Not at that moment, but it could have contributed to the frantic struggle that poor horse went through.
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When is the trial?
Who knows. Things have just started. It can take quite awhile before they get around to a trial.
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Wow. Just wow. I have seen a lot of âWTF?â things, but this statement really takes the cake. âThe photographs attached to the Complaint do not show evidence of struggle, as alleged, but, in fact, show no evidence of struggleâ
âŠ
What on earth?! Anyone with 1/2 an eye and 1 functioning brain cell can see the photos show a horrific struggle and traumatic death.
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That is so out of context you could be the next fake newscaster. I talked about that in context of using force as training solution instead of taking the time for actual TRAINING.
Hereâs the full context.
People other than the owner donât have to deal with your horseâs mental loopiness. You want to train with the goal of not needing the shank, thatâs on you. If itâs windy and your horse is being a fruit loop during turn out or turn in, barn staff need to do whatever it takes to be safe and get the horse where he needs to be.
Saying âtheyâre using pain instead of teaching him to leadâ is obnoxious. Your horse isnât the same horse every second of every day. If he needs a chain to keep the handler safe, he needs the chain.
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You lack reading for comprehension. I canât continue to explain. The original situation was a trainer supposedly using high tie as training. As in A trainer training and being paid . I made No reference to stable hands and what their job is or not. Nor did I ever say that itâs not the clients job to provide a trained horse. Except if a horse is in full training then yes it usually is the trainers job to work on ground and riding skills depending on the contract. My reference was to a trainers style of training in general harsh restrictive vs a more positive approach which takes more time.
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A chain isnât an abusive or inherently pain inflicting device though, which is exactly what you implied. It sits neutral unless your horse is being fractious, in which case he gets what he gets in order to keep the handler safe.
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Question: how can someone bury an owners horse without thier approval - sorry to be dumb - did the owner not know the horse was dead? If the owner knew the horse was dead ⊠how did the horse get buried without the owners permission? Assuming the owner needs to pay for all said procedures âŠ. Where is the oversight? I am not blaming the owner - asking how can a hired trainer take such liberties? I have owned horses and I am aghast at this situation! I would be down there with a pick and shovel!
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If I understand correctly, the owner was in a different state and so was not immediately aware of the situation and present on site.
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This is how it is written in the complaint.
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He helps his clients launder their stolen money? Thatâs some Better Call Saul level service!
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I did not know a lawyer could go to jail and when they got back out get their license back to practice law again.
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Itâs really quite simple. You call the guy with the backhoe, he comes over, digs a hole in the back pasture, you haul/drag the horse over there and drop it in the hole, and then you cover it up.
Youâre making it sound like burying a horse is a thing that requires the ownerâs permission and paperwork. It does not. All it requires is land and a backhoe. When the BO calls they guy down the road with the backhoe, he isnât asking for documentation proving the BO owned the horse or has permission from the owner to bury it.
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I am not surprised he was disbarred. I am a little surprised he was re-admitted.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-harte-7707a959/
Per his Linked In bio he was also a âFormer Family Court and Special Circuit Judge.â He touts it here too, though with a glaring typo https://jwhartelaw.com/about-us
Also, per his website he was a âA former member of the Lawyers Disciplinary and Judicial Standards Commissionâ
Hereâs his blog (?) on the subjectâŠ
So he was a lawyer and a judge and on the disciplinary committee for the bar but still thought it was ok to help a client commit financial crimes. So⊠thatâs something⊠I donât know what to say. That blog (?) really minimizes his acceptance of responsibility IMHO. Where Iâm barred I donât think youâd get reinstated but⊠thatâs South Carolina I guess?!
In other news, I think heâs a horse guy/horse adjacent guy, which is probably how Shannon found him. I would peruse his FB a little more but every damn post is one of those moving 3D pictures which generates rage deep in my soul.
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Agree.
Hereâs how it usually works.
Horse dies.
You call a guy. He digs a hole, puts the horse in it, covers it, gets handed $$ and leaves.
I have seen this happen multiple times, completely innocuously. Not once has he ever asked âhas a necropsy been done?â or âhas the owner been informed of the horseâs death?â or âdid this horse die under disputed circumstances?â He just does the thing and goes. Itâs none of his business how the horse died.
Similarly, in my experience, the guy who hauls bodies away doesnât ask any questions. He shows up, gets paid, puts the body on the truck, and leaves. Thatâs that.
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Professionally, Iâve been in no barn where a horse would ever be buried without the ownerâs permission or knowledge beforehand. Burying a client horse without owner knowledge or permission is at best unprofessional, and at worst, criminal. In the higher dollar program, many of those horses are insured and insurance would require necropsy or final examination before the body is interred. There are many logistical reasons to wait for the owner to sort certain affairs before having the body interred.
I donât find it a red flag that a body is immediately disposed of in of itself. In a boarding barn, thereâs plenty of legitimate reasons to do so. Referring to it as âswiftly removedâ was sensationalist; dead bodies should be removed from high traffic areas ASAP in most cases. However, it would be a flag that someone would bury a horse without first having the owner aware and/or available to see the horse, and given the option to do a necropsy or even final exam.
Most horse burial companies operate under the assumption the owner is aware their horse is dead.
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FOM maybe? (Friends of Murdough) because it sounds about on level with that type of judicial oversight.
Honestly, South Carolina might need to revisit their ethical standards in this area!
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In my area, burial or cremation is not the norm. Most horses go to the landfill.
I looked up Aiken countyâs municipal disposal policy and they do take horses and other large farm animals. There is a phone number on their site for a large animal disposal service - if the horse was in Aiken county, the owner 's attorney might try contacting them to see if they have any information. If a disposal company handled it, there is a remote possibility that they could provide information about what the trainer (or trainerâs rep) said about the horseâs death, or anything they might have observed directly.
And if the horse was not in Aiken county, it might be worth calling around to the local large-animal disposal companies to see if anyone knows anything about this horse.
(Sidebar: I donât mean to sound callous. Disposing of large animals is a challenge, particularly when there is limited open space available for burial or when the costs of burial or cremation are high. Losing a horse is awful and having to make decisions about what to do after the horse passes doesnât make it any easier. Though fortunately, if you donât have the information readily available, your barn owner or vet can usually assist with finding resources to handle it. IME, most people involved are helpful and compassionate, regardless of which option you choose.)
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I lived just down the road from this farm and know the area reasonably well â although I admit itâs somehow, shockingly, been 10 years since I moved out of SC. I donât know where the time goes.
Itâs likely the horse is buried on the farm or buried on a nearby one. If I was this owner, Iâd be calling Ed Coward yesterday to see if he he had information. He was who I used, and he was the main guy to call if you had to deal with the unthinkable and bury or dispose of a horse. Aiken Co will take horses but not many used it - or at least, it was when I lived there. When people lost horses they usually buried them in the back 40. Sometimes theyâd call a renderer.
A morbid aside: I went to Aiken with my horse and he is buried in Windsor, which is right outside of Aiken. The day my horse died Lellie Ward and two other people I knew also had horses struck by lightning. What were the odds? That storm was the worst storm Iâd ever seen. The next day, Mr Coward was very busy - the run off from the storm made burial of my boy a challenge. I was one of his last clients of the morning and we talked briefly about what the business was like. He was shocked I showed up to watch the procedure. He struck me as the kind of guy who would know what is up, and something is definitely up.
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