In a functional operation, automatic waterers with heaters. In closer margins, stock tanks with heaters, sometimes the huge ones for cows/large herds. I’ve chopped ice daily on the creek for horses before but that’s pretty hardcore lol. If you’re feeding hay then usually there is a heated waterer around somewhere. If you’re doing the eat snow method you aren’t usually feeding hay and they are foraging (doesn’t work for cows, just horses). One of our neighbors used to run the horses out all winter (no hay) but would use a water tank to water them once a day. One of the neglect cases I tried to get attention would put a round bale out but they were filling a stock tank from a water tank in a pickup bed and then driving away for a few days so after the first few hours the horses had no water and gullets full of hay. It took many calls from me and the other neighbors on that one to get a response but no horses died while they were there, they must have done well enough on the snow but I wouldn’t do that to one of my horses.
From the comments in the now deleted FB group, from.people who worked for Mr Blatt before things went sideways, he fed hay in the wintet, and the horses either drank from the creek or had stock tanks, depending on which pasture they were in. And the oldies got soaked mashes if their teeth were bad.
An update:
The ASPCA has indicated that if they gain possession of the horses, they will allow at least some to go to breeding homes.
Also, Blatt pled not guilty to one count of felony aggravated animal cruelty on Monday.
If my assumptions are correct, the seizure doesn’t transfer ownership, but it does transfer full control over the herd to the county aka sheriff’s office. Is that right?
So – if I’m correct, that’s not confirmed as of this instant – technically Blatt still owns them. But he can do nothing with them, they are legally beyond his reach and control.
I am guessing that when the county reassigns ownership elsewhere, a court order will give ownership of the individual horses to new invidual owners. But not sure if this is how it works legally in that country.
I’m kind of fascinated by the behind the scenes legal status, in situations such as this.
You are correct; Blatt still owns the horses but has no control over them. The sheriff controls them - and she can bill him every 30 days for the expense of keeping them, which he might not want or be able to pay.
Oddly, the number seems to.have increased from 86 to 90. He does own (approximately) 4 other horses, including Otto, so I wonder if they’ve been added. Somewhere in that vanished FB group, someone who had worked for him said that intact male horses and the mares had been kept separate in 2024, so there shouldn’t be any foals in 2025.
What happened in the Hoskins case, in New York, is that when the horses finally needed to be dispersed, the court appointed a receiver to be in charge of that. No idea what would happen here, but could the ASPCA be appointed receiver?
This is a nightmare situation for the owner (and in this case, probably his family &/or helpers who may be making the real decisions, but we don’t know). Because the herd can continue to rack up bills, and it is all the owner’s responsibility. But the owner no longer has control over what is being done or what it costs.
It’s kind of like having the city condemn your aspirationally-bought empty falling-down house, and then send you the bill for tearing it down. Which cities do for the sake of protecting the community from the many problems of abandoned houses that overflow to vex the neighborhood – rodents; takeover by invasive plants; drug dealers; etc.
The same teardown house can simoultaneously be in mortgage arrears badly enough to end up in a foreclosure auction. The buyer at auction may or may not know that they are buying an empty lot with a teardown bill that the city sends to them, as the owner. As an auction bidder always do your research … anyway. (In real life, this has happened, people have bought a house at foreclosure auction, only to discover an empty lot and the city chasing them for the bill to remove the structure. There is zero duty to disclose at a foreclosure auction. The lender/seller may not even know. Nothing helps the buyer, this is what they bought, knowingly or unknowingly.)
The above is a situation analogous to the agister’s lien of the thread title. Had the herd gone to auction and someone bought it, they are buying the sheriff’s bills for caring for the herd. With no control of their own over their new acquisition of 86 horses. Unless they could convince the sheriff to turn the horses over to them, as the new, more responsible, owner.
The sheriff won’t pay any attention to liens etc. Neither will a city considering a house on its teardown list that is already in foreclosure. Not their problem.
So landowner Peterson was well advised to forget about trying to auction the herd against a lien. For himself to buy, or for someone else to buy. They would just have bought into the sheriff’s process, and probably the sheriff’s expenses, too. The owner is getting the bill. Whoever that is.
Of course the current herd owner Blatt put himself into this situation by a series of very bad decisions. But if information is correct, there may be medical issues behind it. Really tragic when this happens.
And doubly so when living creatures are the subject of the drama. But hopefully they are getting better care now. From the sheriff.
I’m thinking the sheriff will have to recover expenses from some kind of auction or sale. Assuming the law allows this – from brief internet reading, it sounds like selling off seized animals is a regular procedure in many Montana counties. Sometimes not long after seizure.
So at this point I’m guessing that these horses are eventually headed for other owners, other homes. Courtesy of the sheriff. Just speculation, though.
Update: the Sheriff took ownership of the herd this week, and the ASPCA will handle them find new homes. It appears that there will not be breeding restrictions put in place. I’m sure the AMHA will help with DNA typing and registration.
I can post links in the morning; it’s all over Facebook but I deliberately do not have Facebook on my tablet.
I’m still wondering what has happened to former herd sire Sweets Bayberry, who is now 31 or 32 and was in rough shape.
Thank you for the update.
Hopefully all of the horses land well.
I edited my post - the county Sheriff’s Department still owns the horses but the ASPCA is handling the dispersal.
Unfortunately it appears that they’re just trying to get them into new homes quickly, with no organized attempt at identifying parentage etc. Unless it’s already been done, but I doubt it. It would have been so much easier to get this with all the horses in one place. So only those with two registered parents can be registered. (Note I am inferring off a list of horses from the sheriff, where most are identified by a barn name only - but it appears that the 31 year old stallion Sweets Baybarry is correctly identified and still alive! And the youngest of the horses are coming 3, so when Mr Blatt’s health failed, the stallions and mares were already separated. This would have been an even bigger mess had there been a bunch of feral 2023 and 2024 youngsters, and mares in foal.)
Moana Morgans, which is nearby and has pretty deep pockets, had offered at one point to care for them and disperse them when ready, and I think they would have gotten the parentage worked out while doing so.
