[meupatdoes]

I too have been following this particular bloggers exploits for years, and if there was ever someone who was completely unqualified to work as a professional in the horse industry, here you have it.

She has been DQ'ed at endurance events for coming in with a horse on the verge of collapse, because it 'ran off' with her for 10 miles at full gallop. I dunno, maybe a professional should be capable of teaching their endurance horse to be rateable??!

She has gotten same horse stuck in a mud pit by riding off trail, necessitating the intervention of the fire department, almost drowned him another time, additionally rode him off a bridge, and nearly killed ANOTHER horse with a botched injection that whoopsed its way into the carotid.

I mean, cr*p happens but THIS MUCH CR*P to ONE PERSON??!!!

She has gone on internet campaigns against other professionals and trainers, claiming they starved the very same school horse she rode in the LONG STIRRUP DIVISION. What professional rides school horses in long stirrup???!

This same trainer that she later tried to ruin who let her ride around on school horses in the local shows in long stirrup is the one who actually installed the right lead on her personal horse, because FOR YEARS she was completely unable to turn right without making three lefts ON HER OWN HORSE. It took the professional (the one she later slandered and libeled in one end and out the other) exactly .....one ride. To teach that horse to pick up the right lead. Immediately thereafter posts were made on the internet with youtube videos featuring "Eye of the Tiger," heralding this monumental training achievement, and conveniently leaving out the information that somebody else did it for her. People I cannot make this up.

She has gotten people kicked out of their barns because she posted crap about them and the barn on the internet.

She has stalked me and left me "presents" on my tack trunk outside my horse's stall. She harrassed my trainer at the time with email messages about God knows what.

She claims that she got her start in riding when she saw a mare in a field somewhere and the owner said if she could ride it she could have it. Amazingly despite never having taken a riding lesson (a practice she continues to this day) she was able to teach herself to ride it bareback and bridleless.

One year ago somebody wrote me a PM asking me why I was so vehemently and openly opposed to this person hanging out a shingle. My word for word reponse from a year ago was:

I have a serious problem with poor instruction.
The number of horses people have come to me that their Barn Owner/Shitty Trainer/Whoever Else Totally Unqualified told them to sell down the road and get rid of it because it's not fixable and wouldn't be worth the time anyway is not small. Generally I can fix the horse enough and help the rider ride it enough that the rider can enjoy their horse again in three or four sessions. THAT is the difference between good instruction and bad instruction. These people are PAYING for the shitty instruction and training that is COSTING them their whole relationship with their horse.

I think when somebody who has never taken a riding lesson takes people's money, and tacks up a horse that is VISIBLY TREMBLING, hops on after roughly THREE training interactions (during which time one has accomplished EXACTLY HOW MUCH restarting, I wonder???!), figures out that it's threatening to rear, and proceeds to focus on "whoa whoa whoa walk", with comments about how this is going to make an "awesome" before and after video, and then suddenly LO AND BEHOLD disaster happens like everyone else could see coming a year ago, it is just ridiculous. I think when somebody gets paid to f*ck it all up to hell and then tells the owner to kill it it costs the owner their relationship with their horse.

And OF COURSE she is saying the horse should be euthanized or retired. What was I saying a year ago?? "shitty training COSTS PAYING CLIENTS THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THEIR HORSE." I have several horses in my program whose owners were told by numerous individuals that they should be sold, put down, and/or retired but guess what? They're all perfectly nice horses who were victims of exactly this type of crap. If their owners had listened to the dumb@$$e$ they never would have a relationship period.

And of course insurance, well, isn't that just a party. So now that she is a professional deliberately seeking out problem horses with no insurance, OF COURSE she will try to recover under the farm owner's liability policty. NATURALLY. Gee it's nice OTHER PEOPLE have insurance, huh?!

Apparently this highly qualified professional has no idea what an Equine Liability Policy covers. Let's think...hmmm..."liability" implies someone ELSE has to be LIABLE, does it not? So in order to recover, someone ELSE has to have F*CKED YOUR SH*T UP in some way that means they owe you money to make things right. You have to SUCCESSFULLY BLAME SOMEONE ELSE for their liability policy to cover you. So naturally the next step when you hold yourself out as a professional, CHARGE $60 A BLIMIN' RIDE to utilize your "expertise," and then f*ck yourself and your customer's horse up all to hell, why it must be someone else's fault!!

I pay $850 a year for my equine liability policy, have had COUNT THEM ZERO FALLS performed either by me or a customer, and it is pretty flipping obvious to me that if I fall off a customer's horse and break a leg I cannot SUE MYSELF! I also cannot sue the Barn Owner who was sitting in the house minding her business and somehow blame HER!



