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Dutch harness horse drama. Update major mare/ foal neglect Nov 2023 post 1782 Update Kate Shearer responds post 1930 Nov 25/23

She’s basically owned up to it now. I’ll take “it’s not my fault” for $200, Alex.

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There is no way THAT happens in 12 days.

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If you don’t feed it at all, it might? :grimacing:

But who leaves their whole herd with a new employee without some way to confirm what’s supposed to be happening is happening?

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Yes this is on the other concurrent thread too. Where I won Bingo! By predicting she would defend herself by claiming Other people let me down boo hoo not my fault. someone over there also had a screenshot of a sales photo KS had on her own FB feed of a newborn foal and a scary thin broodmare at a Henneke 3/10.

So she is clearly lacking in some horse management skills.

There were other allegations of neglect a few years back.

So I’d say systemic neglect and underfeeding in an attempt to cut costs to the minimum.

But no one wants to knowingly pay top dollar for a neglected foal, there’s too many lingering effects.

As far as her blaming others and saying she can’t understand why it happens, this person has been caught out in so many lies online and is so fast to launch at other people, I wouldn’t believe a word of it.

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In the supposed 12 day ago photos the weanlings seem quite thin. Unacceptably thin. I keep my weanlings on the “thin side” meaning you can see a trace of ribs because of Physitis risks, but the neck and hip musculature on these indicate long-term lack of sufficient feeding. Mine have ample butt and topline muscle.

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And wormy to me. Those bellies on thin horses.

The other concurrent thread is Opinions on DHH for jumpers. And I didn’t start it!

It recently got revived by KS jumping on to brag about her sales foals. I’m waiting to see if she comes on to defend herself about these accusations of neglect. Or if she just sticks to FB because she knows she’ll get hammered here.

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Yes. I just pulled up some photos of my own weanling to compare. The way that pelvic bone juts out in these babies…wow. My foal can see a whisper of ribs, as he should, but his pelvic bone looks absolutely normal, smooth on both sides with no protrusion. That is what “normal” looks like.

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If she was local to me, our occasionally overzealous SPCA would likely be onsite and considering seizures. I’m not sure how AC works in the deep South.

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Yes, this is on Facebook now – her excuses are not legitimate and she is backpedaling like crazy but this is neglect and cruelty - unacceptable on any level, but especially in the case of young growing babies whose futures will be affected. She should be ashamed, and with luck this will help put her out of business.

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The rescue I volunteered with got a foal out of a deplorable starvation situation.
It appeared to be a weanling.
It was a yearling.

In that sense, it’s actual age very much could be relevant.

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It really depends on where you are in the south. Wealthier city? Sure. Common red state backwater? Nothing.

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My weanling the day after flying over from France (which I am sure caused him to lose a little condition)

I cannot believe the condition of some of these foals?!

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See this thread on the HJ forum for more info and photos Opinions on DHH crosses for jumping?

Whoops, didn’t realize it had been posted up thread.

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I’ve recently been coming across a lot of posts from her on groups I’m a member of on social media where she is selling dairy quality alfalfa she trucks in. Everything I’ve read indicates this is not the best food for sport horses because it’s way too high in protein. There’s analysis posted of it as well but it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me because it includes some numbers relevant to dairy cattle and not horses. And yet her own stock looks like they are barely eating anything?

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Just saw the thread over in H/J. Despicable.

@vxf111 here is a close up shot of mine at 5 months, you can see being a little ribby but also what 1. A decently fed weanling looks like, even one that had to be weaned early, and 2. What a decent coat is. Your baby looks great especially after a LONG trip.

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Kate’s babes look appalling.

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Yours looks fine. You can tell from the coat condition he’s healthy. Looking at the photos of some of those foals they look so poorly, not just thin but really poorly. I can’t imagine what could happen in less than two weeks to cause that?! Something really appears to be amiss.

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Exactly. Our foals aren’t fat, but they are in good weight. Any of the pictures posted are not like our foals.

I’m so glad in retrospect I started this topic.

When I started it, was just about online craycray and wierd conformation. Eventually it seemed rather infra dig to keep updating on more of the same manufactured online drama. There were indeed some hints on FB that she had starving mares in Oklahoma a few years back, mostly because KS herself posted rants about how it was all a lie she hadn’t paid her board and how lazy could a young person be that they couldn’t get out of bed to feed horses and now she was bringing them all to her own farm in Florida. But no photos of horses or corroboration of any of this.

Now that her horses are closer to a big horsey area it’s maybe harder to hide.

I honestly did not expect this to spiral into a major horse abuse/neglect scandal. But in retrospect I not that surprised.

Anyhow I’m really glad I started the thread, and that KS had time to let us know who she really is so there is context for this really horrible turn of events.

I expect she is never coming back to this thread.

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I had just weaned this guy. Not a pro pic, no photoshop, just a dirty fluffy weanling in a field. Still has shine, muscle and flesh. There are no excuses.

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