Somewhere In The Middle

You know the old saying about there being two sides to every story with the truth lying somewhere in the middle?  That’s probably important to keep in mind when reading today’s post.  Some readers are going to be pissed off at me for it and I really don’t care.  I’ve mulled this over for quite awhile.  I’ve done a lot of digging.  I’ve had it sitting around marinating for months and keep coming back to it.  While HiCaliber is the common denominator in this situation, it only minimally involves them beyond the old birds of a feather deal, but there are a few familiar `birds’ in this flock besides HiCaliber. If you’re looking for snark, this probably isn’t the post for you.  If you’re tacking up for another long campaign, I really hope this isn’t it either.  I just felt the need to document a few things that have bothered me (and others) for quite some time.  In light of the recent shit show out of Kaufman regarding the 25 yearlings from Bartons this is timely and now the whole CERF situation, it is indicative of an elephant in the room with Thoroughbred aftercare.  I’ll get to that in a bit though. For now, put on your thinking caps and follow along.  This is gonna get weird.

Rented Cop had a rather undistinguished racing career, never recovering his purchase price or even winning out his conditions .  Still, he toiled away at various SoCal tracks between 2009 to 2012.  While he started off in Maiden Special Weight company racing at tracks like Hollywood Park and Del Mar, he wound up his career racing for a $2000 tag at Los Alamitos.  Looking at his form, it is clear he likely had some issues as there are large gaps between some of his races with one of those spanning 15 months, not even racing at all in 2010 before being brought back by the same connections.  All this is easily looked up by anybody.  What happened to Rented Cop since his last start on January 29, 2012 is where things get a bit complicated.  It’s obvious he broke down to some degree that day as he was vanned off.  The next time he is traceable was the above post which was made on April 2, 2012.

 

Rented Cop, soon renamed `Pepsi’ ended up at Premier Equine Rehab within days of being rescued.  There was mention of a fractured sesamoid in one post and he appeared in remarkably good condition for a horse that allegedly came from a feed lot situation. Obviously a cute horse, he generated a fair amount of interest according to Jenny Earhart aka Premier Equine Rehab and was adopted out within a month.  I should probably note that PER was not a 501c3 at the time but did take in OTTBs for rehab/rehoming.  In a perfect world, this should have been Pepsi’s happily ever after and the most anybody should have heard of him from there on out should have been cheery updates, if that.  I wish that was the case.

 

Even though Pepsi’s adoption was announced all the way back in May of 2012, he was pictured still at Jenny’s ranch and listed as `in rehab’ September.  I do not know if his original adoption went through or if he was returned due to soundness issues.  It would be easy enough to give the benefit of doubt if this was all there was on Pepsi.  Sadly, the plot thickens.

By October of that same year, Pepsi was announced as being adopted again.  I guess the fact that he was adopted as a trail horse means whatever landed him in rehab earlier was no longer an issue or at least patched over.

In January 2014, Pepsi was still alive and well, even if not quite in the same shape as he was upon intake.  Again, it’s easy to give the benefit of the doubt as horses fresh off the track are usually in peak physical condition as far as coat, weight and fitness.  Even injured horses like Pepsi are still going to look good fresh off the track and they will look much different when they fall out of fitness.  I am not entirely sure where he was when this pic was taken or if he was still with his adopters.  Sadly, the next time Pepsi showed up on the radar, there would be no benefit of the doubt as to his condition.

The next time Pepsi shows up on the radar he is emaciated and part of the Fallen herd. For those of you that haven’t been following the HiCaliber shitshow for years, the Fallen `rescue’ happened in February of 2015 and was a large scale rescue of mostly OTTBS out of Nevada.  It was also the beginning of the end for HiCaliber as it seemed to be the turning point of where greed took over.  However, that’s another issue for another day…or not.  From what I am told, he was only at HiCaliber long enough for Jenny Earhart to pick him back up and HiCaliber merely transported him or her.  So, a bit of a number fudge for them to count him as one of their rescues, but that shouldn’t surprise anybody.

Barely a few months later, Pepsi is adopted out once again.  Surely, this would be the one that stuck and gave this horse a soft landing.  Nope…

 

 

Yet again, Pepsi shows up in trouble.  In December 2016 Pepsi showed up at Mike’s Auction.  Auction Horses listed him as an `Appendix type’.  Thankfully, he was spotted by another rescue and Ms Earhart arranged to have him bought back…AGAIN.

