SPRING FEVER FARM ALERT
This is the story of my 9 year old Friesian gelding, Zeke. In the interest of ensuring that the ENTIRE truth comes to light, I am going to begin my story at the beginning - when I first had Zeke's prepurchase examination done at his previous owner's farm. The reason I am beginning here will become apparent when you read Diana Beuchert's emails to me.
I will try to make this section as brief as possible. I bought Zeke in the beginning of the year 2000. I had three separate prepurchase exams performed before I bought him. When I had owned Zeke for a very short period of time, he came up lame. I was extremely upset and emailed his previous owner with my concerns. I also called my farrier to replace the shoes Zeke had thrown and my veterinarian to determine the cause of the lameness. The farrier replaced the shoes and the vet could not detect any lameness, nor any anomaly on the x-rays she performed. This happened a handful of times before it occurred to me that the only time I detected any lameness was after he had thrown a shoe.
After several months of enjoying Zeke's company and our trail rides together, I encountered three separate obstacles to owning him. I found myself in unfortunate financial circumstances and could no longer afford to keep him; I was injured and needed to undergo physical therapy; and, finally, I realized that I was not able to ride nearly as often as I had hoped I would and that was unfair to Zeke. I was not allowing him to realize his full potential as a dressage mount since I was simply using him as a trail horse. I made the painful decision that Zeke should be sold.
I sent Zeke to Spring Fever Farm in Mount Airy, MD (http://www.springfever.com) in October 2000 from Philadelphia, PA where I reside. I had had numerous conversations with Diana Beuchert before he left here during which she assured me that she would care for him as if he were one of her own horses since I would be, for the most part, an absentee owner living quite some distance from her farm. Zeke was being offered for sale at this time for $20,000 and was moving to her farm to further his dressage training (it is important to understand that he was already a well-trained horse and had, as most Friesians are, been schooled in dressage).
After he arrived at Diana's farm, she decided that she loved him and wanted to keep him, but could not afford him. I was overjoyed at the prospect of having her keep him and love him. I offered her what any Friesian enthusiast should consider an extraordinarily good deal (complete with a 2 1/2 year interest-free loan) because I was so happy that he would have such a wonderful home (my opinion has since changed dramatically) and because he would be close enough that I could occasionally visit him.
At this time, Diana decided to have a prepurchase examination performed by a veterinarian. A few days before the test, Zeke threw a shoe (the importance of which I have already explained). After the vetting, Diana informed me that Zeke had failed his vetting miserably. He had failed both hind flexion tests and x-rays had revealed both a club foot, with bony changes, in the hind and an old broken coffin bone in the fore. I was absolutely devastated by this news. She stated that both her vet and her farrier had agreed on the fact that he had a club foot. The farrier had trimmed his hoof in accordance with the club foot status. I was not concerned with the hind flex tests and was, actually, quite confused as to why they had been performed when he was missing a shoe.
Diana then posted an email to a Friesian list asking for assistance in making her decision on whether or not to purchase Zeke with his "limitations" at the price I was offering her. Not surprisingly, she received several responses from people stating that Zeke wasn't worth nearly the price I was asking. Diana promptly forwarded each of these responses to me. She then offered me $8,000 for Zeke. (It is worth noting here that Diana had at first accepted a price of $15,000, which I ONLY offered to her, in full awareness of his "limitations", and on the day I was to receive her first payment she instead changed her mind, rescinded her offer and gave me a bill for Zeke's board.) I declined her offer of $8,000. I was actually quite irritated with her at this point and asked her if Zeke knew the Spanish Walk yet. She told me that she didn't rush horses (although I was paying for this training) and that I could only accurately state that his movements were "extravagant" at this point. I decided to discontinue his training at this time since his movements had been extravagant BEFORE he arrived at her farm and I didn't feel he had learned anything significant in the time that she had been training him.
