There are no words
Aug 14 2010
The fact that this mare is alive, interested in life, and nickering her head off is proof of an amazing spirit. I mean, there’s obviously nothing else keeping her alive. This is all heart.
She has been surrendered and is with Strawberry Mountain Mustangs now. There is a paypal link on their web site:
I can’t think of a cuss word severe enough to apply to this situation so I will just say this about her owner, who I will ID when I can: Our legal system will never be able to do anything truly appropriate to you, so I hope karma gets you. I really do.
217 comments to “There are no words”
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Geez! I’ve NEVER seen a horse that skinny still standing! The only thing keeping that mare up is her heart! I wish I could help out some how, but I have no money to send and no more room for any more horses. If she recovers fully, she’s going to be an absolute jewel! I absolutely LOVE her kind eyes and cheerful expression, she seems to know she’s in better hands. It makes me cry to think of a horse (or any animal for that matter) going through something like that. Why can’t people take care of their animals like they’re supposed to? This just makes me sick beyond words, and even more sick that I can’t do anything but rant about it! Ugh, sometimes I just hate the human race!
PS An excellent YouTube mashup of the mustang roundups, with political commentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-mh7uHAXNM
I had to walk away from a guy last night at auction who was probably about a 2…she makes him look like Pavarotti…I would have taken him but I don’t have the resources available to do him justice…instead I donated the $50 it would have taken to get him out to help out the rescue who got this girl…its better in the long run…if I had a job it would be a different story
the gelding that I had to walk away from had a freeze brand of a curb bit on his right shoulder…does anyone know who that brand belongs to? He also had a racing tattoo but I didn’t get it down and the office had no information (didn’t even have that he raced even though he had an obvious racing injury that had healed badly)…I am notoriously bad at google (made research for my thesis in undergrad more difficult than it should have been) so my inability to find anything isn’t terribly surprising…the only other information i have on him is that supposedly he is 4 years old and a chestnut gelding in southern CA
http://www.jilllaneqh.com/CurbBitBrand.html
You might want to contact Jill Lane Quarter Horses. Looks like the brand came from the late Blane Schvaneveldt, who just passed away last month.
I did manage to find her (several google searches after posting lol) and sent her an email…not expecting much but at least i tried ^_^
Also, I think her name should be “Karma Chameleon”
Because I bet she looks like a million bucks in six months.
Set through our local London AR auction. Have never seen so many bloodied horses. Brother-in-law saw the owner’s truck hauling horses in from up north, I guess that’s why they were so ruff. And next Saturday the same owners do an auction in Sallisaw OK so I guess the horses will be shoved back into the trailer for that experience. As usual, some really skinny horses. The worst were mare/foal combos, BCS 2 or 2.5. There was a 2 y.o. stud that didn’t sell. He was BCS 2, you could see all his ribs. So the owner took him back home – to slim him down some more? What do these people do in winter???
There is a trailer house on 3 acres on the road that our rented pasture is on. Heard from one of the neighbors that this past winter the 3? horses they had were visibly starving. One neighbor bought a few square bales from the feed store and dropped them over the fence. Week later another neighbor brought a round bale on his tractor and dropped it over the fence. When that was gone, somebody called in Animal Control. Rumor is, they took the worst looking horse, but couldn’t take the others as long as they were above BCS 2.5. Was told the owners were really mad at whoever turned them in. They did buy awful looking round bales for the rest of the winter. But then summer came and the grass came up, and they quit feeding hay. Don’t know if they had 2 horses or more, but regardless the grass never got over 1 inch tall in that yard. By July it started to die out and the only green was from the weeds. I was venting one day about this situation to a friend of mine, turned out the owners of starving horses are her cousin-in-law or something like that. Sure enough, they’ve been arrested on drug charges before, had their kids taken away, the whole lot… Story continues, these people actually put in an effort and put in a fence around the remaining half acre of front yard so that they could let the horses graze there. Too bad the effort came too late for one of the horses. My friend got a call a couple of weeks ago from her cousin and was told that one morning out of the blue, the horse was just laying out dead with his head on the front porch.
And lastly, I’m going to tell on myself. This past February we took a 12 months+ colt from a friend who was taking his horses to the sale barn. The pasture we put him into had our 2 fillies. They were both 10 months old at the time. A week or so later I noticed that one of the fillies was flirting with the colt. Mind you, it was such a cold spell that the ice on the water trough would freeze 4 inches thick each day and there was a bunch of snow on the ground. So I called my vet and explained the situation. Her opinion was that it wasn’t the season for the fillies to come into heat and they were all too young anyway – but to bring the colt as soon as the weather got a bit better. Well, time does fly and I didn’t get around to bringing the colt till April 4. Skip a few months. This Monday I was running my hands over the fillies and noticed that one’s teats had more shape to them than the other’s. So I scheduled an appointment to ultrasound and sure enough, the one that had thickened teats is with foal. The position indicates the term of 4 months+ and it’s too late to Lutalise. So we’re waiting a month or so for the end of this deathly heat and then she’ll be going to the vet to slip her foal. Shame on me for letting it happen and thank God I noticed the signs.
