Bashing the Good...

Recently, I've been accused of bashing Jim Gath of Tierra Madre. I'll be the first to admit, I don't feel good about the amount of horses he has on less than 3 acres. I think that he has hoarding tendencies. I think the horses pay for his need to have more. Those are my opinions. The bulk of what I write on Tierra Madre comes directly from what Jim himself writes in his daily blog, and on the discussion site he calls home. I don't hate Jim. I don't even know him. But I don't agree with what he's doing. I think I try to be fair, so I decided to take a look at Jim's blogs, and see if maybe my feelings about the whole situation in general have been coloring what I wrote. I went back through a week of blogs. I wasn't surprised by most of what I read. And to put it bluntly, a little pissed off by some of it, too. Read on- APRIL 11- Bentley- mild Colic incident. APRIL 12, Heighten- Gastro issues (treated with Gastro guard, mention of cost of $51+ per tube). APRIL 13-Heighten-vet out, swelling down, some filling on outside of hock, vet drained. Mention on possibility of moving vaccine date back-will depend on picnic turnout, which is not looking good. APRIL 14-Cadence- colic incident-vet out and tubed. Bentley- mild colic (described as "spell". Found out to be weed issues, which will be cut down. APRIL 15- Bentley-had a piece of lip removed by vet. (Jim claims he fell down while sleeping which is very common in horses. Note: in my 20+ years of equine ownership, I have never seen this happen. I plan to look into this, I've just never heard of it being a commonplace event). Upon walking Bentley off from vet, it is noticed he is off. Rather than pay the vet to check his hoof, Jim will do it himself. Jim notes Bentley had an abscess in his hoof a few weeks ago. Also noted he is too lazy to clean his hooves with bleach water. Jim's words-more on that later. APRIL 17- Bentley has cellulitis-4th time in 5 years. also has sore upper lip, and hoof abscess. Jim mentions that he may have to wrap hoof with Elasticon at $10 a roll. Mentions that when Bentley's "human" dropped him off MANY years ago, there was mention of hoof issues. Heighten still convalescing, but no limp. 1 volunteer on vacation, 1 did not show up. On ABR Jim doesn't go into as much daily detail. On the 13th, he mentions the colic, the weeds, and states they will get rid of the weeds in their spare time. On the 14th, fortunately, the weeds have been removed. On the 16th, he explains that Bentley's cellulitis was caused by the abscess in his hoof. Tells us it is time and energy consuming as well as expensive to treat. States Bentley, Heighten, and Big Charlie all have had cellulitis. States he deals with it with "maddening regularity". Granted, I've left out Jim's method of telling the story, but here is a bare bones week at Tierra Madre. Am I surprised at the amount of health issues? Not really. We've discussed them before. Although, looking at a snapshot of just a week, doesn't anyone find this excessive? And now to what really pissed me off. Bentley. One of Jim's "favorites". By Jim's own admission, the Abscess in that horse's hoof came about as the result of nothing more that sheer laziness. Jim has always known this horse has hoof issues. I am so weary of hearing the "original" owner blamed for anything that happens 3, 5, 10, 15, years later. NEWS FLASH- once you take the horse, IT'S YOURS!!!!! Your responsibility. Do you think Jim ever wonders WHY Bentley's "human" mentioned this problem? Possibly to give Jim a heads up so the horse could have a chance at having the issue managed? Now, if you look past Jim's story telling talents-and he has them, what you'll find is that this poor horse had an abscess in his hoof recently. KNOWING that, Jim's decision for this horse he loves, and can provide the best care for was to do-nothing. Not because he was tired. Not because he was over worked, or under staffed. But, according to Jim Gath himself, in his own words, because he was too lazy!!!! And he's got the cajones to complain about the cost his laziness entails! As my son would say-are you friggin' serious right now??!! But, there's more. If we believe Jim, and I know I do, the abscess caused the cellulitis. So, this one act of pure laziness by the most caring rescuer in Arizona has caused this horse quite a bit of pain. For those of you who support Jim, and rave about the wonderful care he gives each and every horse, what's your opinion on this one? Or were you so enthralled in Jim's way of telling the story that the truth got lost in the words? When Jim vows to do the "bleachy water thing", he's really saying that he has to take care of this horse's hoof issues properly, or pay the vet bill. If he doesn't do the "bleachy water thing", he will cause the poor horse more pain. "Bleachy water thing" sounds a little more innocuous than lack of proper care, though. Maybe you just don't understand how painful this is to a horse. Maybe Jim would rather you didn't. Jim, of course has excuses. Bentley insists on standing on the ground where there is urine. It's muddy. Maybe, Jim, but daily hoof cleaning and disinfecting would go a long ways towards making sure that nothing gets in to start an infection. And since you know this is an issue, why aren't you on top of it? I don't know who pisses me off more, Jim, or the faithful who read this and don't understand the words right in front of their faces. If you read Jim long enough, and can read between the lines, it is clear that the horses aren't very well trained. ( In a few recent incidents where Jim has had to fetch loose horses, or lead an unwilling one, he likens it to fighting a marlin). A well trained horse will lead quietly. And yes, I've had horses get out, and have had to fetch them. Once the lead rope is on, they know to walk quietly. A well trained horse will stand, even for things he doesn't particularly like. Jim had an incident recently where his mini bit a child. The tales about that mini, while on the surface, are wildly entertaining, show a horse with absolutely no respect for any human. I own a 9 year old Miniature stud. He would never push me out of the way to get to his food, nor would he bite anyone. He is respectful in every way. I would also never leave a child unsupervised around him, as even little horses can injure you. Jim seems to think the bad behavior of this little horse of his is in some way cute, even calling him an "assassin" from time to time. I read untrained horse. It's clear that, contrary to what the faithful would have you think, the horses do not receive the best of care. Jim has told us that himself. I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Nothing I have said about Jim or Tierra Madre is unfounded gossip. It has all actually come from what Jim writes. I simply strip away the story telling, and look at the facts. They're not as entertaining as Jim would make them seem. Maybe Jim's true calling is as a fiction writer. But as a rescuer with too little land to house these horses, too little manpower and money to provide proper care, and the obvious inability to say no to more horses, I believe what I have said about Tierra Madre is true. Too bad Bentley can't write a daily blog.

Jim Gath's comment on how it was normal for horses who were sleeping to fall over got my interest up, and as promised, I did a little checking. Nowhere did I find any information stating it was normal equine behavior. I did find this, and given the circumstances poor Bentley finds himself in, it makes more sense.
http://askthevet.smartpak.com/equine/misc-topics/sleep-deprivation-in-horses/



BY RH2