Monday, February 15, 2010

Voodoo





The before and after shots of Voodoo, a mustang stallion, rescued from Three Strikes Ranch.

FHOTD wrote about Voodo twice. Voodoo was rescued by Habitat For Horses/Jerry Finch and has purported to have put on 300lbs. This looks to be the case as there's significant weight gain. I do believe that if this was any other rescue Fugs would have written a scathing review for the horse not being 100% recuperated. Apparently, according to Fugs, this is easy to do. All that's required is hay, water, and a bit of grain. If this were only true our lives would be so much easier.

I don't know if this horse has worms as there could be other causes such as a ventral hernia. It's possible that the photo was taken during treatment for parasites. I don't have the full story, but I doubt Fugs would have let the pot belly get by without flailing someone. If anyone has the time line and further information about Voodoo please post it in the comments. Does any one know the dates of the photos?

From the Comment Section-More FHOTD nonsense
(I never interfere with someone's right to make themselves look foolish either)
Thew says:
FEBRUARY 15, 2010 AT 6:54 PM
Gosh. Am I understanding this correctly? Is the second picture of Voodoo an update photograph? Good god in Heaven that horse looks just as bad as he did before, if not worse. Look at that wormy belly! If I saw a horse turned out in that condition I would call AC.
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fhotd says:
FEBRUARY 15, 2010 AT 8:50 PM
Well, feel free to. I rarely moderate comments here so everybody’s welcome to an opinion. I do not think you will get far with any such accusations but I never interfere with anyone’s right to make themselves look foolish.

48 comments:

  1. Is this horse supposed to be at Habitat For Horses? Because I cannot find him on that site anywhere...... http://www.habitatforhorses.org/

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  2. http://cdn-write.demandstudios.com/upload//4000/100/50/5/14155.jpg

    These two horses have wormy bellies. Look familiar? I think so.

    I looked too, Callie. No sign of him anywhere, which makes me wonder if he was even there long enough to even warrant a spot on the page, or was taken to a foster and they kept him or something.

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  3. "[FHOTD in: Link removed. They have to get their own traffic. They do not get to co-opt mine and disrupt this blog. Given that my main internet "enemy" is now in jail for tack theft, I believe that says it all about their character and credibility. Case closed! :) ]"

    On a side note...Uh oh, Fugs doesn't want to be outed, but plays it off. Not all of us supported Dena, that's for sure. I wasn't one of them. I digress...

    Did you also see where she was all 150x better than if he was in the wild? Umm...OK. Weird comment. Suffering wild horses living wild like they were born and being subject to life. *gasp* Horror. At least wild horses are wormy because nobody takes care of them. Yikes.

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  4. Fugs doesn't want to be outed? Huh? Who is in jail now because of tack theft? Also, every picture I have seen of mustang horses in the wild shows horses that are fat and healthy looking. I do not profess to know a lot about mustangs in the wild but someone had told me that there is natural forage that they eat in the wild that helps with worming, so they don't need to be wormed like domestic horses do, while they are in the wild. Once they are captured and adopted out by the BLM, then they have to be wormed on schedule just like domestics because that natural forage is not available to them any longer. Of course, I am not saying this is true myself, it's only what I was told. I'm still not convinced the second picture was taken now. The whole situation is questionable at best and downright deliberately misleading (just to shut everyone up who has been posting pleas for an update) at worst.

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  5. Mustangs typically have low parasite loads because they keep moving. They don't re-graze over the same ground day after day, so they are not re-infecting themselves. Same thing with nomadic humans; parasite loads are an artifact of population density.

    If FHOTD thinks I'm her enemy, then I feel sorry for her. I am not her enemy, nor anyone else's enemy. I honestly don't believe in that sort of thinking.

    That side shot of VooDoo doesn't look too terrible until you look at the full sized version and realise that the dark back across his backbone is partially concealing the shadow of a considerable hollow alongside his spine.

    I don't think he has a ventral hernia; at least, I've never seen one that huge that wasn't putting the horse at high risk of bowel strangulation and death.

    I think it's far more likely that he's been turned out with the other horses, has had no training or handling, has a belly full of worms and possibly a mouth full of points that need to be floated.

