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!
