Pony wouldn’t need shoes on pasture in the boondocks, where it would get trimmed or not trimmed along with the landowners herd.
It’s hard to hide a high value horse that you want to compete. It’s easy to hide a low value horse that can go out on rangeland, especially if you get out of range of social media and local social contacts. No one would care.
We just know about this particular trainwreck because OP perhaps unwisely brought it to an international audience on COTH where you are never quite as anonymous as you might hope.
Similar disputes happen all the time and with low dollar horses, possession is 9/10 ths of the law. No one’s going to hire a lawyer whose retainer is more than the pony’s value.
Most such disputes wisely don’t get to even the local firestorm FB level.
Yes, that’s all that’s needed if OP doesn’t care to actually see “her” pony very often.
Elderly equines need a lot of care. But if OP goes to see this pony more often than very rarely, the pony will be found. Then OP and the person who’s harboring the stolen property will be in (more) trouble.
Which begs the question, why steal back an elderly pony you can’t regularly care for and spend time with? Spite?
Well, lots of older horses retire to pasture just fine.
I expect OP took pony back mostly as a parting shot.
I doubt police are putting too many resources towards this case, and I doubt anyone is putting a 24/7 tail on OP. I’m not even sure it’s legal for a civilian to do this.
As for harboring stolen property, all the landowner would need to say is I had no idea there was an ownership dispute. Which is what this is.
I mean if this was being taken seriously as a major theft, the police could have already brought her in for questioning and figured out where the pony is. I’m sure one look at her cell phone would tell you.
I don’t know any of the folks, live on the other side of the continent, and haven’t even looked at the fb site.
My point all along has just been that this is a case of an interpersonal blowup between trainer and protege, in which pony is being used as a pawn. The ownership is in dispute because the two parties both claim to own the pony.
The fundamental question here is whether this pony was a gift from OP to trainer, or was a long standing free lease that either party could end at will. There is apparently no conclusive paper evidence either way.
Either way, trainer is out of line to say “you can have the pony back if you pay 8 years back board,” which is what I understand happened. And out of line to put a lein on horse for that back board.
These disputes over ownership are not unheard of especially at the low end of horses. From what I’ve observed the police don’t get involved unless there is an actual court order to enforce. That’s not taking sides, just an observation. Obviously the police have not gotten involved yet to any real degree.
I myself don’t think we have enough documentation to be 100 % sure who Judge Judy would award the pony to and my guess is, neither party has $2000 to start a lawyer retainer fee.
Like a lot of civil cases that are high emotion but low dollar value, it will get played out in the court of local public opinion.
I agree that it is awful to get caught up in this situation and I hope it doesn’t happen to me, from either side. I’ve been on both sides of undocumented free lease arrangements, and the undocumented part is I agree unwise.
My point is not to minimize the pain and anger the various parties feel.
My point is to say that, however, there’s not necessarily a whole lot.the legal system will do, without big fees, for either party.
Good points all, Scribbler. Not talking out of your derrière at all.
For the person who thinks I’m defending the OP, maybe I am. I find it in poor taste for the BO to be holding court on the Internet equivalent of junior high that is called “social media” but should probably more correctly be called “anti-social media”, seeing as how other accusations were also flying over there, and I am also having some difficulty believing that someone with a college education has committed what is probably a felony over an older pony. Maybe they have, I don’t know. I find it hard to believe also that IF the BO has all this proof that she says she does, that no arrests have been made. Where was the outcry over the tack that was supposedly missing before the pony left? Why wasn’t anything done before he left?
I think it more likely that it’s largely an interpersonal ownership dispute, the pony is an airfern like so many others like it and easy to feed and keep stashed in a pasture somewhere, and possibly the other party/ies involved don’t have deep ties to the horse community and don’t know or care that so much strife is going on over the matter. They might have loaded the pony into any number of vehicles, not just a horse trailer. But it is indeed easy for one pony or even a horse to disappear and I doubt it will be much of a blip on anyone else’s radar outside of that barn unless bills don’t get paid or the pony falls into deplorable condition. That’s just the way things tend to work in the big picture.
