Kind of off-track but I’m wondering why an auction horse is considered a rescue? Wouldn’t it be more of a rehab situ? You go there, buy the horse, take it home, figure out what bugs it has, fix it up and resell/give away. Whether you have the paperwork for the IRS, I don’t know a thing about that, but it still seems more of rehabbing than a rescue from dire straits. Wouldn’t you rescue from the KB? Questions abound.
Speaking for myself and my purchase, I consider him a “rescue” because the only person bidding on him besides my agent was a kill buyer. Which means if I didn’t buy him he would have been headed the next day on a truck to a slaughter house in Mexico, about a three hour ride for him. That, I would say isconsidered a rescue.
I follow their Facebook page. Stopped commenting after they posted pictures of a horse that was obviously suffering from HERDA, and they were representing him as abuse and “stichted up” by someone horrible. Comments deleted, people reprimanded for suggesting it was HERDA and not a sicko to blame for the horse’s condition. Well they did pull the poor horse and got it to the vet, and it was HERDA and the horse was put down.
I have mixed emotions about the group. They do pull the hopeless cases, and they do get the animals to the vet. Sometimes treating the hopeless for a while before putting them down (which some support, personally I come from the save your funds for the ones that could have a bright future school).
In short, they seem a bit drama-full, and I don’t know why their non profit status is STILL pending. They do help horses without other options, which I think is noble hard work.
I was blocked from their FB after asking whether or not it was true that they had outbid a private buyer, as was stated by the person outbid. Instead of responding, they deleted my comment and banned me.
They also adopted out a horse to someone who, a month later, was asking for donations as she was at capacity before she got the horse from Megan and could not afford board, farrier, or vet.
They do not have a good reputation in the area of SoCal that I live in.
I can’t speak for her deleting and banning, and I have heard a few murmurs about her tax exempt legitimacy from a friend who has another (well respected) So Cal rescue, but I am not to judge motives or reasoning. My post here was only to say, yes, she does indeed pull usable horses and OTTTBs for re-homing as I have one. And, my experience with her has been nothing but good and extremely professional. Considering all the BSers and scam artists you meet IN PERSON, in the horse industry, it would be very easy to take advantage of someone out of state. My dealings with her have been great, she’s diligent in finding out who these dumped TBs are, even going back to previous listed owners and breeders, and make every attempt to get them back to good owners/breeders, or homes like mine who can give them a bright future. Honestly, coming from horse forums where people just flip a lid over every minute thing, and it blows up into 300 posts B-fests, I can see how one running a business would shut things down in their infancy as to not distract from the intent and purpose of the group - to save horses. I think instead, a private message would be more in order to inform rather than inflame. I as a trainer do not have the time or desire to read through pages of “I’m going to force educate you with my opinion/knowledge” when a simple PM FYI would suffice. I’ve spent too much of my life already here, when all I wanted to say is “Yes, she DOES buy horses, yes, she DOES re home them, yes, she DOES use the money donated to care for those in need. And my experience with AHR has been nothing but professional and above board.” Her book keeping and licensing is none of my business. All I care about is keeping TBs out of the kill van. Have a beautiful Sunday, you guys in the storm zones - stay warm, and may ya’ll have great, safe rides! Blessings to all.
UPDATE – JUST SO ALL WHO POSTED HERE IS INFORMED, AUCTION HORSE RESCUE/MEGAN GAYNES NOW HAS THEIR 501C (3) STATUS SO LEGIT TAX EXEMPT
Not a Scam
I have helped AHR and been a foster for them and have adopted two of their horses. Megan works her butt off trying to save horses at high risk from the kill buyers, other situations where the horse will not have a good home and end up back at auction. The fact that people are on here slamming an organization that is making a difference one horse at a time is pathetic. No wonder you got blocked from the FB page. Oh, and by the way, they are a non profit. It took a very long time to get finalized, but it is. So there you go…if youre looking for a horse, check them out. If you just want to be negative and attack people trying to make a difference in this world, please consider therapy for yourself.
PS…not all of us know everything about horse disease/health/etc. Medicine is an ongoing learning adventure. Please don’t judge when someone makes a mistake. They are doing the best they can and are open to learning from my expereince. I would and will adopt from Megan again.
[QUOTE=Alagirl;7125338]
Oh honey, where to start…
Have a beer.
Now.
You ran into a bunch of kooks. The truth hurts the bottom line. That’s how come you got banned.
Rescues are a booming business, forget that those who do it right seldom make a buck.
