Missing Mare – LARGE reward!
Dec 23 2009
Please network this around – this is in FLORIDA but the mare could, of course, have traveled. It really upsets me when people do not obey their adoption agreement. And before anybody even starts, no, I don’t have a problem with rescues that permit breeding a good quality registered mare, and that’s not the point here – the point is that everybody would like to ensure this mare is SAFE. So if you have seen this mare, please let them know!
$4000 cash reward for return of Thoroughbred mare HILL CITY MISS. She is a dark bay 2004 mare with a star on her forehead. She has no other white markings. Her tattoo # is H15828. She was adopted from New Vocations in January, 2008, by a small breeder in Umatilla, Florida, who has now admitted to selling her and violating the terms of the adoption agreement. She may have been sold for a polo pony but the original adopter doesn’t have any contact information in regards to the person who purchased her. Please help us find this mare. Pictures are attached. Contact Mary Johnson at 614-565-9400
~~~
So I just have to put in a few words about this entire type of situation. Folks, while we love it when you adopt from a rescue, NO ONE IS HOLDING A GUN TO YOUR HEAD. If you do not want to abide by whatever that particular rescue has you agree to, go get a horse straight from a private seller. You can get racehorses all day direct from the trainer via the LOPE site and many others. There are plenty of ex-racers at the auctions! You can choose that route, and have NO conditions to agree to. If you DO choose to adopt and sign a contract, have the decency to honor it as you would any other contract. All most rescuers want is to know that the animal is safe. They truly don’t (well, the sane ones!) want to micro-manage its entire future. It won’t kill you to make a phone call and let them know if the animal isn’t working out for whatever reason.
What a cute mare. I hope she is in polo, and that someone knows with whom and can reassure the rescue that she is safe!
39 comments to “Missing Mare – LARGE reward!”
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Oh no, I really hope she is safe and sound somewhere and did not end up someplace bad!
I’m hoping and praying for good news. Also, I will keep an eye out and spread the word.
Please keep us posted.
I am having this SAME problem right now – I’m not a rescuer, but I sold a horse very dear to me due to financial difficulty but had a strict clause in the Bill of Sale that if he was to be sold, I got first right of refusal – though they knew (and I told them as much) that I would take him back irregardless because I didn’t want to lose him. Well, we used the same farrier and he told me a lady called him and said she was told he used to do the horse and she would like him to pick him back up – and said she bought him from these people. He immediately called me and told me they had sold the horse! I made calls and they said they would sell him back to me, but suddenly are not returning my calls… am possibly looking at going to court to get him back if I can prove he was sold. I refuse to lose this horse to the world. It’s only been a year and half, and they live close to me – but they moved (still close) and didn’t tell me where the horse was at. Any advice???
That’s really unfortunate and I’m afraid something like this could happen to my aunt’s horse that I have to help her sell for financial reasons.
But first – which “they” have you called? The people you sold the horse to or the person who currently is in possession of the horse?
If you havent called the current owner, the one who called the farrier, why not call her and talk to her, see if you can meet her, see the property and the horse? You noted you sold the horse because of financial difficulty – are you in a position to really take him back, and would you be able to keep him for a long amount of time? As wrong as the people you sold him to were for breaking your clause, if this new owner isnt a bad owner and was wanting to be a long term home in the first place, why not let her keep the horse and try to work out a buy back clause from her? I only say this because she checked up on his feet and farrier and called him – and obviously its a farrier you like, because it’s your farrier as well. That strikes me as responsible.
Of course if youre either ready to take this horse back financially full time, or this new person is a poor horse owner in any way, I’d take legal action.
LuvMyBayTB,
You really need an address for these people, if you can get one. Any decent lawyer can get a right of first refusal clause enforced, and its usually not a painful process (it probably won’t even make it into court if your contract is explicit), but trying to locate the people is going to run up your bill and delay the process. If that number you have is a landline, the white pages section of http://www.yellowpages.com might give you their new home address. Otherwise, you’re going to have to be more sneaky. Heck, see if you can find a mutual acquaintance and convince them you owe this family a Christmas card.
Finding the horse would also be nice, but you need to find where the family is actually living in order to use the court system to enforce your contract. You don’t want to waste time and money fighting about jurisdiction (which court should hear the case) while someone is running off with the horse.
Also, make sure you have enough money on hand to buy the horse- you don’t want to go through all of this and have to let the offer go.
That’s awful. If they breached their contract you can go after them, but you should talk to a lawyer for sure. The sooner the better.
