I don't really know if this is a rant or a rave but I'm gonna stick it here. Stay tuned for the most complicated, convoluted story ever, which I may delete later.
When I was getting ready to go to vet school I free leased my mare to someone I thought was a friend. As in, I took her in, housed, fed, and clothed her when she was pregnant and got kicked out by her scumbag bf, took her to all medical appointments, etc. Two years later when I am in need and she is in a more stable place she happily offers to free lease my mare while I am in vet school so I can keep her. No questions asked. I visited my mare a few times and then left the country. For the first year or so I get lots of pictures and then after that a lot less. I was told she was being kept at a farm for free board because the owner of the farm was wanting a foal out of here. I said fine. I was going to breed her later anyway and her chances are better if she has a foal then first rather than is a maiden when the time is going to be right for me. Several months later I hear she aborted a mid-term foal. And was rebred. By the time she's due with this foal I am getting ready to move back to the US. My last 3 months out of the country I was told she was due in a month. Then for two months I was told ALMOST EVERY DAY that she was due any day. When I finally get back to the US I'm getting radio silence. I contacted her through all modes of communication to hear how foaling went, see pics, arrange a time to visit when I'm in the area, and arrange her eventual return to me in a few months. Nothing. Finally I send her a big long message saying look, I know something's up, just tell me what happened please I just need to know where she is and what's up and I will figure out how to make it ok. She says "text me". So I do. She tells me my mare went to foal out in June, had complications. That my friend was told by the barn owner she would never be able to breed again and so they euthanized her immediately. Without contacting me. I was of course immediately suspicious because why lie for months about it? Why have I not seen pictures of her in like a year anyway? Why can I find no trace of the supposed stud online? Why not contact THE VET STUDENT who OWNS THE MARE to decide if she is ACTUALLY "ruined" and should be euthanized.
I honestly was overwhelmed and had no clue what to do with that info. I was suspicious and upset but had no clue what to do or where to start. I attempted to contact the place she had been boarding most recently and got a disconnected phone number, my email returned, and the address to a point out in a field of grass in VA. My "friend" would not reply to any of my messages. She was not willing to give me the info for the vet who euthanized her. I reached out to all the rescue/horse auction/OTTB networkers I have access to via Facebook and any other means possible, just hoping that if I put enough feelers out maybe I would find her. I have heard nothing from anyone.
Last night I randomly got a bug up my ass about it and started googling everything I could think to google relating to her name, breed, stats, etc. that might let me find her if anyone had ever put any info about her on the internet.
I found her. In a "SOLD" listing from a reputable sport horse farm near the area she was last living. Someone I had never heard of. I sent her an email with my contact info and just asked her to contact me, gave her most of the story, and just told her I just want to know that she is happy and loved and ok. I included pictures and references to people who knew I have owned the mare since she came off track.
AND SHE CALLED ME BACK and left a message. She sold her to a home just a few months ago that she knows well and she is loved and happy and doing so well. She bought her out of what she said was a bad situation. We have yet to actually talk but she seemed happy to talk to me and curious to hear my side of things. The best I can gather she probably did not get her directly from my "friend" but I am hoping to piece together how she went from that person to where she is now. I just am so happy to be able to know she is ok and to let her current owner know that when she is ready to stop owner her, no matter the circumstances, I will buy her back in an instant.
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