I was not the kind of kid who picked just one instructor to take lessons from.  I enjoyed hauling my horse to various trainers and clinicians.  I felt like utilizing various resources was the best way to soak up as much knowledge as I could, rather than limiting myself to just one person’s ideas.

Occasionally, I would try a new instructor and instantly knew they were not for me.   The reasons varied.  There were the ones who sat on a chair at the end of the arena talking with the barn moms, and each time I rode by they’d offer something as educational as “good, now change direction” and return to gossiping. There were the ones who wanted me to change my bit, tighten my noseband, and strap my horse down with gadgets before even seeing me ride.  There were the ones who tried their best to offer insightful training theories that were probably helpful, if only my juvenile brain could have comprehended them.  On the other hand, there were times that I tried out a new instructor and felt like I learned more from them in the first lesson than I’d learned from someone else after several months of lessons.

Regardless of how I felt about their communications styles or training techniques, one thing was consistent: I always respected that they knew more than me, and that I should keep an open mind and try what they asked of me, just in case they were leading me toward an amazing epiphany that would change my life as a horseback rider forever.

Unfortunately, my blissful naiveté came to a crashing halt when I was 15.  I’d started riding with a classical dressage trainer who was a beautiful, elegant rider.  I didn’t particularly care for her on a personal level, but when I took lessons from her I always felt like she explained things in great detail and I was able to feel a positive difference by applying her techniques.  She commented that she appreciated me as a student because, unlike some of the other kids who would mindlessly ride around in circles, she would see me riding on my own and practicing the exercises that she taught me during our lessons.  After a few months of lessons with her, she suggested that I ride with a clinician who was coming to town.  She told me all about him, his extensive accomplishments, and said that she’d ridden with him many times and appreciated his methods.  He was quite pricey but my parents were impressed with his resume and trusted the instructor’s opinion of him, so they agreed to let me try one ride.

I won’t go into specific details of the who/what/where of the clinic, let’s just say it was not a pleasant experience.  I was riding a nervous horse that I hadn’t had for very long, so I got on early in order to warm up and settle him in.  It turned out that the schedule was running ahead of time, so when the clinician noticed I was on early he put me right to work.  He immediately began asking me to do difficult things which my nervous horse was obviously not ready for.  I had difficulty understanding him because he had a foreign accent and was yelling at me.  This only made me feel more tense, which made it difficult for me to help my horse to calm down.  I asked permission to have a few minutes to do some of our usual suppling and calming exercises, just to get the horse into a better frame of mind.  He responded that I just needed to keep trying what he was telling me so that I could get it.  After several more minutes of trying my hardest to do what he asked, and still failing to receive any good results from my horse, the clinician became increasingly irritated.  He asked me to get off the horse and said that he wanted to lunge the horse to get the horse’s mind focused on working.

Just to be clear, at this point the horse was not misbehaving or out of control.  He was not bolting, bucking, rearing, or anything of the sort.  He steered in the directions that I pointed him, and when I asked for an upward or downward transition, he complied.  He just was very tense, rushing in the trot, a little bit jiggy in the walk, and distracted, occasionally whinnying for his friends.

The clinician put the horse on the lunge line and instantly chased him into a gallop.  He seemed to alternate from chasing the horse with the whip to yanking on the lunge line and expecting the horse to instantly halt.  I watched in horror – this was NOT how my horse was used to being lunged.  Having never experienced this sort of ambush from a trainer before, I didn’t know what to do.  My instructor who referred me to this clinician was standing there watching and she didn’t give me any sort of sign that she was not satisfied with the way things were going.  There was a small handful of auditors and I remember glancing over to see if they where whispering or wearing facial expressions that would give some indication that I should run over and take my horse back.  Nobody else appeared overly appalled, so I held on to my good faith a little longer, thinking “This guy is a pro.  He is trying to get a result, and if I’m patient, I will see the light bulb go off in my horse’s head and some amazing transformation will occur.”  That’s about the time that my horse flipped over, scraped the inside of one of his legs with the shoe from his other foot, jumped back up, and galloped back onto the circle, dripping with sweat and looking very stressed.

