It’s been my observation over 30 years that you will feed more in the winter to maintain good weight. Not less!! Good Lord. I believe she fed them little to no hay.
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She says it’s so they don’t founder when the spring grass comes in. Which…. I feel like there might be a better way to prevent that. Maybe. 
And there’s a difference between overfeeding a horse and, you know, feeding them at all.
I cannot understand the people defending her who are completely looking past the fact that this wasn’t one or two old horses losing weight and condition. It was more than ten. That’s not an elderly horse with a medical problem. That’s a deliberate management choice and ignoring the condition of the horse in front of you. How can someone look at even one of those horses every day and not just feel terrible and try everything they can to get them looking better? I know every one of us could give an example of an old, retired horse that was not in this condition regardless of time of year. I’m sure we could all also provide an example of an old horse that is/was thin but still was being given everything possible and the horse still looks like it has the will to live. I know we’re seeing most of these through pictures or videos (those who are not personally helping out), but man, some of those pictures are just devastating because of the look in the horse’s eye.
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Let’s not forget the Loki horse is only 12 years old.
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Here’s a comparison. Horse in foreground of one pic is the same horse pictured at the vet.
Chunky healthy pic taken in May 2022, thin pic taken in February 2023.
Horse was healthy with no underlying issues.
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First, I applaud you for calling them out for lying / implying that they are a 501c3 when they are not.
Second, sadly being a fully registered 501c3 is in no way a mark of trust. There is very little oversight of 501c3’s. If they get in trouble for something bad (not just missing paperwork) it is usually because someone ratted them out.
One of the largest horse rescue orgs AND SCAMS in the world, HiCaliber in California, was a registered 501c3. It took years of people in the know of their horrid shenanigans trying to get the word to the public AND to the state attorney general.
The rescue collapsed once the attorney general started seizing their accounts. The property owners returned from overseas, saw what was happening and finally evicted them. HC leaders did retain a few of the horses they claimed for themselves out of the rescue, who are now not much better off.
There is a very long thread somewhere in the annals of COTH about HiCaliber.
They over-populated the farms while continuing to intake new cases (for the donations) and then held off the increasing number by murdering hundreds of just-acquired horses by gunshot. Claiming for ‘humane’ reasons but the new horses they killed were never treated and never saw a vet. As well as rampant under-feeding, disease and abuse - for years. All while Facebook-collecting millions from loyal but deluded donors. Millions. Most of which went into their own pockets. It has to be one of the biggest charity scams operating in the U.S. at the time. Still waiting on the state AG to file charges, they have mountains of evidence to go through.
This was a duly registered 501c3:
https://www.escondidograpevine.com/2018/12/08/hicaliber-horse-rescue-bites-the-dust/
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A graph I made showing a distribution of BCS scores based on owner reports.
Of note: 3 of the unknown horses are her personal horses, one is mine who is thin but not horrific, one has not been examined, but looked to be in fair condition yesterday, and one is an owner who seems ok with his condition, so those unknowns will skew the scores higher if/when those horses are examined. It’s still shocking.
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I wish that the journalist had presented this “theory” to the veterinarian and allowed them the space to dispute it as insanity as no such thing exists, while also pointing out that the rest of the horses on the farm are fat as ticks.
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Horrible situation. I see the local newspaper has published a story. Since this person is currently showing and is reported to be a judge, I hope that she is investigated by USEF AND VHSA or the organization that granted her judging license and both her judging license and right to compete is removed permanently. In addition, to facing legal action, perhaps her own horses should be removed from her care for their own well being.
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She didn’t feed them… because she didn’t want them to founder from being overfed? I don’t think the horses in any of the photos posted here were in much danger of THAT!
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I am not sure if it was founder or cushings (since that’s more of a blood-adjacent issue than founder which is more structural? Hard to say) she is referring to, but in general she seems to think that allowing the to get this thin is metabolically protective or something:
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Even if you’re feeding horses and trying to keep them on the thinner side, when they start looking emancipated and nothing you’re doing is working you CALL A VET!!!
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I got a chuckle out of this autocorrect. I am glad that these horses are being emancipated now. Had they had the strength to emancipate themselves earlier in the process, they might have had better outcomes.
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Here’s a part of the story that I found significant.
A vet, with a long history in the area and the practice owner , went around the barn owner and called the horse owners directly about the condition of their horses.
So the vet felt strongly enough about the condition of the horses that she essentially blew up the client relationship. At a barn with 25+ horses. Run by a VHSA judge.
The ending quote in the newspaper article: "…we all raised a right hand and recited an oath as veterinarians. Part of the oath is the welfare of animals,”
So the vet felt that not notifying the owners was, in essence, a violation of her oath to protect the welfare of the animals.
Do you have idea how much vets like getting between barn owners and horse owners? They don’t. AT ALL. If they really, really have to pick a side, they tend to pick the barn owners. That tells me all I need to know about how bad things were, and for how long that they were that bad.
ETA: Animal Control didn’t have a problem with it; but a vet went around the barn owner and contacted horse owners directly? Yeah, I know which one carries more weight.
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Yeah it is really bothering me that anyone on this earth (Acos, owners, other supporters, etc) could think that a BCS of 1-3 is in any way acceptable for any reason. Most caring responsible people if they had an animal bearing this condition would have had multiple vet visits and if nothing could be done because of medical reasons would have euthanized the animal. There is no reason EVER to let an animal voluntarily get to this condition. NONE. To justify this as proper management when her personal animals (even old ones) are allegedly fat and healthy is fraud, abuse, neglect and manipulative as hell. I do not know this woman personally but folks need to be aware that her rationales for any of this are ridiculous. Her seeming lack of remorse or empathy for the animals and owners really makes me wish that she never is allowed to have any animal again. My older and old horses that I have had (and I know not all are the same and some have medical/dental conditions that change things) have remained fat and healthy through the winter with primarily good grass hay and perhaps a very small bit of concentrate. With no grass. The fact that she states these horses were fed seems to be a blatant lie. I hope y’all get some good legal support and can recoup expenses and shut her down forever.
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Kitchie owns a horse that still lives there.
OMG, I remember that one. And it was unending.
These are the kinds of things that exhaust your faith (which I have too much of sometimes re my faith in the 501 
)
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Personally I think she’s full of it. It tells me all I need to know about her character and past history that she believes that she can talk her way out of this.
I think she’s trying to re-frame the situation to get people not to see what is there to see. But those horses tell their own story in their appearance.
This is why independently-gathered photos and video are so, so crucial to making these cases. Without the visual evidence it didn’t happen. Because someone will baffle with bullshit, talk in circles, offer fantasy scenarios and theories, sound knowledgeable and experienced, until concerned citizens forget what the problem really is.
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Haha! I’m leaving that one!
How about MULTIPLE VETS called animal control reporting a problem with the conditions and nothing was done? Some random animal control officer took a veterinarian’s report of neglect and felt he could single handedly sign off as “nah not really a problem” more than one time. That is mind blowing to me.
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