That’s too bad. I’m very familiar with New Vocations since a good friend of mine has adopted two horses from them, and I had talked to them about a rehoming case with another horse I knew. I frequently window shop there too.
I have to say that their web site is the best I’ve ever seen for a rescue. It’s also obvious they put a TON of time into getting to know their horses initially then riding & working with them to figure out what their exact athletic potential is (or is not). Their evaluations of each horse are very thorough; and, quite frankly, I think their adoption fees are insanely low for what I know they’re putting into each horse in terms of general time, riding/work, food, and vet care.
I can’t afford to feed/house another horse right now, but I will most likely adopt from them when the time comes since my goal is to find a big, athletic dressage horse. They’ve had a few come through that were exquisite dressage prospects. And I don’t care what warmblood people say…a TB that’s properly trained with the conformation and athleticism to match is a much better dressage mount in my opinion. (I do love warmbloods too…LOL).
Anyway, I can assure all the readers out there that New Vocations has done exactly what a responsible rescue should do. It’s not their fault this happened.
what a CUTE face! I just want to kiss her nose!
I am new to posting but been a long time reader. I live about 10 mins from Umatilla Fl. I hope they find this mare safe and sound. I find it absolutely absurd that the original adopter did not get any information on who was buying her horse. People these days just blow my mind.
As the story goes, the man was out of the country at the time. Someone came to look at horses, which is pretty normal supposedly for this guy because he buys and sells a lot. Well one of his underlings sold the mare and didnt bother or didnt think or didnt know better and get info.
or so the story goes :-S
What a shame. I hope she is found safe and happy.
I sure hope they find the mare safe, sound and healthy! She’s a beauty! Hoping for a happy ending for her!
yeah, but a $4,000 reward ? is this rescue rolling in the dough?
The money isnt being put up by NV. It is being put up by the OTTB mare’s contacts as I understand it.
I’m in Palm Beach/Wellington and polo is just gearing up around here. I’ll go post this at the local tack shops and see if that works. I’m sure if she was sole for a polo pony this would probably be where she’s headed.
If you would do that, that would be AWESOME!
Honestly, if all she is right now is a green polo prospect, I’m pretty sure $4000 will be plenty to buy her back. Polo ponies aren’t worth money til they’re trained. Before that, they’re “Thoroughbreds that are too short for the h/j people to want” and the price is usually between free and $1000.
The tack shops are closed today, but I dropped a flyer off at IPC polo grounds. After Christmas I’ll go to Tackeria and post some there.
Hopefully if she was sold into Polo it at least means she’s safe. And a 4k reward is more than enough incentive to get her back. I hope the people who bought her will be nice enough to give her back without the reward so the rescue doesn’t lose out.
LuvMyBayTB
You have a contract. Chase them down.
I had that happen to me once. I sold my trakehner gelding to a woman who wanted to use him as a trail horse for next to nothing. I wanted to see him go somewhere stress free and happy so let him go for far less than market value and we signed the same type of contract. Then she immediately tried to flip him for the money he was worth and told people in our small town that she was breaking the contract because we had abused him (which NO one believed). My coach, his original breader and myself just went to her house and grabbed him. She huffed and puffed and threatened all kinds of crazy bullshit which we informed her she was more than welcome to carry through with but in the meantime he would be with us. Of course we never heard from her again.
This would have much more difficult had she managed to sell him before we took him back. I am not necessarily recommending that you march in there and snatch him, but please don’t feel timid about this. You may not have to go to court if you still have the contract in had. I know lots of people who have just had to wave the document in the new owners face to make the point.
Good luck to you and the owners of that adorable TB. I’m misanthropic on a good day but crap like this makes me livid.
Something similar (without the paperwork *sigh*) happened to my boyfriend’s sister.
She was going through a bad time; her mom had just died and she had to do the right thing by her “closest horsey friend” in all the world.
She had the filly, now a mare, from her “closest horsey friend” and a couple other horses for whom she was looking for homes. The emotional and financial toll were pretty fresh and overwhelming. A “rescue” took advantage of the fact and took in her mare with the understanding that the mare not be bred and be returned to her should the “rescuer” need to make a change. No paperwork; though reading this shows me the paperwork may have been moot. The mare is registered by my boyfriend’s sister kept the registration papers; for all the good that may have done.
I bet you can guess the rest. The “rescuer” and the mare disappeared. I’ve since found the mare; for sale for $5000. She’s listed as “registered.” I’m not sure how that works since she wasn’t signed over in the first place. I’m new at this, remember. Anyhoo, I don’t have the money to buy this horse or help with hay, farrier, vet, etc. or I’d get her back for my boyfriend’s sister; she has a place to keep her. It’s all very sad as BF’s sister has recently been diagnosed with 2 kinds of cancer.
