Posts Tagged ‘money money money’
CHEATERS: Arabian Edition!
A friend of mine posted this to Facebook and I immediately wanted to buy her a margarita. I have little doubt that 99.9% of my readership will have the same reaction, so here you go – enjoy! I will update if she tells me that I can ID her; what I will tell you is that she has a very nice horse who is exactly the sort of Arabian we should make more of (great conformation, shows and trail rides anywhere), except that won’t be happening because she got fed up with the showing bullshit and gelded him. Now, while I don’t think ALL showing is politics, as I noted before, the A circuit Arabian horse world has been more than a little out of control lately in terms of placing the Big Name Trainers no matter what they are doing or how lame their horse is or, you know, two club feet in a halter class. So the frustration of a typical do-it-yourself exhibitor is very understandable. (FYI, if you’re not familiar with ginger, what they do is put it up the horse’s anus so that it burns and itches and the horse carries its tail higher as a result of the irritation. Lovely, huh?)
I might be very unpopular for what Im about to post, but KUDOS to USEF. I am sick to death of competing with LIARS, CHEATS and THIEVES. It’s about time people are held accountable for their actions. Some of us are friends with these people, the CHEATING MUST STOP.
This is official notice of actions taken by the United States Equestrian Federation, Inc. Hearing Committee on January 31, 2011.
SANDRO PINHA of Cave Creek, AZ, violated Rule AR101.5 of this Federation, in connection with the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show held on February 11-21, 2010, in that SANDRO PINHA, as trainer, exhibited the horse BINT CHALL CE after it had been administered and/or contained on its body 6-gingerol. For this violation of the rules, the Hearing Committee members present directed that SANDRO PINHA be censured pursuant to Chapter 7, GR703.1a and fined $2,000 pursuant to Chapter 7, GR703.1j. It was further directed that CHARLES and ERIN HANSEN of Mantorville, MN, as owners, must return for redistribution all trophies, prizes, ribbons, and monies, if any, won by BINT CHALL CE at said competition and must pay a $300 fee to the competition in connection with this penalty pursuant to Chapter 7, GR703.1g.
DAVID BOGGS of Elk River, MN, violated Rule AR101.5 of this Federation, in connection with the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show held on February 11-21, 2010, in that DAVID BOGGS, as trainer, exhibited the horse LD PISTAL after it had been administered and/or contained on its body 6-gingerol. For this violation of the rule, the Hearing Committee members present directed that DAVID BOGGS be censured pursuant to Chapter 7, GR703.1a and fined $2,000 pursuant to Chapter 7, GR703.1j. It was further directed that FELIX CANTU of Scottsdale, AZ and Rogers, MN, as owner, must return for redistribution all trophies, prizes, ribbons, and monies, if any, won by LD PISTAL at said competition and must pay a $300 fee to the competition in connection with this penalty pursuant to Chapter 7, GR703.1g.
(FHOTD in: If that name sounds familiar, re-read this blog entry. Folks, as I often say, I do not make this shit up!)
SILVIO MORAES of Boerne, TX, violated Rule AR101.5 of this Federation, in connection with the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show held on February 11-21, 2010, in that SILVIO MORAES, as trainer, exhibited the horse PSABER after it had been administered and/or contained on its body 6-gingerol. For this violation of the rules, the Hearing Committee members present directed that SILVIO MORAES be censured pursuant to Chapter 7, GR703.1a and fined $2,000 pursuant to Chapter 7, GR703.1j. It was further directed that STEFANIE POOLE of Shingle Springs, CA, as owner, must return for redistribution all trophies, prizes, ribbons, and monies, if any, won by PSABER at said competition and must pay a $300 fee to the competition in connection with this penalty pursuant to Chapter 7, GR703.1g.
This is official notice of actions taken by the United States Equestrian Federation, Inc. Hearing Committee on February 1, 2011
You three exhibitors ought to be ASHAMED of yourselves having to CHEAT to try to win. Good grief it’s just a goddam ribbon. Have some class. Get there on the horses’ merits, not by CHEATING. CHEATERS.
