Craigslist War, Part 1
Rachel Simmons is a pretty woman in her early sixties with soft white hair, clipped short. She tells her story quietly, without rancor. She looks a little tired. She is taking care of John, her husband, who needs extra help right now as he recovers from his recent surgery. She is also looking after the couple’s horses and doing the chores necessary for the upkeep of their small farm.
Their story began a few years ago when the couple’s children and grandchildren moved from their rural Iowa hometown to a small city a hundred miles south. Rachel and John decided it was time to sell their working farm and retire. Although they left behind a lifetime of trusted friends; a world where the rules of fair play were honored and those people without morals were ousted from the community, they knew being near their children and grandchildren was more important than anything else in their lives. They moved to an area close to their children, where they’d found a house with 20 acres and a barn that suited them perfectly.
With the grandchildren in mind, Rachel began looking for a few horses. She often read the Craigslist postings and took special note of one particular seller who advertised many horses on the site, always with the same address and phone number. Rachel said she had had several nice phone visits with the seller, Mary P. Mary suggested that Rachel should come look; they had many “family safe” horses for sale.
On June 24th, 2010, Rachel, accompanied by her 11-year-old grandson, Blake, drove to the home of Mary P. and her husband, Dale R. Mary showed them a group of horses crowded into a small, very muddy pen. Rachel and Blake examined all the horses as Mary stood with them and answered their many questions.
According to Mary, the horse that seemed to best suit their needs was a little taller than what Rachel had hoped. He was a registered buckskin Quarter horse gelding, 7 years old, and 15.1hh. He was very thin and had spent most of the time they were there standing with his head down, looking forlorn. Mary told Rachel that “Tony” was on the lower end of the food chain. Rachel thought that appeared to be true, because he was covered in bite marks, and was very shy around the other horses in the pen.
“All the kids around here ride Tony all the time,” said Mary, “Even at night; sometimes all night.”
“Where did Tony come from, Mary?”
“Individuals bring them to us, or we buy them from sale barns so they don’t go to the killers,” said Mary. “Tony came from another guy who goes to a lot of auctions.”
Rachel liked that idea very much. She admired Mary and Dale for saving so many horses, and realized that their rather common manner hid loving souls. She began to imagine Tony safe and sound at her home, with children to fawn over him, and lots of carrots for him to eat. She grew attached to her animals very quickly, and was already seeing Tony with new eyes.
Mary brought the gelding out of the pen and saddled him. Mary’s teenage son, Justin, mounted the horse and rode him three or four times around the small pen attached to the side of Mary and Dale’s barn. Rachel asked her if Justin could ride the horse in the nearby pasture so Rachel could see how he behaved in a larger area, but Mary said there were too many horses out there to ride safely. In the small pen, Tony was quiet and easy to handle and Rachel was impressed.
The arrangement Rachel made with Mary was simple. Rachel agreed to pay $950 for the skinny buckskin, but she didn’t want to take any chances with the safety of her grandchildren. She asked Mary if she could leave Tony there for an additional three weeks of riding and training from Mary’s son before she took him home. For that service, she would pay Mary $100. Mary’s farrier would put shoes on the barefoot gelding as well, for which Rachel paid another $50. Rachel gave Mary a check for $550; half the total of what Rachel would pay for the horse. Rachel told Mary she would be calling to check on Tony and would return for him three weeks later.
Rachel did call several times during the first few weeks and Mary assured her that her son was working the horse every day.
On July 12, Rachel arrived at Mary and Dale’s farm to get Tony. The horse was still painfully thin, and the horse flies on the farm were the worst Rachel had ever seen. All the horses were stomping, trying to rid themselves of the horrid insects. One horse, tied to a trailer near the driveway, looked particularly miserable. With his head tied short, he could do little but suffer in the sweltering heat. While Mary went to the house to retrieve Tony’s registration papers, Rachel asked Dale if she might speak to Justin about Tony’s progress during the prior few weeks.
“Oh, he’s not here. He’s been gone for two weeks visiting his dad,” said Dale.
Before she could ask Dale who had ridden Tony for three weeks, he walked away. Faced with what would surely be an unpleasant conversation, Rachel decided to let it drop. She just wanted to get poor Tony in the trailer.
