I think the operative word was “unsupervised”.
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I have no issue with leaving a horse tied in a normal fashion with a leather halter but I’d never tie one with a rope halter (or any other halter that won’t break.)
Of course this woman was tying the horses head high as punishment, which a totally different thing and is despicable. I hope her name is known in the area so that people can keep their horses away from her.
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She does barrel racing and polo now too, apparently. She does a lot of yee haw, go fast disciplines these days I guess. She used to be exclusively h/j but not as much anymore.
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Very late to the party but what she has done is horrific. I hope no one sends their horses to her.
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Yeah imagine all the day show folks that tie to their trailers when not in a class, or endurance riders that stay overnight at the race, or cowboys and cowgirls that tie to trailers or fence when working livestock on the open range, and on and on.
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What was the outcome of the lawsuit? Anyone know?
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Are they tied for hours on end with their heads restricted as high as they go until they panic and break their necks? And no one to help them if they get in trouble? By riders punishing them? I think not.
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I was adding to another’s post. No need to ride a 20 meter circle on your drama llama.
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Settled out of court, presumably with a non-disclosure agreement to keep details from becoming public.
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I don’t think I saw this above, Shannon replied to a Facebook post about it all.
"I just wanted to give you some facts and some insight to the depositions that prohibited this case from going to court and why they settled early:
There was a worker on property that had notified me that he passed within 45 of me leaving the farm. He was on property the whole time.
The owner has had the address of where Cobain was buried since the start, and I have the texts. She made the decision to have him buried and she made the decision for no autopsy. I had Cobain for over 6 years, he was family to me and I loved him like so. This was a freak accident. We calculated I loaded him on and off a trailer over 2000 times. I knew him like the back of my hand. When he didn’t load, it just seemed off. There was no point in pushing an issue to go jump the .90.
I bed on straw, I did not want him eating the straw. He was tied in a manner that he could reach his water buckets, but not able to put his head down enough to get a lead rope under his buckets. I asked the guy to pull his bedding and give a tube of ulcer guard and leave him be.
You can do with this as you please I wildly respect what you are doing, but please. Allegations are only just that. I understand you may never even want to so much as look at me, but it’s an open door and book at this farm. You are welcome to visit anytime and see the horses and they are cared for and well loved.
Until then, rock on and keep doing what you’re doing. Genuinely, just hurts all the facts aren’t there.
I have NEVER and will NEVER suggest tying a horse as a form of training. A horse being able to be tied in cross ties, barn, or a trailer is an asset, but never a tool, punishment, or training technique.
No horses are deprived. They have hay, water, and shelter to access 24/7. They come in everyday and eat their grain and alfalfa. I try to turnout mostly in group settings because I find the horses find joy in friends.
You are welcome to visit and see the operation at any time. Along with a group of show horses, also have a few rescues here that get to live out the rest of their days.
This case never even made it to court, if I defended myself to every single allegation, I would be sitting on my phone for hours. I have received literal death threats from every form of social media, email, text, and voicemail. I’m not going to sit and read the comments, it is beyond unhealthy. If someone wants answers, they all seem to know how to contact me.
I understand and respect where are you coming from. The summons and complaint that they base off of paints an incredibly cruel monster that does deserve everything people say; fortunately, that monster does not exist and that is not the case here.
Thank you,
Shannon"
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Thank you for sharing this crazy response.
Does she tie all horses who are out of hay, so they do not eat their straw bedding?
I am confused by that.
If this horse eats its straw, and you do not want it to eat its straw, I should think there are other options than constant tying it so it can not reach the straw.
And how is removing all the bedding an answer?
That is the start of my questions about that level of crazy.
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I often use a rope halter and tie my horse to the trailer. I use one of two options to mitigate wrecks: I either use a Blocker tie ring or tie to a loop of baling twine that is run through the trailer tie ring. The first will loosen because of the setting I use, the second will break if my mare were to slam back.
NATRAC and endurance riders horses are tied to their trailers overnight. In fact a portable pen is not an option in NATRAC, horse has to be tied to the trailer.
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So many things in her response that don’t add up.
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Shavings, anyone?
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It makes me wonder what her response would be to the question - how long was he to be tied there so as not to eat his bedding? Until the next meal?
It is always amusing when the explanation makes the person look even more weird.
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By tying with baling twine you are ensuring that the horse can break away if it gets in trouble. The person I was responding to doesn’t do that. They depend on a knife (which can’t be used if they are not present.)
I’ve never had any experience with horses that don’t tie, in either the English or Western disciplines, the exception being foals, but leather halters were always used. Not one breeder I knew would ever tie a foal. It’s much too easy for them to hurt or break their necks if they are startled.
IMHO, as a general safety measure horses should definitely know how to stand tied, but I still believe leather halters should be used.
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It was a strange response, but part of it was typical.
The old “come over to my farm and see how well I train- take care of- feed- ride- teach- keep my broodmares” offer, that we’ve heard before (ad nauseam) from people who aren’t doing whatever they claim to be doing well.
The straw bedding thing made no sense. If the horse eats his bedding tying him is not the solution. Obviously.
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This kinda makes me miss Kate 
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One reason flat halters, not rope ones were used long ago, either woven or leather ones, but flat is because horsemen knew if you tie a horse with a plain rope if a horse pulls all the pressure is in that thin line the rope touches, the thinner the rope even worse.
If a horse pulls from a leather or braided flat halter, the pressure is spread many times more, over larger surface, less apt to do the kind of damage plain rope or wire can do.
Especially important when that pressure is behind the ears at the poll where it will be when a tied horse pulls.
Just sayin’.
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There is really no need to argue about tying here. When you leave a horse, you leave it in a safe space in a safe way for the circumstances and conditions. This was not that.
You can tie a horse safely for hours in a multitude of ways and situations. You can leave a horse in an enclosed space for hours in a multitude of ways and situations. Either can also be very unsafe.
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