Only in the horse biz…
Sep 02 2010
Would someone ADMIT to a 2% success rate and still think they are a successful breeder!
Many of you have already commented on the ridiculous comment of AQHA breeder Betty Coulthard Fucktard that you have to “breed 100 horses a year to get two good horses.” The article is here. Betty blames the economy for the fact that her horses aren’t selling. She somehow thinks we will feel sorry for her if she cries and plays the victim: “Tears welled up in Betty Coulthard’s eyes as she described the day she delivered two loads of young mares to a slaughter plant.”
Oh, give me a fucking break, you see-you-next-Tuesday. YOU weren’t the one DYING. YOU were the KILLER!
Her comments are even more ridiculous when compared to her nonsense on her web site about the great value of her horses. Go read it. You’ll puke.
Now, Betty, Bob, Colleen, let’s talk about why your horses aren’t selling – the real reasons.
1. You have FIVE stallions. ONE has a performance record!
2. You make TOO MANY FOALS. Even the best breeders are smart enough to know demand is down and production needs to keep pace with that. It does not take a genius to see that when you have high unemployment, you have less demand for luxuries like horses.
3. You do not seem to be the least bit interested in competing with your horses, which WOULD put value on them. You think that is someone else’s job to do, AFTER of course they give you a couple grand for a baby. Not gonna happen in the AQHA world.
You know, I often try to defend the QH people here. After all, I have QH’s myself and I like the breed and there are many good people involved who are anti-slaughter. But it’s awfully hard when I see people like Fucktard Farms here taking their own horses to slaughter and daring to act like THEY are the victims. I will think YOU are a victim when YOU get hit in the head with a captive bolt and get YOUR throat cut in a slaughter plant. Stop crying and stop breeding horses you can’t afford that are going to wind up dying a horrible death. My only tears are for your horses!
FYI: I have decided I am not allowing criticism of equitation on adoption videos. My guess is most of those snarking are not riding horses from the auction for free to be kind, and those who do that should not have to feel like George Morris is up their ass.
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For starters, that chick in the article is a worthless piece of crap. There is no excuse for her stupidity.
I will say though that it is ridiculous how low the market is right now. I just sold my beloved AQHA mare, who has AMAZING bloodlines, confo, and is 100% solid show and trail broke for $2200. It was a stab in the heart considering she was purchased for $7500 in 2006 as a green 4 year old. I NEVER would have sold her if it I wasn’t a damn broke-ass college kid with a very uncertain future after graduation. But I can’t be too heartbroken…she went to an adorable 9 year old girl to be her very first “big” horse. I told the girl she could only have her under one condition…she had to promise me that she would come home after school everyday and brush her and give her lots of treats. Not too bad of deal I must say!
As for critiquing the riders in the videos…really?? That should be a given that it is incredibly rude to pick on people who are clearly just doing a service to the horses. I give them huge props for being willing to jump on unknown horses and be the so-called “guinea pigs”. Y’all should be saving your snarkiness for pieces of shits like this b*tch featured today
Is it really so ridiculous how low the horse market is considering how grim the housing market is????
Off topic but with your polo history I wondered if you had any thoughts regarding Prince Harry and the bloody spur marks on his polo pony and possibly animimal cruelty charges??
I already commented to someone else’s comment on this, but I’d be very surprised if it was the result of overspurring. Polo players use smooth rowelled spurs that are very unlikely to break the skin. My guess is that his foot got twisted in a ride-off and the spur was smooshed between the two horses, causing the injury. However, I admit I have never watched Harry play polo and have no idea what kind of rider he is.
Here’s the response I received from the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village. No where in my original email did I suggest they keep the horses on site and care for them. I asked why he couldn’t have been at the least humanely euthanized.
“Thank you for expressing your concerns regarding the horse that was sold at auction on August 28, 2010. The horse did indeed originate from the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, where, as you know, we have an active farm program.
All of our livestock at the village take on the duties of farm animals in the historic periods we represent, as closely as possible. For horses, this includes duties such as ploughing, pulling, cartage, etc. Also, because our site is a living museum, horses are required to pull wagons to transport visitors.
The horse in question was no longer able to perform its duties on a reliable basis. The village has a limited number of horses and we do not have the budget or the resources to keep animals on site that can no longer consistently fulfill their duties. As a result, the horse was sold at auction.
I appreciate your concern for the animal and for sharing your comments.
Arnold Grandt
Director
Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village
c/o 8820 – 112 St.
Edmonton, AB T6G 2P8
Ph: 780.662.3640
Ph: 780.662.3855 ext 1102 (direct)
Cell: 780.499.1873
Fax: 780.662.3273
Email: arnold.grandt@gov.ab.ca
Website: http://www.ukrainianvillage.ca “
I live in Alberta, so I called Betty to see if any of the mares that had been shipped were still in the feed lot at the plant…I would have liked to save one. She said they were all deceased so I’ll likely buy a filly from her instead.
I had never spoken to Betty before and I think everyone on here needs to know that this woman is NOT a monster. She is genuinely upset about shipping those horses, her voice cracked as we spoke about them, she sounded as though she was about to cry on several occasions. Common sense tells me that if she was breeding them for meat, she wouldn’t have given a shit about shipping them and she certainly wouldn’t have invited a reporter to her ranch to broadcast it. Think about it people.