Once Pepsi was back in her possession, Jenny did a bit of damage control and assured her followers he was finally safe.  However there are a few red flags in this little post not the least of which is that she slid in there that he had actually run through auction prior to showing up at Mike’s.  Rather than enforce her contract, she elected to let him go for $800 to an alleged good home with no contract. Wow. The other problem with her post was the whole broken ankle excuse and saying he had been gone out of her possession since 2012.  The above screen shots show that is clearly not the case.  That horse bounced back and forth between adoptive homes several times according to her own posts.  I’m not sure if this post was intentionally vague, but it almost shifts some of the blame to HiCaliber as `the other rescue that seized’ the Fallen horses.  She neglects to mention she picked the horse up from them the very same day and it was she, not HiCaliber that adopted him out.  For once, and only this once, they actually don’t have any blame in this situation.  (we’ll return to their habitual fuckery on the next post). Let’s also not forget that back in 2012, when Jenny now says she turned Pepsi over to Fallen, her earlier posts had said he had been adopted out as a trail horse. So where is Pepsi now?  Sadly his ending was not a happy one.

Pepsi’s next stop was a sanctuary/rehab place in Mount Shasta.  The above communication is from their founder (No, the email was not to me) and tells us that Pepsi was put to sleep and the condition he was actually in.  Hardly surprising given the number of homes this horse cycled through after falling through the cracks on a regular basis.  I get that mistakes happen and that some adoptions don’t work out, but how many times does one horse have to hit a bad home from the same rescue? I wish I could say this is an isolated issue with Premier Equine Rehab but that does not seem to be the case.

Remember how I mentioned that at any given time I have several posts rattling around my draft folder in various states of doneness?  This is one of those posts.  I have literally been following up on this stuff for years as the odd disturbing things hits my radar.  The above screen shots were the first thing about Premier Equine Rehab and Jenny Earhart that lifted my eyebrow.  Michael Gipson is  a POS kill buyer.  For whatever reason, he went all in on the fact that Jenny sent horses to him in the past and he made them disappear.  I don’t know if that is true or not.  One one hand, Jenny denies this, but on the other hand Gipson insists it’s true.  Neither one of them are well blessed with integrity so it’s  tough to say.  I’m merely laying this out for other people to make up their own minds on it. Maybe something more current will help them with that?

I am told that PER operates out of three, possibly 4 locations.  The above pictures were taken at her Norco location in March.  This is in line with what I have been told from more than one source about the level of care the less than high profile `saves’ get up until they vanish.  What generally happens is that pictures are taken when the horses are fresh off the track and looking great and that’s it.  Many of them disappear.  I’m sure some are placed in adoptive homes or flipped or whatever. PER doesn’t really do a lot of updates on horses after intake.  I’ve already posted about PER offering up a rescue horse as a broodmare all the way back in September of last year.  I said then that there were some things bothering me about them and it seems to just keep piling up.

Does anybody remember this old buckskin stud that Manson manifested last June?  He appeared to come from Salvador’s place or one of the usual suppliers anyhow.  The village idiots dutifully handed over their lunch money for him (there was another fundraiser showing close to $500 for him) even though he promptly went to Premier Equine Rehab.  Naturally they asked for money for him as well which is totally normal for a rescue to do.  The only problem is where is that horse now?  He’s dead and he was dead very shortly after arriving at PER.  Was he one of the trailer corpses?  I have no way of knowing, but apparently that’s a thing with PER.

