Bait and switch tactics used by horse trainers

Bait and switch tactics are not used solely by used car salesmen.

Look HARD before you send your horse to this trainer.

Look at this picture, and read the captions below the photo.

The structure in the picture is the covered arena. It is part of Eros Bordeaux stable in Olympia, WA. I will admit the arena itself is very nice. A covered arena in this area is priceless. But the website has only two pictures of the barns your horse will be living in. They are not realistic pictures.

Like advertising, the captions promise far more than the client actually gets.  

Let me take you on a real tour of Eros Bordeaux training facility. It is owned by Eric Rosa, the owner.

Now before I do, understand that  I am not attacking the trainer, Ron Copple. Copple does NOT own this property.
 I don’t know how good a trainer he is. However, by his using this photo-which was taken wholesale from Eros Bordeaux's website-Copple is (perhaps unintentionally) implying that the captions say what you are getting for your money. I can assure you, if you make your decision to send your horse to this trainer based on the captions in the ad, you are getting screwed.

 By the way, there is now a second trainer on the grounds, as well. Copple is in the 'new barn', which was completely rebuilt and expanded, and the "old' barn where the second trainer now keeps his client's horses, and used to be filled with boarder's horses.

 Yes, this is a full care facility. The horses are housed, trained, fed and watered.  All the horses in Copple's care are there for training for the show ring.  I don't know how often an individual horse is trained, but the regimen I have seen is a horse there for training lives in its stall 23 hours a day, seven days a week. That one hour…and I am being extremely generous with the amount of time it is out of the stall-that one hour is spent under saddle, in the arena, being trained. Again, I do not know how to train a horse, especially for showing, so I shall not go into how well it is being trained.

However, I do know that there are only two occasions on which the horse is removed from its stall. One is when it is taken into the covered arena to be trained, and the other is when it is loaded onto a horse trailer to go to a show.

The stalls are matted and bedded. The stalls have no windows to the outside, and no opening through which a horse may put his head outside the stall. Bars form the entry side of the stall, all other walls are solid, meaning, no horse can see outside his stall other than through the bars on the front.

Yet, on Copple’s website, you see this fuzzy picture (one which I can find no one to credit.)

   

This picture taken in the 'old' barn shows an Appaloosa with his head out of his stall, able to watch the world go by. It doesn't reflect reality, but it does make for a prettier picture, clipped from the trainers website.

Do you see a horse with his head out, looking at the world? Of course not. This is the real policy for the barns. 

  I used to board a horse in this barn.  At no time was any horse ever allowed to place his head out the window, so to speak, or over the French door, into the aisle. The owner, Eric Rosa, forbade that.We were threatened with banishment if we even dared to open the window to the stall.
 

 The barn where these stalls are is NOT the Copple show barn. This picture is of the 'old' barn, leased to the second trainer. Copple has no horses in this barn. But it is prettier than the 'new' barn. But then, if you look at either one of the websites, there are no other pictures on Copple's (or Bordeaux's website)of the interior of either barn other than the fuzzy one with the Appaloosa. 

   But I have some. I took one on a lovely September day when there was no training going on. An acquaintance of mine (who knew I used to board at Bordeaux)  was considering sending her horse to Copple for training, and as she is out of state, asked me to check on the conditions before she contracts. "It looks like a really nice place," she said, 'and I want to make sure I get what I pay for." Wellllllllllll, here you go, my friend.

The  weather was perfect. Not a single horse in training was outside. Not one. Despite the lovely day, every stall had a horse in it. Many of the horses were blanketed, as you can see below, despite the fact that the temperature was a nice 70° F.

  Here are some pictures I took of the Copple barn. It is clean, very clean and neat. These folks are pros, used to showing all over the country and it shows. The stalls, though small, do have bedding, unlike what we boarders had to put up with when Eric Rosa, the owner, decided to run us out. 

 Do you see any horse heads? No, despite the fact that every stall has an occupant. These pictures were taken on a lovely Saturday.  The horses are not turned out in the advertised 'roomy paddocks”.

A row of caged horses.

Interior of Copple's barn on a lovely, warm Saturday afternoon. Clean, yes. See the caged horses?

Look at all the room for turn out. That's Copple's barn in the distance. See your horse out there? No? It's in the barn on a lovely day in September. You can't see the fences, but most of this area is cross fenced with roomy paddocks.