    I'm not at all clear on how this is better than living in the wild, except for the protection from predators.

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  6. The horse does look somewhat improved , but ... One of the issues I have had with Fugly's "rescues"is she flogs people for not getting the weight on fast enough. Well that in of itself speaks to her lack of knowledge , you don't take a starved animal and load it up on super rich feed and supplements , unless the plan is to kill it with kindness , slow steady MANAGED feeding ,gradually increasing feed and nutrient balance. feeding little bits often,and monitor for signs of discomfort (ulcers or colic )

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  7. Small point of confusion.

    If you got to FHOTD and click on the side shot of VooDoo (the alleged 'after' shot), you click a couple times to get to a larger photo. When I run my cursor over that larger photo, it turns into a magnifying lens with a little + sign. When I click on that, I get a version of the photo where the image of VooDoo is too large to fit on my screen. I have to roll back and forth, up and down, to see the whole horse.

    *That* is the version of the photo that makes it clear that VooDoo is still way too thin.

    When I click on the side shot picture of VooDoo here, I see a larger version of the photo but never get the magnifying glass with a + sign, so it's impossible to enlarge the picture adequately to really see how thin the horse is.

    In the smaller versions of the photo, it is much more difficult to see how thin he is due to the way his black marking lies over the spine and hollowed area.

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  8. His coat looks rough and not healthy at all, and his mane and tail do not appear to have grown. WTF? If that's all the improvement after a full year of feed something is definitely not right with him.

    He sure is a krazy kolor horse, (sorry, snork, just had to throw that in there...!) but his shoulder sure looks steep, though that may just be the picture. ; )

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  9. How do we know that the photos were taken a year apart?

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  10. Never mind, I found the part were she says the picture was taken today.

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  11. I love how they turn GD's comments about coat condition into an inconsequential comment on mud.

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  12. Ok ready for a good one?!! If you blow up the photos of these two horses. They are QUITE similar however my dear friends they are NOT the same horse. Cleverly they are pretty close and with a little photoshop they could be dead on. BUT If you take a look at the right hind leg in the before photo the white marking on the inside of the rt hind is quite distinct, you can see where the medial line of the cannon is and that marking goes back almost to the hock and past the chesnut. but in picture two it does't leave the front of the cannon and goes nowhere near the chesnut. face markings also don't match 100% in the before the dark around his eyes is more jagged and the white almost touches his left eye lid, not so much in the 2nd photo. Now if she can post a fully sideways pic of both that match without photoshop I will apologize.

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  13. ok I guess I was wrong I dug up more pics of him from different angles and it's just the way he is standing. My apologies!

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  14. I think there's a distinction to be made in Dena's case. Most people were not so much supporting her as outraged about the way she was attacked. Pulling her children into the drama was a cheap and low blow, and if I remember correctly the first attack came from fugs because she had asked for help with her electric bill. How is that different than other rescues who don't have the funds to do vet care? Being publicly attacked in such a vicious manner can destroy a person, and I tend to respect the old adage 'Judge not lest ye be judged.'

    Hey Anon, I couldn't find any other pics of the Voodoo horse. Did you notice if his mane and tail have grown?

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  15. Oh! Hell Yeah, Grainne Dhu, once I super enlarged the "recovery" pic, I sure do see what you are saying and take a close look at that hip bone......

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  16. What strikes me about this "after" photo is that the other horses around Voodoo look relatively sleek and not so fuzzy. In the background, the tree is leafy and green, so it appears to be spring or summer? I don't know much about Texas, so maybe that tree is something that remains green year round?

    Anyway, Voodoo, on the other hand, has a rough, shaggy coat. He's not looking seriously muddy at all--a few patches of dirt here and there, but nothing too terrible. Yet, I agree with those who say he looks unhealthy. That big pot belly and the dull, shagginess of his coat scream worms to me.

    Add to that, if you enlarge the photo as Grainne Dhu suggested, you also can see that the top of his tail is rubbed and the hair broken--a sure sign of an itchy sheath or worms.

    It's odd that Voodoo can't be found on the rescue's Web site as one of their success stories. I also looked, and I even tried doing a search on the site, but nothing. If he isn't in the rescue's hands, who has him? And where DID that photo come from?