I’m sure most of you have seen the horrible publicity racing has been getting lately.  Actually racing always gets more than its fair share of bad publicity and it’s not always deserved.  Right now, aside from the breakdowns at Santa Anita, there is a a lot of propaganda going with the slaughter issue at racetracks.  If you were to believe the mainstream media, horses are walking straight off the track to slaughter and that’s rarely, if ever the case.  Thoroughbreds actually make up a very small percentage of horses shipping to slaughter and the ones that show up in kill pens have often been off the track for years.  The problem is that they are easily identifiable due to their tattoos.  Because they are a higher profile breed and stir up a lot of emotion in people they can often make it rain as far as funding when you do pluck one from a kill buyer.  What many people fail to realize is that the race industry takes an anti slaughter stance and many tracks have anti slaughter policies in place.  Such is the case in southern California.  All Magna Entertainment owned tracks have adopted an anti slaughter policy that states: ” any trainer or owner stabling at an MEC facility who directly or indirectly participates in the transport of a horse from a MEC facility to either a slaughterhouse or an auction house engaged in selling horses for slaughter will be prohibited from having stalls at any MEC facility.”  You can read article about it at this link.  This is all well and good as far as  being able to say that the industry is taking an anti-slaughter stance, but it’s all just for show in some ways.  The people that are ethical and would never send a horse to slaughter or a flipper don’t need those policies to do the right thing.  They do the right thing because they care.  The ones that don’t care find a way around it and this has created racetrack rescuers/ horse launderers.

I’m not saying that every person or organization that takes in OTTBs or even specializes in them are shady.  They aren’t.  There are a lot of really good organizations that deal with aftercare for OTTBs.  Then there are the ones that are the middlemen.  The ones that exist to launder OTTBs.  They take in a lot of OTTBs and aren’t as discriminate where they go.  If they can rehome them, great, if not…well, there are ways to make them disappear and they are the layer between the racing connections and the `bad home’.  That way if the horses do turn up in a kill pen or on a truck that flipped over, they don’t trace back to the track connections.  The `rescue’ takes the blame and creates a plausible explanation for how that happens and makes sure the next lot they send, direct ships.  Trust me, this happens and nobody wants to admit it or talk about it.  How I’m told this happens is these horses are `retired’ with supportive funds.  I’m told that this may or may not be the case with PER.  I don’t know myself with 100% certainty.  I do know that where there is smoke there is usually fire, or at least a spark smoldering, and for some reason I get inboxed about this rescue with increasing regularity.  I am by no means saying burn them at the stake, but I am saying to ask questions.  People should be able to ask respectful questions to any rescue and if 2 + 2 isn’t giving you 4 then ask more.  The HiCaliber mess was years of inconsistencies and red flags for so many people and got so far out of control.  We’re still putting out those fires and will be for the foreseeable future.   I know that you can usually judge people by the company they keep and this seems to apply to PER.  No, I’m not talking about Maggot because she’s nobody, but I am talking about the track connections, the trainer that signed Jenny’s license and the smoke around him.  I’m talking about the HiCaliber connection which would be a whole other post just for that.  She takes in a lot of horses all the time.  She just participated in that large rescue of CERF horses.  Where is the follow up on every horse?  Where is Kenny from HiCaliber and so many others?  Why is PER listed with Guidestar in Colorado instead of California? All I’m saying is ask questions and make up your own minds.  There is a bigger story here that has little to nothing to do with PER, but this is a start.  Somewhere in the middle of all this lies the truth.

 

Read Full Post »

Some`Things’ Never Change

Just as expected, September 15th has come and gone with The Manson Family, or what is left of them, remaining firmly entrenched at their feed lot.  Despite Manson preaching about wanting to vacate the property so that the landlord can sell it *cough*bullshit*cough*, it appears she’s had a change of whatever black lump fills the space in her chest cavity where other people have hearts.  It would also appear that Manson has dusted off an old hustle and made some tentative steps towards branching out.  We’ll get into that a bit later, but first I thought we’d update a few things.  I’ve also got a little bit of `not really’ HiCaliber business to deal with today as well.  Time to buckle up, because things are going to get a bit maddening.

I thought I’d start off with a bit of housekeeping.  See what I did there?  This picture, along with a few older and less dramatic ones have been making the rounds lately.  This bedroom super gross despite some of the village idiots claiming it was just `normal’ for people who were moving.  What it is not though, is Manson’s house or much to do with her other than being on the same property.  As much as I know people want to hang anything an everything on her, this one ain’t hers.  She’s got a cleaning lady, remember? These pics are from the little stone cottage and the inhabitants of that are her paid feeders aka former owners of the now deceased Romance.  The room belongs to their kid and I actually feel a bit sorry for the kid.  Maybe some additional pics of their abode will help me explain why.