Oh, and then, if she can't suitably blame the farm owner for her own incompetence, she can also go visit a social worker and have the NJ taxpayer foot the bill because NJ apparently has "charity care." Gee, it's nice OTHER PEOPLE pay in to the system so we can charge $60 a ride to flip people's horses over on ourselves, A+.

Naturally the next step is of course to have everyone sing about how wonderful she is and reach into their pockets and donate. Oh please let us all bend over to fork over the dough.



I am sorry but this is exactly what happens when unqualified people take money to train horses. The horse is always the one that gets screwed. There is NO REASON this horse should have been f*cked all to hell.

[FineAlready]

Tell us how you really feel, Meup.

Very interesting perspective. I'm sure you will get slammed for this, but I'm inclined to trust your assessment if you know this individual in real life.

[GotGait]

I feel really bad for that Paso, but watching her all I could think is "she's fried."
Ruined. I'd take her, but I can't even ride my level-headed, hot one right now. I'd turn her out for a year, start completely over as if she were a baby, and might never get on her if she was still quaking after all that. I've seen enough that never get over the abuse. If not euthed, she's going to need a Paso trainer with A LOT of patience and who doesn't mind having a pasture puff possibly forever.
I know exactly who could do it, but she's in her 60's now and can't get on those freaky ones anymore.
I'm sorry the rider got hurt.

ETA: Interesting additional info. No way should she have been riding that horse after 3 sessions. I will post this Paso's info on the Paso Fino Urgent Rescue page if the info is pm'd to me. This horse can go on to someone who can work with her and not lose her life.

[skykingismybaby1]

I have deleted the link.

I never meant for attacks. MY BAD.

[myalter1]

Tell us how you really feel, Meup.

Very interesting perspective. I'm sure you will get slammed for this, but I'm inclined to trust your assessment if you know this individual in real life.

Im right there wtih you FineAlready, since I have never been led astray by meupatdoes in ANYTHING i have posted here. You know the person? I trust your assessment, given the fact that I will never meet her.

[oliverreed]

I just feel so very sorry for the horse. I was wondering why it was OK to let the horse stand there trembling all tacked up. I am most certainly a rank-ish amateur, but in my opinion, shouldn't one proceed very very slowly with taking up if the horse is exhibiting so much fear? Like, taking as long as it takes so the horse is not afraid of tack?

[BarbaricYawp]

ETA: Interesting additional info. No way should she have been riding that horse after 3 sessions. I will post this Paso's info on the Paso Fino Urgent Rescue page if the info is pm'd to me. This horse can go on to someone who can work with her and not lose her life.

This horse came from the PFUR FB page in July/August and there is a thread out there already from this Sunday (I think) indicating that they know about the trainer injury. I think it would be very, very unwise to repost this mare there. The first go round there were a lot of people that were taken with her looks (that's how this owner picked her up). IM(strong)O this mare absolutely should not go to a well-meaning amateur.

[GotGait]

I just feel so very sorry for the horse. I was wondering why it was OK to let the horse stand there trembling all tacked up. I am most certainly a rank-ish amateur, but in my opinion, shouldn't one proceed very very slowly with taking up if the horse is exhibiting so much fear? Like, taking as long as it takes so the horse is not afraid of tack?

Yep.
We had one that, well we don't really know what had been done to her, but she was fine with everything except, as we discovered, the saddle. As soon as it came out, she threw herself down in the aisle way, and laid there trembling until it was out of sight. She would start bashing her head on the ground if we tried to get her up. So we never put a saddle on her. Anyone could ride her around though - bareback. She was an incredibly sweet mare and was the grandmother of my current mare.

[oliverreed]

But maybe there's a pro out there willing to take her on? I just checked out that group and it is a closed group so I cannot see what goes on there. Would like to join . . . .

[kalidascope]

Anyone feel like posting the link, since OP has deleted it?

[quietann]

I hope you asked her if you could post this here....nothing like getting torn apart on Coth to brighten your day! Not meaning anyone is doing that yet...

Oh, I saw it coming and it was just "hm, when is so and so going to be on COTH today?" The feud between those two has been going on for years. I respect them both, they both have been very helpful to me online (I've never met either in person), but I just wish they'd stop with all the sniping. They're better people than that.

[MoonoverMississippi]

I'm sure this person meant well, but have to agree with some of the above assessments; it seems like there were warning signs to slow down the whole way, right up to the accident.

Auction horses are always quite a gamble,
but maybe the warning should be not only about auction horses but taking any horse, with or without a known history, and ignoring every sign they give you that they are overwhelmed.

This story certainly reads like so many other ones where the horse loses because people don't listen to what they are trying to tell you.

