I aged 10 years in 30 min. I have always supported the rescues with financial donations and believe in their mission but have remained quiet...until now. I pulled up to a nice barn (that I could never afford to build) and house. When I picked up extremely skinny Snippy Pants, he had an equally skinny ASB friend in the stall next to him. At least they had stalls with a small bucket of water but no hay. My eyes instantly Went to the side where five horses were tied up side by side. They were all violently shaking- frightened? cold? Both?. Two were ASB. There was one that I got to take pics of. He had dried white lather sweat all over him from his morning drive. It was 34 degrees when I arrived. The man apologized for not brushing him before I arrived. When he brought the horse around the corner to show me, the horse knocked the man over and ran to the water bucket. He stood still while he drank but then proceeded to run at and over us in attempt to get out of the barn. This horse was so scared. He was sooo thin. He was so thirsty. I kept calm and polite but I wanted to grab the horse and run. I have been to auctions and watched horses bought by the Amish. This was my first time to a privately operated Amish farm. I will never forget it. I also will use my experience as a catalyst for change. I pulled out with Snippy Pants and called my husband and hysterically cried. How could I leave those other ASB. I will always be tortured that I left them. You have to see it in person to get it. I GET IT NOW! I have the client that everyone says is missing. The client that buys horses at the middle and lower price point. I really do well with quirky horses. They fit into my teaching style. Most of my school horses were considered super quirky/boarder-line outlaws at one point of their career. I think a lot of these horses could have fit into my program or another lesson program/performance program. I dont know about a lot of these horses until they are at the auction. These horses need to be marketed and sold to instructors (like me) for a comparable price that the Amish are getting them for. By the time your client pays for hauling, your time at a sale, entries, ect they are probably $500-$1k in the hole. These horses are bringing $2-5k at the sale. Owners are getting less than the sale price. They need to be sold to instructors that can take a horse with a hole in it and enjoy them on different levels. The horses I saw today were in terrible condition. There was no quality of life. My horse has no papers. I dont know his registered name and will probably never have those papers. Snippy and I are headed home. My heart is heavy and my stomach hurts. Snippy is for his head buried in his hay bag and seems happy. My head is spinning. I stopped driving long enough to write this. Thanks to all that are dedicated to this.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 18:35:33 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015