These are some additional pics of the same house that were sent to me.  (Thank you to the person that did).  While some of the pics are in that same bedroom, the absolute filth of the rest of the house is evident in at least one of the pics.  I feel sorry that this kid is living with parents that normalize this type of unsanitary living .  I don’t even want to know what mixture of human and animal body fluids created some of the stains on the mattresses (why do they not have sheets?). I hope nobody goes after that kid, but damn, those parents should be ashamed that they are living in these conditions.

Poor Corky the pig.  Manson posted a short clip of him in the barn with what appeared to be an injury on his ass.  The poor pig looks very stiff and Manson, now a pig expert apparently, informed her village that it is a `meat pig’ issue.  Even when questioned by somebody that clearly does know about pigs, Manson stuck to her 30% opinion.  The other issue was the poor pig’s balls.  Apparently he gets to keep his because Manson is still trying to make the whole `rebel’ thing work for her.  Sadly for the pig, it will make finding him a new home even more difficult  What a great rescue!

Does everybody remember Emlyn the orphan filly that was allegedly a PB purchase but they continued to fund raise for her and then she got `adopted’?  She appeared at auction the same day a lactating mare without a foal showed up and, at the time, a lot of people thought perhaps they were related.  The other mare, Madre, ended up going to A Little Rescue, and despite them offering to take Emlyn and see if they could be matched up, Manson refused.  That’s the Cliffs Notes on that situation but I recently stumbled across this post that Wrinkles was tagged in.  What are the odds that post was made the day before Emlyn appeared at auction?  We’ve long heard from former volunteers that Manson has often asked owners wanting to surrender horses to take them to Ontario auction so they could `save them from a trip to Mexico’.  Manson knows that the village idiots love themselves some exigency and it always inspires them to dig deep.  Such was the case with Emlyn apparently. Moving right along…

Back in July Manson listed some skinny and otherwise needy horses from her usual suspects.  Of course they all came with a creative and tear jerking post that was designed to loosen up some person strings and establish some relevancy.  Nobody was buying, not even most of the village idiots, and that particular fund-raiser was a flop.  As a result, these horses were never heard about again and nobody really asked about them either.  One of the stand outs that caused some drama at the time was the gray Paso who was obviously at Nacho’s place.  He had actually run through Mike’s auction and was purchased by Nacho for $80 only a few days before.  The original breeder on him was said to want him back, but when people tried to intervene,  the word from Manson was that he was already placed/ spoken for.

Guess what?  Manson did acquire the gray Paso and he’s been there with them at HiCaliber the whole time.  They called him `Pegasus’, but the general public never knew he was there. He never hit the website nor was he listed in one of their sporadic adoption posts.  Luckily for him he was recently an R2R transfer to GAIT (Gaited Intervention Action Team Inc) and has finally landed softly.  He was reportedly extremely lame when they picked him up and has since broke an abscess out of his coronet band.  You can follow him on GAIT’s Facebook page.

This was Manson’s dog, Atlas.  She had him before moving to the current location.  He was said to have spent much of his life in his kennel and never had a day of training of any kind.  Manson was on a service dog kick at the time and got Atlas as a puppy (might have been a trade or Craigslist scoop depending on which story of hers you believe) because the waiting list for a real service dog was 2 to 4 years.  Her intent was to train him herself, but that never happened.  She pretty much hated him and ignored him.  Eventually Atlas was `given away’ and there were a few stories on that too.  Manson told people that he went to be a police dog.  So, why am I dredging this up now?

Lately Manson has been spotted out and about with a dog wearing a service vest.  Nobody is really sure what disability this dog is supposed to be for, but it’s not a disability that requires the dog to be anywhere near her unless she’s somewhere she can get attention or needs a pedicure apparently.  She even dragged this dog to Mrs. Talbot’s funeral and it was said to be very disruptive and distracting.  I guess we shouldn’t be really surprised or blame the poor dog either considering where Manson got her from.

Barely five months ago, Manson manifested this dog, then a very young pup, at auction.  You know, because all good service dogs are acquired at some back alley auction out of the back of a truck.  I recall being disgusted she was dragging home yet another animal to feed at the time, but it never occurred to me that she would be dusting of an old hustle.  Because I’m not involved with service dogs, I figured I’d ask somebody who was. The following is written by this person for Manson, but I think everybody needs to read it.