So you got the option of
A) outright scam. They will never buy a horse, but who is to know if they delete all posts
B) are a hoarder in disguise. You pay for their illness.
there was a C) but lack of coffee made it vanish.
Maybe send their page to the people responsible for overlooking rescues and fraud cases. Nipping this in the butt.
The tactics if I remember right are similar to the ones CYBER used back in the day…loons and kooks, and that is insulting loons![/QUOTE]
You are thinking of CBER, Columbia Basin Equine Rescue.
Well I can tell you a not so good story of Megan’s “rescue”. After I contributed to one horse who was left tied outside the auction, they were continuing to raise money for his bail, after the bail was already paid. I have no qualms about needing more funds but don’t keep using the same sad picture of the beat up horse that used to be beautiful, and keep raising the same bail money. I asked a question and was ignored but received two emails from people asking if I would continue to raise the question (which I did not, I wanted the horse to be okay). To the woman from the reputable California HJ barn, I am fairly sure she knows of you and would not want the bad rap of a bad horse. I am glad you got a good one, but she is a hustler and a sharp tongued know it all, and if you ask the wrong question, you will be ignored or banned.
“To the woman from the reputable California HJ barn, I am fairly sure she knows of you and would not want the bad rap of a bad horse. I am glad you got a good one”
Lets hope thats not true and shes just doing good business practices. I’ve since heard stories of the bidding wars on horses and FB banning. Not being a party I can’t comment. I’ve since been purchasing straight off the track from several great sources, and the irony is I got burned by a supposed “legit” source, also So Cal TB rescue. Just goes to show that any kind of horse buying these days is a crap shoot, be it a 100k jumper or $200.00 slaughter rescue. It’s the sellers who are the wild card with their honesty or lack thereof.
My AHR buy, is now 5yo,18h, growing into a stunning boy, and sweet as pie. He’s so special we are taking him extra slow. He just may be the next Snowman! Blessings to all who help a horse in need.
I can say from personal experience that yes, they do tend to out bid private buyers sometimes. They out bid me when the price was VERY far from killer price and it appeared they would bid as high as I would bid it. I do not think they are all bad by any means, if a horse enters into their program, it is safe! And that is the ultimate goal. However, there have been cases where they buy horses for big (by auction standards) prices that are in good shape. They are in good weight, appear sound and broke, maybe there is something wrong with them, but it is certainly not anything to the naked eye. I do not understand outbidding private buyers on horses like these. I feel that their focus should be to get the prices above killer prices and to purchase those that are at risk of not getting proper care or selling to the killer.
[QUOTE=gallopon123;8144960]
I can say from personal experience that yes, they do tend to out bid private buyers sometimes. They out bid me when the price was VERY far from killer price and it appeared they would bid as high as I would bid it. I do not think they are all bad by any means, if a horse enters into their program, it is safe! And that is the ultimate goal. However, there have been cases where they buy horses for big (by auction standards) prices that are in good shape. They are in good weight, appear sound and broke, maybe there is something wrong with them, but it is certainly not anything to the naked eye. I do not understand outbidding private buyers on horses like these. I feel that their focus should be to get the prices above killer prices and to purchase those that are at risk of not getting proper care or selling to the killer.[/QUOTE]
That sounds like a business. Flipping usable horses for a profit. Nothing wrong with that unless you portray yourself as a rescue. Perhaps their non profit status is murky because they co mingle profit with non profit.
[QUOTE=hnrmom1;8051247]
I have helped AHR and been a foster for them and have adopted two of their horses. Megan works her butt off trying to save horses at high risk from the kill buyers, other situations where the horse will not have a good home and end up back at auction. The fact that people are on here slamming an organization that is making a difference one horse at a time is pathetic. No wonder you got blocked from the FB page. Oh, and by the way, they are a non profit. It took a very long time to get finalized, but it is. So there you go…if youre looking for a horse, check them out. If you just want to be negative and attack people trying to make a difference in this world, please consider therapy for yourself.
PS…not all of us know everything about horse disease/health/etc. Medicine is an ongoing learning adventure. Please don’t judge when someone makes a mistake. They are doing the best they can and are open to learning from my expereince. I would and will adopt from Megan again.[/QUOTE]
This thread hasn’t been active in over a year. Ironically your rant brings it back to the top of the heap and opens it to another round of comments.
Auction Horses Rescue has been a 501©3 approved federal not-for-profit for two years now. They had applied for it one year before that. I wanted to just make the record clear.