At that time, I do remember looking to my instructor and several others and asking “shouldn’t we stop him and check to make sure he is okay?”  Allow me to remind you that I was 15 years old.  I had been raised to be polite and respectful toward adults, so mustering up the courage to question an accomplished professional took all the guts I had.  The response was a collection of awkward faces with sympathetic smiles, as if they agreed with my concerns but did not think it was socially appropriate for me to tell Mr. Big Shot that I wanted my horse back.  So, regretably, I just waited.

I think the clinician did hear my question (which I intentionally asked just loud enough that I thought he would) and stopped lunging the horse just a few moments after he fell.  He led the horse back over to me, told me to get back on, and had me trot a few circles.  The amazing transformation that I’d trustingly waited for never came; I was left with a horse that was even more nervous than he’d been 30 minutes before, but too broken and exhausted to protest.  To me, that is NOT training.

The clinician told me he thought my horse had had enough for one day (no, really?) and that I should hose him off and put him away.  I had not signed up to ride the second day, but he said he’d be happy to squeeze me into the schedule (how generous, squeezing in another lesson that he’d be making a lot of money for!) because he thought that my horse would benefit from it.  At that point, my brain was frazzled.  I just smiled and thanked him for his time, and told him I wasn’t available the next day.  I felt so many emotions at once, which in turn made me feel emotionally numb.  I felt betrayed by the clinician and by my instructor, and I also felt angry at myself for betraying my horse.  I beat myself up over that for a while, and still feel tremendous guilt when I think about it today.  I was taking a sociology class in school at the time, and it reminded me of the research studies that showed examples of humans in groups witnessing an atrocious event.  Each person is hesitant to step out of the group and do anything about it, because they assume someone else will, and because nobody does, they all assume that allowing the atrocious event is acceptable.  I was THAT person, the one who allowed an atrocious event to happen to MY OWN HORSE, knowing it was wrong, and didn’t even try to stop it.

I remember thinking what a shame it was that my parents spent such a hefty amount of money (and we were NOT big spenders) to ride with a clinician that not only traumatized my horse and me, but I learned absolutely nothing from him.

Oddly enough, once my emotions recovered and logic kicked in, I realized that I learned a lesson from that clinician that was worth every penny.

That was the day I took control.  I learned that while it’s good to have an open mind and a hunger to learn as much as I can from multiple trainers, there is another side of the coin.  An eeeevil side of the coin.  A side of the coin that says that some trainers do not have my best interest, nor my horse’s best interest, at heart.  A side of the coin that says that some trainers are arrogant pricks who think that just because someone is paying them for a service, they have the right to do whatever they want with that person’s horse.  A side of the coin that says that some trainers are downright abusive to their students and to their horses.  And the most important part of the lesson I learned was that when I encounter trainers like that, there is only one person who can protect my horse, and that person is me.  I have the power to step in and say what types of interactions I will or will not allow them to have with my horse.  If they do not choose to respect my boundaries, I have the power to pay for the lesson and politely excuse myself early.  Suddenly, as I vowed to myself that from that point forward I would raise my hackles and protect my horse anytime I needed to (which is only fair considering he protected me every day that I rode him) I began to feel quite empowered.  I had visions of myself and my horse being partners in crime – us against the world – sticking together and watching each other’s backs through and through.  A dressagey version of Batman and Robin, if you will.

I mentioned earlier that when I was a child, I blindly trusted my instructors, knowing that they had more knowledge and experience than I had and could guide me to be a better horse person.  It was much easier when I thought that was always true. Now that I’m all grown up, full of knowledge and experience myself, I have pretty good judgment on the types of training techniques I am willing to use, and the horses I ride are very happy and trusting.  I occasionally see green riders in a predicament, wearing the same questioning look on their faces that I wore during that clinic, as they watch a trainer work with their horses in a destructive manner.  I have sympathy for them and, if it feels appropriate, I share my experience with them in hopes of building their confidence to stand up for their horse.  It is very difficult to tell the professional “You’re doing it wrong!” when you yourself don’t have the knowledge or experience to know for sure if what they’re doing is, in fact, wrong.  Even if your gut feeling tells you something’s wrong, it’s difficult to confront the professional who will possibly respond by defensively asking “do you, miss know-it-all green rider, know how to train this horse better than I do???”  It’s easy to become intimidated by the professionals, but we should never forget that everything that happens to our horses, good or bad, is because we allow it to happen to them.  Even if we don’t know correct training from incorrect training, we can’t forget that we still know right from wrong.

