# Neglected horses in KY PICS



## sunedee (Aug 12, 2008)

In May a local woman was charged with 6 counts of animal cruelty and 6 of her 11 horses were seized by the county. A good friend of mine, we'll call her A, used to be associated with this woman when A first got in to horses. Right before (and I mean the day before) the county showed up to seize the horses, the woman called A and allowed her to take a mare A had wanted for a long time. At that time, the woman asked A to help her find homes for the horses. I got online and a friend of mine broadcast through the nationwide rescue networks that there was a herd of twh's in KY that needed homes. I got tons of responses. Before we could go about maybe placing some of these horses, AC came and took 6 of them. 

The seized horses were taken to a foster family where they were given lots of TLC and hundreds of dollars worth of vet care. One of the horses, a young stud colt, was so emaciated he couldn't stand. In a couple days, he was put down. The others continued to gain and all was going well. In the mean time, A had been working on the woman to give up her other horses, several of which were well bred and or broke. The woman was not willing to give up any of the others. She finally told A that she had given them all to a friend of hers who had a big pasture for them to graze. 

The county was keeping tabs on how much money was being spent to care for the seized horses. The woman knew she would be responsible for paying that money back. She went to a judge and asked that the seized horses be released to a friend of hers so that she wouldn't end up owing so much money. The judge agreed and the horses were released into the custody of this friend. He was not awarded ownership of the horses because the case against the woman was still pending. This guy is also the guy who was supposed to have had the other horses. 

The horses that weren't seized never left the woman's property. A drove by on several occasions and could still see all the horses there. 

The horses that WERE seized never made it to that guy's farm. Instead he got health certificates on them and took them across state lines and sold them at auction. The vet who wrote the health certs was concerned and got the county involved. They investigated and found the horses. Apparently they were sold as a lot and one family bought them. They paid $280 for all 5 of them. They were recovered, the family reimbursed and they were returned to the county. 

The woman who owned all these horses is suspected of having something to do with this guy selling the horses. I suspect that she thought that if they went away so would the charges. After all this, the woman was again willing to possibly let the others she still had go. One of the people who contacted me via the internet when all this started was still interested in two of the remaining horses. I'd checked her references and all that and was convinced she would provide them with a good home. The woman agreed to let those two go and A and I delivered the horses to TN. 

One of the horses the lady got was a grade twh mare with a severe clubbed foot. It was so bad, she walked on the front of her coronary band. The other mare is a registered, elderly twh. 

Yesterday, the mare with the clubbed foot broke her pastern. Their vet was out of town and nobody else could get there in a timely fashion so the woman's husband put the horse down. He's a Vietnam vet and was horribly upset by having to do that and from the blood and gunshot. 

It seems a tragic ending to this story but in a way the mare is probably better off. At least she had 3 weeks of good food and love before she passed. 

If you want to read about theses horses and about the rehab of the mare A took, her blog is http://bringinghomesammy.blogspot.com/. 

The charges against the woman are still pending. They are investigating her involvement of the sale of the horses. Her next court date is in September. She did give two of her remaining horses to a local woman. As of right now, she still has one horse on her property and one other is missing. 

Below are pics of Bird's clubbed foot. These are not graphic and were taken well before her accident.


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## Kirsti Arndt (Jun 23, 2008)

that is so cruel poor poor thing.


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## Salty_alydaR (Mar 24, 2008)

:shock: :shock: :shock: 

grrrrrrr :evil: it makes me so mad when i see neglected hooves!

and now, because of her cruelty, the poor colt can't even WALK!


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## sunedee (Aug 12, 2008)

Because of her cruelty, that colt (mare) is DEAD!! The strain was finally too much and the leg snapped. Hmm, I wonder if a lifetime of malnutrition had anything to do with the brittle bones?


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## Kirsti Arndt (Jun 23, 2008)

if he cant walk he cant graze if he cant graze he cant digest-what are they going to do to help him? has it gone too far to help?? i cant even imagine how much pain he is in.


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## sunedee (Aug 12, 2008)

The mare with the clubbed foot is DEAD. She could get around well enough to graze. This mare was 7 years old and did carry a foal like this. Tuesday she stepped wrong and snapped the leg. Her new owners put her down because of it. 

My vet thinks that foot could have been corrected to a degree with surgery when the mare was born. The owner couldn't be bothered to feed her much less have surgery done so . . .


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