Puzzled and a little uneasy, Rachel paid the $550 balance and started home. On the drive, her mind turned over possibilities for other riders for Tony, should he need a tune up before she allowed the boys to ride. The summer before, a young woman had purchased a piece of farm machinery from John. Lily lived fairly close; in fact, John and Rachel passed her farm when they drove into town. Lily and her boyfriend James trained horses for a living. They were a nice young couple, so perhaps Rachel could pay Lily to ride Tony for a week or so.
Tony backed out of the trailer calmly and looked around, ears pricked. Rachel stroked his head and told him what a good boy he was. The horse took no time at all to begin grazing in the paddock next to the barn. When the boys arrived, Tony came right to the fence to see them; he really did seem to like the attention. That afternoon, under close supervision, all three grandsons, ages 5, 7 and 11, took turns riding Tony in the small paddock next to Rachel and John’s barn.
“He was very thin, so I began graining him,” Rachel told HTT. “He had good pasture grass and I also gave him a little brome/alfalfa hay. He soon picked up and looked great.”
The summer weather was unusually hot. The idea of riding horses in such extreme heat wasn’t very appealing.
“My daughter and I both rode him once, in the same little pasture. The boys rode him a few times for short periods, then they got really busy playing ball and he wasn’t ridden for a while.”
On September 1, six weeks after they’d brought Tony to their home, Rachel and John decided to saddle up and go for a ride. Rachel had already mounted her horse. They were still in the small, fenced area near the barn. She watched John, who had ridden for many years and was a skilled roper, swing his leg over the saddle.
“As soon as John got in the saddle,” Rachel described, “Tony humped up, and when John went to turn him, Tony went ballistic, full rodeo style with his head down between his front legs and all four feet off the ground. After six or seven big bucks, John came off and hit an old metal gate laying against the barn.”
Terrified, Rachel got off her horse and ran to John. John was conscious but clearly in pain. Rachel snatched the tack from both horses and left them in the paddock. She pulled their van as close to the gate as she was able, folded the rear seats down and prepared to help John struggle into the vehicle.
At the emergency room of the hospital, John and Rachel received the grave but not unexpected news that his right hip was badly fractured. John was admitted to the hospital that evening. After an orthopedic consultation the following day, they learned that John would need a total hip replacement. John described the two days before his surgery as the most painful time he had ever endured. His medication did little to assuage the sharp jolts of pain every time he moved in the hospital bed.
Rachel thought of little else during the week following John’s accident. Even though he was robust and healthy, the hip replacement surgery was complicated by the severity of the break.
On the Tuesday during John’s first week home, Rachel took a few minutes to phone Mary and tell her of the accident. Mary seemed shocked and told Rachel she was sorry to hear about it, although Rachel was surprised at the lack of emotion and sincerity in Mary’s voice.
“Mary, can we trade Tony for a different horse, please?” asked Rachel. “Obviously, we can’t trust Tony anymore.”
“Yes, we can do that,” replied Mary. “My father-in-law had heat stroke this summer and can’t take care of all the horses he’s raised anymore. Dale is going to bring a trailer-load down soon. There’s an Appaloosa mare that I think will work, but I want to ride her personally for a week or so first to make sure.”
“Is the horse registered, Mary?”
“The papers can be gotten,” said Mary, “I’ll check on it and call you on Thursday.”
Thursday came and went without a phone call from Mary. Rachel called Mary’s number on Friday. Mary answered but handed the phone over to her husband, Dale.
“Oh…Dale, I’m calling to see about trading Tony for a broke horse,” said Rachel. “Mary told me about your dad’s Appaloosa; she said it would be a good horse for us.”
“My dad sold all those horses at a sale this week. We do have a 12-year-old sorrel and white horse here that would probably work, but he’s only been here a week. But I think he would be ok for you.”
Rachel paused for a moment. She couldn’t stop the frustration from creeping into her voice.
“Uh, no, Dale. There’s no way I’m going to trade you for a horse that not only I know nothing about, but you don’t either. You can’t tell enough about a horse if you’ve only had him one week.
“We didn’t know nothing about that gelding you bought. We bought him from a killer sale this spring, because we was told he was too nice of a horse to go to slaughter, and I gave him to Mary to mess with. I don’t know what you think Mary told you, but that’s what happened.”
“Mary told me you’d had Tony for quite a while and knew him well enough to let all the kids ride him.”
Suddenly, Dale’s demeanor on the phone changed from pleasant to vile. Rachel told Dale that she had paid the additional $100 for Justin to ride Tony, and Dale said he didn’t know anything about that. He began yelling at Rachel, using abusive language.