It’s unfortunate that I had to endure such a horrible experience in order to learn this lesson, but I’m infinitely grateful that I learned it.  That clinic was the first and last time that I ever allowed a trainer to mistreat one of my horses.  In case you were wondering, the horse from the clinic progressed into a happy dressage horse who is now partially retired and offering rides to dressage students who want a “preview of coming attractions” should they stick with their training.

So she was asking wonderful questions about how horses behave and how to help mold their natural behaviors so that neither people nor the animals come to harm.  She told me what she’d heard from this quiet cowboy and her eyes were bright and engaged.  Finally, she was “getting it” and even talking about spending time at the barn to learn more about these amazing animals.

We talked and talked and had a wonderful time.  She was really intrigued by the gentle and mindful path that this man was taking with his horses. She’d made some assumptions about our horses, being thoroughbreds (clearly a pejorative term here) and used for sport and for lessons and so obviously, the depth of the relationship that this man had accomplished with his horse was just not possible for us. But as the wine flowed, we worked through some of those assumptions and were having a really compassionate meeting of minds.  Her body language was more open about her partner’s passion than ever before.  Very cool.

And then the bomb dropped.  My friend mentioned that she had told this guy all about our non profit.  About how we rescue horses and use them to teach kids with challenges. This horse-whispering, natural and all-gentle, empathic guru of horsemanship apparently lit up at the notion and told my friend that his horse, when he gets a little bit older will be PERFECT for our program!

WT__(insert the letter of your choice here)?

Look Mr. Perfect Horse Owner, does that mean that when your horse is too old or crippled or simply no longer worthy of your advanced abilities and join up methods of training, then you will simply off-load him to some program that needs to raise funds from the public just to pay the feed bill?  Why is it that you, with your uber-sense of horsemanship isn’t interested in providing your eternally bonded horse with a home for life?  Why is it that we, or some program like ours is saddled with the responsibility to care for your horse through his golden years and that we and our kids will be the ones present when it’s time to let him go over the rainbow bridge? And you act as if you are bestowing upon us some amazing gift?

I’m venting.  I love each and every one of our senior citizens here and I wouldn’t trade them for the world and I really believe that they chose us in some cosmic way, rather than the other way around.  BUT why is it that people think that horses are disposable?  You wouldn’t be able to keep your head up at a party if everyone knew you sent your dog out to some retirement home where you expected never to pay another feed or vet bill – would you?  PARTICULARLY if you spent hours proselytizing about how your method of bonding with your dog was so much better than anyone else’s?  Where’s that bond taking you?  Only as far as the animal can carry you on his back?  I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

I believe in revolutions of education.  I really do. Case in point:  My parents, educated and kind animal loving people – never spayed or neutered our pets.  I spent many an afternoon in front of the Safeway market with a cardboard box with “Free Kittens” written on the side.  I was told to make sure that I got rid of all of the puppies and kittens – and I did.  You don’t see that anymore.  Why?  Because a revolution in education about spaying and neutering made people like my parents make the time and effort to make sure that there weren’t unplanned litters of kittens and puppies anymore.  So I believe that snarky posts like this one will be read by wonderful and dedicated and smart horse owners who will begin to think twice about breeding that mare or about what the long term plan for their show horse or their daughter’s 4H horse or that free horse on the internet.  Just because you donated a horse to a school doesn’t mean your responsibility to that animal is over.

