I don't call myself a professional...and perhaps you shouldn't, either

Click the image to see the ad at full size.

The ad reads "Free Horse Not Broke.  He is at...He is not broke to ride.  He is 3.  Don't know what breed he is."


No attempt is made to conceal the identity of the person posting this free horse.  The context of the ad implies "don't know what breed he is nor do I care."

We pull up the website so prominently featured in this ad; the homepage reads: "We are a family-operated, all inclusive professional equestrian facility for sales, training and boarding located in the heart of horse country.....Our main focus is producing top quality horses that are healthy in body and mind, willing, safe and enjoyable....Renee is a John Lyons Certified Trainer..."

There is so much wrong with this, it just makes me see red.  This is the heart of everything wrong within the horse industry summed up in one simple advertisement.  

Here are these "equine professionals" who train and sell horses for a living on LSN, dumping an "I don't know what he is" untrained horse for free.

Questions, questions.  You are a professional facility.  If you are getting rid of the horse due to non-payment by an owner, you would be asking a price to recoup your losses (i.e. months of board or months of training or both)...of course, that would be after following all the legal requirements in the state of Tennessee to do so.  

You are a John Lyons certified trainer dumping a free horse with no training.  Is he beyond your skill level to train?  Are you too lazy and selfish to put a month of training into him and sell him for something?  Is he so worthless in your eyes that he's not even worth the effort to put 2 weeks into him, get some decent photographs and ask a few hundred dollars to a carefully-screened home? 


Now, I don't care if the horse was dumped in your pasture; he is on your property, he has become your responsibility, and you advetise far and wide that you are a professional.  You repeatedly state on LSN, Craigslist, and your own website that you broker horses.  Yet, here is a free horse (with no handling, no photographs of him, and the I DON'T CARE plain as day...posted by the same hands.)      

I may not be a professional selling dozens of horses a year, but I damn sure do my best by each and every one that crosses my path.  If they leave my property, they do so with a solid foundation of at least 60-90 days, most of the time over a year of time invested to help insure they will NOT end up where this free horse is certain to...

Renee?  Why didn't you just call one of the kill buyers directly?