So mad I could spit fire

[firedove]

Quote:
Yeah, I definitely learned a lot about selling an animal and about not trusting anyone, no matter how long you have known them. Ironically, the guy who has George contacted me again and thinks he may want to still work something out about buying him after all. This time, if this does go forward, it will be with a full contract drawn up by an attorney. He is a great horse and even unhealthy, he has tremendous charisma. It is what drew me to him in the first place, and it's the reason why the guy who has him now has kept him this long.

Here is some pics of George. The first was him as a 4 year old, at an A show before I had him. The second was taken a couple of months before I bought him at 5, the others were taken in Summer '08 at 9 years old. He just turned 11 this past January so I hope we can get him through this illness so he won't just be a pasture pal for the rest of his life.

 

[welsummerchicks]

Welll I can say that feeding practices vary among different types of horse folk, and that while some people think a horse must have grain, even a LOT of grain, there are quite a few people that have fat, energetic, very healthy horses fed only on hay. The hay we get has a protein content of around 17%, and is mostly improved grass strains with a little clover or alfalfa, and we have to be very careful how much we feed or they get hog fat and jumping out of their skin and sassy.

If the hay is like straw, sure the horse may need something else. But actually quite a few sport horses are not given grain or are just given a product like Grow N Win or another ration balancer type product.

What I think is that this is another one of these lessons learned. The safest way to sell a horses is that the seller gets a full veterinary exam with full disclosuer of the issues and treatments the horse has needed or had, and lets the buyer see all this and encourages the buyer to bring in his own personal vet and satisfy himself the horse is what he wants. There is a written bill of sale and it says the words STRICTLY AS IS on the bill of sale.

That means that there should be no time payments, and the bill of sale states right on it that the horse is sold strictly as is, that the horse must be returned within 15 days to get one's money back, etc.

Otherwise so many unpleasant things can happen. Thesse things protect the seller even more than the buyer.

I think it's also good to know the laws, and while being very nice and honest and forthright, realizing that buyers make a lot of unreasonable stsatements, like that you have to take the horse back or etc.

 

[firedove]

Lessons have been learned. Things are good now though. George is happy and safe out on a free lease for a year. I get regular photo and video updates. Josh really does love George and only asked to return him because he was overwhelmed temporarily by the vet bills and had been fed lies by our mutual "friend." Josh and I are in touch regularly now and both think it is best for George to stay with Josh. He is receiving the needed treatment for his Lyme and has greatly improved. He is mostly sound now with only the occasional tripping issue on the right front. We have both washed our hands of our mutual "friend."

A long conversation with Josh revealed that most of the problem was from lies told by my "friend" to him and to me. She told all kinds of lies about me to him and she told me many things that she said he said that he never said. I realized in talking to him that she had told me things about him over the years, painting him as stupid, irresponsible, and mentally unsound, and I told him what she had told me about him and that I had never connected that person she had talked about with Josh since she had never used his name. I figured it out when he was telling me he had leased her first barn after she left and she had said all of those things about the guy who was leasing that barn. When she gave George's contract over to Josh she also failed to give him any of George's stuff (blankets, brushes, and tack) that was supposed to be included in his purchase price. Josh had had no idea that George was supposed to come with 500 dollars worth of stuff. The "friend" told him that I had been starving and abusing George before she took him and that I had sold her a lame horse and refused to take him back, and kept insisting she pay for him. During all this time she keeps telling me that George is great and she will send a payment as soon as she can. She tells Josh she hates George. He likes George so he agrees to take him and pay me for him. When Josh takes George from her he is very skinny and lame. Turns out that the "friend" was underfeeding all of her horses for months and the state had received complaints about her malnourished horses. The state was getting ready to take them when she moved them to Josh's. He wanted to help her because she was a "friend" so he took the horses on his property and helped her feed them and bring them back to health. Even now most of them look terrible, there is only so much that can be accomplished in a couple of months. When the whole situation came to a head about a month ago she said horrible things to me. She also lied a lot and tried to pull the "I'm mentally ill so you can't upset me" card. She went to Josh's one night during the whole thing and in talking to him, admitted she had pulled a swollen deer tick off of George while she had him at her first barn and her mare Lady also tested positive for Lyme. Also, she told Josh that Lady had run George into a rock and he had injured his right front leg (the one he has been off in). She also laughingly told Josh about how she had used her mental issues to shield herself saying "what can they say to that?" Since all of this has gone down, Josh has told her she needs to move her horses off his property, he isn't going to deal with her or help her any longer. She threatened to sue him for kicking her out even though they have no board agreement of any kind. She had 4 horses still at Josh's. One is a recent acquisition which Josh told her not to get in the first place but she took Sassy because "she's pretty." She can only take 2 horses to the barn she plans to move to so when Josh asked her what she wanted to do with Sassy she said "I don't care, send her off with the meat man for all I care." Josh found someone to take Sassy as a riding horse. She is trying to sell her recently gelded, never been backed Arabian and her ads call him "green broke."

I thought I knew the woman, I've been her "friend" for 10 years, Josh thought he knew her as a "friend" too. Well, her true colors are showing now and they are ugly. God help anyone else she has wrapped up in her web!

 

[welsummerchicks]

One has to be awful, awful careful of what one hears and decides to believe. Rumors and gossip in the horse business are unbelievable.

Remember, people who claim to be mentally ill and use it to their advantage...gossiping isn't actually a symptom of any known mental illness, that's just their personality.

My theory is that 1) many people in the horse business make money by pure BS - it's free advertising basically. They use talk for damage control to cover up their mistakes or to keep their students thinking other trainers are bad so they'll stick around. And 2) a lot of people are very, very emotional about their riding (or their kid's riding!) and they get very, very upset very, very easily. They may say things they wish they could take back later.

There is the person with bad ears. They mishear and repeat.

Then there is the person who's worrier and paranoid, they always think someone is not doing right by their horse.

Too, things just get twisted around when repeated. The third time something is repeated it is very, very different!

We also have to be careful to not put too much trust in 'crusaders for justice', they are always very believable but it might not really be what happened.

We have to always think that what we hear might not really be true, or the whole truth. It's better to just let it die on the vine.