An open letter to Michelle Knutilla from a REAL SERVICE DOG TRAINER

Impersonating a service dog is a crime in the state of California under penal code 365.7 as follows:

365.7.  

(a) Any person who knowingly and fraudulently represents himself or herself, through verbal or written notice, to be the owner or trainer of any canine licensed as, to be qualified as, or identified as, a guide, signal, or service dog, as defined in subdivisions (d), (e), and (f) of Section 365.5 and paragraph (6) of subdivision (b) of Section 54.1 of the Civil Code, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding six months, by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both that fine and imprisonment.

(b) As used in this section, “owner” means any person who owns a guide, signal, or service dog, or who is authorized by the owner to use the guide, signal, or service dog.

Now that we have that out of the way, the fact that you have purchased a vest and a patch portraying your dog as a legitimate service animal is a CRIME!

Knowingly taking your dog into places allowed only with a VALID service animal does a terrible disservice to those that actually require the assistance of a service animal.

How ironic that you post about your “legitimate service dog” and think the public is at all convinced you are anything more than a fraud. The dog is one you picked up at the Ontario Auction 6 months ago and made it your own. I was there when you got the dog! It takes a whole lot longer than 6 months to train a LEGITIMATE service animal to perform a task to mitigate the disability of its handler.

That same fake service dog was a huge distraction at my dear friend Laura Talbot’s funeral. How dare you bring an untrained and unmanageable dog to her final hours with us?

While you may or may not have had a TBI, what specific task is your dog trained to perform? Histrionic Personality Disorder-what specific task is your dog trained to perform? I agree that not all disabilities are visible. However, the dog MUST be trained to perform a SPECIFIC task to mitigate that disability.

I am going to set you straight on your message you very poorly attempted to educate people on what a service animal may and may not do.

1. You are correct, sadly too many people buy the vest and the fake certificate INCLUDING YOU!

Here are the links to purchase the exact vest and patch on your dog.

VEST: https://keepdoggiesafe.com/products/reflective-utility-vest

PATCH: (just one of many places to purchase this patch). http://www.diabeticalertdog.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=220

2. If your fake service dog is being attacked at least once a week while you have it in a public place you had better do some additional training. I have trained service dogs for over 3 decades and have yet to have any of mine in training or a finished dog attacked by another animal. It is called being PROACTIVE and aware of the environment you are in and having a dog with stable nerves and a stable mind.

3. We’ll address the term you used “washing out”. Your dog has not had near enough time to be trained to perform any task reliably in a public environment. So far, you have mentioned taking it to school with you once and to the salon. At no other time do you even remotely address the fact that you are “training” your stray dog for service work or that it is accompanying you anywhere. Not to get ice cream, dinner, lunch, auctions. None! For a dog you need, I would think you would have that animal everywhere exposing it to the environment so you can socialize it and then begin to ask for it to perform a specific task under the pressure of being in a public place. NOPE-haven’t seen it!

4. A service animal is to be WELL TRAINED. It is not to be making noise (unless it has a verbal cue to indicate it’s assistance). It is not to pull on its lead, jump on anyone, going greet anyone (unless on command). It is supposed to be seen and not heard nor cause a single ounce of disturbance to anyone else anywhere. (Your dog at Laura’s funeral was absolutely inexcusable).

5. You are correct. There is no registry for a service animal in the United States. There are “fake registries” where people like you can buy a certificate and take your “fake service animal” in public exactly as you have done with your stray you picked up at the auction. Never, ever would anyone ask to see a “certificate”. Anyone can purchase an ID or even make them at home. $20 and you have an ID.

This is in no way a threat. This is a PROMISE! I have already contacted the appropriate authorities regarding your FAKE SERVICE DOG. As stated earlier, it is a crime punishable under California’s Penal code that could earn you jail time and a fine. It would be my privilege to make sure you are busted for this crime!

Leave your dog at home! You are a fake! Your dog is a fraud! Allow those of us that actually train the dogs to assist others to continue to produce service animals that actually assist someone in need, unlike yourself! You are not a dog trainer! You are damn sure not capable of training a service dog!

