And the two mares that passed in 2022, horrific, I was in contact with the vet there weekly and she said everyone was doing well but then later rated things much less because she didn’t want to get in the middle. I trusted what I was hearing from the vet. It was horrendous to not say goodbye to either mare and to hear what was happening at the facility that I paid to care for the animals.
And absolutely don’t you see the hospital staff taking videos/pics of each other with the foal? I was recording everything
Poor Kate, it must be so hard to always be the victim. lol lol lol
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Many people have their mares foal out at a vet hospital, usually inexperienced breeders, nothing wrong with that.
Most experienced breeders don’t foal out their mares at the vet hospital, unless they are expecting complications and have more mares to foal than they and their help can manage.
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And they did a shit job apparently! Am I just supposed to let you off the hook because you paid someone??? You made the choice to run a large-scale breeding operation. That is a business decision. I can’t say I’ve heard of a breeding operation that contracts out the foaling to someone else, but let’s say that’s fine and not raising any flags. When things go south that is Still On You. Same in other businesses! Ex. A mechanic who contracts out interior detailing and the detailing service spills paint in the car. I don’t care that the mechanic paid someone and that person failed, I’m still gonna be pissed that there is paint everywhere!
So once again, this isn’t your fault because… its the vet’s for lying to you? So you picked a terrible place to board and a terrible vet.
I’m sure it sucked a lot worse for the animals who actually experienced the neglect.
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Yes, this is the major differentiation. Someone breeding at scale has the infrastructure and qualified staff to oversee their mares and babies. There isn’t the pattern of hiring this person who subcontracts that person who asks this person to fill in.
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I’m fairly certain there was a public fallout with EMCO at some point too but I can’t remember the specifics. Strangely enough I don’t think it was over the crawling on and selfies with the limp foal fighting for its life but I could be wrong maybe like the big public breakup with KWPN she figured out that no one else was more willing to play along with it all.
Kate I will say I look forward to hearing about your eventual legal career should you be able to pass character and fitness. Your ability to answer only specific parts of questions while attacking some incidental irrelevant fact is impressive and has gotten multiple people successfully sidetracked off the fact that ALL your horses look bad on multiple occasions with multiple caregivers in multiple ways in multiple states and you are the common denominator. You don’t seem to know or care they look bad until you get publicly called out and then respond with debating some minor point like whether you can ultrasound a lipoma or whatever.
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Adults, especially successful ones, don’t allow randos to ‘let them’ or not ‘let them’ do anything. If a high-profile rider/trainer wanted to step forward to support you and/or your programme, they simply would. And they’d do it naturally in response to, say, the outrage on your SM. You wouldn’t even know they were about to do it, let alone have the authority or influence to ‘let them’ do so.
Why do you think any adult would believe there are a bunch of Olympians and 5* riders running around taking their marching orders from you before they make public comments?
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This is what is getting me. Kate is not what I’d call a small breeder (I’d classify that as 5 or fewer) and this is a business decision, not a hobby. I would expect someone whose breeding 10-15 mares a year, and who has been breeding for 3+ years, to either know how to foal out or knew where to find good care.
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Since you’re familiar with the facility, do they foal out on shavings? Also, would their staff by posing and laughing with foal in distress while the mare lay in distress and unattended while staff laughed and posed the foal and snapped photos?
That video is horrifying. Is that truly the same facility you’re thinking of?
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I have not foaled out a mare there. The stalls have shavings and not straw from what I’ve seen for the stalls in the breeding barn and recovery stalls after procedures. My mare foaled at home, and my trainers mares all foaled out at home. But I have sent a mare with a sick foal for care. My experience with the staff for the insemination, foal checks, mare care and sick foal care was nothing but professional. This is wildly out of character from my experience and I don’t know what to make of it.
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Absentee mare owners are standard in the TB industry; it is the norm for Mare Owner to board their mares at a broodmare boarding facility with a high standard of care, experience, and management for foaling and raising healthy foals. Mares/foals with any significant value are investments, and as such the owners pay a fair rate for quality boarding.