And yes, it’s possible that I’ve jumped to conclusions and that this man would never think of donating his friend the horse to a program without a donation to ensure his horses’ care.  But I’ve been around way too long, I’ve been at too many cocktail parties where I’m cornered by a martini swilling reveler that wants to offload his reining horse, his ex race horse, her homebred with a club foot so to lessen their own feed bill. A responsibility for a life for it’s life is a lesson our society needs to learn.  About our pets, our children, our elderly, our homeless.  All life is precious, not just what we deem as “useful life.”

Sermon over. Please return to your regularly scheduled life.

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Today’s guest post was submitted by Joell Dunlap who co-Founded Square Peg Foundation in 2004. Click here to read more about Square Peg.

I (Snugly) am currently sitting in front of my computer, electric fireplace on, hot chocolate laden with Bailey’s in hand, and the likes of Frank and Bing crooning Christmas tunes like no one’s business (they really could sing!).  I was going through the writing applications from Fugly hopefuls and, as I’m sure you could guess, there are quite a few.  A few comments have been made noting people’s interest in reading some of the better and worse submissions.  Your wish is our command!  Some of these have been edited for length, none have been edited for content or grammar.  Enjoy!

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Alright, here we go. I am  mouthy and an avid animal rights advocate. I hate backyard breeders, they are a bunch of dumb asses. I despise backyard trainers!!! (but that is another story).

Submission 3:

It’s always amazed me how people think that just because the way THEY
do something, it’s the ONLY way to do something. Horse people are no
different, in fact we can be the worst offenders. I’ve read the Fugly
blog for a long time, and I loved how it started off picking apart the
asshats who bred awful looking horses, never gave them any training
and left them to an uncertain fate all while happily breeding more sad
little future-less foals.
Then it changed, it became less about the rescue work and the pointing
out of the bad-seeds, and became all about how the only worthwhile
horses to breed at all are TB’s and WB’s and anyone who breeds
anything else, or decides to compete in anything other than the show
ring, or, GOD FORBID, not compete at all, just ride the trails with
their beloved pet horse, was the WORST PERSON IN THE WHOLE WIDE
WORLD!!!!
And it’s time we brought back the NAME AND SHAME aspect!
Enough with the “oh god why would you buy a cob when you could have a
THOROUGHBRED” rubbish, enough with the “you bred a Paint, clearly you
have no idea what a REAL horse is meant to be coloured like”. Bring on
the “you’ve starved these horses”, “you bred these 15 TB colts for
racing and now you’re sending them to slaughter just because they are
slow”, “you abused this animal and the SPCA are unable to get the
voices to get the power to stop you, guess what here are those voices,
you are going DOWN”
BRING IT ON!

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Huh.  I guess those were mostly just angry!  Oh well… there’s definitely a lot to be angry about in the horse world.  Which brings us to a story that most of you have already heard about, but that hasn’t been properly discussed here.

You guessed it, I’m talking about Credit Card and the little psycho who arranged his death.  There’s a decent story here with a link to the legal affidavit; the basic gist is that a female college student was having some romantic problems and thought a good solution would be to steal five horses and kill one of them.  Not sure what the thought process was there, but she clearly did think about it; she made sure to scout ahead and even took notes in her little pink notebook!

So what do you think of the current laws for horse theft?  Because these horses had a high monetary value, the potential punishment is more severe.  Should that really make a difference?  My horse isn’t worth much, but I think I’d be equally devastated if something similar were to happen to him!  And how do you go about protecting your horse from theft?  Or protecting yourself from the crazies out there?  Not too long ago we had to deal with a rather explosive situation that was caused by a barn manager’s ex losing it.  Thankfully, no harm came to any of the horses, but to say there were a few tense days would be a gross understatement!

Hmmm… in hindsight, “These are a few of our favorite things” would have been a really inappropriate title for this post!

Over the years, I cannot count the number of times I’ve been accused of “wanting horses to go to kill/auction” and “viciously attacking an angel who only wants to help animals” merely because I called out a faux rescue on its money-grubbing, self-serving, horse-neglecting bullshit. And so there are few things that entertain me as much as when the truth comes to light and I get to say it, yet again:

TOLD YOU SO!

Here is my original blog on Cajun Country Rescue: Even The IRS Cannot Make This A Rescue!