Signed,

A. Friend (of LT)

It appears Manson has also acquired another German Shepherd lately.  I think, if her Chihuahua is still in the land of the living, that puts her up to at least 5 personal dogs and that’s not counting whatever Wrinkles is currently hoarding.  They like to blame their current about to be homeless situation on haters.  I’m not sure haters have anything to do with their animal hoarding tendencies and that being an unattractive prospect for any potential landlord.  I also remember last year when Manson blamed haters for Bang Bang Becky not being able to keep Rez at the ranch because that would put them over their allowed number of dogs.  At the time it was beyond hilarious considering the amount of horses she was accumulating.  Anyhow, let’s set the HiCaliber drama aside for a moment…

This horse is one that was taken in by Premier Equine Rehab recently.  She was likely given to them for nothing or next to nothing given the fact she has bowed.  Premier Equine has only recently gotten their 501c3 but have been doing intakes at a fast clip with next to no follow-up on most of their horses including the ones they got from HiCaliber.  When I first saw this mare, she didn’t stand out much from all the other multiple intakes they do until I saw this a few days later…

I can’t say 100% if that is the same horse she is offering up as a broodmare and it doesn’t really matter if it is.  Rescues really shouldn’t be offering any horses up for breeding.  I’m sure some of the village idiots will be all up in arms over me calling out PER for this but this isn’t the first major red flag I’ve had with this rescue.  There has been some very sketchy interactions involving HiCaliber and don’t even get me started on Michael Gipson.  Actually do, but maybe another time.  I don’t want to be the rescue police, but I also don’t want to see things get so far out of hand like they have with HiCaliber.  Maybe PER can dial back the sketchiness and save everybody, including the animals, a lot of grief.  Time will tell.

Back to HiCaliber… Apparently fostering isn’t happening anymore.  That’s hardly surprising given the fact they are on the hook for that lawsuit they recently lost.  As you can see Amanduh is still deeply involved and Manson has no intention of stopping.  I think it’s more a case of not stopping until donations completely dry up and that may be why they are reluctant really say how many horses are left to adopt and who they are.  I see she’s asking for another $1500 for her vet bills and some farrier work.  Funny how all bills are $1500 lately. Oh wait, there was the one that was only asking for $1400 so we couldn’t say they were  all for that amount.  It’s almost like she’s on a payment schedule or something.  The funny part about the farrier ask is they get their farrier work done for free or deeply discounted these days or at least the rescue horses do.  Just sayin..

I’m sure everybody remembers the post about donating meals or gift cards for the unnamed person in the hospital.  We now know it was Mrs Talbot and she has unfortunately passed away.  While it’s not surprising to see Manson use somebody else’s tragedy for her own personal gain,  it is no less disgusting.  From what I am told by a very reliable source, she never actually did bring meals to the family during Mrs. Talbot’s illness and hospitalization.  Mrs. Talbot also never set foot on the HiCaliber property or had any involvement there. Manson made her announcement and begging for volunteers several days after Mrs. Talbot passed.  In the end, it was only Manson and her very rude dog that attended the service where not only the dog was distracting, but Manson felt the need to take pictures and cry way more than was appropriate.  At least the HiCaliber horses watered that day though.

It seems the village idiots have conveniently forgotten about the injured horses.  Nobody really asks how they are doing other than a few rogue ones and those queries are always ignored.  I wish I had more of an update but this is as close as it gets  Meatball and Rizzo are still in the barn or were when this post was made.  Maybe this is where some of the gift cards/meals went?

I know many people are getting extremely frustrated with how long this situation is dragging on.  It is beyond frustrating to watch Manson continue to beg for money and pull new cons.  I get that.  Now is not the time to drop the guard though.  I mentioned the gray Paso gelding that she was keeping without telling people, but what about the other horses she listed that same day?  What ever happened to them?  We know she’s recently killed a few more, did she help those other horses vanish too?  There is nothing more I would love than to never have to think or write about The Manson Family again, but as long as they are exploiting animals, I feel compelled.  She can start her own religion, start her own stinky panty empire or whatever con she wants to run, but leave animals out of it.  The best we can do for now is to stay vigilant and keep documenting the frauds.  The end is near, but now is not the time for complacency.

Read Full Post »