You CHEATERS CHEATED owners and trainers who paid the SAME amount as your clients, who likely did it LEGITIMATE, you guys are assholes for cheating someone out of THEIR moment.
Can I just get a big AMEN from the choir? You know, when I was a horse crazy teenager, I really liked Arabians. As a young woman, I took a little time off from polo and decided to go work at an Arabian show barn. Basically, I was horrified. Here are some of the things I saw:
1) Horses wearing padded shoes with holes in them so that you could string surgical tubing through them as an action enhancing device. The pads were pulled just before the classes, in a covered stall at the horseshow by the assistant trainer.
2) Horses always getting this shot, that shot, tails gingered, etc. I see nothing has changed in over twenty years since I did this.
3) Nothing EVER got turned out until it was part of the broodmare band.
4) Horses longed half to death in extreme heat with neck sweats.
5) No matter what was really going on, major smoke blown up the owners’ asses about how perfect their horse was. Owners were never informed about any problem or concern, not ever.
Needless to say, this was not my cup of tea and I was quite horrified at all of the violations of the rules. I never have been good at shutting the fuck up, either, and I quit after a few weeks.
I am sort of thinking we need to just give my friend a camera and make a TV show out of it. She can run around the shows catching these fucktards gingering tails, giving shot after shot of god only knows what to their poor horses, etc. Put THAT on RFD-TV instead of the bad trainers giving worse advice that it usually features!
So, Karin Struck, exactly WHY are your two old broodies in the kill pen?
You know, the ones that are still listed for sale on your web site? MHR Eunizara and Red Sonia. Why are they in Ron’s kill pen at the Enumclaw sale, scared and afraid to be separated?
Well, this is a huge fucking embarrassment!
This story makes me absolutely furious, because everyone here is rich and no one here is stupid. It’s about greed and laziness and not giving a shit about the animals you are supposed to be protecting. It’s about putting money in your pocket while animals starve, and there is NO excuse for it.
Ex-Racehorses Starve as Charity Fails in Mission to Care for Them
Nope, it’s not some little backyard rescue full of barbed wire and mobile homes this time…it’s the fricken’ Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation! Yes, seriously. MILLIONS they get in donations and they don’t pay their bills to the boarding facilities and, in some cases, the poor horses starve. WHAT THE FUCK. What ended up happening is that a major donor got suspicious and conducted their own investigation. (Kudos to you guys! I love it when people are smart and start asking questions!) And then the shit hit the proverbial fan…
“The most dramatic instance of neglect discovered so far, she said, was at the 4-H Farm in Okmulgee, Okla., where the owners, Alan and Janice Hudgins, would not let Ms. Huntington onto their property to inspect T.R.F. horses until the foundation gave them $20,000, a partial payment of what was owed them for taking care of 63 horses since 2005. They also forced the foundation to sign a pledge not to prosecute them for the condition of the horses.”
While clearly this is a huge clusterfuck on the part of the TRF, both in terms of not paying and no oversight, I am NOT in any way absolving the boarding facilities that neglected horses of responsibility here. I don’t care if someone’s paying their bill or not, you can’t let the horses starve. If they weren’t paying, maybe you should have outed them. I’d have been very happy to help you with that, as would various other message boards and blogs. I bet a little public humiliation would have gotten that bill paid quickly! (And since when does the TRF decide who gets prosecuted? Okmulgee Sheriff’s Office, if charges are appropriate, for heaven’s sake, charge those twits. It sounds like Ms. Huntington gave you plenty of evidence!)
Compare the Hudgins’ way of dealing with the situation to this other facility:
“Last September, the T.R.F. owed Out2Pasture Farms in Jamestown, Mo., more than $43,000, The farm, run by two University of Missouri professors, Zachary and Robin Hurst-March, is one of the nation’s most highly regarded sanctuaries for thoroughbreds. When the couple pressed for payment, the T.R.F. asked them to reduce their per diem to $3 a day and eventually removed 13 of their horses.