At this time, I began to market Zeke on my own and received a very quick response. The buyer came to inspect Zeke, rode him and decided to have him vetted including a full set of x-rays. I had already told the buyer what Diana had said about his previous vetting and we were both somewhat skeptical that any keuring judge would have awarded Zeke "ster" status (placing him in the top 10% of all Friesians in the world) with a deformity as significant as a club foot. Nevertheless, we both agreed that a full prepurchase exam was in order.
The buyer contacted a vet for the exam while I contacted a farrier. The farrier I chose is a Certified Master Farrier and has over 25 years of experience in his field, along with numerous other accolades. To make a long story short, with both the buyer and myself present Zeke had his prepurchase exam. The farrier measured for the club foot. In order to be deemed club, there must be 10 degrees of difference between the heels and Zeke was determined to have only 4 degrees of difference. What he DID have, however, was thrush! At this point, Zeke needed to have his shoes replaced, of course. I needed to return to Philadelphia so I left Zeke in the capable hands of the buyer and the farrier. I soon learned that, after I left, Diana walked over (she had studiously avoided the entire procedure before that point, having stated in her emails that she refused to be involved in any buying inspections if she wasn't making a commission) and asked the farrier how Zeke's club foot was and made several other comments regarding his physical limitations. I find this highly unethical.
Since that time, I have spoken to Diana's farrier who trimmed Zeke for the "club foot" and asked him how he determined that Zeke had a club foot. Interestingly enough, he said that it was Diana who told HIM about the foot and that he had had to ask her which foot was supposedly clubbed since he could not find a difference.
Zeke was eventually sold to the people who had had him vetted. I don't suppose I need to add that his x-rays showed NONE of the anomalies Diana had mentioned (but I want this to be clear). The day I settled the deal with the buyers, I arranged for shipment. The shipper was going to pick him up within 2 days. I asked the vet who had performed his prepurchase exam for my buyers to provide a health certificate and he agreed to find time that day. I emailed Diana and asked her to leave him in an accessible stall for the vet because on my previous visit he had been moved to a barn a good distance down the road and I was concerned that the vet would not be able to find him.
I had no desire to inform Diana of my plans for Zeke until the last possible moment as I was somewhat worried about him, given my opinion of her previous behavior and the fact that she had shown such a marked lack of concern about the fact that he had contracted thrush. I also did not know when the shipper would be arriving as they, too, were fitting him in at the last moment. At this time, Diana began to send me emails regarding legal liens and a contract (which I did not recall signing). She then emailed the contract and one of the pages seemed to be missing (I eventually realized I was opening the same email twice). I asked her to resend it (I recalled signing it at this point and realized that the reason I did not recall it originally is because she had waited until I was preparing Zeke for the buyers' initial visit before placing this document in front of me!) It is also worth mentioning that perhaps it would have been more memorable had I EVER signed or received a copy of this document prior to his sale.
At any rate, her responses to my request to resend the document are self-evident. The reason I did not respond to her email in a timely enough fashion for her was because I did not yet have the answer to her question. I find her last emails peevish and childish and, actually, quite amusing. (As an aside, I had asked my buyer to wire Diana her payment which I reimbursed, although I was never informed that I had to give 30 days notice on the stall at any time before Zeke arrived at her barn or was sold.)
In conclusion, although I had originally considered a lawsuit I decided that a lawsuit would only benefit me, whereas this warning will better serve other potential boarders or, God forbid, anyone who wants this woman to train anything other than their hamster; poor hamster.
Please feel free to read each and every one of her emails to me, as they will serve as evidence to prove my claims. I am not sure I have them all, but I certainly have the majority of them. I only wish I had been able to save MY emails to HER. I think you can figure out the majority of my questions and responses to her based on her emails, however.
Copyright ©2008 by Patricia A. Coraza
Comment: The emails with the white background are emails that I printed out at work and scanned in at home. Please scroll down to the bottom of those pages for both the "Next" button and additional comments which I will add to each page for clarification of issues.