The Coulthard’s had a production sale in Feb. 2010, they advertised heavily but the majority of the horses didn’t sell. It isn’t like they didn’t try anything else prior to shipping some of their mares. It is sad that some were slaughtered BUT it happens at 99% of breeding operations, you just don’t hear about it because no one else has the balls to admit what they’re doing. Betty is a nice lady who was stuck in a terrible situation, she made a tough decision AND told people she did it. No one would have anything to talk about if she had swept it under the rug like most people do, I respect her for being upfront about their actions.
I think there seems to be quite a bit of misunderstanding around Betty’s “You have to breed 100 horses a year to get two good horses.†comment. What she means is 2% are “Champion” quality, 98% being suitable for pleasure riding. She isn’t saying that she breeds 100 horses per year to get 2 that are “good”. If you talk to most breeders (so long as they’re being honest with you), they’ll tell you pretty much the same thing. A lot of horse breeders NEVER have one “champion” quality horse born on their farm, let alone 2% of their produce.
I’d also like to add that the Coulthard’s website hasn’t been updated since 2008, when you look at the sale horses and “yearlings” were born in 2007, that should give people a pretty good indication that their website has been idle for years. Here are some links to current pictures of their horses from the sale…nice horses in my opinion. http://northernhorse.com/coulthard/members/HorseSale/images/OhTaoTiebetter96-640.jpg
http://northernhorse.com/coulthard/members/HorseSale/images/Hytini-96-640flip.jpg
http://northernhorse.com/coulthard/members/HorseSale/images/Zirade96-640.jpg
http://northernhorse.com/coulthard/members/HorseSale/images/Alytie640ready.jpg
http://northernhorse.com/coulthard/members/HorseSale/images/TiaTie96-640.jpg
On a side note…Betty informed me that she’s received several death threats, if it’s any of the readers of this blog, shame on you.
I agree that no one should be making death threats. Again, THAT is illegal and STUPID. You can be prosecuted for stuff like that. Do not do it.
However, crying doesn’t make you a good person. NOT SENDING HORSES TO KILL would make her a good person. Sorry, I do not buy that there was no other option. She was the dumbass who bred horses she couldn’t sell – now it was her responsibility to deal with that in a way that was not cruel.
She failed, miserably. She is a bad person. I hope she feels terrible for what she did.
I agree, there are other options, euthanasia would have been ideal. That said, I save my hatred for those that starve and abuse their animals, the Coulthard’s do neither of those things. I think it’s sad to see 30+ years of experience washed away because the Coulthard’s made a choice to inform people of what they had done. If the slaughter plants up here actually followed procedure, I don’t think slaughter wouldn’t be as terrible of an option. It could be humane for all animals (we used to butcher our own cattle, it isn’t hard to do it properly, it’s just a little more time consuming), if people were actually interested in fighting for humane slaughter.
That aside, Betty is trying to do good things. The majority of that Western Producer piece was supposed to be about a meeting that was held at the Coulthard’s ranch (oddly enough, it wasn’t even mentioned). They (and a few other breeders up here) are trying to start a European like horse breeding system, with stock inspections and approvals. I think the fact that they’re attempting to bring the European system into Canada is commendable and it would really help the horse industry.
I’d also like to add that American slaughter horses ARE affecting all horse prices up here. I’m not sure what the “Alberta Agriculture horse specialist” quoted in the Western Producer is talking about. When most people go to sales up here and they see a lot of horses selling for $100 or less (the last sale I went to, nice registered AQHA colts were selling for as low as $25), almost everyone is going to reconsider spending thousands on a “useful” horse. Also if people look at our main online horse classifieds, very few of them are actually selling (I think it’s mostly because the horses are over priced for the current market). Check it out, there are hundreds of horses on there http://www.northernhorse.com/classifieds/AdList_Horse.asp?offset=20
See, the difference between your viewpoint and mine is that, in my opinion, slaughter IS abuse. Abuse of the worst kind – abuse leading to death.
Just out of curiosity, are you a vegan/vegetarian? Are you against all slaughter, or just horse slaughter? I’m not trying to provoke anything here, I’m just curious.
Ok so I am new to the horse world and new to this blog, however I feel I must make a comment on Betty Cold Heart’s tears over shipping the horses to slaughter. I once knew a man who lost custody of his little girl because he was molesting her. However you could find him any night of the week sitting in the local bar shedding tears about the loss of his daughter. So sorry tears do not mean anything, it is actions that tell what kind of person you are. Betty is a cruel person, her actions have proven that. The interview proves that she feels she deserves sympathy much like the child molester in the bar did. People like that only think about themselves, not how their actions affect others . The really sad part about this story is that Betty is getting support from more people than the horses are. Slaughter has been going on for years and the horse world has supported it. I just took a course in the spring where slaughter was suggested as a way to get a bit of money towards your next mount. Obviously the instructor and I did not agree on the subject. So if you really feel strongly about this I hope you are all emailing your local politicians, writing letters to your local papers etc. If you live in Canada there is a bill going forward this fall to stop horse slaughter in Canada. It is Bill C-544 go here to learn more http://canadianhorsedefencecoalition.wordpress.com/. We can make a difference but that will require action.
Well… I was completely disgusted by this article, and contacted the publication writing them my opinion on things…. Today they contacted me asking permission to print my editorial.