OP so glad you got your pony back safe and sound! Just ignore her rants and carry on, and a very good idea to keep your lawyer involved!
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I worked for a woman once who ran a middling sale/lower level dressage program. One of the sale horses was owned by an elderly lady with a cancer diagnosis who sent the horse to be sold so that she could see rhat he landed well before she died. On her good days, she would come out to pet her horse in her jacket that had his name embroidered on it and brush his tail while I got him ready and then watch him go. My then boss haaaaated it if I would chat kindly with the woman while getting the horse ready or let her brush his tail for two extra minutes before heading down to the indoor.
Literally the second the woman tottered off to vist the ladies room my biss would be in my face hissing âWe donât have time for all this entertaining!â
After a few months the womans health took a turn for the better, and she wanted to take her horse back to her former barn. She gave a monthâs notice like a decent human, and still came out when she could to see her horse go.
Of course the barn owner instantly stopped putting him on the ride list, so essentially the elderly woman was paying for rides the horse wasnt getting. One day the woman came with some carrots and I said, âOh hi, your horse is out, so you want me to bring him in so you can say hi?â
And my then boss just couldnt help herself and right in front of the client said, âDonât you know sheâs LEAVING?!â Evidently she forgot that the woman was paid up in full for the rest of the monthâŠ
Some barn owners just canât bring themselves to be decent human beings to anyone. They act like complete @$$es and then act shocked and betrayed when people leave.
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Is this the situation in CT, by any chance? Seems to have recently died down a bit on social media, if so - so thatâs positive for you!
I am the âmean trainerâ who is supposedly bullying this poor innocent girl ⊠The funny part is she left out most of the story.
Fact- I have two boarding contracts signed by this girl for this pony , one when she first started boarding with me in high school, and another from 2007 when her mother gave her this pony back after taking her from this girl.
Fact number 2, when she was in college in Kentucky she couldnât afford to keep this pony and sent her back to me in horrible condition asking me to help her, I agreed to reduce her board and keep the pony to help her out and use the pony for lessons to make up difference in the board.
Fact- she sent two other horses back to me over the four years she was in college, all same story , emaciated and covered in fungus that I helped her with.
fact -she told everybody that she "gave " me said lesson pony.
When there was a law suit from someone falling off this pony, she didnt want anything to do with ownership of this pony.
My boarding contract states that after ninty days of nonpayment I can legally take your horse for back money owed. I have A signed contract, not once but twice by this girl.
When the pony came back I received one payment for 75$ of the agreed 200$ a month payment. That was in 2009!
Now keep in mind I already have 10 school horses and only do 20 lessons a week, I did not need this pony , who at the time wasnât exactly lesson horse material. I did this to help this girl out.
And as far as her claim of a verbal agreement that she could come get the horse after six months notice- that doesnât even make sense at all, of course I wouldnât sign or agree to that- why the heck would I pay to care for and maintain a horse for nearly ten years (over 40,000$) that somebody could come and take back at any time? Iâm nice, but not that nice.
She told me and everyone else that she gave me the horse , she kept and boarded four other horses at my farm from the time she graduated to December of last year, she lived in my home and worked for me, and when I used her other horses for lessons I paid her by the lesson for each time they were used , which I have documentation of.
She never once in the nine years paid any attention to this pony one time out of the scope of her job , never a brush or a carrot.
When she was tossed out in December for not doing her job, she never wanted the pony back untill I questioned her about the balance she owes me on the horses she left with . I told her after she said she would be back to get the pony that if she was now claiming to own her for all these years then she needed to pay me at least some of the back expense for the pony. I followed the Connecticut state statute and put a Lein in this pony for back board owed, since she was now claiming ownership. The Lein went through and was legally filed with the court . She was given an opportunity to come and bid at an auction for the pony, she did not show up or attemp to work with me at all. The auction resulted in my legal ownership of the pony, as of February 28, 2018. This girl then snuck into my farm through the woods and stole this pony during the night almost three weeks ago. She is now being charged criminally. I was fully prepared to handle this matter civilly in court, as I have documentation to back up everything I have stated here.