Damn! I wish I could get her horse back for her.
I went OT. Sorry. These kinds of stories remind me of what I wish I could do but can’t. *sigh*
~New_at_52
If you want to share that with me, I’ll be happy to check out the “rescue.” Sounds pretty shady.
Years and years ago, I gave a filly to a co-worker of a good friend of mine. This filly was born with a malabsorption problem and a hemi-vertebrae (ask my why I don’t like Impressive breeding!!) all diagnosed through painstaking veterinary care, and labs being sent to Michigan State etc..and tons of vet bills! Anyhow..this person (Oh…she was a cruelty investigator for the local Humane Society!!!!!!!, as was my friend) was looking for horse or donkey to keep her pasture pet donkey company. So, we talked, and I told her all of the issues with this little gal, and she was so highly recommended and her donkey girl was so sweet and cared for, that I place the filly with her. The agreement (of course, I this is now why all is in writing and drawn up by an attorney) was, she was NEVER to be ridden, sold, bred, given away etc. That at ANY time I would take her back and she could live with me forever. I received a registered letter one day from an attorney, sueing me for her papers! They had her for sale, she was now under saddle and they wanted her to be able to be used as a broodmare! Anyhow…my attorney said she would eat the horses registration papers before surrendering them. I did not have to give up the papers, but, was told that they could indeed do as they wished with her. Oh..she was no longer a cruelty investigator after this..but, I never did get my horse back..and I still worry about her to this day. This was about 14 years ago….and I am quite certain that she is hopefully be euthanized by now. By the time she was three years old, she had pretty nasty ringbone (from the malabsorption issue, minerals did not get used properly by her body). She actually told her attorney, that the reason she didn’t want to return her was that I would kill her…yeah..that’s why I had a bald, pasture ornament Percheron for the 18 years of his life..and a 40 year old pony at that point in time..oh, and a 36 year old gelding, also an ornament.
And, the reason that I have a slightly useable early teen gelding sitting in my barn that I am afraid to place anywhere.
So..that is my horror story.
I hate people.
And I will pray that that beautiful mare finds her way back where she belongs, safe and sound.
did you see where another horse was slaughtered in florida??it was a bay and nobody has claimed one missing
wonder if maybe its rel;ated
While I agree that the terms of the contract should have been followed BY THE ADOPTER, I think there might be some sympathy due to the BUYER. (Not necessarily, of course… but I just wanted to put forth another side to this story.)
I was in the buyer’s position recently. I was tracing my new mare’s prior owners, just to get a chronology and some history since the mare was a severely-abused rescue. I found out that the mare had been ADOPTED by the person I got her from, and that she (the person I dealt with) had NO authority to sell her to me. The contract indicated that the mare was to go back to the rescue if the adopter could not keep her.
Imagine how *I* felt!!! If I had to return the mare to the rescue, what would I have been left with? A big bag o’nothing. Not to mention the time and money and BONDING that I had been putting into the mare; the last thing she needed was to have to start all over with someone else. I’m happy to say that the rescue decided the mare was in good hands with me. But I have to say that if I had known then what I know now, I might not have approached the rescue just out of fear of what might happen to “my” girl. I’m not sure all rescues would have decided to leave her with me, even with it being an acceptable home.
This is exactly my argument – anyone who breaches a contract is bad news, but the new buyer can be just as much a victim, if not MORE of a victim than the horse.
Just because the new buyer associated with someone shady, doesnt mean they themselves are. Afterall, the adopter was sneaky enough to pull the wool over an entire rescue org, and pass their adoption test.
I hope, when they do find this mare, they evaluate the home she’s currently in. If it’s acceptable and the new owners are willing to sign the rescue group’s contract for good measure, then I dont see why they should put the mare through the stress of moving – again. I DO think the original adopter should be taken to court – by the NEW OWNER. If they bought that mare, and then sign a contract with an adoption agencey, they are losing money. They can no longer resell that horse for any money recovery or monetary gain, and the adopter never should have been able to gain money off the horse. The new owner is owed the money they spent, AND the horse, IMO.
isnt this messed up what these guys are doing?? must see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omgF2NqgXsw
That has already been covered by this blog when it happened, but I would love an update. I’ll have to check into that. I was hoping to have some extra time over the holidays to catch up but the truth is a huge pile of discovery documents seems to be threatening to follow me home over Christmas
So we will see how it goes…
Just found your blog. Wow. Where have you been all my life? Completely awesome!