“I never said anything about a guarantee for that horse. I never guarantee horses. You had your choice out of the whole f***ing herd and you picked the buckskin. It’s not my problem!”
Rachel hung up.
Craigslist Wars- Part 2, Click here
Their story began a few years ago when the couple’s children and grandchildren moved from their rural Iowa hometown to a small city a hundred miles south. Rachel and John decided it was time to sell their working farm and retire. Although they left behind a lifetime of trusted friends; a world where the rules of fair play were honored and those people without morals were ousted from the community, they knew being near their children and grandchildren was more important than anything else in their lives. They moved to an area close to their children, where they’d found a house with 20 acres and a barn that suited them perfectly.
With the grandchildren in mind, Rachel began looking for a few horses. She often read the Craigslist postings and took special note of one particular seller who advertised many horses on the site, always with the same address and phone number. Rachel said she had had several nice phone visits with the seller, Mary P. Mary suggested that Rachel should come look; they had many “family safe” horses for sale.
On June 24th, 2010, Rachel, accompanied by her 11-year-old grandson, Blake, drove to the home of Mary P. and her husband, Dale R. Mary showed them a group of horses crowded into a small, very muddy pen. Rachel and Blake examined all the horses as Mary stood with them and answered their many questions.
According to Mary, the horse that seemed to best suit their needs was a little taller than what Rachel had hoped. He was a registered buckskin Quarter horse gelding, 7 years old, and 15.1hh. He was very thin and had spent most of the time they were there standing with his head down, looking forlorn. Mary told Rachel that “Tony” was on the lower end of the food chain. Rachel thought that appeared to be true, because he was covered in bite marks, and was very shy around the other horses in the pen.
“All the kids around here ride Tony all the time,” said Mary, “Even at night; sometimes all night.”
“Where did Tony come from, Mary?”
“Individuals bring them to us, or we buy them from sale barns so they don’t go to the killers,” said Mary. “Tony came from another guy who goes to a lot of auctions.”
Rachel liked that idea very much. She admired Mary and Dale for saving so many horses, and realized that their rather common manner hid loving souls. She began to imagine Tony safe and sound at her home, with children to fawn over him, and lots of carrots for him to eat. She grew attached to her animals very quickly, and was already seeing Tony with new eyes.
Mary brought the gelding out of the pen and saddled him. Mary’s teenage son, Justin, mounted the horse and rode him three or four times around the small pen attached to the side of Mary and Dale’s barn. Rachel asked her if Justin could ride the horse in the nearby pasture so Rachel could see how he behaved in a larger area, but Mary said there were too many horses out there to ride safely. In the small pen, Tony was quiet and easy to handle and Rachel was impressed.
The arrangement Rachel made with Mary was simple. Rachel agreed to pay $950 for the skinny buckskin, but she didn’t want to take any chances with the safety of her grandchildren. She asked Mary if she could leave Tony there for an additional three weeks of riding and training from Mary’s son before she took him home. For that service, she would pay Mary $100. Mary’s farrier would put shoes on the barefoot gelding as well, for which Rachel paid another $50. Rachel gave Mary a check for $550; half the total of what Rachel would pay for the horse. Rachel told Mary she would be calling to check on Tony and would return for him three weeks later.
Rachel did call several times during the first few weeks and Mary assured her that her son was working the horse every day.
On July 12, Rachel arrived at Mary and Dale’s farm to get Tony. The horse was still painfully thin, and the horse flies on the farm were the worst Rachel had ever seen. All the horses were stomping, trying to rid themselves of the horrid insects. One horse, tied to a trailer near the driveway, looked particularly miserable. With his head tied short, he could do little but suffer in the sweltering heat. While Mary went to the house to retrieve Tony’s registration papers, Rachel asked Dale if she might speak to Justin about Tony’s progress during the prior few weeks.
“Oh, he’s not here. He’s been gone for two weeks visiting his dad,” said Dale.
Before she could ask Dale who had ridden Tony for three weeks, he walked away. Faced with what would surely be an unpleasant conversation, Rachel decided to let it drop. She just wanted to get poor Tony in the trailer.
Puzzled and a little uneasy, Rachel paid the $550 balance and started home. On the drive, her mind turned over possibilities for other riders for Tony, should he need a tune up before she allowed the boys to ride. The summer before, a young woman had purchased a piece of farm machinery from John. Lily lived fairly close; in fact, John and Rachel passed her farm when they drove into town. Lily and her boyfriend James trained horses for a living. They were a nice young couple, so perhaps Rachel could pay Lily to ride Tony for a week or so.