Well, they got busted the other day. Here is an eyewitness account:

“Got a call this a.m. from PETA with an update of what happened last night at Cajun Country Rescue.

Just one mare that was seized. More pics here

Best of all, Anne Marie is defending herself on her Facebook Page…popcorn, anyone?

I always hear that this blog is just unfaaaaair and criticizes people who don’t deserve it, but I’ll be damned if anyone has ever been able to point to someone who I said was starving horses and neglecting horses who it turned out wasn’t starving and neglecting horses. So you know, either put up or shut up…I firmly believe this blog (with the help of ALL of you who submit information to me and send pictures!) has brought to light many situations and allowed law enforcement to start investigations that have saved countless lives. I can’t remember who told me about Anne Marie, but bless you — you did a great thing here by helping to bring this to a successful conclusion!

Announcing:

Five Star Tack “Bridles with Benefits”

Send a used bridle in good condition to Five Star Tack

They will give you 10% off any new bridle, AND send the used bridle to Mid-Atlantic Horse Rescue.

Five Star Bridles and Strap Goods are beautiful quality and quickly becoming the bridle of choice for eventers, show hunters, jumpers, etc.

For more information on the program go to

Five Star Tack: Charities

They Burn Horses, Don’t They?

Barn fires happen more than they should, as we recently discussed, but this one was definitely a case of arson — arson caused by hatred over someone’s sexual preference.

REALLY? You killed EIGHT HORSES in the most horrific way possible because you do not like who someone else chooses to love? You killed a WEEK OLD FOAL, you burned it to death, because why? Because the Bible told you homosexuality was wrong so you tortured animals to death to teach that “wrong” person a lesson? Or maybe you’re not even religious. Maybe you’re just a complete psychopath who enjoys creating suffering and pain. I just do not get it. If you do not approve of gay relationships, don’t have one. How is this complicated?

I don’t know what to do with people this ignorant and fucktarded. I don’t know if anyone does. I mean, drowning them in a swimming pool makes good sense to me, and don’t preach to me about not answering violence with violence – I just want them unable to hurt another living creature, period, end of story. It is possible, IMO, to be TOTALLY WORTHLESS and whoever did this is totally, 100% worthless and has NO value whatsoever as a human being.

I am endlessly frightened by stories like these that remind me that there are people out there who would take out their hatred for a human being on completely innocent animals that have nothing to do with it. If we are going to judge intent at all, well, torturing an animal to death to hurt a person is about as bad as intent gets. If you can do that, and live with yourself, you have no heart or conscience. You will not hesitate to do something horrible to a human being, either. Where does it end? At what point do we finally realize that we HAVE to lock these people up FOR LIFE or kill them so that others may live in safety and peace? (I vote for killing them. Why should the rest of us feed them and pay for their medical care?)

I don’t know that I really have anything close to a point here, except to say: If you have ANY idea who did this, please come forward. This is so frightening and awful and whoever did this needs to be prosecuted. Well, they need to be set on fire, but we can’t legally do that, so I’m gonna just hope for a good long prison sentence. And then I’m gonna go kiss the one week old foal at our barn and tell him how damn lucky he is to be on a gated property with a $!&$!$&! security system…

And yeah, folks? What I’ve said before. Security alarms and cameras are never a waste of money. ESPECIALLY if you have ANY reason to believe you have a crazy ex, a mentally unbalanced enemy, or may be unpopular for some reason (like knuckle-dragging homophobic asshats having an issue with you). Not saying Mr. Whitehouse had any warning — he certainly has my utmost sympathy here! Just saying that if you DO have reason to feel concerned, get the alarms and cameras now. Even if it strains the budget or makes the credit card scream. You can have a pretty decent, multi-camera security system for around $1200 and I know everybody reading this would rather spend that $1200 than wake up to what poor Mr. Whitehouse woke up to.

Ugh. I will be so upset if they don’t find whoever did this…

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…because there is an EXTREMELY scary movement afoot, and it snuck up on all of us like a mugger in a dark alley. Namely, those who abuse animals want to make it illegal for YOU to do your part in bringing them to justice. And I am not talking about tarring and feathering them as they deserve. I’m merely talking about trying to get evidence of their evildoing and report them!