“I was being emotionally blackmailed to lower my per diem, and was the subject of retribution because I questioned the care of the horses,” said Mrs. Hurst-Marsh, who is owed $10,000.”
Well, good for you Mrs. Hurst-Marsh, for REFUSING to compromise care. THAT was the right thing to do, and I have no doubt you are telling the truth that your principles were not seen as a good thing by the TRF. Now, sue those jackasses –they HAVE the $10K they owe you.
Actually why doesn’t everyone on this page get together and file a lawsuit against the TRF board? There’s an idea. Hold these people accountable for the millions of your dollars that they stole and did not use for its intended purpose. How smart do you have to be to know that feeding the horses is a higher priority than administrative salaries? I know six year olds who could figure that one out.
I want to know what Larry Taylor’s been getting paid to run the TRF. Hey, put me in charge of a Thoroughbred retirement foundation and you can pay me 25% of whatever he’s making…and I’ll clean stalls and be willing to be held accountable for the condition of the horses I care for! I won’t sit on my ass in an office somewhere while horses I never check on starve to death in a field in Oklahoma. DISGUSTING.
Now for some good rescue stuff…today’s adoptable is Sadler, an 11 year old Irish bred OTTB rescued by Shiloh Horse Rescue in Nevada. How super cute is he? And his $600 adoption fee won’t break the bank. I can see this guy hitting the show ring this summer with the right person!
Here’s a REAL slippery slope story for you!
And I don’t mean the ridiculousness that ensues when you say you want horse slaughter to be illegal and some dipshit starts accusing you of trying to make us all vegetarians…
There has been a very interesting legal case going on over the 2006 death of a teenage girl who was eventing when her horse flipped and fell on her.
I remember the accident when it happened, and I even remember thinking very favorably of the family in that they made statements that assured everyone they did not blame the horse or the sport of eventing. However, it turns out they DID blame the trainer, and sued her (as well as, ultimately, blaming the sport of eventing too and suing those organizations).
Some excerpts from the article I’d like to discuss:
“The Erikssons alleged that Nunnink had been a professional trainer for 25 years, and worked with Mia Eriksson three times a week prior to Mia’s death. They asserted that Nunnink was “completely responsible for†a gelding they owned named “Kory,†who was Mia’s preferred mount for equestrian competitions, and required “to make sure the horse was fit and ready to go†before Mia competed in events.”
Okay, so it’s the Erikssons’ horse. It is in training with Nunnink. However, one would assume the Erikssons are paying the vet bills and know who the vet is, right? Nunnink was responsible for fitness, but now she is responsible for soundness? These weren’t inexperienced owners — they’d been involved in horses and competing for many years. They owned a horse facility. They had knowledge about equine care and soundness themselves, certainly enough to know to talk to the vet when they want to know how fit the horse is to compete.
“Kory had fallen at two events in the fall of 2006, sustaining injuries of which Nunnink was allegedly aware, but the Erikssons said they allowed Mia to ride him at the Temecula competition based on Nunnink’s representation that Kory was “great†and Mia had been practicing with him “all week.â€
All right. So he had two wrecks already, and was injured, and they were still competing him in November 2006, when this happened…and now it’s the trainer’s fault? I don’t think trainers are vets. They aren’t. And I also don’t think that Nunnink was any more or less able to predict that the horse was going to have another wreck than the kid who had the two previous wrecks with the horse or the parents who, I am sure, knew about the two previous wrecks.