Yeah, unless they plan to sue for breach of contract to recoup the reward money from the seller (which is not a bad idea), that is an awful lot of hay these days.
And honestly that’s why I will always deal directly with trainers and brokers and not with rescues unless they sell the horses without condition. I don’t “adopt” an expensive piece of personal property that’s going to require substantial further expense on my part, I *buy* it. Nor would I accept a bill of sale with a first-refusal or buyback unless it’s stipulated that I set the price, not the previous owner (I’m going to put in time and money on a horse and then have to sell and be trapped into taking only what I paid on purchase? Conversely I sell a horse, it’s no longer in condition to be used, and I as seller am supposed to take it back for the original price?) I can then do what I want with it (sell, breed, give away, whatever) without having to worry about adoption contracts. It’s a lot simpler. And you can often get horses much cheaper that way, at least if you want OTTBs. Or, heck, call the brokers who buy for meat price, you’re still generally looking at less than $1000/animal. Why get yourself into a breach of contract suit or be stuck losing money on a sale when you can pick up a decent horse outright for pocket change these days? With CANTER and FLTAP you don’t need a middleman for the OTTBs any more.
I do hope for a happy ending for this mare, but, hate to say it and call a spade a spade, but she is GD ugly.
$4000 seems like a lot for a rescue. Is the horse actually worth that, or are they just trying to make a point?
How legally enforceable are these buy-back clauses? If Owner 1 sells a horse to Owner 2 with a buy-back agreement, then Owner 2 sells the horse to Owner 3 in violation of that agreement, can Owner 3 be legally forced to sell the horse back to Owner 1?
Assuming it can be enforced as ‘breach of contract’, I’m betting the ‘adopter’s’ memory would improve after being served with the relevant papers, and possibly held in contempt of court. Has the rescue considered going that route? It might be a better use of the $4000.
I hope they find that mare safe.
In the world of “contracts” and buying/selling horses, the only time the contract seems to be enforceable is if you have a junkyard dog lawyer (not meant as an insult to lawyers, but you can’t have some timid soul with a briefcase doing your legal work) standing at your side with a bunch of body builder types behind you both to underscore the fact that if the person signing the contract renigs on it, they are TOAST because YOU have some serious backup.
A person I know whose adult child is an attorney for Disney had a contract to buy a “warmblood in name only” that we ALL knew was a gigantic mistake. Wrong horse, wrong temperament, didn’t clear the vet check (but the person found a “vet” who said flexion tests didn’t mean anything, which translated as a go-ahead to buy the horse). The person paid $8,000 for this POS, with the contract stipulating that if the horse did not work out, the seller would buy the horse back for the same price.
After numerous trips to the hospital, including one 12-day stay in CCU that cost well over $60,000, the person tried to return the horse and the seller said he had cancer, he had no money, he didn’t really mean to sign the contract, and he kept delaying and stalling and … long story short, the seller was GIVEN the horse, no money returned, so he could pull the same crap with the next gullible buyer.
The attorney-child did not help enforce the contract. Not sure why, but at any rate, the contract was not worth the paper it was printed on. At least there were no attorney fees involved.
Even if you have a LEASE agreement for your horse, there are problems. I leased an AQHA gelding back in the 80s to a woman whose a**hole husband objected to feeding a gelding. I asked him outright if he was threatened by having a gelding on his place. My horse came back a rack of bones because the a**hole did NOT feed him. I was appalled, but there was nothing I could. The lease was over and because I couldn’t stand to look at that couple (two uglies and they were having mirror image children), I just told them off and that was that.
I cried every day I showed up to feed and love my horse for a month until he started looking better (God bless “easy keepers”). And I swore to him that I would NEVER lease him EVER again.
Having all your data in order and having addresses, phone numbers, descriptions, and a journal of your efforts to make things right are all good things to have if you have to contact the authorities to help you with your horse situation. Good luck to everyone in these circumstances.
And I never did.