This is probably the number one problem I see with owners of young colts– we all see them as babies, they see themselves as ‘big boys’. Add to that the old belief that colts shouldn’t be gelded until they are yearlings, and we end up with these accidental pregnancies.
Many years ago, I pulled up to a reputable breeding farm in early early spring. Saw the owner, and said, “Do you have any uncut colts in that paddock? Because you have a colt mounting a filly.”
Response: “That’s the weanling paddock. There are couple of colts, but they are too young.”
Me: “Your too young colt is breeding one of your fillies. Right now, actually.”
Response: “Holy…..”
The colt was either 8 or 9 months old, and a crypt to boot. Colts were pulled out, filly taken care of to prevent a pregnancy, but the point is that it happens to the best owners sometimes.
Glad to see you are taking responsibility for the result, instead of ringing your hands, shrugging, and letting it go to term.
OT, but does anyone know if there’s any truth to what this craigslist poster says?
Reply to Horse wanted
Date: 2010-08-16, 3:47AM EDT
Reply to: sale-zs2r6-1901111116@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]
Go to sugarcreek auction and save one or to the Rescue areas . There is a rescue in Wayne Co. and Happy Trails is one in Revena.There are more in Ohio just search Rescues in Ohio….You can get one for $200.00 I would never sell my Horse for that also unless there was a paper signed that it didn’t go to slauter…There are going to be better horses at the Auctions now that the owner of the horse being sold there has to sign papers stating that the horse has had no drugs in the past 6 months and needs a coggins or the owner has to pay for the shipping to Canada and back if sold to a meat buyer and it test positive at the boarder. So an Auction will be a better place now to buy a horse and you don’t have to worry about it having any drugs in it.
That post is totally unclear, so I’d be more likely to call the auction house and ask politely about any new regulations, instead of listening to someone with a third grade writing skill.
I’m not sure if the poster is talking about the new regulations that the EU has put into place regarding medication in horses. If she is, here are the rules that came into effect July 31/10 in Canada and supposedly also applies to any horsemeat coming out of Mexico and being shipped to the EU as well.
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/meavia/man/ch17/annexee.shtml#e4
Have any drugs or vaccines been administered to or consumed by the animal during the shortest of the following 3 periods: since January 31, 2010, in the last 180 days, or during the time you owned the animal? Circle Yes or No.
“The shortest of the following three periods.”
In other words, it’s political posturing. All they have to do is ID the horse, say they haven’t given it anything since owning it (Well duh, they sometimes don’t even feed, let alone medicate), and off it goes, well saturated with whatever it’s real owner put into its system.
Has anyone read Joe’s TBFriends.com post today? This poor girl’s twin is featured, along with a few other TBs.
I personally know nothing about this product but I have been reading some rave reviews from rescues and others who have tried it for thin and starving horses. The problem is it is manufactured in TX and will only ship large amounts to other parts of the country. There are people that are going together to have a truckload delivered to other areas. Just putting this out for anyone who is interested.
http://www.thrivefeed.com/ThriveIn.html
Grace is famous!
http://www.kmtr.com/news/local/story/Seriously-emaciated-horse-rescued-in-Roseburg/LkMhnLX2S0Ok_5JP2Ek6NA.cspx
Just my two cents on the shoeing job– the mare has had shoes on for a while, as evidenced by the height of her heels, and the slight contraction of heels on her back feet. Knowing the type of shoes probably won’t help– there are only a few brands out there anyway, and most of them are bought at the same types of stores.
I wouldn’t be blaming the farrier in this case– I’d be offering a reward to any farrier who could recognize the mare. If nothing else, the style of shoe job often points to a particular type of farrier. Were the clinches half filed? What size nails were used? Were the shoes lined up with the heels or allowed to extend behind the heels?
Hopefully they took a lot of pictures of the mare before disposing of her body.
Sighs~
This is supposed to be on the other new thread with the dead mare in the street.
~goes off to drink some coffee or something~
I also noticed the similarities between Grace and Mims on TB Friends! Here’s hoping they both make full recoveries.
ACCORDING TO THE SOUTH GATE POLICE DEPARTMENT DETECTIVE BUREAU WHOM I JUST CALLED, THE L.A. COUNTY DOWNY ANIMAL CONTROL CENTER IS INVESTIGATING THE CRIME.
Let’s hope they’re better at criminal investigations than any of the “Animal Cops†on television.