Tony backed out of the trailer calmly and looked around, ears pricked. Rachel stroked his head and told him what a good boy he was. The horse took no time at all to begin grazing in the paddock next to the barn. When the boys arrived, Tony came right to the fence to see them; he really did seem to like the attention. That afternoon, under close supervision, all three grandsons, ages 5, 7 and 11, took turns riding Tony in the small paddock next to Rachel and John’s barn.
“He was very thin, so I began graining him,” Rachel told HTT. “He had good pasture grass and I also gave him a little brome/alfalfa hay. He soon picked up and looked great.”
The summer weather was unusually hot. The idea of riding horses in such extreme heat wasn’t very appealing.
“My daughter and I both rode him once, in the same little pasture. The boys rode him a few times for short periods, then they got really busy playing ball and he wasn’t ridden for a while.”
On September 1, six weeks after they’d brought Tony to their home, Rachel and John decided to saddle up and go for a ride. Rachel had already mounted her horse. They were still in the small, fenced area near the barn. She watched John, who had ridden for many years and was a skilled roper, swing his leg over the saddle.
“As soon as John got in the saddle,” Rachel described, “Tony humped up, and when John went to turn him, Tony went ballistic, full rodeo style with his head down between his front legs and all four feet off the ground. After six or seven big bucks, John came off and hit an old metal gate laying against the barn.”
Terrified, Rachel got off her horse and ran to John. John was conscious but clearly in pain. Rachel snatched the tack from both horses and left them in the paddock. She pulled their van as close to the gate as she was able, folded the rear seats down and prepared to help John struggle into the vehicle.
At the emergency room of the hospital, John and Rachel received the grave but not unexpected news that his right hip was badly fractured. John was admitted to the hospital that evening. After an orthopedic consultation the following day, they learned that John would need a total hip replacement. John described the two days before his surgery as the most painful time he had ever endured. His medication did little to assuage the sharp jolts of pain every time he moved in the hospital bed.
Rachel thought of little else during the week following John’s accident. Even though he was robust and healthy, the hip replacement surgery was complicated by the severity of the break.
On the Tuesday during John’s first week home, Rachel took a few minutes to phone Mary and tell her of the accident. Mary seemed shocked and told Rachel she was sorry to hear about it, although Rachel was surprised at the lack of emotion and sincerity in Mary’s voice.
“Mary, can we trade Tony for a different horse, please?” asked Rachel. “Obviously, we can’t trust Tony anymore.”
“Yes, we can do that,” replied Mary. “My father-in-law had heat stroke this summer and can’t take care of all the horses he’s raised anymore. Dale is going to bring a trailer-load down soon. There’s an Appaloosa mare that I think will work, but I want to ride her personally for a week or so first to make sure.”
“Is the horse registered, Mary?”
“The papers can be gotten,” said Mary, “I’ll check on it and call you on Thursday.”
Thursday came and went without a phone call from Mary. Rachel called Mary’s number on Friday. Mary answered but handed the phone over to her husband, Dale.
“Oh…Dale, I’m calling to see about trading Tony for a broke horse,” said Rachel. “Mary told me about your dad’s Appaloosa; she said it would be a good horse for us.”
“My dad sold all those horses at a sale this week. We do have a 12-year-old sorrel and white horse here that would probably work, but he’s only been here a week. But I think he would be ok for you.”
Rachel paused for a moment. She couldn’t stop the frustration from creeping into her voice.
“Uh, no, Dale. There’s no way I’m going to trade you for a horse that not only I know nothing about, but you don’t either. You can’t tell enough about a horse if you’ve only had him one week.
“We didn’t know nothing about that gelding you bought. We bought him from a killer sale this spring, because we was told he was too nice of a horse to go to slaughter, and I gave him to Mary to mess with. I don’t know what you think Mary told you, but that’s what happened.”
“Mary told me you’d had Tony for quite a while and knew him well enough to let all the kids ride him.”
Suddenly, Dale’s demeanor on the phone changed from pleasant to vile. Rachel told Dale that she had paid the additional $100 for Justin to ride Tony, and Dale said he didn’t know anything about that. He began yelling at Rachel, using abusive language.
“I never said anything about a guarantee for that horse. I never guarantee horses. You had your choice out of the whole f***ing herd and you picked the buckskin. It’s not my problem!”
Rachel hung up.
Craigslist Wars- Part 2, Click here
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