Analyse This - Opinions Please

MM - if I were to go on and tell you further details of what this owner has physically and verbally done to this girl, you would not only be speechless, you would be wanting to go over and beat the living daylights out of her.....because I do and I am not a violent person!

Blackmail, abuse is also involved here - and there is no "allegedly" here, the owner fully admitted to it over the telephone last night.....
 
Yes. Each and every time she called owner to ask her if she could call the vet.

Oh I have just remembered one other thing which may be of help to us. There was one time that the girl did not call the owner before calling vet - she went up to check on the horses at midnight one evening and said horse (who died) was colicking. Girl in panic called the vet. After the vet had been and stabilised the horse, girl called owner on her departure at 2am to let her know. Horse appeared to be back to normal the following morning.
 
This is either some sort of elaborate insurance scam, or extortion scam or similar.

Tia, you must keep us updated on this. It's fascinating........
 
The horse came from Keeneland I believe. Racehorse.

Yes this is where I am coming from also; lawyer should be able to glean more information than I have to hand.

I was at the owners farm about a week before this girl went to work there. The horses did not look well. I went nowhere near them and did not touch any of them but I could clearly see them in the field. One horse was seriously malnourished....or very ill!

This owner is a lunatic in my opinion.......
 
But what about the snotters? And alleged ulcers?

The horses have all been cribbing (sorry more info keeps coming into my head as you all come up with ideas.) and have eaten through a lot of the treated wooden fences.
 
Not sure how any reputable lawyer can sue the girl as:
1. there was no written contract
2. the girl kept the owner advised every inch of the way
3. the girl followed the advice of the owner's own vet

Has the girl actually received any form of communication from a lawyer yet outlining what it is she has done wrong, or is it possible that the owner is continuing this form of torture for some reason and is never going to actually take this to a court of law?
 
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Well according to my information (which is sketchy at this point), the vet is prepared to make a statement in favour of the owner.....she and the owner are friends and she makes a lot of money from this owner.

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See right there is one hell of a reason to be suspicious of what went on and of the vets diagnosis!
Were these valuable horses insured?..........
 
The horse wasn't insured. But it is possible that you could be right with your other theory.

The owner seems to be certainly not short of money, she has fenced all her fields with post and rail fencing, is in the process of building an indoor arena and a racetrack. She works in a pub in a city 2 hours drive away every night........
 
Symptoms sound very similar to a disease called caseous lymphadenitis in sheep. This is caused by the bacteria Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis . There are 2 biotypes. One infects sheep and the other infects cattle and horses. There isn’t a whole lot known about the bug but it may be a possible cause. With the formation of abscesses, I would think that a bacterial infection is the most probably cause. If I were you, I find out if a post mortum was done, find out if the carcass is still available to test and get some tests done. There are commercially available tests for this bacteria but I am not sure about the details and if they only test for biotype one. It would be very easy to find out though. If the carcass is no longer available, the other horses in the yard, if they were infected with the bug, would be able to be tested for antibodies. That would tell you if they had it.

There are any number of bacterial infections that would present similar symptoms but I think from reading what you wrote, this would be a possibility.

Good luck with it. PM me if you want any further information. Like I said, its impossible to say, with out testing for it. its just an idea.
 
What forage were they on (if any?)

Have the others picked up now or are they still in poor condiditon?
I dont believe the ulcers thing, no way you could tell through blood test alone though he may have picked up something bacterial possibly linked to ulcers though this is rather a jump to make seeing as it isnt really even proven that bacteria cause equine ulcers!
 
According to the telephone call last night, the owner said that she would be contacting her lawyer in the morning and will be going after the girl for every penny she owns.

She also made it quite clear when I spoke to her that she is going to make it her life's work to make sure this girl never works again. She has threatened to call the police, RSPCA, Children's society and have all of these bodies take action against her.

The girl was not only left in charge of almost a million dollars worth of horseflesh, she was also left in charge of a 12 year old child, 5 dogs and 5 cats.

After the woman returned (at 1am in the middle of the night unexpectedly) she went to the girls bedroom, dragged her out of bed, screaming and shouting, and made her go down to the cellar (which had flooded) and clear everything out of it. Owner keeps her horses feed in cellar, hay in garage.....all about 300ft from HUGE horse barn. No more than 4 bales of hay are allowed to be in horse barn and no feed ever apart from in horses stables.

All of this was admitted by owner over the telephone last night.

The girl has not been paid since beginning of March, was banned from leaving the farm for the week before owner returned and girl was supposed to finish on Monday....however owner has told her she will not be leaving until she has made amends. Unpaid until amount due has been covered.
 
The trouble with over here is there are so many conditions that I am not overly familiar with. We have so many diseases and as these horses have travelled thousands of miles on a regular basis, it really could be anything.
 
Feed - top notch feedstuffs. Kept in cellar which flooded and ruined a number of unopened feed bags. The only feed that was fed was in black plastic bins.
 