More turn out paddocks, unused. The barn, above, is full of horses in cages, too.

Roomy paddocks for turn out? Oh, they exist. There's a LOT of them. They have not had a horse turned out in them in at least a year. 

 At NO TIME is a horse in the training stable allowed outside. There are several paddocks-at least two dozen, if not more-for turn out but no horse is in them. I took pictures of some of them. Do you see any horses in them? No? The photos were taken on a lovely Saturday afternoon. No horses outside in the sunshine. Just because there are turnout paddocks doesn’t mean your horse actually gets out into one. It just doesn’t happen.

There are no windows that allow a horse to see outside. There are a few skylights in the new barn to lighten the gloom, but not enough to provide natural light for the horses. This is fixed, though, by lights being on 24/7 during the winter. 
This isn't good for a horse. Like a human, horses need darkness in which to get sleep. Melatonin, the ‘sleep’ hormone, is only secreted when there is no artificial light, or sunlight. Any sort of light in the barn keeps horses from getting good or enough sleep. This results in stress, and low level stress is far more deleterious to a horse than a sudden spike and then release from the stressor.

The so called professional trail course, at one time, was most definitely a good one, with challenges to novice and advanced horses alike. It has been allowed to fall into disrepair as no one uses it. Of course not. These are show horses, not trail horses.

Spacious matted stalls are not very spacious, but are matted with bedding. Not a lot, but it is better than rubber. 
 

Pleasant atmosphere between boarders and staff? Huh. The staff consists of Eric Rosa, the owner, and any atmosphere between him and the many boarders he had was toxic. He despised us.

 Now, there are only three people left from the days when it was a boarding facility. I would say that out of 70 or so stalls available, only four horses are owned by boarders…and those horses live OUTSIDE. They are not in the barns. At all.

When the boarders were in the barn, this is what we were suddenly subjected to:

Isn't this comfy?? Get used to it, owner. This is what Eric Rosa did to us.

This is a stall that the owner was paying over $450 a month for. When people complained about the scanty amount of sawdust, they were told by Eric Rosa, the owner (Copple is NOT the owner) that if they didn’t like it they could leave.

They did. It was what he wanted.

Full board suddenly went up $500.  Bang, just like that. Was it because he improved things? No. In fact everything went downhill. 
His next step was the feed. He stopped providing the grass hay you see in the corner. 

The hay he provided was NOT the hay you see in the corner of the above picture. What Rosa began to provide was what he called a ‘compressed’ flake. Compressed hay is merely grass that has been squashed into a tiny flake, 2/3rds smaller than a regular flake of hay, and banded with plastic. Being squashed saves space but does not add bulk to a horse’s stomach. Nor does it provide much in the way of nutrition. It’s like a corn flake. Once it's been crushed into  crumbs, can you eat it? Plus, you cannot see what is IN the flake. Is it grass hay? Alfalfa? Or weeds? In Rosa’s opinion, a flake of hay was a flake of hay. Not to the horses. They were hungry, still ravenous after this ‘flake’ of ‘hay’ was tossed into the stall. We complained. That didn't set well with Rosa. How dare we bitch, no matter how much money we paid him. He had a hissy fit. We owners didn't understand hay (despite the fact that he's never been a hay farmer). 

Then there was the case of feed. Most of us paid more money for our horses to be fed oats.  
 Rosa stopped providing oats and brought in a cheapo pelleted ‘ration’. What was in the pellets? I dunno. Mostly corn, I suspect. It smelled like dog food and went rancid quickly.  Rosa got it on the cheap. He did not lower the board for substituting cheap pellets and lousy hay. The sawdust..instead of shavings..saved him a lot of money. Rubber mats were fine for horses.  This sawdust-no more than a shovel full-was what the boarders' horses would be bedded on from now on.  We complained. Rosa did not like it. How DARE we complain! He didn't like a bunch of women calling him out for the stingy, smirking fraud he is.   

What he was doing was breaking the contracts of his boarders, knowing most couldn’t afford to hire a lawyer to sue his ass for breach of contract. (although I have a really good one who has successfully prosecuted a lot of jerks like Rosa for fraud.) He wanted the boarders out of the barn but didn’t have the ethics or courage to tell people they would have to leave. He is a fraud, an oily, smarmy punk.  He wanted Copple in his bed, and by god, he was going to run everyone out so it could happen.  