This is a 21 year old grade pony who was worth nothing untill I took her in and made her into a suitable lesson mount. I didnât need to help this girl when she was down and out, I did it because I liked her, I gave her a place to live , and keep her horses. This isnât about the pony, this is about spite, she was let go for being a substandard employee, she trashed my business and stole equipment and money from me, and now my pony.
Now she turns on the sob story to get sympathy but she left out the important parts of the story, like that I have written documentation to support all of this, that if this goes to court, which I was happy to do, she would loose, she knows this, which is why the desperate move of stealing the pony was made. Now my pony is being hidden somewhere in a shed , away from the home she has known and loved for over ten years.
When i sent her the lien notice she was credited more then generously for lessons the pony did over the ten years. I am a small time barn, I only tried to help this girl out because she had a rough go growing up, but Business is business and I was given a pony, paid for and maintained that pony for ten years . if she has now changed her mind it is very simple , she either owes the money and can have the pony , or she doesnât owe the money and doesnât own the pony. I am not independently wealthy and donât make a habit of supporting expensive animals for someone for ten years untill they get their life together. If you find somebody who will do that let me know, I would love to have somebody pay to support my animals. Now this girl owes a lot of money and will have a criminal record .
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I was wondering if we would ever hear âthe other side of the storyâ.
Guess that maybe we just did?
Some of it didnât quite make sense as we were told, if nothing else, because of the time involved.
Too much seemed to be missing.
That quoted puts more on the table.
For us here, this is a âshe said/she saidâ type story.
We donât have any way to tell what is true and what a stretch any other from all that has been presented in this thread.
First, paragraphs are your friend.
Second, if there is litigation pending, ask your attorney, but generally you are advised not to say anything to anyone anywhere, less your words may be able to be twisted around and not help, but hinder you.
May consider deleting all that, maybe leave a notice like âthere is more to this story and is not overâ and chime in later once it is resolved.
Would be nice to know pony is where it should be, that is an important part of this story for most here.
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Oh and on a side note this was NEVER a free lease agreement, that is a lie. There are two sides to every story. This thread was pointed out to me by social media contact, and if anybody believes she is spoiling this pony , I will post before and after pics of the pony when it is legally returned to me and you will be able to see what her âcareâ looks like. I understand that many of you were going on just the facts you were given by original poster, but find it funny how the âtrainerâ is vilified as being money hungry and not caring , I took excellent care of this mare, she was certainly not my " most valuable lesson pony" , but she was a part of my family, she was loved, and I certainly did not make any money on keeping her all these years. The amount of money charged for lessons she did( 2-3) 1/2 hour lesson a week , most winters off, barley cover the cost of her upkeep, feed, insurance, vet care. I am happy to answer any questions for anybody who wants the truth on this matter. Feel free to contact me at Showtime Stables, I have no need to hide behind an anonamous keyboard name , I did nothing wrong except try and help the wrong person out.
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It aint worth the legal fees. Iâm not sure I believe much of that. I canât believe someone in the horse biz who âis not independently wealthyâ and âdoesnât make a lot of moneyâ with 2 small kids would pay a lawyer more good money to go after someone who is clearly also not independently wealthy for back board they will never get for a 20-something pony when they have 10 other school horses doing 20 lessons a week. (You have 10 horses doing 2 lessons a week each? This isnât good business). Whoo wee.
Iâve been screwed for being nice too. More then once. But I never put myself out more then I could afford to lose and I always walked away. Lesson learned, yo. Not to mentionâno one twisted your arm and held a gun to your head and forced you to âbe niceâ against your will. You chose to âbe niceâ, which basically by definition means ânot for profitâ. Sigh. No wonder we all get old and jaded in the business. There is no winning here, @Trotapony . Cut your losses and let it go. The only winning comes from being the better person even if it means you grit your teeth while smiling. This whole social media revenge campaign is not becoming.
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yes you can find it odd, I was prepared to go to civil court over this, as she would have had to bear the cost of that when she looses.I have said I have all the documentation to back up the real story. It wouldnât have cost me anything .
