I’ve written before on retirement options for senior horses (Rehoming the Senior Equine). It’s not easy to find a place where you can be assured that your horse will be well cared for while living out its senior years, especially when the retirement facility is far away from where you live.
But what about when your horse goes missing? Just last week this happened to a friend of mine. She had a horse that was suffering from mild but persistent lameness (long story, but it was probably caused after a vet misdiagnosed a rear suspensory injury and the mare ended up with permanent soreness on the diagnol right front).
After several weeks of advertising her mare for a light riding situation and interviewing the interested parties, she entered into a formal adoption agreement with a woman who has a facility in Maine. Alison, my friend, used an adoption agreement that stipulated yearly updates on the mare’s health (including photos) and stated that the horse could only be given or sold to an approved home, specifically excluding sending the horse to auction. The problem is that she has no idea where her mare ended up.
In her words:
What Happened to my Mare?
In June of 2006 I gave my mare up for adoption to a woman named Anne Kozloff who runs Whistlin Willows Farm in Gorham, Maine. She signed an adoption agreement which bound her to several conditions, which included that she keep me informed of the horse’s progress and condition at least once per year. In addition, the horse could not be sold at auction or to a dealer under any circumstances. If she sold or gave away the horse I was to be given the name and address of the new owner. I was also given the right of first refusal if she could no longer keep the horse.
Right from the start Ms. Kozloff failed to contact me. It was always I who had to contact her. But she did respond to my inquiries, at least at first. I have tried to contact her repeatedly in the last two months. I became very concerned with her lack of response and “Googled” her only to find out that she is under suspicion of fraud. (Ripoff Report: Beck and Anne Kozloff, Whistlin Willows Farm). When I contacted the Gorham police Department they told me that Anne Kozloff has been accused of selling horses that did not belong to her. They were only free leased to her. The police officer that I spoke with was familiar with Ms. Kozloff. He went over to see her at her farm, and she told him that the mare had died of a heart attack “a while back”, and that she had “never heard from me”, which is a lie. The officer then left her my phone number.
I have tried to contact Anne Kozloff both by phone and email with no result. I have contacted the attorney Generals office in Maine, but they told me there was nothing they could do and recommended that I hire a lawyer.
But what I really would like to know is what happened to my mare? I have reason to doubt her story that she died, and if that is true why didn’t she contact me about prescribed by the contract? It’s possible she sold the mare at auction or to a dealer but I have no proof of this. I am looking for any information about this mare. She is a plain bay, with only a few white hairs on her forehead. She is 15.3 hh and 19 years old. Her registered name is Who Wit, but I called her True. Her registration number is 9033196. She is by Ankara out of Flying Wit by Halo.
Please contact me if you have any information about her.
Thank youAlison Leary Mooradian
617-821-5619
ali_baba62@hotmail.com
Please, everyone who wants to retire their horses, remember that there are unscrupulous and unethical people out there who only see the profit involved in getting a “free” horse and know that there is little that an owner can do when the situation goes bad. Mostly it is too late for my friend to do much and very little way for her to track down the horse.
Get in contact with Cathy from the Fugly Horse blog. She often runs stories like this, has a good-sized readership of people who look out for these horses (rescues, private citizens etc)
Not taking anything away from this lovely blog =) but if I wanted a horse found (and a person OUTED) that’s where I’d go.
I will send this to Fugly too. …. Anne Kosloff and her daughter(?) have been surrounded by controversy for YEARS. NEER almost sent a horse to her, he was fostered by someone who wanted to send him up there, that he would be ‘used in a lesson program’. Something in my gut said ‘check it out!!’ I did, and it did not take long to find many people who had very un-nice things to say about Whistling Willows, including that they had repeatedly been investigated by the authorities.
The good news is that, according to a good source, is that they are in foreclosure. NOT good for the horses there now, but hopefully good for all future horses.
I will add this to NEER’s Bad People page as well.
Allison, sorry about your horse. ):
Ok so here is my beef.. People having horses thay say they love more then life but once they are “to Old” they want to find someone else to pay for them while they are retired which could be for 15 to 20 more years.. These sistuations wouldnt happen if people would care for their loving animals in their retired days. instead of saying here take my horse. take care of it every day and pay for all it’s upkeep but you can’t do anything with it unless i say you can.. Then the horse gets sold under lies of it’s health. New owners find out they been shammed… I (or resuers like me) then find them at acution a year later batter and brusied half starved , full of worms, feet are messed up. Spend 100’s to 1000’s of dollars on rehabing and alot of times ending up having to put them down in my horse cemertary which used to be my back yard… People if you love your animals keep them and care for them. If you can’t then do the humain thing and put them down so they don’t end up suffering which alot of these horses do.