A friend GAVE AWAY a very nice ex-show horse who had an old injury to his ankle ( he was shot years ago by a hunter in his pasture) so he could not be ridden any more. The people knew of his old injury, but said they had a huge pasture that they would just allow him to graze in it for the rest of his life. The owner thought long and hard and decided it was the perfect home for the horse so he left him go. Well, a couple of weeks later, a friend called the orginial owner and told him that they’d just seen a horse that looked alot like their horse go thru the local auction, it had the same ankle injury and everything. So, the orginal owners flys over to the people they had given the horse to to see if they had sold it. They were told it had “died” and that they’d buried it way out back in the woods. The orginal owner wanted to see the grave site, then the truth came out. They’d quickly taken the horse to the sale and got a few bucks out of him. They sold him so quickly, they probably never had any intention of keeping him. Just told the orginal owner a good story so he would give the horse to them thinking it would have a good and forever home. That story sure made me question every buyer that every comes to my house. I don’t believe any story, no matter how good it sounds, until I know the truth.
I adopted BigTime Macho from New Vocations, he is a great horse, 17 years young. New Vocations is a great organization, with a very straight forward adoption contract. I like that if for some reason I can’t keep Macho anymore, they will help me find him a new, approved home.
I almost got a horse who was on a first refusal contract. I was looking at him as a pony club horse and although he had been a pasture ornament for a couple years, his owners said he had done dressage and jumped with his previous owners. I was a teen at the time. My mom contacted the previous owners to find out the extent of his training and they were pissed that he was for sale! They went right over and bought him back themselves. It turned out that the “$1200″ horse I was looking at was a $12,000 horse! His original owners tuned him up, got him back in shape and resold him for that a short time after all that happened.
I like to contact previous owners, especially if they owned the horse while it was in training, breeding, etc but this is another reason to talk to them. They may want the horse back and you will avoid all of the issues I’ve read about in these posts! I feel sorry for the people who buy a horse and then someone tries to take it away.
“I leased an AQHA gelding back in the 80s to a woman whose a**hole husband objected to feeding a gelding.”
!?!?!?!?!!!!!!????!?!?!?! That’s a new one on me….. What weird breed of primate is THAT? Extreme male insecurity, amplified by ignorance that he’s probably proud of?? I’m surprised he “let” the woman actually use the phone or go off the property….
Anyway, I assume this is up on NetPosse? I am afraid of the random orange links here, and didn’t see your usual brown ones….
I’ve said before that I broke all my own rules when I acquired Chip – including the verbal agreement thing.
Is there a good website that has generic lease/adopt/bill of sale/giving away forms on it? I used one such site when I reluctangly became a landlord, and it came in VERY handy when I had to evict the relative who magically transformed herself into a Springeresque bottom-feeder, and all her little friends, too.
I’d like to go back to the people who gave me Chip and get it all sorted out, because… well, just because. They seem like a perfectly nice (even if nonvaccinating homeschooler) family (heck the dad works for Trader Joes, ha ha), but we all know how that goes. We’re just starting to get genuinely attached to the old guy.
I sort of feel, too, that it can’t hurt your reputation in your local horse community if you do things “by the book.” It will help weed out the diehard trade-a-horse-for-a-load-of-hay “Gypsies” (and I don’t mean the hairy horses), who will probably just think you’re too weird to even TALK to, and if you’re going to buy & sell or work with kids at all, your upper-end clientele (and potential clientele) will be impressed.
Do you have a friend or acquaintance who is a lawyer? You really are better off using a real professional instead of a website- websites often go out of date, or have forms that don’t take into account quirks of state law. If a lawyer messes up, you have the option of pursuing a malpractice remedy, but if you do it on your own you’re up a certain creek without a certain propulsion device. Finally, given the prices for the websites and form software, you really aren’t saving a lot of money, if you know someone you trust to just plug your information into a form that works and not run up your bill.
Another thing you might look for is a local trade association- sometimes they have forms that members can use, or a list of professionals they stand by. I don’t know if these exist in the horse world or not, but if they do, membership in an active one is usually very worthwhile.
Have to agree with who said the buyer may not be aware of the horse history, may not be guilty. Especially if you are not anexperienced buyer you can get entangled in shadowy situations without any fault else that naivity. I got my mare from a dealer, not being especially experienced in buying horses, it soon became clear that they had lied about her training, and a lot more, and that this mare had lots of issues. All “horse experts” that saw her told me she was trouble and to bring her back while I could and get my money back. But I had just fallen in love with her, screwed up as she was! I don’tknow where she comes from, or how, how did the dealer get her etc, but I never dared asking clarifications to the dealer or try to trace her former history for fear that someone may want her back, which honestly I doubt, but the world is so absurd that anything may happen. She is a difficult horse but she found the right place with me, if I were to lose her I would become dangerous.
did they ever find her? you know, i sold a registered solid paint mare that could be her identical twin sister. litterally. same markings, birthdate and everything.