Warning...my experience with Airdance Farm and Lisa Dunckley

[tempichange]

I would advise to read the entire thread. If you did, you would find that 37 horses were seized, and there’s another 40 in the wind. This is not small.

Joyride is KWPN (Reg A) by ES Worthy Opponent out of an Elite Olympic Ferro mare. He was on the approval track with me prior to Lisa breaking her contract.

Yes, I am very well aware of how warmblood stallions are collected and utilized, as I do breed myself, and have a store of frozen, and utilize fresh services.

He is not breeding 200 mares a year. The comparison was to stallions in my area (lexington, ky) who do live cover, they will frequently do 200 mare books in this hemisphere, and then frequently go to the southern hemisphere to breed again. While their book is probably five times what this horse is/was doing, I was drawing the comparison for body score and overall condition.

Lisa Dunckley pasture breeds all her horses, indiscriminately. If it has a uterus, it breeds, even if it shouldn’t.

Currently, in addition to being civilly sued, her criminal case is just starting. The key part of the criminal case relies on the seizure of the horses, which had to be established as legal and necessary. She lost that motion as well.

[DownYonder]

Thank you for the info. I do hope things work out in the horse’s best interest. And also that some way can be found to prevent her from just moving elsewhere and starting over.

[ladyj79]

He’s an unlicensed wb stallion, so the only people who would be really interested in breeding to him would be those who are not discriminating.

It is unfortunate, and by that I mean evil, when people abuse animals, and I consider the proliferation of random horses to be abusive and detrimental to all horses in this country–and a practice which too often leads to a lot of maltreated horses.

[JB]

@ladyj79

Fwiw, 4 is not a bad body condition score. 5 is ideal.

He appears to be only a 4 because he was suddenly “taken care of” in the previous 3-ish weeks. You can put a solid 1/2-1 BCS on a horse in pretty short order, depending on how long they were at the lower number

@endlessclimb

It’s actually just fine. I don’t think there’s an AC in the country that would seize on that alone.

4 is “ok” if that were the only thing going on. Nobody said that alone is cause for seizure.

@SusanO

I hate the body score designations because it does not determine if a horse is a very fit jumper, racehorse, etc. and then considered a 4 on the scale. Or if it just plain skinny, lacking muscle and body fat and is a 4.

A fit Jumper or even Eventer should only ever be a 4 if it’s on the high side. There’s a huge difference between a 4.5 who is well-muscled with the last ribs showing, with healthy fat in the right places, and a 4 who lacks muscle, appropriate fat, and more ribs showing. BCS is excellent, when it’s used properly, and to do that, you need to put hands on. Winter coats hide a lot of things.

@ladyj79

And a body score of 4 is perfectly acceptable.

which end of 4? Barely out of 3, or approaching 5? Because a low 4 is never acceptable.

And a 4 isn’t acceptable for any breeding horse. It HAPPENS, for sure, especially stallions as they get into the season, mares who are really pulled down by their foal, but it’s only “acceptable” there if you’re doing everything you can to pack the calories in and you just can’t make them eat any more. Putting them there, that’s what’s unacceptable.

[Sticky_Situation]

There’s an awful lot of strangely opinionated takes going on in this thread.

In the recent picture, Joyride looks a bit rough, but not terrible. That’s a good thing. Clearly the other horses in this woman’s care weren’t so “lucky,” but obviously she was putting slightly more resources into him (likely because she also seemed to think she could hide him and somehow keep him when all the other horses were seized). That doesn’t mean she should or will be allowed to keep him when other horses in her care literally starved to death.

A BCS of 4 isn’t bad in an otherwise well cared for horse, especially in a fit horse that is working hard. A horse that is standing in a stall/field doing nothing and being properly fed would probably be expected to be 5-6, and it’s understandable to want breeding stock a little more toward the higher end of that range at the start of breeding season with the anticipation that they might lose a bit. I highly doubt if there are any plans for this horse to be bred this year with everything that is going on.

He’s a nice looking and decently bred horse, but nothing incredibly spectacular and isn’t approved and doesn’t have a huge competition record, so I’d agree with gelding him if it were up to me just because he doesn’t really have the credentials to be worth keeping intact at this point … but the thought of eventually breeding a horse that was previously in a bad situation doesn’t outrage me. What if it was a well known approved stallion … would it be wrong to plan to breed him again after he’d had time to regain condition and been given a clean bill of health?

[tempichange]

Hi All,
It’s been a minute since I’ve had an update.

On Wednesday, April 27, Lisa will be in criminal court for her arraignment hearing.

I do not have any further updates on Joyride or his whereabouts.

