That in absolutely no way negates the horrific actions he committed. He is responsible for those.
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People who expose this behavior by a vet, because otherwise most people will never know who they are trusting with their horse, are not responsible for a decision the vet makes later to unalive himself.
The number one rule for the survivors - Nothing you did, or did not do, nothing you said, or did not say, caused this decision. This is a decision someone made for themselves.
There were other options for this person to act on. A change of careers, perhaps addressing some mental health concerns, etc.
The public needs to know that someone they trust with their animals is not trustworthy. With their day-care kids, with their elderly needing in-home care, in their nursing homes … etc.
It is up to the untrustworthy person to fix the unfortunate damage they are doing by reaching out for help, by taking positive steps in the right direction.
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I’m sure you reported it, if you’ve seen worse than a sedated horse being kicked in the head while being choked out.
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Yeah, I watched that video and it looks to me like a s$&^$show in process. The round pen is pulled down, the colt had to be roped, I wouldn’t be wild to get close to it either, but he needed to because whatever flipping out it just did was choking it. Did it go over, under, or through that panel? Who knows but it wasn’t pretty.
At least half the blame here should be on the owners, who instead of videoing this should have perhaps de-feralized the colt before asking the vet to geld it.
Anyone who hasn’t been around feral young horses would be amazed how quickly things can really go downhill. From the sound of it, these people aimed to “rescue” some feral babies with no idea of how to actually train them, then blamed the vet when things got ugly. Should he just have walked away and refused to geld the colt? Maybe but it’s probably a year, year and a half old so before long it’s going to be a feral grown stallion and kill those people.
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They had just gotten the colt, 8 months old, a mustang. Described by the vet as a “psychotic killer type”. I’m not sure I’ve met an unhandled 8 month old that could be described this way. Scared, confused, and defensive? No doubt. But a “killer type”? When he’d only been on the property a short while?
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No, but I have one who could easily have been described that way at 8 months! And he didn’t get touched by the vet or farrier at first, not until I got him used to things more. I still sedate him before either one of them comes. He also made some stupid decisions early on in life, one of which the fire department nearly had to extract him from and that resulted in a panel looking VERY similar to the one in the video…sigh, lucky me. Fortunately he mostly seems to have developed brains now he’s coming 2.
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I’m sure that would be the ideal circumstance. The vet could have said no at the beginning, or said “I need someone with a dart gun” in the middle of the mess, or said “this isn’t going to happen today” in middle of the mess. Instead he elected to do what he did. That was 100% his choice.
I can’t find an independent video of it, but this vet also flushed the mouth of a VERY sedated horse who was quietly standing against the wall after a teeth float, and then punched that one in the face before leaving, too. The horse literally did nothing. Boom, punch.
He’s a sicko. What a jerk.
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Bringing back this quote because he is also entered at Ocala with her before Kentucky. So that’s a show 3/12, 3/20, 3/27, 4/4, 4/17, and then Kentucky 4/23. Granted one is a CT-but that’s a lot.
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Honestly, my vet would have walked away from this situation. He doesn’t get paid enough. My own mustang we have to twitch when the vet comes to do coggins and shots (although I can give shots myself). I get not wanting to leave the owner with a unhandled stallion, but this was awful.
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A rather obnoxious post showing lots of riders having stops/runouts, but the pony being successful. Just can’t leave it alone, can ya Team Wallace?
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hahaha Leslie Law deleted his comment, but I saw briefly that he commented something along the lines of “seriously can we not show everyone else’s bad days just to make a point about your horse?”
Edit: the comment was deleted so I can’t verify but I think it was Lesley, not Leslie.
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That was almost certainly Mrs. Lesley, but anyway.
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I would expect my equine professionals (vet, farrier, bodyworker, etc) to entirely tell me “oh nope, not doing it” if there was no way to get it done without abusing the animal or getting injured. It’s not the right day/time.
Or, get a dart gun so you don’t have to get in there to administer. Or, tell the owner you aren’t coming back until they rent a real chute/squeeze.
So many options.
Instead, choking the horse out and kicking him in the face were the options he chose.
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Yes, I think you are right - I only saw Leslie in the little profile pic and the account is “Leslie Lesley” so it threw me off. Regardless, the point still stands.
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Exactly! Truly obnoxious.
My take is the video shows that the “pony” got through it safely, but not actually “correctly.” It survived all four elements because it is so short-strided and short-jumping that it made the question easier to keep the pony straight and on line. Also, none of those obstacles were really “effort” fences, they were accuracy questions… if there had been a wide fence requiring scope AND accuracy (like the corner question the pony ran out earlier this season) it may not have been successful.
Adding strides everywhere (or running flat out to “not add”) is not safe XC riding, IMO. A good XC horse has to be able to add, put in a stutter step, or on rare occasions have the raw scope to save your bacon and “make it work” to take off now, jump big, and stay between the flags.
Edited to add a SAFE xc horse doesn’t always take the leap of faith, sometimes he knows “this is not a good idea” and politely declines. Some of the most dangerous horses are stupid brave and always leave the ground even when they shouldn’t. If an educated horse refuses/runs out, usually you can shake your head, beat yourself up for your mistake, thank your horse for being smart, and try again better next time. But if it happens repeatedly, maybe your mistake is asking the horse to do something it shouldn’t be doing.
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I mean if those were all completed comps it would be a lot, but the pony only made it to fence four of xc at Carolina, so essentially did a ct. Completed a prelim at majestic which honestly should be super easy for a 4* horse, didn’t finish sj at terranova so essentially another ct, got a run at rocking horse and then another ct. So i doubt this was the plan going into the season but essentially she’s only had two runs with cts in between which is more or less reasonable I think
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I’m getting so tired of team Wallace constantly posting videos and pictures of the pair on literally every Facebook eventing page.
But back to the original topic… It would be great if.CP finally paid the consequences for her bad behavior for the past several years…
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Fascinating to hear that Lucinda recommended the bit. Thanks!
The COTH article from 2023: “Last year, the FEI ruled the Dexter ring illegal for use on cross-country, citing a concern about the jaw ring’s potential to become entangled in an obstacle or other equipment. Seeking a solution, Surratt and his team came up with an alternate configuration that opens up the bottom of the ring. The new variation, which Surratt calls the “walrus,” was accepted by the ground jury at multiple events in 2022; he’s now pursuing formal approval from the FEI.”