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  17. CS here, on a school comp...

    "I love how they turn GD's comments about coat condition into an inconsequential comment on mud."

    I agree. I was like...um, hun, mud is not the issue! Horses get muddy. Duh. What they do get with lack of care is worms and a sad looking coat. That horse needs a powerpack and a brush to get that coat started for oil production and to stimulate some growth. In fact, a bath in the spring after the worming would probably do him wonders. That would just get you started. After that you could get a soft brush and just take a layer off when they get fed in the afternoon. It's so quick and easy to do, too! You don't have to do legs if it's not muddy, so he'd take you a grand 2 minutes to do. It's not like you need to keep perpetual show condition.

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  18. Cs again

    the other trees in the BG are fairly dead. I'm thinking it is winter when this photo was taken, which is long enough to have gotten him wormed and the like. Wonder how hard it is to feed a horse and his parasitic friends?

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  19. My Fugs came up with a new topic pronto. Didn't like the turn of the conversation? I enjoyed GD questions. Why not start a new topic on how fast a mustang should be trained with ground manners? Just the baths, clips, loads, works well with vet/farrier will do. I do believe Fugly ("I am not a hypocrite") Horse of the Day did say once that ALL horses should be able to do this. That thihs was for their own safety.
    Yes I do know that she isn't down in Texas, but why not get a Fuglyite (the ones that are ever so willing to spam bomb, call and make death threats, spend hours looking up identifying information about people) in Texas to do it? If she can get her readers to send in $$$, for a horse they will never see, why not ask one to spend an hour of time and $10.00 in gas to go look at a near by horse?

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  20. Oh by the way, who is her biggest internet enemy? Dena? Grannie Du? YHI? Jason? Does she keep an enemies list? How long is it now? What must one do to get on the enemies list? Question her and hold her responsible for her actions/words?

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  21. Hey, Fugly is calling for low-cost/free gelding services in her latest thread. BHM, if you needed proof that she's reading this blog, now you really have it. I recall that someone asked why she doesn't do anything with that particular issue in a comment on one of the other posts here.

    She also writes: "As always, if you prefer to be anonymous, I have no problem with anyone making a second account. There are places that get all uptight about that and go, OMG, matching IP’s, it’s a secret conspiracy! All I ask is, don’t be a jerk on any of your accounts, and don’t defend/support your own posts because that’s lame. Other than that, you are welcome to your anonymity here, especially when it serves to help others because you can discuss your mistakes and what you learned from them."

    All of this seems to suggest that this little blog you've started is hitting home. Very interesting, no?

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  22. If Voodoo was taken a year ago, why wasn't a series of photos taken, you know like one a month, to DOCUMENT Voodoo's progress? Some PROOF please?I do believe that is one thing that paralegal are trained in, what is admissible court evidence.

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  23. I do remember her defending her own comments with one or more of her alternate Id's. IP addresses will NOT lead you to the poster. Is the IP address fixed or floting? How many folks are on the IP address? If the computers are networked,like in a public library or research library all computers will have the same IP address. God alone knows who the computer user was. What about WIFI hotspots? How many of us readers "poach" off a Starbucks that is near by. I know my kids do. What about the new personal Wifi Hotspots or Iphone users? A paralegal she might be, but a information/computer scientist she is not.

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  24. To be fair, VooDoo was claimed by Jerry Finch for Habitat for Humanity. He has been in their custody for nearly 11 months now.

    Me, if I were running a rescue, I'd certainly be keeping a photographic record of all the horses on the property. With memory so cheap these days, there's really no excuse not to.

    I think FHOTD is correct in wanting rescues to keep such photographic records but she doesn't have custody of the horse.

    And then I'm left with another question: why is FHOTD giving Habitat for Horses a pass on this issue?

    As I said in my original comment on her blog, this is not the "happily ever after" photo I'd been hoping for. The minimum I expected after 11 months of rehab was a horse in good health, maybe a 4 body score but not below, who was clearly getting regular handling.

    The horse I see is emaciated (although with more weight than he originally had) and shows all the symptoms of an ongoing parasite infection.

    I have friends who live in the Houston area and one big, big problem there is that parasites develop resistance to wormers a lot faster there, since they are active year round. Up north, we get a respite of sorts each winter where most of the parasites that are in the environment freeze to death.