 He did that to his help, as well. Suddenly his barn managers…who had run the place for years, and turned it into a first class facility-were suddenly demoted to ‘renters’. They’d done tons of work for him that he’d never compensated them for. They lived onsite and took care of the business for him.
     But Copple was bringing his own team with him, so suddenly the Barn Managers were excess to Rosa. One day they were managers, the next they were ‘renters.’ Oh and here is your 90 day notice to vacate the premises!

He hired a young girl, just barely 18, to be his manager (at minimum wage).  His help had their hours cut to the point where it cost them more in gas money to come to work than he paid them…and he was never on time with his paycheck. The help quit, which was what Rosa had intended. By quitting, Rosa didn’t have to pay them unemployment. He kept one man…an immigrant, to take care of all the horses by himself. I don't know if the girl quit, but I do know the one man is still there. He takes care of 65 horses all by himself. Why doesn't Rosa hire more help? He's a cheapskate.

To return to atmosphere: when Copple first moved horses in, he began bringing them one by one into the arena. We would be riding in the arena. Don’t worry, he said, you can ride in the arena while we are training, it’s good for the show horses to have others around it. But then he began insisting on things like: don’t canter. Don’t lunge your horse. Absolutely no jumping. I want to keep the arena gate open.  Anyone whose horse was a gate hound took it as an invitation to bolt out. 

The covered arena was the prime reason there were so many boarders in the first place. We found that our $500 didn’t pay for arena time anymore. It was nibbled away by Copple. First it was, oh, you can ride in the covered arena anytime. Then it was, well, only when we aren’t training a horse in it. (when you have at least 60 horses, that doesn’t leave much time.)  Then it became, only after 6 PM, and now it is only after 6 PM on weekends.

Do you see this strategy? Little by little, paying boarders had their contracted rights cut out, without actually renegotiating the contract.

Spacious tack room?

One. There used to be two. Now only one. Unheated.

Outdoor arena? You can see it in the picture with the captions. It is heavy going and when it rains, which it does often, the arena floods and STAYS flooded. Rosa had promised to put in drains but that never happened.

Despite the web ads, Eros Bordeaux is no longer a boarding facility. Boarders are not being accepted. Even haul-ins are no longer invited (so much for the pleasant atmosphere). IF you can find a time to haul in, it’s $20.

So there you have it. Take a long look at the Copple training facility and understand that the ad does not actually promise you anything. Again, I am not saying that Copple cannot train horses...he can, if his website is any indication.

 But your horse will not be turned out. I cannot say he will be getting the best in hay or feed. He will be in a cage for 23 hours a day.   Understand that your horse will not be treated as anything but a living bicycle. Eros Bordeaux is not a horse barn.  

It is a prison camp for horses.

Caveat emptor.

When one horse for sale is really two.

   I recently saw the following ad on Craig's List. I have dedacted the contact information as I don't know if what I am doing is legal or not. Besides, I don't want these folks figuring out who I am.

   In addition, I have left in all misspellings and grammatical errors. This one isn't as bad as some I've seen on Craigslist, but it is fairly typical. I will try to insert it in the original font but that, too, may not work:

For Sale:  Gentle Giant, 17 hand Appaloosa cross gelding. $1500 No papers. Zeke has been there done that. Done it all. Sort cattle, trail riding, packing, western showmanship equitation. Big babysitter. Put your 2 year old kid on him no problem. Great for beginners. No vices, big dog personality, baths, shoes, UTD on shots. Trailers great he is point and shoot. No spook.

It is true he is just coming off ingury but heals fast and should be good for whatever you want to do with him. Tons of potental. 18 years old lots of life still in him. He needs a job to do and we are getting out of horses.

Zeke comes with everything. Newer saddle bridle, grooming,  pasture buddy, blankets and cooler. $1500 cash takes him home. Need gone ASAP.

Call XXX-XXX-XXXX

   Sorry, folks, but it didn't work. Blogger doesn't like to switch fonts. Just take my word for it, I'd cut and pasted the ad from Craig's List in their font and it came through in mine. 

   Anyway, if you're a speed reader, slow down and read it again. I have seen over the years that folks do not read the craigslist ads, no matter how clearly you word it. They just don't read it. This, I'm sure, is what the seller of Zeke is counting on.

