown much more. She is a good little girl that follows you around. She is good with the kids and other horses. I put a 6 yr. old girl on her and she was led around with no problem. She loves everything. I had her feet done and shots were done 3 months ago. Happy and healthy. This filly is going to be a med. to large pony and I was looking for a small pony or paint horse. I offer her as low as possible to get what I was looking for. She is a good pony but not what fits me now.
Looking for a paint foal filly or colt with color. A 36 to 42 in pony. Also looking for a 17 in leather western saddle. So trades are welcome or sell is offered.

Celeste (who is also "Dangerous" in the comments) wrote: It makes me sad because she looks super cute and smart and I'm sure she would make a great kid's pony if they would just not put anything on her back for another year! And how much do you want to bet that 6 year old had no helmet on?

Because people that do this just don't think. They obviously realize what age the horse is, they mentioned YEARLING in the Ad's title, for everyone to see. 16 months old, she's 16 months old, and has already been asked to carry a rider.

Will the morons ever stop being morons? Nope. But that doesn't mean we can't stop exposing them to the world!

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One quick comment regarding Melissa and her post. Its still getting a ton of traffic for me, and I appreciate it.

Please remember though, that she will NOT stop posting ads until those horses are either sold, or gone. By all means please keep posting them here, but it is what it is. She wants them sold that badly - then she'll do it when she wants to do it. I still encourage anyone in the area that wants to really help and go take one or both horses on. I'm sure that mare would make an incredible trail or children's mount with some work but someone needs to DO IT.

Mom will continue to defend her daughter's actions, no matter what we say or do. Thats the nature of being a parent to some people. I personally can't stand the parents that pretend they have perfect angelic children that once backs are turned - turn into little devils. (hmm, actually, that part amuses me. Cause the kids are obviously smarter than the parents at that point to not get caught - and if they ever do - they KNOW nothing will happen.)

I ask that you please keep the comments non-personal, no throwing neighborhood mud, and I won't have to turn the comments off, capiche?