I rode professionally for thirty years, still ride and own racehorses, been in the horse business forty years, and now work as a government investigator. All my horses get the best of everything including homes for life whether or not they win at the track. What follows is my professional opinion based on the photographs and limited information in the news stories. If y’all think it useful, I’ll send it to the investigative agency… just in case they don’t know horses any better than their television counterparts…
The party or parties responsible for this mare’s death do not live in poverty. They are likely upper-middle-class. They planned to take the mare to the LA County Animal Control center on Garfield Avenue then chickened out; the county animal shelter on Garfield Avenue would be the only reason to take a horse to that area. The subject/s likely had with them a computer-generated map of the area. Such a map (either printed or on hand-held computer device) is the only way the subject/s could have known to dump the mare on dead-end Gardendale, around the corner from the LA County Animal Control center on Garfield. The mare did not originate in that part of town (apartments and light industrial including the animal shelter sit north of Gardendale, solid middle-class and white collar residential areas south of Gardendale). The mare did not come from LA proper. She did not likely come from Gardena (north of the dump site) or Lancaster (Long Beach area) because both those locations have animal centers.
If this were Law & Order, I’d have my department’s tech guru obtain a list of all persons who searched Internet map websites for the addresses of Los Angeles County Animal Control centers in the days leading up to the mare’s being dumped. Next I’d start asking questions in the Bellflower neighborhood. Bellflower fits the profile (small properties zoned for horses, middle-class to upscale, many in economic distress, closest animal shelter would be the one on Garfield around the corner from the dump site). I found a reduced-price horse property located just off the 605 Freeway which is 7.8 miles from the LA County Animal center on Garfield. Easy access, minimal surface street time, low visibility.
Longer-shot places to visit would be La Mirada, Silverado, Trabuco Canyon and several others within ten miles of the dump site. These have “horse properties†with barns and/or pens hidden from the street. Dollars to donuts, the mare came from one of those places.
Based on the mare’s profile and jaw shape, she is likely to be a modern QH or a TB or a grade including one or both of these breeds. The slope of the shoulder, croup and pastern angle indicate that the mare was not probably not a gated breed or gated grade. She was a tall girl with a nice long forearm and short cannons. If the police officer in the photos is an average-sized man, the mare stood 15.2 or better.
Preliminary hypothesis is that this was a classy mare starved to the brink of death over a short period of time. She was not a geriatric, not ridden in a harsh mechanical hackamore. Based partly on the length and condition of the hind hooves, the individual/s caring for the mare probably stopped feeding her (completely stopped feeding her) as recently as two months prior to her death. The mare’s coat does not carry an appearance characteristic of prolonged (longer than two to six months) starvation and neglect. Long-term malnutrition would’ve produced a hoof which could not hold a shoe. The L hind may be a corrective shoe; it appears to extend past the rear of the hoof. The shoes are clean and could be aluminum, but if this was a TB race mare she had not raced for four to six months prior to her death based on the length of her mane. If a racing TB or QH, she was not housed at an open-for-business training center or racetrack where her condition would have been unnoticed. (Backsiders would’ve ratted out the owners; I know whereof I speak; I’m a backsider who owns racehorses and also works as a government investigator.)
The hind hooves are overgrown in atypical fashion indicative of restricted movement. Based on the lack of wire cut scars and other scars, the mare lived most of her life in enclosures free from junk. The lack of scarring, condition of coat, relative lack of sun bleaching, condition of hooves, cleanliness of the body, and condition of shoes indicates that the mare was kept in a stall or on a small, dry lot with shelter. The mare’s coat is not muddy and does not appear encrusted with manure; the manure visible in the photo is a fresh diarrheal deposit. The lack of cording in her mane says that somebody brushed her mane within the last few months. Her coat indicates that she was brushed within the last few months. Again acute starvation rather than long-term starvation.
Poor mare. Looking at the map and real estate of that area (I am in Texas) my guess is that she came from Bellflower. Look at a map, you’ll see the out-of-the-way location of the dump site, right around the corner from the animal control center, just a few miles northwest of Bellflower and VERY easy to get to via anonymous freeway.
Linda Broussard
Austin, Texas and Grand Chenier Louisiana
(512) 739-1759
CSI Fugly Blog!
Holy crap, Linda, that was absolutely fascinating and I think you’re dead on with all of your observations.
I like this one: (sarcasm)
“3.Has the animal identified on this document TO YOUR KNOWLEDGE been treated with a substance listed under the table named substances not permitted for use in food producing equine found in section E.5 during the shortest of the following 3 periods: since January 31, 2010, in the last 180 days, or during the time you owned the animal, Circle Yes or No.”
It is pure crap… lots of loopholes. Business as usual.
Please, please, please find out who allowed that mare to get in that condition and post their name here. If possible,also their phone #. I would like to let them know what I think of them, I know you would.
I know, and I will be revealing it. Waiting on an arrest (we hope!)