Oh, and then I read from an eyewitness that the horse refused FOUR TIMES that day on the course, and they were trying to flag her down when she tried for the water jump and the horse chested the jump and flipped. That’s not in the above article. The way I see it, she made a really unfortunate decision that led to her death — no different than the 17 year old who decides to get into a car with a drunk driver or tries shooting heroin “just this once” and also ends up in the morgue. As one poster on COTH correctly noted: “And just a side note and not to be cruel, but if there is anything to take away from this its to remember to learn the rules of the sport. This tragedy could have been avoided if she had known down pat that after stop #4, you are required to leave the xc course. I am not faulting her, God only knows how much adrenaline you have to think around at a three day! I am just trying to remind us all that we can avoid any unnecessary injuries, falls etc by knowing the rules really well.” Exactly. Yes, it’s a tragedy but it was an avoidable tragedy. How is it the trainer’s fault that the kid didn’t stop when she was being flagged and, as an experienced competitor, should have known she was already disqualified?
Folks, eventing is a very dangerous sport. So is polo, so is racing, etc. People do die doing these things. This is a risk you assume. And my feeling is that when the horse has had two previous falls within a few months and you KNOW he has had soundness problems/injuries, you should not be absolved from your own responsibility to make a reasonable and prudent decision because a trainer or anyone else says, oh, he’ll be fine (if that did, indeed, even happen). Horses who are 100% sound have wrecks caused by simple miscalculations in timing and pace or a slippery spot or the rider being in a poor position.
The Riverside County judge got it right:
“Nunnink answered the complaint and moved for summary judgment, which Riverside Superior Court Judge Gloria Trask granted, finding: “There was no showing of competent evidence fulfilling the requisite elements of duty, breach of duty, and legal causation on the part of [Nunnink], legally causing the subject incident…, and the action is barred by the primary assumption of the risk doctrine.â€
Good job, Judge Trask. Unfortunately, the Appellate court, who I suspect contains people who have never gotten close to a horse that you do not put a quarter into, reversed. Justice Jeffrey King “…noted that the “the risk of falling off or being thrown by a horse during the competition, causing injury to the rider†was inherent in equestrian competitions such as the one Mia had entered, but posited these dangers served to “highlight the importance of having a healthy and fit horse†when engaging in this activity.”
But Justice King, how is that NOT the horse OWNER’s responsibility? How is it not the PARENTS’ responsibility to ensure their child’s mount is in good health and soundness – using a VET, the service provider who deals with that? The trainer is responsible for TRAINING, so maybe it would be her fault if she failed to do that. For example, I can see a lawsuit if the trainer was supposed to be riding the horse, and it was discovered she was off smoking meth with her boyfriend and let it sit in the stall for a month and THEN the kid died when she got bucked off. But I do not see any way short of psychic powers to see into the future and predict a refusal or fall going cross-country. Trust me, every one of my readers who events would like to have such a psychic talent! It does not exist. Healthy, sound, well trained horses refuse or fall. Lame, brain fried and squirrely green horses make it around. It is a big fucking crap shoot and it’s a damn shame Mia Eriksson’s number was up at such a young age, but it was, and I do not see how this is the trainer’s fault. I am pretty much mind-blown that the Court is entertaining the idea that the trainer is responsible as if she was the mechanic on a race car and a wheel had fallen off. IT’S A HORSE. Seriously, if this lawsuit comes out in favor of the Erikssons, I do not know anyone who will want to train horses anymore, certainly not for any of the more high-risk equestrian activities.
Now, I obviously have not read the entire transcript in this case. Maybe one of my readers knows more and it does make some sense how this case is still alive, but I can’t say I’m anything but shocked and worried after reading this decision. I feel sorry for the Eriksson family — who wouldn’t, this is actually the SECOND child they lost to a riding accident — but I think that blaming the trainer (who I am sure is also traumatized after losing a young student in such a shocking way) is way off base.
What do you think?
More about the case:
Eventing Tragedy – Family Sues
Rocky Blue is an amazing horse. He won $271,000 on the track! He just kept running and running and fortunately was finally rescued and taken to Mid-Atlantic Horse Rescue. Rocky is a sweetie pie who is very much enjoying his post-track life as a pleasure horse. He is ready to go enjoy the rest of his life with a special person who will spoil him the way he has certainly earned! I think it would be an honor to own this horse…like having a Bentley in the garage as far as I’m concerned.