Tia, is this the woman who you used to deliver hay to who was going away leaving the child alone that you posted about a while ago? Didn't you find someone to sit with the child? Is that someone the 18 year old girl who now finds herself embroiled in all this mess? Or am I barking completely up the wrong tree?

What a nightmare for the girl. Can't understand the point in suing such a young girl for "every penny she owns" as presumably the girl doesn't actually have much money to her name anyway.

What a sorry state of affairs it all is. The vet is clearly only siding with the owner in an attempt to cover up their own short comings over this. Does the girl have copies of invoices from the vet/prescription packaging etc that may have dates on or at least prove she had gotten a vet involved from the offset.

Her phone records would show she had been in touch with the owner. I do hope she has a concise journal of the events. Sounds like she needs an independent vet to analyse samples of the blood that was taken from the horses and review the case notes.

Thank God she has you fighting her corner. I can't begin to imagine how traumatised she is right now.
 
Hmm. I would visit your lawyer and slap some form of legal order on the owner for what she has done to the girl with you as a witness. That should shut them up.
 
Yes this girl is the same girl. I delivered hay to her back in December and on meeting owner, I disliked her intensely and when she asked for me to go back and deliver again I told her I was sold out. She called me a couple of weeks ago pleading with me to sell her some more hay as her horses wouldn't eat the other hay she had, and it was then that she told me about the situation. I told her I had no more selling hay and passed her onto another hay merchant.

Girl has no money - only assets she has are her horses which are boarded here at my farm.

Patches; she is an absolute gibbering wreck. I cannot stress how much strain this girl is under. She was supposed to go back this morning at 5am to do her stable duties for this woman; that was when I phoned our lawyers and then later spoke to the owner who confirmed everything the girl had told me. I told the owner that the girl would not be back....end of story. Owner went mental!!

Girl was in tears and said she had to go back because otherwise this woman was going to sue her and smear her name all over the area. Owner has lived here for 1 year, has countless suppliers who will no longer deal with her (me included). Girl has lived her all of her life, very nice polite girl, has been house-sitting for many many people who are willing to give her references, has decent horse knowledge.....right now she is totally bewildered and very very scared.

I banned her from going there this morning (which was why the owner was telephoned to give her notice that the horses would not be done) and told her she will never go there again. I have just heard from her about a minute ago and she did not go in this morning.
 
Well thankfully I am not the only witness. Bit close-knit around here and any "bad" person is known very quickly. There are a number of other qualified people who are also prepared to make an Affidavit on behalf of girl. As far as I am aware the owner only has the vet on her side.

Our lawyers are sending out a registered letter to owner this afternoon.
 
I thought it must be the same people. I have a long memory don't I?
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I don't personally see that the girl has done anything wrong and I would strongly suspect this woman is only "shouting" out in order to attempt to relieve herself of any responsibility over the whole sorry saga.

Quick trip the lawyer this afternoon will hopefully put this young girl's mind at rest over the legalities of the matter.

I wouldn't worry too much about her reputation. It's clear even to me so many thousand miles away, that the problem does not lie with the young girl's care, but with the owner who saw fit to leave an 18 year old in charge of a yard of under cared for horses, child, house and household pets.

I assume by all of the accusations that the woman is not insured for liability?
 
Occasionally a post on here has me in tears .... and your account of this poor girl and what she is going through is one of them. Thank Heavens she has you to fight in her corner. From what I am reading, I think you have the bit between your teeth on her behalf. I do hope you will keep us up to date as things progress?
 
The poor girl!
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To be honest she should sue the owners for distress and for backpayment of salery.

I don't think it'll stand up in court to be honest. No formal agreement and the fact that the owner returned to check on the horses and was satisifed with what she saw.

This just seems like outright bullying.
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Good luck at the lawyers, the girl is lucky to have you looking our for her.
 
After much persuasion and after calling owner to tell her girl won't be in ever again, she agreed never to go back. Owners intention was clearly to have her work there indefinitely unpaid.
 
The accusation that owner is throwing at girl, and according to owner the vet is willing to stand up and confirm, is that girl starved the horses. Girl says that she fed everything according to instructions, although she said that once she ran out of our hay months ago the horses were not eating the other hay owner had in garage. So in essence perhaps the horses were starving themselves. I'm just not sure where girl stands legally, as it could be argued that the horses were starved??
 
MM; I felt just like you last night when this all finally came out. That is why we telephoned our lawyer last night and also owner. As far as I can see the owner is in breach of a number of Laws here......all potentially far more damaging than 1 little girl starving a horse??
 
Was the owner returning home every night so was in a position to check the welfare of the horses herself. Or was she away for the whole of this time????
 
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This just seems like outright bullying.

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Absolutely! THIS is exactly what I class as bullying. The owner has always been quite civil to me, albeit she has always started off her conversations ranting and raving; however she has never spoken to me in the vicious manner she has spoken to the girl.....BUT she has admitted everything.
 
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