    If they are relying on feed-through wormer because he cannot be handled without traumatising him, it's very possible his parasites have adapted.

    Sure, it looks like he's got plenty of hay but starving to death slowly due to parasite overload really isn't much of an improvement over starving to death in Meduna's care.

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  25. I'm beginning to wonder if HfH even has the horse now. I mean, there would be some record of him somewhere on the site, right? I don't know, the man is president. Also, that rescue has dozens of horses who have been ridden before, are in good health, and majority have honest evaluations. Why would this one not be? Something is weird about this.

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  26. Isn't something about Fugly's rescues always fishy????

    Hmmmmmmmmmmm...................

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  27. I think the answer is to rally a Texas-area person to make an appointment to come out and see the horse and talk to the rescue. If things are on the up and up, the rescue has nothing at all to lose and everything to gain. In fact, BHM could perhaps do her own feature on the horse on this site--a full reporting on the story, instead of the glossed-over rah-rah Fugly provided. If I lived in Texas, I would volunteer to do it myself.

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  28. GD,
    My comment was to point out that there is something wrong with this horse so it's possible that it's parasites, but I can't definitively diagnose it. I think that you might be correct about the drug resistant parasites. At least it's an explanation.

    If you look at the hip area and the spin in this area you will see protruding bones. No vet would say that that was a healthy weight.

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  29. Off the topic of VooDoo....But in the same thread of comments on that post.....I find it interesting. When questioned as to why she had a stallion, her response was.

    "He is currently in full training and being shown. He won’t breed any mares until and if he earns that right in the show ring and I expect him to have significant accomplishments by the end of this season or he’s done and will be gelded. If he remains a stallion, he will have a limited book, mares will be approved. He has two foals from before I owned him, none while in my ownership, and none expected.

    You could and should question the hell out of it if I wasn’t training and showing him, or if I was breeding him before he’d done anything! If that wasn’t happening, I WOULD be the biggest hypocrite on earth. I don’t mind the questions one bit because I practice what I preach. He’s not breeding, and he’s working toward becoming a valuable horse and stallion prospect."

    I found it interesting as she twisted it a bit. Read carefully. "If he remains a stallion, he will have a limited book" . This after claiming she would geld him if he doesn't earn. Interesting........Nothing that she writes is believable.....And Lord knows where this VooDoo is. Or if he is? I wish I lived in Texas, because I think that is a good idea.

    Another point......about parasitic resistance. Am I correct that he came from the wild? And if so wouldn't it be less likely for parasitic resistance as he would never have wormed with chemicals prior......? I don't know......Correct me if I'm wrong.

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  30. Showed a pic of VLC to a QH expert, and the person thought he was quite unremarkable. Was surprised he still had nuts. They said he should have started showing at 2 not 5.

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  31. ^-Agree. He didn't need to be in the World show at top class, but he should have been at least doing something that would have put his name out there. Heck, even a smaller show would have done for me. They have classes that do not require a rider to be on a horse's back. I still think he is just another ho hum buckskin. He just always looks weird to me.

    "To this day, one of my biggest challenges with him is getting on bareback off the mounting block. I’m not tall enough even with the block to swing my leg all the way over, so I have to hook my knee over the top of him then take a jump and scramble while everybody laughs at me. Last time I did it, everybody actually heard something pop in my hip. Man, I’m getting old!"

    If her biggest challenge is getting on him bareback at a mounting block, she has an issue. They do make mounting blocks that go higher. Better yet she can put it on higher ground. I don't understand this puzzle she is making out of it. I have yet to see a major english riding barn have trouble getting on horses 16hh on up, why does she?

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  32. I should have scrolled down one more!

    "I love him but when I’m done campaigning him and have some disposable income again, I’m totally buying myself a nice little 14.2 or 14.3 cutting mare."

    Hun, a stallion's campaigning is never done. If you see yourself not having enough to do it now, perhaps the balls should come off soon. Seriously? I think she's depending on others to put his name out there in the form of future offspring, and that's just not how you do it. Big name horses have big name babies from the same big name farm. One hit wonders aren't remembered.