From the last article:
“Remarkably, as written the bill declares this to be a first-degree felony, which under Florida law carries a penalty of up to 30 years in prison. This would make taking a picture of a farm without permission a more serious offense in Florida than manslaughter.”

Say it with me: WHAT THE FUCK???

They’re not just going after videos and pictures. The Iowa bill would actually make it illegal to seek employment on a farm just to go undercover. What is next, making it illegal to pretend to be a drug dealer to bring THEM down? WHAT THE FUCK, PEOPLE. What kind of an immoral, soulless asshat votes for legislation that protects abusers and prevents the ONE way that exists for decent people to legally help the animals – taking pictures and videos and going to the proper authorities?

And these are just the pieces of legislation I know about. I guarantee you, this is a massive, well coordinated effort and you’re going to see these bills spring up in YOUR state next.

Let’s say this crap passes. Do you really think that those of us who love animals won’t risk a felony conviction? You’re smoking crack if you think we’re going to stop documenting abuse because of some fucktarded law you’ve put into place. And no, if it’s illegal to obtain it, it’s not admissible in court, but the media has no such constraints. If anything, this kind of law is going to fire us up MORE.

Pay attention, folks…pay attention like you’ve never paid attention before. If you’re in Iowa or Florida, you should be heading for the phone right now. If you’re in another state, start paying attention, because sure as shooting this is a national, well-coordinated effort to attack those who seek to protect animals, and legislation like this is heading straight for YOUR state. You need to call and write and do your part to stop it, or you might as well chuck all the cruelty laws we’ve managed to put into place so far. With no evidence, how will we ever get a conviction? The whole thing is crazy, not to mention WILDLY unconstitutional. Pay attention and speak up before YOUR right to protect an animal is taken from you.

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My original blog about the saga of Capone I:

And more about Doug Spink, arguably the ickiest person ever to be involved in the hunter/jumper world.

And an update about Doug Spink finally going to prison, where he belongs.

To make a long story short, our heroine, Corinne Super, had the good common sense to get the poor horse out of Doug’s little farm of horrors in 2008. She successfully kept him out of Pervy McPervert’s hands until sometime in 2009, when, apparently, Doug managed to get him back. When Doug got arrested again in 2010, the horse got to return to Corinne’s and now he is back out there winning Grand Prix jumping. From the Chronicle of the Horse:

From the article: Super’s first concern when Capone arrived back to her Langley, B.C., farm was his health. “He was in horrific condition when we picked him up. He was dehydrated and underweight and wormy. His feet hadn’t been done,” she said.

It just goes to show that the nicest horse, like the nicest person, is still at risk of winding up the victim of a crazy person. Doug Spink is about as valueless a human being as I can imagine. Everyone knew he shouldn’t have ANY horses in his possession – just read the Internet postings from this freak show. Yet there was no law in place to prevent him from owning horses, and if his equally twisted “customer” hadn’t messed up and gotten caught (see the story about the Gelding Bus above), Spink would STILL be doing whatever he was doing (which wasn’t feeding or trimming) with this magnificent animal.

That horse is safe and back in the show ring today for one reason: Someone loved him and didn’t give up, despite more drama than most of us will ever have to deal with. I’m sure it has been a phenomenally expensive and stressful fight for Corinne, and she deserves a lot of credit for not giving up. What a wonderful comeback and a great happy ending story…thought you would all enjoy this to start your week!

I don’t have much to say to this except that the one hard, fast, no-exceptions rule every woman should have about men is that at the first sign of violent behavior, we are out the door – cold turkey. New phone number, new place to live and new job if necessary. I very much doubt this was the first show of temper the husband had ever displayed. Those poor horses

More on this topic in one of my previous blogs:
A very serious subject

If you think it won’t escalate, it will. If you think you can control him, you can’t. If you think you can predict him, you’re wrong. Don’t be the woman in the article – or worse. Get out now, no matter how difficult it may be – and get your kids and pets out, too.