Avis A Townsend

Topsy and Sara were two Haflingers that needed a home after their owner died suddenly.  I agreed to take them in, and all was going okay until the fire.  Then all hell broke loose.

The garage housed the electrical connection to the barn, so when it burned, there was no electricity in the barn or to the fence.  Topsy and Sara found out they could run through the fence and get out.  One day, seven horses were running down the middle of the road and I was frantically trying to catch them.

The final straw came the day "the girls" attacked Itty Bitty.  They got him cornered by the fence and were kicking him horribly.  He was wrapped in wire from the fence and couldn't move.  I was livid.  When I got him away from them, I put all horses in and came inside, crying.  I was at the end of my rope.

I contacted the horse rescue member list and begged someone to take them "before I killed them." I said in a fit of anger.  Sue from Horsefeathers Rescue near Syracuse called me six times, begging me to let her have them, saying she was experienced with haflingers.

 Finally I relented and had Laurie Masters, a local horse hauler, come and take them away.  By the time she got here, close to midnight, I had changed my mind but was too embarrassed to say anything.  She loaded them in the trailer and I could hear Sara calling out to me as they drove down the road.  I sobbed for days, and it only got worse.

 After Laurie dropped them off, she called me, saying there was something about the place she didn't like.  My stomach churned, worried.  Sue called a day or so later and said she sold Sara.  When I told her Sara could not be sold, she then said she would breed both mares to her morgan stallion.  Why would someone in a rescue breed unregistered horses?

 Shortly after that, an ad was seen that Horsefeathers was selling many horses at auction, including six haflingers.  When confronted, Sue pulled the horses from the auction, denying she was a dealer.

Soon we found out that Horsefeathers wasn't what it seemed.  The owners sent boarders' horses to auction, took in PMU foals and sold them at auction, and we knew Topsy and Sara were in danger.

The former owners decided to take them back, and when they went there, Sue said Sara had died.  Topsy was in the back pasture, covered with burrs.  The owners were devastated.  To make a long story short, it took months for them to get a firm price from Richard, the other owner, as he kept changing the amount.  Finally they paid, and had to pay Richard to deliver her because he did not let unknown haulers on his property.

The owners are furious with me for letting their girls go, and I will never forgive myself for it either.  I only hope that Sara was actually sold and they lied to cover their tracks.  I also hope that Topsy had a healthy baby, because the owners are no longer in touch with me, and I can't blame them.

Be very careful in trusting your horses to anyone who claims to have their best interests at heart.  If you can't get references, don't believe anyone.  In the 1800s these horse traders would be shot or hung, but today the law looks the other way.

Topsy gazing over her stall door

Sara eating in her stall...

Sara, eating outside

When Sara and Topsy first arrived, they were so in tandem with each other, when they were out in the pasture they were like clones.  They trotted together, cantered together, walked together, and it's like they were joined by invisible driving lines.  Maybe they were.  Maybe their late owner was driving them around the pasture.

At first I felt guilty about taking these girls in as a rescue.  Many people I know rescue horses that have been beaten and starved, and they nurse them back to health and are heroes.  I took in two happy and healthy horses (one a little too healthy), and except for feet that needed trimming, nothing was wrong.  But then after talking with the family via e-mail, I realized that these horses, if sold to a farmer for work, would have been devastated.  They were used to a happy, loving life and if they were made to work in the fields, probably would not have lived a long time.  And they would have been miserable. 

Yet these girls needed to work, as they are a form of draft horse and can't be idle. If I had found them jobs, they might not have escaped or injured Itty Bitty.