Just to add to the pile-on…
Horses are born to kill themselves.
Self-preserve, what the heck is that? In horses?
BEST.COMMENT.EVER.
I am not focusing on the grey mare. It is possible for a good caretaker to have one horse with medical issues that looks poor, If she really is under supervision by a competent vet, (totally not sure of this!) then I am not screaming “euthanize now!”
However, this mare is not one poor horse among a herd of shiny, round, well-cared for horses. All the horses look, at best, unthrifty. There are numerous red flags regarding the care of these horses.
“The vet refused to euthanize!” belongs on the hoarders/abusers Bingo card, along with “It was the help!”, “It was the new owner!”, “Arizona alfalfa” and “Sudden change in condition.”
In my years in the horse business and as a horse owner, I have never, ever had a vet “refuse to euthanize.” Vets are reluctant to recommend euthanasia before the owner is ready to consider it, but the vets I have worked with have all been about “Better a week too soon…” and “The last gift we give them.” not let’s continue not treating them and see what happens.
Maybe that’s because I have a good relationship with my vets and we’ve been partners in my geriatric horse’s care all along.
I can see a vet refusing to euth a sound horse that the owner wanted off their board or hay bill, but a horse in poor condition? That isn’t treatable? I call BS.
@Railbird, I will never understand how the vet pratices involved looked the other way at Byrd’s for so long.
I am focused on the grey mare… but absolutely appreciate what you are saying.
A few things I find particularly concerning about the situation with the grey mare…
- Is the bloated belly REALLY due to abdominal tumors of some sort? My only experience with this is what happened with two friends’ horses - who were both in their 20’s and had tumors impacting their GI tracts. But neither had visibly bloated bellies. Neither had been diagnosed with tumors prior to suffering catastrophic and sudden fatal colics. The tumors were identified after the fact in each case. Both horses lived in facilities with multiple EXTREMELY knowledgeable horsewomen on-site who did multiple checks on these horses each day. The colics were discovered very shortly after they started, top notch local veterinary care was on site within an hour after that, one horse was transported to one of the best clinics on the east coast, and went into surgery shortly thereafter…
And still… both suffered a terrible end.
So I think of these two older horses, who were both in great situations with great care, great owners, great vets, and who were in great condition going into the colic… and it was still an AWFUL way for both to die. This poor grey mare? I doubt she is receiving the same level of care. If she truly has tumors throughout the abdomen and colics, and it is not discovered for hours and hours and hours… it will be awful.
- Kate has announced in multiple posts that vets have provided care to this grey mare, have said they suspect the mare has cancerous abdominal tumors, and has named 2 veterinary practices in association with this situation. Both are known reproductive practices. Kate has also said that they refuse to euthanize the mare. After puzzling over this… because I have never personally experienced a veterinarian refusing to euthanize an animal who almost certainly has terminal cancer… and I have had more than one animal who was euthanized due to cancer… I’m left wondering if there is a possibility that grey mare is actually in foal… because that also would be consistent with the way her belly looks. And maybe that’s why the veterinarians won’t euthanize? Anyway… it seems like the entire story is NOT being shared… just selected portions. But two well known practices have been named on this thread. I feel badly for them, as they really can’t come online to share their side of the story… professionally, it is most appropriate to keep client information confidential.
Anyway… something is clearly not adding up about the situation with this mare, and I think it’s important to note that, and to push Kate to take better care of her horses, and to let her know that people are watching.
If that poor mare actually does end up delivering a foal come spring… I hope she survives, and I hope the authorities come down hard on Kate. The documented neglect of the youngstock is awful, but the neglect of broodmares truly breaks my heart. They are so vulnerable and it’s so unethical to treat them like this.
The thing that keeps coming back in my mind, is the fact she put up a picture of the grey mare in that condition. How stupid can you be?!?! Regardless of her made up stories, this photo should have never been put up for all to see under her “I miss my furkids 
” facebook post. Sooo sick and barn blind. Again, those poor babies.
Don’t forget the video with some dude sat on that poor mare. No true professional would have allowed that, let alone filmed and posted it.
The mind reels.
Holy crap! I forgot that photo. Yes, the mind reels.
Then you don’t post photos of the barn help sitting on the poor creature grinning and giving a thumbs up and think it’s just great !
It was just some slouchy dude with a trucker hat riding bareback and I think a lady also no helmet. No real professional would post that. I
I have always said that from the moment a foal manages to get up on his trembling legs, he is dedicated to finding a way to kill or maim himself for the rest of his life… which could be long or short depending on how good his self-destruction skills are…
No image shows for me!!! 
Here, let me help you.
It is a train crash (wreck) complete with fire and mess.
Lets see if my screen shot shows for you.
It can be. My bay gelding was diagnosed with cancer when he was 16. He dropped weight and bloated. Looked like a poor broodmare. My vet found the cancer by doing a belly tap on the fluid, the cancerous cells were found in the fluid that she sent to the lab. She left the decision up to me when to euthanize. After about a month of waking up crying, and despite all our efforts he just wouldn’t thrive, so I called her to have him put down. I couldn’t stand to watch him slowly starve to death. He was not himself and sassy was not a way I would describe him.
Someone lol’ing about a starved looking mare still being sassy and bossy nauseates me. There’s no way a horse failing to thrive as much as that poor mare is feeling good. None.
So very sorry for your loss. That stinks.
That worked - thanks!! 
Thanks for sharing about your experience with cancer and your horse.
It’s hard. Veterinary medicine isn’t funded the way human medicine is, and finding statistical studies on certain issues is very hard to do. I think there is quite a bit of benefit to people sharing their own experiences… if nothing else, it gives others a data point to discuss with their own vet if they ever see symptoms arise in their own horse.
Sadly, it seems like KS has already concluded it is fine to just leave the grey mare as is for now. Given all the challenges that KS herself has had for years in terms of finding and keeping qualified staff to manage the daily care of her horses… I worry that mare will suffer for entirely too long for one reason or another before a decision is made with respect to veterinary intervention.
It shows the ignorance of Kate Shearer…horses self preserve…no experienced horse person would EVER utter those words together.
Her view of the world outside of herself is especially warped.
She has no empathy to share with her animals, she demonstrates a combative attitude rather than a genuine connection to any of them - she sees only “idiots” that express what is obvious to all but herself.
Most of us, I believe, come away with the sad, hopeless feeling that she’ll continue to do what she does. Operate in sheer ignorance at the whim of her expansive ego.
Shearer using the phrase “self-preserve” reminds me a great deal of Karen Sussman insisting that horse herds won’t grow too large because (hocus-pocus and b.s.).
Karen Sussman was and is running ISPMB and had the largest documented seizure of horses on US soil. It was an epic train wreck and she did as much as she could to prevent people from saving the animals from her “care” as possible. She still has horses in an undisclosed location or locations, is still breeding, begging for money and lying about her scientific papers, methods, collaborators and bona fides.
I think they are cut from the same cloth.
