Joanna Vardon

there were more than that one ! they are left of a small scrap of land every winter for the last 6-7 years at least, that i can remember, there are around 7-8 on one small paddock and 3-4 on another half the size. there is never anything on the fields ! totally bare, and the horses, youngstock i think from the look of it, are all as poor :( they have been giving them hay some days, but its gone within around 1 hr, so there isnt that much of it. thank goodness someone has intervened, but i'm sure it will be as bad again next winter. it says that the horses have been moved back to her own ground, but there are a few left, so i'm not sure what will happen to them???

at least the RSPCA have got involved now so hopefully they will now get the help they deserve. it was well known in the area as an issue but with such a person owning the horses, i think no one wanted to be the person to report them :( or at least they thought the RSPCA wouldnt do anything.

i've no doubt i will poss be shot down for voicing my opinion, but i'm just so glad the horses are now getting the attention they need
 
Bennions Field said:
there were more than that one ! they are left of a small scrap of land every winter for the last 6-7 years at least, that i can remember, there are around 7-8 on one small paddock and 3-4 on another half the size. there is never anything on the fields ! totally bare, and the horses, youngstock i think from the look of it, are all as poor :( they have been giving them hay some days, but its gone within around 1 hr, so there isnt that much of it. thank goodness someone has intervened, but i'm sure it will be as bad again next winter. it says that the horses have been moved back to her own ground, but there are a few left, so i'm not sure what will happen to them???

at least the RSPCA have got involved now so hopefully they will now get the help they deserve. it was well known in the area as an issue but with such a person owning the horses, i think no one wanted to be the person to report them :( or at least they thought the RSPCA wouldnt do anything.

i've no doubt i will poss be shot down for voicing my opinion, but i'm just so glad the horses are now getting the attention they need
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Sadly it is often the case that those people who are very well meaning and start up rescues, end up taking on a great deal more animals than they can care/ pay for. They seldom get financial help and certainly at 76 years old this poor lady would be struggling to look after a lot of horses. Is there no one else to work with her and help? And taking on more horses than your land can cope with is always risky. All horse owners know what a problem it can be to get someone else to look after only one or two horses when holidays or sickness mean that you can't do the jobs yourself. If you care for animals it would of course be hard to turn away another needy case and surely orphaned foals, and mares who have lost their foals would be so hard to turn away; maybe it's time that the Foal Bank looks to start up smaller regional centres carrying smaller numbers.
I do hope that the RSPCA involvement will mean help is on the way.
 
I agree with you. When I knew Mrs Varden some 25 years ago, you couldn't hope to find a more sincere, genuine and absolutely dedicated person. She would take calls 24/7 in order to help distressed owners.
At 76 years of age, and with a sick husband, she must be utterly exhausted. There is no excuse for animal cruelty, but I really do not believe this will prove to be the case.
PLEASE, PLEASE, if you live within a reasonable distance of this lady, can you just call in and see what YOU can do to help at such a very difficult time. We all need help at some time in our lives, but we maybe don't always recognise it? Isn't it better to help Mrs Varden and her horses get through this, rather than sit back in judgement and do nothing?
 
You won't be shot down by me Bennions Field. I don't pass that way often but there have been horses in poor condition on that patch for many years.
I do agree with Superhot that Joanna Vardon is totally dedicated, and yes she has obviously had problems recently. However as I understand it help has been offered in the past but she has turned it down.
 
I went to an open day there many years ago and sadly it wasnt much different there then . What a good idea to open regional foaling banks perhaps its something the forum could debate and look in to . We all need help at times .
 
Superhot said:
I agree with you. When I knew Mrs Varden some 25 years ago, you couldn't hope to find a more sincere, genuine and absolutely dedicated person. She would take calls 24/7 in order to help distressed owners.
At 76 years of age, and with a sick husband, she must be utterly exhausted. There is no excuse for animal cruelty, but I really do not believe this will prove to be the case.
PLEASE, PLEASE, if you live within a reasonable distance of this lady, can you just call in and see what YOU can do to help at such a very difficult time. We all need help at some time in our lives, but we maybe don't always recognise it? Isn't it better to help Mrs Varden and her horses get through this, rather than sit back in judgement and do nothing?
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Superhot, sadly i live around 20-25 miles away, and i have 7 of my own to look after already ! i know how hard it is to keep on top of things as i also work full time as well as look after mine, ranging from youngstock to a 29 year old.. i'm just pleased that something has finally started to be done about things, and that its finally out in the open about how poor these horses are. they really are as bad as the photo in H&H :(
 
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MurphysMinder said:
You won't be shot down by me Bennions Field. I don't pass that way often but there have been horses in poor condition on that patch for many years.
I do agree with Superhot that Joanna Vardon is totally dedicated, and yes she has obviously had problems recently. However as I understand it help has been offered in the past but she has turned it down.
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Me neither.

