Oh for the love of God…someone computer savvy…make the dang flow chart! My head is spinning in 20 different directions and I need to go ride soon. Can’t ride with a headache. 
Such interesting information one receives via PM, which of course must be taken with a grain of salt. But here goes:
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BW receives horse “Con Air” in as trade as a Children’s/Low Junior Jumper. OK horse. BW receives trade-in horse some 2 weeks prior to the next event:
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Shipper, who happens to be good friends with BW, lays over at BW’s barn en route from California to barns on East Coast. On that haul is the horse Good Guiness, which stays at BW’s barn for FOUR DAYS.
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During 4-day layover at BW, it is discovered that Good Guiness is a quality horse. It is also noticed that his general description matches that of trade-in horse “Con Air”. When trailer arrives to take Good Guiness to Frank Madden’s, the horse “Con Air” is loaded instead, wearing GG’s halter and with GG’s identifying papers. “Con Air” assumes GG’s identity and goes off to Florida to show (disappointingly) as a Children’s Jumper. Meanwhile:
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The real GG gets leased to a good junior rider to show in the High JRs and does exceedingly well. Problem: enough people knew the horse, the real Con Air (think grooms, riders, customers), to not accept GG as a substitute. So GG does NOT become Con Air, he becomes “Kanye”, a completely different animal. And Con Air, who was just a trade-in with nobody worrying about his whereabouts, essentially disappears.
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The switch is discovered, and somebody has to take the fall. So the person who gained the least by the fraud, the shipper, is convinced to take the fall for the big name players who benefited the most. Why would he do this? He is a long-time family friend of the W’s, he has other friends who will vouch for him, and his value in certain circles actually increases as he becomes known as somebody who will fall on his sword to protect parties whose name recognition is much greater.
But of course it could all have been a silly “mix-up” where some of the biggest horsemen in the industry failed to notice that two bay horses with stars had been substituted one for the other. :winkgrin:
See post # 467.
It will take a deathbed confession to learn the truth.
Well, I’ve been lurking on this thread the whole time, but now I’m confused.
What will happen to Con-Air?
What will happen to the people who leased GG/Kanye?
What will happen to GG? Is he going back to CA?
Did the discovery that Kanye was GG happen because of the anonymous poster on here?
Did the mix-up happen on the road, or at the Ward’s?
And finally, please let there be an article in the printed Chronicle once this whole thing is solved, so we all can be set straight as to what happened!
Dear Lord, if anyone had told me I would be rather vigorously defending Barney Ward in a shady horse deal, I would have thought they’d lost their minds. The problem with a planned switcheroo is it’s success depends on a huge variety of factors all coming into play, the most important being the complete lack of oversight on the part of everyone legitimately involved with GG, and the second most important, no one recognizing him even after the expected hue and cry gets raised.
If GG stayed at Barney's for four days, someone in his life knew that. Unless the complete lack of oversight starts right here. When GG gets on the truck in California, does no one inform Frank? Is no one from CA calling Frank to see about the horse arriving, or calling the shipper? If CA is not calling, why isn't Frank? "Hey, weren't you sending me that nice GP horse I saw on the video?" Or is the shipper mysteriously broken down in Iowa when he is actually jumping the big sticks in Brewster?
When Con Air gets loaded onto the van, someone had to know Frank would have a complete failure to recognize that the crappy jumping horse he gets is not the good jumping horse he’s seen on the video. Really?? Is Frank actually such a complete and utter idiot that this could be expected? (Stacia, you do not get a vote!)
As far as the two horses matching the general discription, them and half the other horses at WEF.
Barney also has to get enough lease money for a clearly talented horse, but one with ZERO record to make it worth his while. What would that amount be when you are selling six figure horses in addition to the less talented childrens jumpers you take in on trade? What would that amount be when the deal is almost certain to fall through?
Perhaps Patrick hated the customer and didn’t give a rat’s ass what happened to his horse. Perhaps his ego was secretly stroked the the big shot East Coast American couldn’t make a winning childrens jumper out of the horse he did in the GPs. Maybe he said in the hearing of the shipper that he hated the horse and didn’t care where it went, as long as it never came back, and that’s where the whole thing started.
Whatever the reasons, Frank didn’t seem to put a lot of effort into figuring out why a horse who, well, clearly still can win in the Jrs, struggled at 3’6". Patrick wasn’t concerned enough to even watch a video for six months. Regardless of when they went to Florida, I am guessing it jumped enough jumps in Jersey to at least indicate it couldn’t show in the big ring on Sunday. Ding, ding ding! There’s your sign.
So, maybe I am wrong and Barney actually did switch the horses. It’s y’all’s own damn fault for being so stupid and careless.
To quote Grey’s Law: “Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.”
star
I just want to end up with the impostor horse:D He seems unloved.
I’ll roshambeau you for him, Law. I’d love to have him in my barn. He’s got that Roman nose I just adore.
Well, catching up on this is great entertainment for a rainy Saturday, I must say.
Just to add a thought, I have a co-worker who moonlights (actually daylights, to be precise) at a big TB farm cleaning stalls in the foaling barn. Over 100 mare/foals. Before that he did the yearlings, and he has NO clue which horse is which, he gets moved around too much and so do the horses.
The problem with a planned switcheroo is it’s success depends on a huge variety of factors all coming into play, the most important being the complete lack of oversight on the part of everyone legitimately involved with GG, and the second most important, no one recognizing him even after the expected hue and cry gets raised.
