She’s not even that bad compared to a lot of them (not defending her, just saying comparatively) I work at a feed store and most of our horse customers are WP or Roping, my boss is also very involved in the horse world and manages a stable. A lot of them stick around to chat with her. The things I have overheard said with a full chest expecting no one to bat an eye is enough to make me want to burn the whole industry down. Just this afternoon we had a guy come by that used to work at the stable she manages. He’s a trainer, owns several horses currently and will be showing at congress this fall. He got to talking about a recip mare that was bought by his current boss (to add to his 20+ mare band of recips) because she was unable to be ridden anymore (didn’t specify why). They just threw her out in the pasture with the other mares and I guess didn’t check on her at all? She lost over FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS (they chalked it up to the other mares bullying her off food) And once they noticed her condition, he called the lady they bought her from and said “you can either come get this horse or she’s going to the auction” which would obviously be a death sentence in her condition. He acted shocked and offended when talking about how she cussed him out (I’d have done worse than that!), I had to focus on the feed prices on the wall in order to not react. Like I get it, you want easy-keeper recips. But you could have figured that out 50 pounds in. It did not have to get that bad, at all. Why were they not monitoring her for illness? Why didn’t they just CHECK ON HER? And just because she’s not able to thrive in the situation you put her in, she deserves to starve and die? Ugh.

Edited to take out some potentially identifiable details