Neighbours and friends have offered help but had it thrown back at them, she has been her own worst enemy and it's been going on for years. Contrary to her own advice to others, she has continued to breed without moving any on to the detriment of her stock . I could say a lot more but won't, enough to say I'm glad her card is marked now, it's gone on far too long already.
 
Maesfen said:
Me neither.

Neighbours and friends have offered help but had it thrown back at them, she has been her own worst enemy and it's been going on for years. Contrary to her own advice to others, she has continued to breed without moving any on to the detriment of her stock . I could say a lot more but won't, enough to say I'm glad her card is marked now, it's gone on far too long already.
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So you wouldn't think of helping now when clearly things have become too much for her? I wonder how often other posters here have said No to help because they didn't want to appear that they couldn't cope. Maybe the time is ripe now for all who say I TOLD YOU SO or GLAD SHE HAS HER CARD MARKED to see what they can do for the sake of the horses that they cared so much about that they called the RSPCA years ago - since they say its been going on for years?
 
She's helped a hell of a lot of people for a lot of years, obviously she's been struggling with things and is getting older and that's no excuse for neglecting animals but I hope people remember the good she's done.

All very sad, but I feel she deserves to be cut some slack for all she's given over the years. She's not a deliberately cruel person IMHO
 
You've missed the point entirely, sorry. The offers of help have been repeatedly made for several years and only recently I heard of how neighbours had had their ears bitten off when they offered extra fodder in bad weather. You can only do and say so much for someone who is too high handed to accept help in any shape or form and refuses to have you on the bank at all.
There are umpteen very decently bred horses there, not just on that field by the roundabout and they will all be totally traumatised when it eventually comes to moving them as they have had very little handling over the years and what they have had hasn't been the best.

If it takes some form of authority to get through to her then sobeit but please don't say she has been left to do it herself, the offers of help have always been there, she was just too pig headed to take it.
 
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HappyHooves said:
So you wouldn't think of helping now when clearly things have become too much for her? I wonder how often other posters here have said No to help because they didn't want to appear that they couldn't cope. Maybe the time is ripe now for all who say I TOLD YOU SO or GLAD SHE HAS HER CARD MARKED to see what they can do for the sake of the horses that they cared so much about that they called the RSPCA years ago - since they say its been going on for years?
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As Maesfen says you are missing the point, help has been offered and turned down. I also believe RSPCA were contacted a few years ago, but as the horses were being fed, though presumably not enough, they didn't take any action.
Also I am pretty sure these aren't rescue horses, or even mares and foals helped through the foaling bank, but horses of her own.
 
OK, I'm sorry I hadn't realised so many of you had tried to help. I still stand by my original thoughts, that this was certainly a lady who has helped so many selflessly for many years. If offers of help have been refused, then more forceful representation to the RSPCA, ILPH etc should have been made. A call to the Racing fraturnity might have helped. After all, it is the animals you want to help and you are concerned for. There are always ways round these problems...

Perhaps Mrs Varden is suffering from a form of dementia? It is something that could happen to any of us at any time. I would certainly hope my friends care enough about me and my animals, to take the appropriate action if I started to fail to look after them properly. I might make a fuss and be hugely hurt, but I can truthfully say (being of sound mind at the moment) that is what I would want them to do. None of us who have loved our animals would willingly cause them to suffer, surely???
 
The horses belong to her, they are not rescues, she has bred them knowing that there are 30 or more already in the fields that haven't had a tap done to them for years, probably since they were foals so it's not as if she doesn't have a clue what she's doing by breeding even more. Some will be as old as 8 at least that I know of.

I agree, she has been absolutely brilliant but she can't see or accept that she needs help. Some time ago they found umpteen unpaid in cheques in a pile with no contact details so they couldn't be returned for updating; a huge amount (talking of several thousand) of money lost for the fund; it was just shrugged it off as one of those things. Sorry, decent people donated that money and she's thrown it away by being unhelpable.
 
Thank goodness the RSPCA has stepped in. She doesnt sound as if she's got dementia as she has had the wit to state that its because of her husbands illness. It beggers belief as to why people will keep on breeding horses when the have too many already.
This happened in an Arabian stud many years ago now the owner couldnt accept that the prices had dropped from their hey day and that her bloodlines were unfashionable. She kept breeding and inbreeding too. Eventually BHS Welfare stepped in rescued the horses and she went into a retirement home. All very sad.
Its time ALL studs should be licened with an annual inspection made.
I also hope H&H do a follow up article about this and interview those whoes help was turned down. The whole thing is a disgraceful set of events.
 
i feel sorry for the horses left and not looked after and handled, and yes it is wrong to keep on breeding especially in the current climate, but i remember one early morning when a foal was struggling to survive after its birth and the inexperienced owner was desperate, said what can i do , i said ring miss vardon, they did, and she did all in her power to help them, sadly the foal did not survive, but miss vardon was there and gave generously all the help she could with no reward.

there comes a time when we will become older, some will deal with it better than others, its important to think ahead and make provision for our animals, but a major illness of miss vardon's husband on top of all she does give and growing older is probably too much for anyone to cope with.

her strong personality and willingness to support others, is now playing against her, she needs to accept that it is time stop breeding and sit back, or indeed start to look after herself a bit more.
 