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  33. A great post about the VLC from Success in the Show Pen:

    http://successinthepen.blogspot.com/2009/03/rom-breeding-quality.html

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  34. Wow what happened to you guys? You used to be normal people now you are obsessed with Cathy and think she is getting ideas from you like the low cost clinics, yeah cause she never mentioned them before you did.
    WTH happened to you guys

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  35. Anon,
    It's because Cathy keeps referring to our comments. We aren't obsessed with Cathy, it's just that when she does something ridiculous or nasty it generates comments. So there are times when it really blows up and there are a lot of comments.

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  36. If I recall the history correctly, VooDoo spent more than a year at a BLM holding facility and was then sold to Jason Meduna outright.

    He spent over a year at Jason Meduna's death ranch and was no doubt heavily parasitised there because the horses were so starved they were eating manure.

    He's been in south Texas for nearly 11 months now. Did they ever get him effectively wormed? Is he on an ongoing parasite control program? Has a vet had a chance to look into his mouth and do any floating that might be slowing him down?

    If a hurricane threatens the area, can he be led onto a trailer and evacuated without a huge trauma? Could he be held at a facility without a loading chute or would they be restricted in where they could take him in such an emergency?

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  37. Anon,

    Everywhere in human society there are checks and balances and given the way human nature is, it is a good thing. Just because people question and comment on Fugly, or any other such person, does not make them abnormal as your comment inferred, it just means that people are listening and calling people out when the info that they have put out is questionable.

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  38. Grainne Dhu,

    It is really good to see you back, you always did have a way of asking excellent questions.

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  39. The anonymous poster who yelled at us for our so-called obsession with Cathy got me thinking.

    I would be curious to know what other people read instead of FHOTD. In other words, what blogs do you enjoy that you feel are reliable, informative, and not full of libel, disinformation and junk?

    I've already put a plug in for Behind the Bit, but I'll do it again: http://www.behindthebitblog.com/

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  40. Cathy is over on Alex Brown Racing playing all nicey nicey about Voodoo. I cant believe they let her post after the way she slams the members there.

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  41. "Anonymous said...
    Wow what happened to you guys? You used to be normal people now you are obsessed with Cathy and think she is getting ideas from you like the low cost clinics, yeah cause she never mentioned them before you did.
    WTH happened to you guys"

    I believe this blog is called Fugly Horse of the Day in Review........I for one am glad I found this place as I have never liked her from the beginning, thought she was full of herself and not truthful from the beginning and God forbid back then, you ever leave a comment to perhaps argue her point or simply offer up another suggestion, "the Mob" would turn on you or just ignore your point entirely. Quite frankly, I think that sucks and as someone who also does run a blog about horses, sometimes certain subjects will get heated, but as an owner of that blog , it is up to them or me on mine to make sure to keep people in check and be respectful, even if opinions differ, it's simply good manners. Something of which Cathy lacks.

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  42. Also, It's nice to know that people have figured out just exactly what she is all about. I find it refreshing! Especially since I recently discovered her writing for HI. And I must commend GD, for calling her out on her own blog, I haven't visited there in 2 yrs until now and I see that more and more people are actually beginning to question her ethics. Something I tried to do years ago and got lamblasted for by many. No offense made to Anon., really.......

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  43. I thought she blasted the ABR boards, and now she is posting over there?

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  44. She pleaded for donations on ABR for a mare she said was going to foal early Jan. The mare was just a fat old broodie. Never came back on ABR to thank them for the money or to admit that she had been dead wrong. What a scammer. I had seen the mare and did not even consider her to be in foal.

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  45. Anonymous wrote: She pleaded for donations on ABR for a mare she said was going to foal early Jan. The mare was just a fat old broodie. Never came back on ABR to thank them for the money or to admit that she had been dead wrong.

    It's possible that they didn't donate any money. Hard to believe but it is possible.

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  46. Interesting note: I was the person who pointed out Voodoo's worm belly and said that if I saw an animal turned out in that condition I would call the animal control. Well, now I seem to be banned from FOTD.

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  47. I think FHOTD is having some sort of server problems. If she was gonna ban anyone, don't you think it would be me? I tried a couple to check it a few times today and got an error message but when I tried just now, it loaded up just fine.

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