:mad::mad::mad:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10213892322893117&set=a.1969016715987.2115023.1560035499&type=3&theater
I’m not going to read it, since there’s nothing I can do to help from out here. Sometimes I’m grateful I don’t have a high profile sale barn here. I’ve got enough trouble with $300 Craigslist bag of bones haunting me.
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I can’t read it either!! Faithful, money making camp horses…sold to kill after a hard summer…NO CLASS owners!!
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It is possible that there will be non kill buyers looking for a well broke horse.
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Is Alice Witherall the seller? She needs to be…(fill in the blank).
OK if anyone can take one, I’ll send a dribble via paypal.
Oh for the good old days when the riding academy where I took lessons leased out its horses in summer to a camp, and went there in NC to take care of the horses and give lessons, then brought our horses back to home for next school year of our lessons. I remember those horses growing old, in their 20s and some to early 30s, before they died at the barn. Those horses worked their whole lives and did not get sold to slaughter.
But in Alaska, don’t they turn out the camp horses in fall and let the bears eat them? I was told that by members of a rock band that worked summers in Alaska. So is the practice of sending camp horses in PA to auction at end of season the usual practice? Disposable animals, like trash thrown away.
What happened to ethical treatment of lesson horses?
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The one time I went to New Holland a gazillion years ago was one of the times when the camp horses were sold. It was not nice.
Doesn’t Cranbury auction pick up some of their auctionees from New Holland? Hopefully they will get a truckful of useful horses.
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Please pass this along to others. Thanks.
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That’s what my lesson barn did when I was a kid. The same people who owned it owned the summer camp. The horses who did lessons during the school year spent the summer doing lessons at the camp. Still working, still lessons, but at least they got a change of scene from town to the mountains!
I would recommend making this execrable plan known to the camp parents who could vote with their camp fees money – but if they’re not horsey people would they get it? Would they care?
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Not all are horrible. The two local camp horse suppliers I have dealt with, while they occasionally buy and sell at auction, keep their good horses on and free lease them out or put them to pasture in the off season. My childhood camp had some of the same horses back summer after summer for years. The barn where I rode as a teen and young adult would get some of them over the winter. That guy will retire his horses that had a long time off-season home to that home if they want the horse. The other is more of a dealer and pretty much every horse has a purchase price, but they are priced well over meat.
But, a good reminder to check on where your kid’s camp gets their horses from.
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Yeah, we used to free lease a camp horse in the off season at our backyard setup in PA. It was great, our lonely QH got some company and the camp horses really enjoyed getting a vacation where all they had to do was eat and provide the occasional trail ride. They went back to work looking way better than they did when they came to us.
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in all fairness it is a special sale that is being promoted as an opportunity to buy quiet riding horses, they are not being dumped at the weekly sale as random loose horses. Not sure if it is done in US but they may have reserves?
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There are usually not reserves, but like you said, it is a special sale. There are much bigger problems in the equine industry than this special sale.
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One of my friend’s bought a camp horse from NH many years ago as a nice trail horse. Basic big quiet QH that was safe.
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My kid went to 3 different horse related camps this summer and all 3 keep their horse year round. I had no idea until recently that some camps dump horses at the end of the season.
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Yeah, um, you haven’t been to New Holland have you? There’s nothing really special about this sale other than more horses are being dumped than usual. Yes, a couple might get picked up by legit homes but the majority are shipping.
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So true. And sad for the horses.
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Another year…another dump at New Holland. Same name on the posters…which seems spelled wrong.
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When I was in high school and the whole family went to the summer camp run by the City & County up near Yosemite, the concessionaire for the horseback riding had the horses there all summer, then returned them to a ranch in Oakdale, and used some of them to pack hunters into the Sierras in the Fall. It was always so nice to see the same horses year after year - always looking good, They lived in a corral during the day with hay perpetually in front of them, and were turned out in the grassy meadows at night. They barely needed grooming after a roll in the tall grass. When he retired and turned the business over to his son, he took several of the older horses (including my favorite) to live at his ranch. But that’s probably the difference between someone who ran a business with horses because he loved horses, not because, "hey we need horses for the summer camp, " i.e., people concerned only with business and indifferent to the living creatures involved. I’m way out here in California, so I can’t do anything, but that is so sad. As they say, “There oughta be a law,” but the law regards horses as property, so they can do what they want with them without any consequences.
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Wish there was a way to get ahold of the mailing list of the camp dumping the horses. Taking pictures of the horses at the auction, then made into a flyer to be mailed. People just need to educated, some won’t care, others will be horrified and never send their kids there.
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I did find Alice on FB, but not sure what camp.
I can’t imagine. I grew up that mainly ran a day camp through out the whole summer. They had the same horses year after year. Lessons during the winter, camp during the summer. Eventually, after I went to college, they did close down and the horses they didn’t keep found local homes.
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