Mares/foals with lesser value “may” end up at a more economical facility, with perhaps lower standards and cut-corners, and this is when neglect happens occasionally (there was a BIG blowup about one of these substandard situations in Lexington maybe 3? years ago? Can’t remember the exact parties involved).
What is most perplexing to me is the not-insignificant asking prices for the in utero/weanlings/yearlings/etc discussed in this topic, yet all of the sub-standard boarding/care chaos that seems involved. TB mare owners may only sell their yearlings for $5k-10k in the weak Florida market, but those mares and foals will STILL have quality care at reputable facilities, despite the owners taking an overall loss when you add up stud fee, mare care board, vet, farrier, sales prep, consignment, etc. Financial ruin is unfortunately part of the horse business, but it is never acceptable to let the horses suffer.
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Note it’s asking prices. Kate noted somewhere here that foal was not actually sold for 25k and she routinely offers super sales/raffles/whatever to heavily discount. I think her pricing strategy is to start high and discount.
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Race horses are definitely a different situation, many young stock are left with “nurseries” that provide exceptional care and carefully managed pasture and nutrition, as well as veterinary supervision and farriery, until they are either weaned or are ready for training after they are yearlings.
Very much not the case in Shearer’s “program”.
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My trainer did take on a TB mare owned by a private owner for late term supervision and foaling. The mare and foal stayed through weaning. However, she stayed on the farm from month 11 onward, and helped the mare foal. She was paid to foal the mare out and she took her duty seriously and didn’t leave or hire it out to another individual. Because she is a professional. The foal stayed with us for a few months after weaning before she was prepped for sale.
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The “drugged” mare is horrifyingly thin to have had to go through a foaling.
Shame on you.
No one’s fault except your own. Own your crap.
I do not body clip the weanlings here - or any other barn I have worked at - and their fuzzy coats gleam and shine. Simple basic horse care. No one’s fault but your own. Own your sh-stuff.
Wait a minute - 3 five star Olympians are texting me right now to tell me I am being a meanie to Kate and her breeding program and care is the bestest.
You are as confused about her tale as I am. If these mares were so important to her as opposed to just being accessories and petri dishes - she would be at their sides for foaling. On second thought - maybe the farther away from them she can be, the better. She can leave them in good shape (not thin) to be foaled out by people with expertise who care. The callous indifference that KS has frequently shown (amidst the LOLs) grates on me. I have foaled mares out for over 30 years. None of them were thin. I was right there for them - and when a foaling went bad… as can happen - I was not blaming everyone and everything else in order to cover my ass…
BINGO.
I do know what I am talking about, Kate. I live it and breathe it. It is not just a LOL and a side gig as it is for you. I have also foaled out mares for others - and surprise - they never arrived in a skeletal condition. And the owners did everything right by them.
I am sorry - the picture of that emaciated mare that was in your care to foal out disgusts me.
Own your negligence.
Own your incompetence.
Own your arrogance and ignorance.
Great post. Well said and exactly right. I am the one onsite monitoring them 24 hours a day. Nothing else matters. They come first - not my plans.
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The health dept would love it
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Yes, exactly; asking prices are what the seller values the animal, selling prices are what the buyer agrees to pay. Not going to speculate on the “consensus” value of the horses in question; just saying if you have made a significant financial investment to ISCI these foals, and then price them accordingly (whether that’s realistic or not), one would expect the level of broodmare care and foaling management to match the asking price.
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Look at TB farms that offer boarding. Lanes End looks like this;
A completely different situation than what Kate Shearer’s stock are subjected to.
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I’m going with laughing with relief/joy that the foal made it that far and they were hoping it would survive and thrive. That burst of relief.
The hugging may be part of rubbing & stimulating the foal, plus trying to get it warmed up. Like rubbing briskly. That one woman looks quite young and possibly relatively inexperienced, so too optimistic.
Clearly the facility permitted viewing by others in real time, so it’s not like this was some super-secret “gotcha” recording. I bet if the entire thing is released rather than snippets KS would look even worse than she does already.
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