CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! You ARE a horse dealer!

http://forums.prospero.com/alexbrown/messages?msg=44786.1 As much as I'm trying to broaden my horizons, and write about subjects other than ABR (they're coming up soon, I promise) this is one I really felt I needed to address. I've been quietly following the many fund raising threads as well as the Rescue threads since the beginning of the year, and have found them to be very informative. When I came upon this one, I knew it needed to be brought up at the Ranch. I love some of the Antis-, while talking down the Kill Buyers, and the Dirty no good guys who run the Auction houses, they seem to have no problem doing a healthy business with them. We've already discussed the Broker or Feed lot business, and the money to be made. Here's something you may not know- there are Rescues that actually have horses held for them by those they call greedy murderers! Are these horses that are sick, lame, hard to place or older? No, sir! These are pretty nice horses with potential-kind of like the ones those nasty horse dealers would bid on. Kind of like the ones you or I would bid on if we saw them go through the ring. Check out any Camelot thread on ABR, and you'll find that most of the nicer prospects have already been "bailed", and often by Rescues.( An interesting aside, also note that more and more fundraising is being done on Facebook! These folks are not stupid. They see a sinking ship in ABR, and while they're not above using the loyal subjects as a resource to get the list of available horses, they go elsewhere for their donation base. Ahhh facebook, a whole new pool of suckers...ooops-supporters.) What really interests me is that when a private buyer comes along with an interest in one of these horses "saved" by the Rescue, the Rescue does not step back. They simply offer the person the chance to adopt through them, at the inflated price, of course. Which brings me to the above mentioned thread. Our friend Ponytales feels it is no longer the duty of Rescues to take in the horses that are neglected and abused. It now appears to be their mission to go to the kill pens and broker lots and pick up some nice ones, and turn them around and re-sell them....oops, again-adopt them out. Now, why, oh why does this sound to me like what dealers do? Our friend Ponytales assures us that the Rescues are indeed doing the noble thing by doing the worming, and providing the medical care and training a new horse needs. AHA! Maybe therein lies the problem. Back in the day, when a new horse was purchased, this was all the responsibility of the new owner. There were reasons for this. The most important was to allow one to understand what type of financial responsibility owning a horse is. Now, when a horse is "bailed" out for someone (unless the Rescue gets to them first, which is happening on a more regular basis), and all costs are paid, there isn't any real idea of the ongoing cost involved until the owner has had the horse for awhile. Once they realize they can't afford the expenses, it's often too late. If they were paying all along for the care and feeding, maybe it wouldn't be such a shock when the bills come in. The second, and equally important reason is that owning a horse is very much a "hands on" experience. For most horses and owners the time to bond is in those first weeks . When the Rescue is doing all of the care the owner should be providing, the bonding experience is lost. I can tell you first hand, nothing builds up the confidence of a new horse owner than being able to handle your horse for the farrier, hold him for his shots, clean out his hooves, and worm him. These are the most stressful situations, and if you get through them just fine, the day to day stuff generally goes off without a hitch. A horse that has been handled through these new experiences by his owner is much more likely to be at ease with that person, and will trust them all the more when other new experiences are introduced. And really, these things aren't all that big of a deal. If you can't do them, you shouldn't have a horse. For a Rescue to infer that providing these things are above and beyond is just a little silly, in my opinion. And finally, if people attended auctions and sales, there's a good chance that some of these horses wouldn't even BE in the pens. But thanks to the warnings of our Anti friends, it is looked down upon to attend a sale-unless of course you are a Rescue! It really bugs me that while the Antis campaign against people buying horses at auctions, they have no problem picking up prospects themselves and re-selling them. They talk about how awful and greedy the Kill Buyers and Dealers are for turning a profit on these poor animals, but now want to be considered as the "place to go" for a good horse. They've practically written an advertisement for why they're better than the very feedlots and kill pens they buy from. Maybe that will help weed out the competition? Maybe it's just me, but I fail to see the difference between these "Rescues" and the Dealers they look down upon. They're both picking out the best prospects. The Dealers may have the edge in the training area, and definitely in the honesty area, but otherwise the game is the same. Oh-I guess the Rescue cause is purer-maybe that makes all the difference!

By RH2