[QUOTE=Kyzteke;7540970]
Why be sad about it? Asking for references is usually pointless, because no one is going to give you the name of someone who will say bad things about them.
Just because someone likes/loves/breeds/rides horses does NOT make them a good, responsible, caring person. A cursory look at COTH can tell you that much.
As for hiring a PI, with the internet these days, you probably won’t even need that. I’m amazing at what fellow COTHers have been able to turn up in some cases.
So did ANY of the mare owners ask for stuff like: Place/contact info for employment; address of all rentals/resistences in the last 5 years; SS#; Drivers license #, DOB ?
Given this info and alittle effort just about anyone with some internet savvy could have found out a ton of stuff about this woman. And if KO was reluctant to give any of this stuff to the MO, then (as far as I’m concerned) she would not get my mare.
So again, while I"m not defending her at all, maybe it’s time that people smarten up alittle…I mean, sending your mare from CA to KY to someone you barely even know!!!
That’s almost as negligent as this KO person…and certainly contributory to the situation that resulted in neglect. We are always talking about how horses depend on US for care…well, they can’t work the internet themselves, can they?
OK, flamesuit firmly zipped…but sometimes the Truth is pretty ugly, isn’t it?[/QUOTE]
Thank you, Kyzteke for attempting to “sum up” situations that have turned out the worse for the horses in your 10,000 foot view of yours. 
A little more down in the weeds - the truth is - while I’m happy to own my part in my situation, and have learned from my mistakes - I feel that KO is ultimately responsible for her actions or lack thereof, and I won’t even dignify the remark about the comparison of negligence on the same level as KO.
I will say at the time, I felt that I did my due diligence and I didn’t look KO up the the phone book, under “Free Mare Leases”. She was friends with a very good friend of mine, who unknowingly was being “duped” at the same time.
If you actually knew me, then you would know that I generally trust few people period. I trust less people with the care of my children and with the care of my horses. I have met only two people in my lifetime that I can say I would trust both my children and my horses with, as they are family friends and are on the same anal level of scrutiny with the care they provide to their own horses, as well as others and have provided for mine.
In my situation, I was skeptical, and had plenty of questions - all of which were answered beyond what I was expecting by a person who seemingly was very knowledgeable (and unless you have actually had a conversation with KO, you may not understand - but she is very, very good - almost award winning with talking to people and putting your mind at ease).
In addition to consulting an attorney to write up contract, with added caveats to “protect” myself and my mare, my good friend agreeing to help check on my mare (which she did and ultimately helped to bring things to my attention - which most likely saved my mare from something similiar to the current situations) -with all of that in place, yes I felt comfortable enough to send her out to KY.
I did not have a PI investigate, because I didn’t feel that I had a reason to - and quite frankly at the time (economy tanking), who didn’t have poor credit, maybe a few bounced checks, amongst other things? In reality, would any of that spell-out “leaves horses out in pasture without food, blankets, water, etc.”, or in my specific situation - “leaves mare out in pasture, with known abcesses, until lame, then locks mare up in stall to develop heaves, cough; contemplates daily on whether or not she feels like going out to the barn to take care of horses (when not travelling)” - perhaps not.
As I previously stated, my family had our own challenges - none of which resulted in my horses being starved, but not to say it could NOT have happened, IF I allowed it. I think that is a very important factor that was missed from your high level.
I don’t want to speak for others, but I think it is safe to say that KO used her “friendly” name dropping of “clients” from her other endeavor(s). She did that to me and I know of at least one other instance that she did that to another mare owner.
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