[tempichange]

From the Modesto Bee today:

https://www.modbee.com/news/local/crime/article260794642.html?fbclid=IwAR0KYKn7nOkuoCi-VJFmfpl_N6X_oFhXNMKSmo0Buf6YkI4FX5hLgjE2Wzw

[Joanne]

According to the article: “An animal cruelty conviction in California carries a penalty up to three years in jail or prison and a $20,000 fine. Dunckley was initially arrested Jan. 27 and briefly held in jail before she posted bail.”

Could they take away her ability in own or board horses in the future in California? That seems very just.

[clint]

Could you copy and paste the article into a post? I don’t subscribe to the Modesto Bee, so I can’t read it.

[jvanrens]

Horse breeder is charged with multiple counts of animal cruelty in Stanislaus County BY KEN CARLSON UPDATED APRIL 27, 2022 11:51 AM

An animal welfare investigation resulted in the rescue of 30 horses from a property in an unincorporated area of Riverbank. They were in the care of Oakdale Equine Rescue. Dec. 23, 2021 OAKDALE EQUINE RESCUE A horse breeder charged with seven felony counts of animal cruelty is scheduled for arraignment Wednesday in Stanislaus Superior Court. Lisa Dunckley, 54, of Escalon, is facing a nine-count criminal complaint alleging she abused and inflicted unnecessary cruelty on seven horses that died at facilities she operated. According to the complaint, the animals were feloniously and cruelly beaten and killed. Dunckley is also charged with two misdemeanors of not giving proper care to horses. She had arrangements with customers for breeding and boarding horses at a number of properties. At least some of the owners are believed to live in other states. In December, Stanislaus County Animal Services conducted a rescue of 30 horses in poor or deplorable condition from a property near Riverbank. Pictures of the site showed some of the horses were starving and emaciated. $2 for 2 months Subscribe for unlimited access to our website, app, eEdition and more CLAIM OFFER Authorities later seized additional horses from the breeder at other properties. Oakdale Equine Rescue has partnered with Animal Services to care for the horses that were rescued while efforts are made to identify the owners. Dunckley is charged with abuse resulting in the deaths of three quarter horses, two mares, one stallion and a gelding. According to the criminal complaint, the abuse occurred between Dec. 12 and Dec. 20. An animal cruelty conviction in California carries a penalty up to three years in jail or prison and a $20,000 fine. Dunckley was initially arrested Jan. 27 and briefly held in jail before she posted bail. Jeanine Etheridge, president of the Oakdale Equine Rescue, said 10 of the rescued horses have been claimed by their owners. The rescue recently posted pictures of horses in hopes of finding more of the owners. Four pregnant mares that were seized have given birth at the Oakdale rescue.

Read more at: https://www.modbee.com/news/local/crime/article260794642.html#storylink=cpy

[clint]

Thank you

[tempichange]

Criminal complaint against Lisa Dunckley attached.

CR2202354 Dunckley ChargingDocs.pdf (93.5 KB)

[clint]

Is it truly known that the dead horses were beaten to death? The criminal complaint is full of seriously horrifying charges. I hope Lisa doesn’t manage to stay out of jail. There was a picture yesterday on Facebook of some of the dead, which was disturbing.

[tempichange]

I honestly do not feel that the DA would attempt a charge if they didn’t come prepared to argue and win.

@clint would you mind PMing me those links? I’m trying to track where things go in social media.

[Sticky_Situation]

Would they have to prove that she “beat and killed” the horses in order to get a conviction on most of those charges? Because that’s what it sounds like they’re saying. While I have little doubt that she is directly responsible for the deaths of the horses, I find it a bit implausible that she managed to physically beat multiple horses to death and much more likely that they died from starvation, lack of water, and lack of proper veterinary care.

[tempichange]

It appears that her lawyer in CA has quit.

[Jaegermonster]

It’s not criminal, it’s civil. She did that and got a judgement . Now she has to try to collect on it

[tempichange]

No this is the criminal case.

Kentucky is ongoing as a civil matter.

[tempichange]

Update 9/8:
Lisa Dunckley’s attorney handling her civil case has withdrawn her counsel as of 9/7/2022 due to “complete communication breakdown”. This marks the third attorney that Dunckley has rolled through.

Additionally it has come to light that she has abandoned another 20 horses in an adjacent county. They were left in 110 degree weather with no water or food. Since then they have been picked up and rescued. As apart of her criminal proceedings she is not allowed to own or be in possession of any horses.

There have been no further updates on Joyride at this time. He has moved from the original March location. His whereabouts and status are unknown.

[Joanne]

Sounds like she should be thrown in jail for abuse.