All plans, both shady and squeaky-clean, depend upon certain factors to fall into place once the plan is initiated. You know what they say “the best laid plans of mice and men…”
Regardless, a West Coast horse with little or no exposure on the East Coast and with a trainer and owner who are not planning on showing in Florida, perhaps it was worth a shot.
As to your second point, after he was reported as missing, Good Guiness WAS recognized by someone who suggested that he looked a lot like a JR horse showing at Gulfport. And he was “found”, within a week.
This plan did work, for something over six months, until Patrick Seaton showed up in Florida and realized the horse being shown as GG was not, in fact, Good Guiness. If GG had been sold during that time frame, and passed on to some fourth or fifth party and perhaps re-named, it may never have been discovered.
I have no dog in this fight, but based on the number and content of PMs I’ve been receiving, I do believe my previously posted scenario is much closer to the truth than is comfortable for some people.
Everybody seems to forget about the owner of this horse, who rightly expected his horse to get sold for a decent amount of money, placed him in trusted and knowledgable hands to do so, and now has been the victim of fraud, intentional or not. The owner has rights and entitlements and if I were in his place, I would NOT be satisfied with the explanation that has been published by the parties closest to this drama.
Post #510
That post by 2bayboys makes the most sense out of any scenario I’ve read, and I’ve followed this from day 1.
For GG to be at BW’s for 4 days, which would give everyone there a chance to become familiar with him and thus recognize him…now we have a different story. THEY sent the wrong horse. Not the shipper. For the shipper to claim responsibility doesn’t make sense, and everyone knows it.
And remember, it was an anonymous tip on this board that solved the mystery of where GG was. Someone with knowledge of the switch blew the whistle.
Or
There was a horse in TX doing GP’s named Kayne and he looks a lot like GG Imitation. The small star, looks like no other white.
http://s388.photobucket.com/albums/o…=KayneinTX.jpg
Did noone notice that he horse above looks like con air and was showed in Texas a Kayne so maybe the whole thing is a simple mix up!! He was showing in the upper level jumpers so the fact that the Wards leased GG/Kanye out to do the junior jumpers would not be surprising since Conair/Kayne did them too!:yes:
[QUOTE=SweetTalk;3947520]
Oh for the love of God…someone computer savvy…make the dang flow chart! My head is spinning in 20 different directions and I need to go ride soon. Can’t ride with a headache. :D[/QUOTE]
Yeah…I’m still waiting for the flow chart too!
Wait, a 4 day layover… how is that possible…
It stepped on the trailer on 8 september, got off at the Maddens on 14 Sept. That is 7 days.
1 day and 18 hours driving, 1 lay over in TN, that would make 2-3 days at the most…
we’re falling off our UFO here, lets regroup for a minute…
CORRECTION
Good Catch MARIEKE. You are right I did “fall off my UFO.” Here is the correct information.
Patrick Seaton, as quoted in a Phelp’s Sports Exclusive Report by Alden Corrigan, titled “Good Guiness Found” said:
“The horse arrived at Madden’s on the 14th, which I didn’t realize, as he was supposed to arrive on the 10th. He laid over a few days in Nashville, and had been to the Ward’s, but at the time I didn’t know any of this. I just heard that the horses arrived safe and sound.”
He also states that he sent the horse on the 8th. So the horse arrived 4 days after Patrick thought it did, and six days after he sent it on its way.
My aplogies for leading the herd astray on it’s very effective, collective investigation.
[edit]
Earl has stated to everyone under the sun that it’s his fault. SOme people believe him
and other’s don’t ------ but it will go down as fact that Earl was the cause of this
switcher/mix-up – he has fallen on the sword and that’s that! He will never, ever,
never change his story! I doubt it will hurt his business much, JMO
He can’t very well use his own now, can he? 
Not for any horse he may have a piece of and still get it in the ring of a USEF-sanctioned show. But then, everyone knows that; it’s just most people would like to pretend otherwise.
For the person who asked if it would make a difference if the horses stopped first at Madden’s place and the switch occurred there, not to me. But then, I’ve been around this biz waaaaay too long to be surprised by anything.
Almost makes me glad that endless knee problems are forcing me to watch the madness from the sidelines rather than saddle. Almost.
WHY would he change his story if it is in fact the truth. Good lord I now understand why CSI has so many fans. It is so much more fun to suspect collusion ,deception and complicity. The truth of human error is so BORING. If you simply change the system for identifying horses as easily as packages are by Fed Ex and UPS the chance of having the same mistake happening again shrinks to practically zero.
So what exactly is Earl admitting to doing? Switching the halters and paperwork? Loading the wrong horse on the 2-horse trailer to go to Frank’s? Not recognizing that the wrong horse got loaded? Not remembering that GG had a 4-day layover at BW’s? So many things could have gone wrong to make this an honest mistake, but there were also so many points where it could have been corrected.
So what does this tell us? Do we treat shipping like a hurricane? Braid luggage tags into their mane & tail? Paint SS numbers onto them? Engrave cell phone #s onto their hooves? :eek:
I bet most people when receiving a horse don’t really check that well. I know here, the owners are usually around, but what if I am shipping a foal several states away to a person that has only seen a few photos? Probably conformation and movement taken from the side. I will from now on make sure all of the markings are included.
When I receive a horse and have to sign for it, I am usually mostly concerned about the condition. Any injuries, does it seem comfortable, no signs of illness? All I usually get is a Coggins Test, and those are often done by very poor artists.