Check him out if you’re around Maryland and looking for something special!
Announcing The Spotted Steak Horse Association!
Unless you’re reading this blog for the first time today, you already know my opinion of slaughter: It’s a cruel way for shady and irresponsible horse owners to easily divest themselves of horses that were born the wrong color or didn’t get in foal on command or didn’t run fast enough or that they lamed up, allowed to get hurt on shitty fence, used up in some way, failed to train, failed to be talented enough to ride, bred in the mistaken belief they were going to make money…you get the picture. It has never been anything more than that. It’s a paycheck written in blood instead of a VISA charge from the vet for euthanasia. It’s an easy way out instead of removing your ass from the couch and actually working with that rank youngster you forgot to train while you were busy drinking, doing drugs and getting knocked up by losers. Equine slaughter has, for many years, shown us just how cruel and money-motivated human beings can be, as we watched the Krazy Kolor Breeders sell their poor little red colts off to the kill buyer at $50 a pop every September.
And now that we are finally making significant progress toward ending slaughter forever and forcing horse owners to make more responsible choices, because responsible choices will be the only choices that are legal, we have to contend with the hold outs — a small but noisy group of angry, cheap, stuck-in-the-1800′s asshats who say that being asked to be responsible enough to at least put a ten cent bullet in the head of that old broodmare or sterile stud or red colt is going to ruin their life and drive them out of business, dammit! (Never mind that thousands of anti-slaughter people are able to make ends meet and show a profit in the horse business by providing quality services and not breeding fuglies.) The charge is led by Dave Duquette and Sue Wallis, who are currently howling a bunch of nonsense in Las Vegas under the guise of trying to “help” horses. The only things Dave and Sue are actually trying to help is themselves to any money that can possibly be made sending peoples’ pets to be butchered, and this has been blatantly obvious from the start.
The best place to read all about their ridiculous conference is at the Straight From The Horse’s Heart blog. They have it all covered with facts, figures, links and all the truth you need. The only reason I feel the need to cover it too is that I found out who is sponsoring their conference today…
ApHC.
Fortunately, they have a Contact Form on their web site. So, if you love Appaloosas and do NOT think the proper way for them to end their life is hanging from a hook with their throat cut, bleeding out, be sure to drop them a line! Even more so if you are a MEMBER and are not happy with how your membership dollars are being used.
Here is a complete list of pro-slaughter asshats sponsoring the event.
UNITED HORSEMEN
Appaloosa Horse Club
Arnold Reproduction
Big Iron Ranch
Billings Livestock Horse Sales
The Cavalry Group
Fairlea Ranch
Horsemen’s Council of Illinois
Horse Welfare Alliance of Canada
International Livestock Identification Agency
Livestock Marketing Association
Mantle Ranches
Masters of Fox Hounds Association
National Assn of Conservation Districts
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
National Farmers Union
National Stock Horse Association
National Tribal Horse Coalition
Nevada Cattlemen’s Association
Nevada Quarter Horse Association
Newt White Cow Horses
Noble Panels
Oregon’s Living Legends
Oswood Stallion Station
Public Lands Council
RainDancer Videos
Range Magazine
Rhodes River Ranch
Rocky Mountain Farmers Union
Rubyview Quarter Horses
Society of Range Management
Ted Robinson Cow Horses
Three Peaks Ranch
Winfield Farms
Women Involved in Farm Economics–WIFE
Be sure to boycott them and let them know why! (I’m now having a fantasy where I get to debate with the members of W.I.F.E. I am just visualizing fifty or so women intent on setting women and animals back 200 years and damn proud of it, aren’t you?)
Now, thanks to a racing owner who AMAZINGLY does not need to send their horses to kill to make a living, here is a cutie called Devilinhiheels. She is just turning 5 this spring and ready to begin a new career. Check her out at Mid-Atlantic Horse Rescue in Maryland!
