# Neglected horses, careless breeding..



## CrossCountry (May 18, 2013)

So we bought my filly in June from this breeder. For the sake of protection I'm going to call the breeder Jessica. So when you get to Jessica's farm, the first thing you notice are the horses.. A HUGE amount if horses, maybe 30-50 horses. Jessica is about 80 years old and doesn't have any help around the farm. As you get closer to the horses, you see their hooves. Oh their hooves are so bad, there was a mare (highly pregnant, looked like she might foal twins) that had the worst hooves I've seen on a pregnant mare. They were flat, cracked and just horrible. I'm not sure how she was still walking. 

Anyways all the horses hooves are bad, and then you come along some stallions in little pens. They are pawing and uncomfortable, no water either. She just keeps breeding her horses, she has at least 25 pregnant mares waiting to foal. Fast forward to a trail ride that we went to, we started up this conversation and she asked me where I bought my filly at. After she heard Jessica's name, she told me that about 20 years ago she had gathered a few friends to go and buy horses from Jessica because they were in such sad shape. They checked the price of a few fillies they were interested in, but then Jessica bumped up the price to where they could not buy them.

We are still trying to get the papers for my filly from her, but it's probably not going to happen. She hasn't paid the breeders fee or anything else required to register her. I'm not sure if I should report her for neglect and careless breeding, or if I should just drop it. I wish I had gotten some pictures of the horses so you could see, but I will just show you some pictures of my filly's feet when I first bought her.

Here are the things that are wrong;

-Horrible feet
--All the horses had bad feet, they all needed to be trimmed but there's no way she could afford it. She also said she could do it herself, she couldn't even walk down pasture because she's so frail.

-No water 
--I wasn't there during feeding time, but all looked to be an okay weight.

-Careless breeding 
--There's no way she can afford all the bills that come with breeding, she was begging us to buy more horses so she could feed the others.

-Genetic testing?! 
--She breeding paints, has she ever tested her horses for the lethal white gene, or anything else? 

-This has been going on for AT LEAST 20 years!!
--I would understand if her situation had just gone downhill in the last year and she was actually trying to sell some horses to improve it, but she does not want to sell her horses. We were at her house for almost 5 hours when buying my filly because she kept changing the price and then wouldn't accept it when we said "sounds like a good price!"

*Anyways my question is; should my family report her, or should we just stop thinking about it? Is it even our place to get involved? Either way we need to get my filly registered, and I'm not sure how to go about that. Any advice is truly appreciated, thanks again. I also posted some older pictures of my filly, you can kind of see her hooves in the pictures. Her hooves were probably the best out of the lot.*


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## Zexious (Aug 2, 2013)

Your filly is cute--glad you got her out of that situation.

I don't think reporting her would be a bad idea... If those feet are the best of the lot, that's neglect in itself. It also worries me that she made the comment about being unable to feed them--decent shape now doesn't mean it'll say that way ):

Does she not have any help? Someone 80 and frail does't have any business owning horses (let alone that MANY horses) without help.


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## CrossCountry (May 18, 2013)

After looking through the APHA website, there is no reasonable way to register my filly. If we do a Breeder's Certificate Indemnity, we have to get her DNA tested and it's just not easy to do. It's already going to cost me over $200 to register her, when it would have costed $40 to register her when she was born. She didn't file a Breeder's Certificate or a Stallion Breeding Report. I've given this lady over half a year to get stuff filed, and she is not doing it. I sure wish there was an easier way to register a horse if the breeder is not compliant and didn't do what she was supposed to do in the first place. Rant over.

Any help is so greatly appreciated! Anybody with some knowledge of the APHA registration system, if you could help me I would be grateful.



Zexious said:


> Your filly is cute--glad you got her out of that situation.
> 
> I don't think reporting her would be a bad idea... If those feet are the best of the lot, that's neglect in itself. It also worries me that she made the comment about being unable to feed them--decent shape now doesn't mean it'll say that way ):
> 
> Does she not have any help? Someone 80 and frail does't have any business owning horses (let alone that MANY horses) without help.


I think she had a young girl coming out once upon a time, but I don't think she doesn anymore. Her husband is even more frail than she is, so he isn't much help hahah.


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## greentree (Feb 27, 2013)

Fill out all of your paperwork and send it to APHA. As long as all the info is filled in and correct, APHA will send her a certified letter, and if she does not respond, they will suspend her and grant your horse its papers. They did this for my stallion. 

Good luck!
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## stevenson (Sep 12, 2011)

If you want her papers, then pay the fees. We had to have two 1/4 colts DNA'd , they did not agree with the color choice we chose. Sire and Dam had been dna'd and we were correct on our color choice, but still had to have the dna done to get the papers.


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## CrossCountry (May 18, 2013)

greentree said:


> Fill out all of your paperwork and send it to APHA. As long as all the info is filled in and correct, APHA will send her a certified letter, and if she does not respond, they will suspend her and grant your horse its papers. They did this for my stallion.
> 
> Good luck!
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


What was the story with your stallion? (If you don't mind me asking.) We just sent in all the paperwork we have along with pictures for registration.. Hoping to hear back soon... 



stevenson said:


> If you want her papers, then pay the fees. We had to have two 1/4 colts DNA'd , they did not agree with the color choice we chose. Sire and Dam had been dna'd and we were correct on our color choice, but still had to have the dna done to get the papers.


Yep we'll pay the fees, I'm just trying to make sure that it is even possible to register her without the paperwork we need from the owner. If it is, awesome! If not then I've saved $200 or more.

The only reason the papers are even a bit important to me is that the filly is a train and re-sell project. Where I live, people think you can ride papers so the price skyrockets. A well started 3 year old registered paint around here will sell fast, but a well started 3 year old paint without papers won't sell too fast.


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## greentree (Feb 27, 2013)

I rescued him as a yearling, with 3 pasture mates. The people I got him from bought him as a weanling, but had no interest in registering him. The lady she bought him from had purchased the mare bred. The people who had owned the stallion and the mare before had not filed the stallion breeding report. I knew the middle people ( mare owner), so I could skip the people I got him from, but they still had to file the report. That is when APHA stepped in, and I got his papers.


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