Life is always an adventure, and today marked just another ripple in the pond that is my life on the farm. 

Around eleven this morning, my email box was inundated with messages from  friends bringing my attention to a rather unsavory post on Craigslist about what goes on at A Pinch of Luck and with our horses. Since I'm not one to hide anything from anybody, as those of you who know me know quite well, I decided it was best to give our "friend" who posted the lovely ad one more moment of glory and
share it with all of you here:



Thoroughbreds $100 (Woodstock)

A Pinch of Luck farms sells "rescued" thoroughbreds, off the track, in Woodstock, GA They sell them between $1000 and $4000, and claim them to be sound and sane. Their horses are far from the descriptions. I owned a horse from them, and the problems and lies were endless. I was told my horse was 16.3 "on the stick" and found him to only be 15.2. They lie about all their horses, none of their descriptions are accurate, and once you buy a horse from them, you're never going to get an answer from them, and you'll be left with a horse you can barely do anything with. DO NOT trust their word, they are all malicious, money hungry liars. Their animals are malnourished, but they tell you they came that way. I found my horses history, and the truth came out that they had neglected him. I visited their main barn several times, and every time I went, all of their horses were in their stalls. I requested my horse's turn-out schedule upon his leaving, and was horrified to find out he was only let out of his stall twenty minutes a day, and kept in all day because they were too lazy to take him out. Don't give these people the time of day, they should be shut down.



I guess one of the side effects that comes from doing what one perceives as a "good thing" is that there will always be other folks out there who maybe don't see things the same way.  That works for me--one of the best things about the country that we live in is that we have the right to express ourselves as we see fit.  If this ad's poster needed to bolster his (or is it her?) self esteem by slandering the good that we do at our farm, then so be it. 

At A Pinch of Luck, we claim to be anything but a rescue--our horses come from friends and trainers we've met along the way, and for the most part are never "at risk" or in danger.  Yes, we occassionaly do "rescue" horses from The Truck, but the majority of our kids come from tracks up and down the east coast and from people we know... who would never send a horse "down the river" just because it quit running or had an injury.  Our horses are for sale, and from each sale comes the opportunity to help another horse transition to life after the racing.

Our horses come from the track and they do come with baggage--be it emotional or physical, or both.  There is no secret to that--anyone dealing with retiring race horses knows that few are the ones who come "ready made" to move on to their new careers.  With a little time, most of them heal just fine and go on to be wonderful riding partners with their new people.  There are the casualties of the sport as well, though, and for them, we wish only good homes with loving families who know about and understand their short comings (or are they gifts?) and love them anyway.  We can't all be perfect, right?

The kids spend time with us doing what horses do--hanging out in their stalls near their buddies with big piles of hay (and other piles, too, if "housekeeping" hasn't been in to clean yet) during the day, and spend their afternoons and nights outside with even more hay and those same pesky buddies that are room mates in the barn.  They're as normal as they know how to be, and work hard at learning about being regular horses.  And yes, when they leave the track and lose thier muscle, they're skinny.  It's pretty hard to be fat when you've spent your whole life on a diet and fitness program and haven't seen a spare pound since age two.  But that's just a part of transitioning from career athlete to career companion--a little time, a slower life style, and a slower metabolism seem to fix a lot of things!

Below is a refute from someone who bought a horse from A Pinch of Luck several years ago.  I didn't get an email letting me know that it had been written, it just appeared a few hours after the first post.  People who buy our horses do stay in touch, and they do call for and get help any time they need it.  They become friends, and share many things:  barn moves, new babies, new horses, wins at shows and training achievements.  I've lost track of very few of my kids and their new families--I'm reminded of the good I do by emails like this ad posting...  You can't pay for feelings like these--they're from the heart and you never know when they're going to show up!

regarding Thoroughbreds - $100 (Woodstock) 

I think it is wrong for you to bash this rescue barn on the internet. 

I have purchased a horse from them and I have had her 4 years now and she is a great horse, there was not one lie, it is obvious  that they love the horses there, and I find they are taken very good care of...

As for your claim horses being "malnourished" that is slander, the horses come off the race track with no body fat...pinch of luck actually puts weight on them before they sell them...they even had a tall 2yr old that I wanted to buy, and they wouldnt sell him, because they wanted to make sure he was done growing knees capped ect before selling.

I dont believe for a second that they told you a horse was 16.3 and you bought it and found it only to be 15.2???? you dont need a stick to see that difference, if you know anything about horses you would have seen that right away.