Mrs Varden was so completely bowled over by the first cheque she ever received, suggesting she turn her good work into a charity. She was extremely humbled and couldn't believe that anyone regarded her work as worthy enough. The help she gave people was done out of a genuine love of horses and was freely given. I think that she ultimately wanted to build a viewing gallery, so that she could offer training to others to continue her work. I moved away from the area some 25 years ago, so do not know if she managed to achieve this?
Surely, keeping unbanked cheques for so long that they are out of date, is NOT the action of someone in their right mind?
 
I wish I could be around when you lot hit 76 and see what you say then.This lady has over the years saved many a foal.
OK she is a strong willed person, and you need to be to successed in what you do, she has turned away help, but how was it offered and her hubby not very well and you so called animal lovers have piled in, saying we said this and that and taking a wonderful womans reputaion away.Shame on you and the bl***dy RSCPA.
 
Echo Bravo said:
I wish I could be around when you lot hit 76 and see what you say then.This lady has over the years saved many a foal.
OK she is a strong willed person, and you need to be to successed in what you do, she has turned away help, but how was it offered and her hubby not very well and you so called animal lovers have piled in, saying we said this and that and taking a wonderful womans reputaion away.Shame on you and the bl***dy RSCPA.
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Exactly my point.
 
Echo Bravo said:
I wish I could be around when you lot hit 76 and see what you say then.This lady has over the years saved many a foal.
OK she is a strong willed person, and you need to be to successed in what you do, she has turned away help, but how was it offered and her hubby not very well and you so called animal lovers have piled in, saying we said this and that and taking a wonderful womans reputaion away.Shame on you and the bl***dy RSCPA.
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What, shame on the RSPCA for stepping in and ensuring the welfare of her horses AND working with her to make improvements?!! Seriously?!!! :rolleyes:

Now who is the 'so called animal lover'. I suppose you would have wanted things to carry on the way they were?
 
Horseforever1, ask the many people she has helped over the years and there are some very happy people including the royals. It states in the H/H that these horses were in some else care are you saying she is a liar.
 
I'm not saying she HASNT help people and foals and mares over the years , she HAS! That , however, does not excuse the state of the horse pictured in H&H news. Its a walking skeleton. THANK GOODNESS THE RSPCA HAVE STEPPED IN. The woman is obviously incapable of looking after her animals NOW. Maybe deliberately maybe not, whatever the reason her horses are suffering.
 
And the RSPCA step in again to save what!! 14 dumped dead colt foals in Wales.Think not thats to much like hassle and where would the money come from, going up against the travellers. So they hit easy target like Joanna Vardon and if it wasn't for her many a foal would have died or is it because many are thoughbreds that she saved you dislike.
 
Echo Bravo said:
And the RSPCA step in again to save what!! 14 dumped dead colt foals in Wales.Think not thats to much like hassle and where would the money come from, going up against the travellers. So they hit easy target like Joanna Vardon and if it wasn't for her many a foal would have died or is it because many are thoughbreds that she saved you dislike.[/QUOTE

That's ok then - we should all just leave them to starve!! :rolleyes:

And by the way, the RSPCA have and do regularly prosecute travellers.
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Moomin1 said:
Echo Bravo said:
And the RSPCA step in again to save what!! 14 dumped dead colt foals in Wales.Think not thats to much like hassle and where would the money come from, going up against the travellers. So they hit easy target like Joanna Vardon and if it wasn't for her many a foal would have died or is it because many are thoughbreds that she saved you dislike.[/QUOTE

That's ok then - we should all just leave them to starve!! :rolleyes:

And by the way, the RSPCA have and do regularly prosecute travellers.
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Unfortunately the RSPCA are turning a blind eye here at the moment.........Appleby. Just may be there are too many of them, they would rather eat an ice cream instead.
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Echo Bravo said:
Yes tell me about it:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:Shame on you all for dragging a good lady's name into the mud.
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Why, are you a member of the travelling community who has been prosecuted? You make it sound that way!

As for dragging a good lady's name into the mud - the situation IS AS IT IS, there is no dressing it up or covering it up - she has allowed things to get that bad. If you find that acceptable then I fear for your horses too.
 
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