Beaming's story
Rescued by Equine Advocates from the Timonium MD auction in Spring 2002, and temporarily living at Hog Heaven in Cochranton, PA, Beaming met a tragic death due to the negligence of Regina and David. Beaming and three herd mates were temporarily living at Hog Heaven and being supported by Equine Advocates, the organization that owned them. They were supposed to be living in a pasture with a run in shed simply because the old barn on the property had low ceilings, and Regina had stated that she did not want to give any of the horses access to that structure. They kept pigs and goats in that barn, but all of the horses were using sheds for shelter.
At some point, without notification to, nor permission from Equine Advocates, Beaming and her three herd mates were given access by either Regina or David to the old barn. On Tuesday, June 4, 2002, Beaming hit her head hard on one of the low beams when inside the barn. Regina waited two days to call the vet, and three days to tell me about the injury. She only told me, because when her boyfriend, David, dropped off tack at my house on Friday, June 7, he said to me, "Oh, by the way, one of your mares hit her head. She's pretty bad headache. Did you know she's blind in one eye?" I asked which mare. He had no clue. I told him none of them were blind, and if she appears to be blind, that the injury was obviously severe. He brushed it off and left. I immediately called Regina. She told me that the mare was falling down and "seizing" and couldn't hold her head up. She was bawling on the phone, but hadn't done a damn thing to help the horse. She had her vet, Dr. Spencer, out on Thursday, but had not taken his advice. I asked her which horse it was. She said she didn't know. Now, all of these horses were bay, but each had distinctive markings and if, even after them being there four months, she still didn't know "who" was "who", I would have thought she'd have checked the coggins at some point in the last three days to find out. Wouldn't you want to know which horse had sustained a life threatening injury at your farm...especially when it belonged to someone else? I immediately called the attending vet. Dr. Spencer of Cochranton Veterinary Clinic. Dr. Spencer told me personally, that as soon as he saw the mare the previous day, he had advised Regina to take her to a clinic as he was certain she had sustained a skull fracture and he was not equipped to deal with such an injury. He said the seizures were most likely due to edema in her brain. I then called Regina, and left a voice message stating I'd be over with truck and trailer to pick her up and take her to a clinic in Ohio.
I immediately received a phone call from David in which he said that I was not permitted to enter the property to take her to a clinic. I asked if he was taking her and he said, "No. She's not going anywhere until she can hold her head up and stand." How stupid is that statement? I received an email shortly after that conversation which was an order against trespass. I couldn't get an appointment with an attorney for over a week. Neither one of these people did anything right for this mare. They did not listen to their vet's advice, and would not let me take this mare to another veterinarian for treatment. Why? Probably because they didn't want to be held responsible for negligence - who knows... So, Beaming suffered at their hands for six horrendous days. The following Monday night, they call Greener Pastures because she is down again. He was two hours away. There are six other vets in the area that do farm calls. They refused to call any of them. Around 10 pm Dr. Brian Nogay of Greener Pastures finally arrived there. He called me from their property. He said she sustained massive trauma to her head, and that she couldn't stand. She was thrashing in pain. I asked him if we could get her onto a trailer and get her to Ohio State what her chances were. He said less than 5% at this point. I then asked him, in tears, what her chances would have been if she had been treated immediately and he said better than 70%. It wasn't fair to Beaming to put her through any more at this point. I asked him to let her leave this earth quietly. She is now in heaven watching over her comrade, Defenses Down.
Shortly after this episode, we removed all of the horses we had at their property and have not had any dealings with them since. Equine Advocates did not pursue legal action. When we removed the other horses from their property, David attempted to blame her death on West Nile Virus even though I spoke with two veterinarians who said it was a skull fracture and edema.