I don’t know if the BO is telling the truth or not. What I do know is that the OP, whose first post clearly states that she does not have the pony, and who came here to ask for advice a week after she actually had the pony in her possession is, college education or not, a liar.
…then three months from now there will be a topic started (using the inevitable WWYD?) by a new poster about how she helped a “friend” by letting her older pony live in her pasture and there has been no financial contribution from “friend” and now said pony is A) showing signs of foundering, or B) showing signs of “failing to thrive”.
The perpetual auction pony…
Why is trainer a jerk for asking for back board? She thought the pony was given to her after OP failed to pay board for 8 years. In that time, trainer assumes all responsibility and bills, deals with a lawsuit involving the pony while OP wants nothing to do with pony, and yes, uses pony in the lesson program. OP comes back after a falling out involving theft of equipment and says no, I never gave her to you, I want her back (presumably to spite trainer). Trainer says OK, if you never gave her to me, please pay what you owe me for her expenses these last 8 years. Trainer goes through legal avenues over the course of months, OP does nothing the legal way, and then steals her back in the night.
She was supposed to just give her back to someone who previously hadn’t cared well for the pony and hadn’t paid a dime for 8 years? That makes no sense.
Doesn’t the BO have current papers/documentation that states that this pony is legally hers? If so, then the pony was clearly stolen IMO.
OP, why didn’t you just, at the very least, go to the aution and try and work something out or register to bid? Or send a friend to go do the bidding for you?
Looking back over the first few pages, it seems pretty clear the original post was intentionally misleading in order to gain approval/support for removing the pony. And it worked. To a point.
Except that at some point, there was a lawsuit based on someone falling off of the pony, and the OP apparently had no involvement in that whatsoever. Even if she lacked financial resources, one would think it would have come up that the BO didn’t own the pony.
also, the OP had other horses that the BO gave lessons on, and credited her board by a predetermined amount. I wonder if the lien is based on the entire back board or the cost of board minus a credit for the lessons the pony was used in.
Furthermore, the lien process requires notices to go out to anyone who may be affected by the lien. Therefore, the OP had a chance to go argue that she owned the pony the entire time but owed no board because the pony was used in lessons, and she did not go. She also had the opportunity to go to the auction and buy the pony, but she did not go. Instead, she stole the pony. Apparently she also stole tack in the months prior. It’s sad for the pony.
And my point Scribbler is that the assumptions you are making have been refuted. You are making the assumptions off of half of what is out there about this. The police are involved in the theft a a pony. The BO has paperwork saying she owns the pony. The police are working on a warrant. That is not minimal police involvement. Your honestly telling me you would just shrug if someone stole a horse off your property because it’s not worth a whole lot?
Also there is no tirade on Facebook. The post is simply pictures of the pony asking people to call the barn or the police if they see it. The BO has not named the OP on Facebook or otherwise. No one has named the places the OP works at. No one on the post has named the OP.
This is as far as I can get with this thread. Thanks starhorse for posting your local knowledge.
In my not important opinion, the posters bashing on Trotapony mustn’t understand love if they expect her to give up a “member of her family” without a fight. And after more than ten years of knowing this pony I would say it’s earned its right to stay. But it seems whatever Trotapony says, you take her words and twist them.
I agree. I’m not sure where the bashing of BO comes from. Her FB ad was non-drama, she holds legal ownership at this point so that’s not the issue, and she shouldn’t be expected to just let it go because the pony isn’t worth much on the market. It’s a beloved lesson horse to the farm, cherished by students and BO. If someone stole my old OTTB, I’d do just as BO has. I don’t care if she’s not worth much, that’s my horse and I’d lose money getting her back in a heartbeat. This poor pony is lucky to have someone this adamant to protect her and bring her home.