[GotGait]

This horse came from the PFUR FB page in July/August and there is a thread out there already from this Sunday (I think) indicating that they know about the trainer injury. I think it would be very, very unwise to repost this mare there. The first go round there were a lot of people that were taken with her looks (that's how this owner picked her up). IM(strong)O this mare absolutely should not go to a well-meaning amateur.

So the woman who actually owns the horse, saw her listed on PFUR?
Wait, there are no papers either, correct? So nm, I was thinking possible broodmare, or pro trainer, but they won't want her without papers.
Thanks for the heads up.

[GotGait]

Ollie, I tried to pm you, but your inbox is full.

[Isabeau Z Solace]

I just feel so very sorry for the horse. I was wondering why it was OK to let the horse stand there trembling all tacked up. I am most certainly a rank-ish amateur, but in my opinion, shouldn't one proceed very very slowly with taking up if the horse is exhibiting so much fear? Like, taking as long as it takes so the horse is not afraid of tack?

I suspect she's got that figured out now. But in all fairness, a LOT of people learn this sort of stuff the hard way. And, a LOT of people don't have health insurance. I've done the 'green horse broke me routine' (to the tune of 9 broken ribs & collapsed lung) myself. (And OMG I am totally there with the 'radiology done me wrong' song.ouch. BUT I wanna borrow this chicks guy friend the next time I am busted up. Maybe she could make some extra coin while she's laid up by renting him out. )

And in the horse business, as it currently goes in the USA, Charm leads the way. Who is that event rider always quoted as saying "I'm in the People business not the horse business?"

If you can get people to pay you, then you got what is required as far as the 'biz' is concerned in this day and age and place. I know plenty of others (seemingly) more accomplished and lauded who suck hairy goat balls as horse riders/trainers. They have enough people who love them that my opinion don't count for much.

[meupatdoes]

Oh, I saw it coming and it was just "hm, when is so and so going to be on COTH today?" The feud between those two has been going on for years. I respect them both, they both have been very helpful to me online (I've never met either in person), but I just wish they'd stop with all the sniping. They're better people than that.

Actually if anyone had listened to my sniping in years past, and perhaps taken note of the veritable avalanche of warning signs, this entirely preventable situation would have been entirely prevented, and there wouldn't be SEVERAL PEOPLE ALREADY declaring the horse better off dead on this thread alone.

People are advocating the great pasture in the sky for this horse!
BECAUSE OF THIS CRAP!

Lalala isn't the blog such exciting fun to read with some poor horse in God knows what "adventure" situation and all the pretteh pictures. Yeah it's really f*cking awesome.

DIDN'T THIS HORSE MAKE A GREAT BEFORE AND AFTER VIDEO, HUH?

[Appsolute]

Regarding health insurance – there are MANY horse pros without it. MANY. Horse training is often not a lucrative career.

I do not know how much your private insurance costs, but I pay $420 a month out of pocket for my hubby and I. My company picks up the other $1,000! That is $1,400 a month in premiums.

My sister moved states, and had to buy new insurance with a (non major) pre-existing condition. Her premium is $1,200 a month for an individual.

I didn’t have insurance when I was young, out of college (working FULL time – company kept stringing me along through a temp agency – NO benefits). I guess I shouldn’t have been riding during that time – or driving a car – or crossing the street. Because like many Americans I could not afford health insurance.

Nope – the system does not need to be reformed at all.

[FineAlready]

I will say that I took a look through the blog, and much of what Meup identified in her post is actually there in the blog. In some cases, with pictures (for example, her horse stuck in the mud and being rescued by the fire department).

That's too bad. I still feel terrible that she broke her leg. But I do tend to agree that this was an accident waiting to happen for reasons not completely related to the horse involved in the accident.

[Isabeau Z Solace]

OOhhh.... I read a bit more on her blog. She's eastern European... that explains everything... Where's that video of folks jumping ditches in the snow? Croatia not exactly next door, close enough. But then there's Ireland too. Let's face it, there are plenty of horse cultures out there with Waaaayyyyy different definitions of 'okay' and 'good idea' than we hold in the good ol' USA.

Plenty of folks would just say she's got lots of 'pluck.'

[inca]

I read the blog and kept thinking "why is she rushing to get on this horse." Horses like that need a LOT of time doing things that do NOT involve riding. Heck, I have a "retraining project" that is nowhere NEAR as bad as this mare. And I longed for a month to let the horse relax, build up some proper muscle and to start building a relationship with the horse. Only when the horse was completely relaxed at all 3 gaits and listening to me without fail on the longe line did I even think of getting on. Now, I am an ammie and probably took the extra slow road. But, best to err on the side of caution and build a solid foundation for the horse.

And really once the horse is so worked up that it is rearing under saddle, you might want to take a step back instead of pushing on. Sometime you find the good note to end on by going back to something EASIER and more familiar with the horse. There is always tomorrow.