I think we’re swinging the pendulum a little too far if tying is going to be considered abuse. I think you could have snapped a picture that would have stamped the time and if the horse is still there 5 hours later said something.
But a horse tied for an hour or two without food or water is not abuse.
A barn I boarded at briefly - 2 weeks - had a mexican “dancing horse” as one of the boarders. The owner would regularly leave the horse tied in his stall depriving him of food and water, fully tacked including spade bit for up to 36 hours. The horse had that “1,000 mile stare” there was nothing behind his eyes. I took off his bridle and untied him but he didn’t move. I called animal control but the horse at the time they visited was untacked and turned out. The barn owner was well aware and they used to host parties where the locals would bring their dancing horses and have a gay old time abusing their horses.
This is entirely different than tying a horse who is winding himself tighter and tighter pacing around a stall and screaming. There is nothing wrong with tying a horse to encourage them to settle. It’s done often with my young mare who gets wound up during turnout time. The second she’s tied the shenanigans quit.
That is so sad.
This horse did not settle though. I thought it was going to start pulling back at any moment. And the rope did come untied at one point. Like I said, I was on high alert because I had just read about Cobain and honestly, have not seen too many A show people tie a horse up to get it settled.
Thankfully, nothing happened. I have just wondered since if stewards can be notified about stall care. And now I know that it probably is not a steward issue unless it went on for hours. I truly hope I never witness that!
You can contact a steward at anytime if you think there may be a welfare issue. It is up to them to investigate and include their notes in their report.
When in doubt contact the stewards and let them decide . That’s their job. Better to have it be nothing than to not say anything and let the animal suffer or worse
Animal cruelty is a criminal offense, its likely that nobody even alerted law enforcement and had a proper complaint and report filed away for future charges to be brought foward. This is an attempt to take action on the civil level, hopefully some criminal charges will follow. The horse world seems to have a problem with getting authorities involved during situations in which they absolutely should be called, but I certainly don’t have all the facts and hope to see an update soon.
This is horrific and unbelievable! Who does this??? Horrible humans. Wow.
What’s amazing is she is still running her business like nothing has happened.
Really?! That is awful. Is the lawsuit still active?
I should not have looked at the pictures. I can never unsee that. She should not be allowed to “care” for another horse.
Late to the party here, but how in the hell does a failure to load in a trailer result in hanging a horse tied in its stall? How is the horse supposed to relate the loading issue with punishment in the stall? Not only is this animal cruelty, its piss poor training. The trainer has no business hanging a shingle out and taking people’s money.
She has been spending a lot of time out of state but appears to back in aiken again and getting her business back up and running here. She seems to be doing a lot with polo these days.
I have seen her tie a horse to a post outside and beat on it - her neighbor does this as well
I wish I picked up my phone to get a video because she definitely would be banned from the sport
She didn’t see me as I had shown up slightly early and I left in a hurry and didn’t even look at the horse I was there to try……horrified
I haven’t seen her or had any interaction with her since I bought a horse from her in 2018. And my impression was qualified by the fact that it was limited-- all I did was buy a horse she was representing. Nothing more.
She seems to still have a thriving business according to social media. It doesn’t appear that the lawsuit meaningfully impacted that.
Just bumping this thread since she is back in AIken and selling horses again. This case has not yet made it to court unfortunately, but she has two other unrelated cases pending.
Horse related cases?
Any intentional deprivation of food, water, or ability to move is a welfare violation. Unless, of course, there is a bonafide medical or safety reason for doing so.
The case with Cobain is just a window into a much broader, very distressing issue with this person. In my fairly informed opinion, her decision to tie that horse and leave it was not a one-time mistake.
When I first read about the case, I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt under the assumption that we’ve all made some serious mistakes with our animals… and then I met her in person.
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