   Did you catch it?

   This is not an ad for a horse. This is an ad for TWO horses. One is named "Zeke". The other...well, the pasture buddy is another horse.

  Yes.

   I called the seller, not because I wanted the horse (no way) but to ask her what did she mean by "pasture buddy"? What is this pasture buddy? What, a goat?

No, the pasture buddy is a full grown horse. He is 25 years old. Blind in one eye. Cannot be ridden. Is on ''meds", whatever those might be. He's the sweetest thing, just a doll baby, won tons of ribbons on 'the gaming circuit'. Gentle as a lamb.  He and Zeke are (this isn't how the seller pronounced it, but I don't mispell purposefully) inseparable. He's just a pasture buddy. He's free. Can't I  understand that? They don't want Zeke to be lonely, nor the pasture buddy. They've been buds for ten years.  Zeke is this incredible horse, I mean super. There isn't a better horse on the planet. He's a bargain, he's a sacrifice at 1500 bucks. He is worth  much much more but a good home was more important than money, know what I mean? Newer saddle, all that stuff, they can meet today with me if I want. Maybe they'll cut it down to $1200. There's illness in the family, they have to get out of the horse business. He needs to be gone as soon as possible. (that phrase, 'needs gone' just grinds my ass.)

    So I'm getting a bargain?? Two horses for the price of one?  The second horse is a 'thing',  included with the accoutrements, like tack and grooming tools?

   Whoa. That's no bargain. That's getting two horses. There's no such thing as a 'free' horse. No matter the purchase price, the second horse costs just as much as the first. Board for TWO. Farrier for TWO. Vets for TWO. Hay, feed, shots, pasture, for two.  

  That, I'm sure, is part of their problem. 

   Why didn't she advertise it as two horses, one free, one for sale. She didn't tell me the truth. I gathered it just from one conversation, through intuition (as her story changed three times while I talked to her.) This is a woman who is desperately trying to unload the second horse. He can't be ridden and needs doctoring, so he's pretty much unsellable-and expensive. Years ago, he  and Zeke would have probably gone to the auction (and probably on to the meat man), but that's no longer legal in the US. So he can't be sold. 

   Maybe they tried to, but I bet the thing is that Zeke is herd bound.

That's no crime in and of itself- herd bound horses probably make good pack horses, for instance. Herd boundedness (sic) is natural equine behavior, honestly. It's how horses live in the wild.

 I wouldn't ever have a herd bound horse, but there are folks who have no problems with it. But the seller should state this.  

    And, despite her subterfuge, I cannot believe she'd just have the horse(s) put down, not for no reason. I don't know a veterinarian that will put down a healthy animal solely because the owner no longer wants it. 

    To give her a little credit, she hasn't dumped the horse(s), like so often happened right after the Crash of 2008, when horses were being dumped in the thousands because the owners had lost their homes.

   She mentioned that they'd sold Zeke (for a lot more money)  and then "had to go get him back" because the new owner 'abused him' and 'that's how he got hurt".  She kept assuring me that he'd be good to go in 'just a few weeks'. 

   It just irritated me that this woman knew enough about human nature to know (well, as natural as reading ads on Craigslist can be considered) that most people don't read, and knew that if she could get a sucker in to look at Zeke, she might just pull off getting rid of both horses at once. Yet, she couldn't-or refuses- to see how galling her gig is. It's rude. It's being 'clever'. It's chutzpah.
She is counting on the average horse shopper to be stupid. Or perhaps she wants a kid to fall in love with the horse and demand it no matter the consequences.

   Her story changed three times while I was talking to her. They were getting out of horses. Did that mean they had more than just the two, or had had a bunch and these were the last? I don't know. But then there was 'illness in the family', then it was they took the horse back because the new owner abused him. I bet the new owner-if there truly was one,  said, no thanks, I don't want two horses, just one; managed to get Zeke home only to find him insane, or lame, or un-useable without his buddy, and returned the horse. 

   I mentioned that she might want to put the horse(s) on Dream Horse. Maybe someone out there DOES want two horses, one unusable and one almost healed up. But I wasn't surprised when she scoffed and said Dream Horse wanted too much money to advertise him. Besides there were 'too many people just wanted to look and not buy.' So...she wants a fool to come in, fork over the money and get these  horses off her hands.

   So, as is always the case, Caveat Emptor.