At this point it is now a criminal matter . The extent that I have already let the matter go, the amount of equipment and money that was stolen from me , I am done being a doormat for this person. Yes you are right nobody forced me to help her, but in the real world there are consequences to actions. Wether you find my attempts to locate my stolen pony on social media unbecoming or not , I donât really care. It is sad that people take advantage of others kindness. It does make for jaded people, but I refuse to do nothing because it may be hard, the bottom line is that in this business when you provide boarding you canât just stop feeding and caring for the animals when deadbeats donât pay up, I will never take it out in an animal, but I will not simply âlet it goâ as I will not be the one to set a precident that it is ok to steal services in our business because it is too expensive or time consuming to pursue. I do understand the sentiments though .
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Since you assert you were given the pony and had care and custody of the pony for ten years, that no one was paying boarding and other expenses for it regularly, I expect that you can easily prove ownership of said pony, unless there is a properly signed contract to the contrary.
Ownership will have to be proved before a criminal case can be brought that now the disappeared pony was stolen?
I would ask your lawyer first, before assuming much about what case you have there.
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Trotapony- soâŠyou auctioned off the pony to buy it back for yourself?!?
Yep, theres three stories to this one I believe.
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Yes as of February 28 , an auction was held in which I had to buy her back from myself, to fulfill the statute for a stablmans lien in Connecticut. Part of the statute is that you have to hold an auction to give previous owner chance to buy back. She never showed up or sent a representative to bid. At that point I legally owned her according to Connecticut law. Yes it is being pursued as a criminal matter, unfortunately it is a slow system.
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That is how the legal system works.
When you put a lien on a horse, if the owner defaults, you are obligated, by law, to have the horse auctioned.
Anyone can then bid on the horse.
In some states there may be some restrictions on the one putting the horse up for bids, donât know if that is so where this went to court.
There are trainers here that had to go there with some of the horses in training that the owner disappeared, as one way to establish ownership.
Some of those are auctioned thru an established sale barn, others as a sheriff sale, in front of the court house, both after giving proper legal notice in local newspapers.
Edited to add, answer to this was provided in the post above.
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I donât know either party personally. For what itâs worth, itâs on social media in our area, and many people have come forward against the OP and her past behavior, and in favor of Trotapony in this situation. Again, no dog in the fight - just another local horseperson who has watched this unfold and thought Iâd throw it out there.
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Also have all the medical, farrier, dental records for all these years and receipts in my name. Also have ten sworn statements from people who heard her say that she had given me the pony. I have all my documentation and ducks lined up.
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I understand they are usually legally auctioned off, but not bought by the person doing the auction/selling.
Glad I was willing to walk away from any âfriendsâ I had before it got to this!!!
We walk away, stay professional and move on.
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so why did you wait till Feb to do a lien sale if the pony was abandoned years ago?
Well Iâd be sending both parties to the crime lab for polygraphs (itâs not like on tv when done properly) to see whom was telling the truth. If this pony is not worth anything, why does trotapony want it?
I cannot find the website for trotaponyâs barn in Connecticut. Never mind, found it
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It reads in your previous post like you are following thru, other than to recover the pony, to teach that in your opinion deadbeat person a lesson, even if you canât get blood out of that turnip, so it will all be at your cost in money and time and energy?
I would say, the Law doesnât care about any of that, just that existing laws are upheld.
I would consider if you may be better off changing your focus on the pony business only, not on any ifs and whys and trying to teach lessons maybe not up to us to teach others.
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The reason I waited , the process was started in December as soon as she was tossed out, was because I was told by her that she had given me the pony. I was under that impression all these years untill she " apparently changed her mind" . Following the whole process out took from December untill February. You have to notify the person of lien, give them back amounts owed, send it certified letter, wait so long for response, then have them served the second lien notice by a state marshal, give so long to for them to respond, notify them of the auction, hold the auction. You have to follow all the steps. As I stated in my original post , I was under the impression from this person that by her own words to myself and plenty of others that she had given me this pony. That is why I never pursued it untill she decided she felt differently once she was told to leave my farm. As I said before I have nothing to hide, I am not some villain and I am following the law.
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If both of these stories are true in their general outlines, then really this is about a big falling out between former friends or mentor/employee.
The pony is just a pawn. The two parties just want to do maximum damage and inconvenience to each other.
I have to say I wouldnât choose to do business with either party after this. Trainer may be legally in the right here but is not presenting as the kind of professional I would want to work with.
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