Carroll's Site

This message is for everyone interested in Equines.Feel free to respond to this Blog.

Please Crosspost!

If you are considering adopting a horse from Habitat for Horses or have adopted one, please be very, very careful. Have an attorney review your contract and listen carefully to the advice he will give you. Habitat for Horses WILL come and take your horses whether the adoption contract is final

or not, they even go as far as coming on your property and just taking the horses without a court order as required by law.

The legality of the adoption contracts is very questionable and most likely would not hold up in a regular court. Habitat for Horses will file a breach of contract in the Justice of the Peace Court in Santa Fe, Texas (only 4  miles from Hitchcock where Habitat for Horses has its ranch) and you will not stand a chance to win the case. The Judge will rule against you whether you have evidence or not and you better be prepared to pay for a high appeal bond if you want to challenge the judgment and move it to another court in

Galveston County and then continue on until you get to an unbiased court even so the venue in reality should not have been in Galveston County in the first place. It should be in the county where the defendant lives. My attorney asked for a change of venue and Judge Nelson denied it. He ordered

mediation and appointed a mediator. He stated that if we could not come to an agreement through mediation HE WILL hear the case that day irregardless what time it may be. My attorney said he had never witnessed anything like this in his 30 years of practicing law.

I adopted four horses from Habitat for Horses, three still under the olLone Star Equine Rescue contract and one under the Habitat for Horses

contract.The Lone Star contracts all are finalized contracts, the Habitat one would be final in April 2008. I have complied with all the clauses in said contracts, never changed my contact information and send an email to inform them about moving my horses from one location to another. In July my

property flooded and I had to evacuate my horses from one minute to the next(which is ok according to the contract).  Only a few days after that I received a call from Connie Carmichael wanting to schedule the 18 month follow up inspection for my horses. I readily complied and told her what had happened and where she could find the horses and to let me know when they wanted to come and do the inspection. Just few days after that Connie Carmichael, Lauri Barr and another Lady showed up at the location we

evacuated to with a trailer and a letter from Jerry Finch stating that they are authorized to pick up my horses. Fortunately the horses did not load for them and they actually came back the next day wanting to do the same thing again only this time we were there and had to get a sheriff to let them know that they needed to get a court order.  They left and we moved the horses out of fear that they may try and steal them again.

Jerry Finch filed suit against us for breach of contract because we moved the horses during an emergency situation without written notification to Habitat for Horses and it was made very clear to me by the mediator that if

we will not come to an agreement by 5:00pm the judge will hear the case and I will loose ALL my horses. I do not feel like I was given much of a choice..the whole thing felt like it had been decided long before I even stepped in the room and when I walked out of that building I had lost three wonderful, precious members of my family. To add insult to injury I am now expected to deliver these three horses to the ranch in Hitchcock next weekend.

Natasha my beautiful Arabian has been with us since August of 2004 and is my four year old granddaughter's horse. Those two love each other dearly. How am I going to tell her what happened? It will break her little heart!

Nigel who had been so badly abused that everybody thought he would never ever find his forever home. We took him in and he found peace, he started trusting again feeling safe. I promised him he would never ever have to go away. Jerry Finch is making me break that promise.

Noel is 26 years old and came to us on Christmas Eve 2004; he had a really bad case of pneumonia and would have died without care. Both his front knees have severe bone remodeling. He had a hard tough life until he came to us

and we promised him that he never ever had to work again and could live the rest of his days in peace. It took me over a year to be able to approach him, he now comes galloping up with the rest of the herd when I call for breakfast, finally enjoying human contact again and now I have to break my

promise to him as well.

In my opinion, this is not about the horses.  Jerry Finch, Rebecca Williams,Leyda Campbell and most likely Laura Barr and Connie Carmichael did not consider the horses on Wednesday when they demanded them to be returned to

the organization and warehoused at the ranch after 3 years of being loved and cared for. This was nothing less than wicked, evil, vengeance, getting even with someone that disagreed with them just because they could.

When we got involved in rescue 4 years ago, it was an honorable, good thing;people had the best interest of the horses in mind and worked together for that purpose. What is happening with Habitat for Horses today does not even come close to this anymore. What you have are power hungry people trying toforce their will on others.

It is my understanding that Habitat for Horses is coming out with a new adoption contract that is even more restrictive than the previous ones.Under that contract you have no rights to the horse anymore at all.Basically you are allowed to feed it and care for it and try to keep a low profile hoping you will not come into the cross hairs of any of those in

charge.

Please help me get the word out to make sure that other horses will not have to be forced away from the families they love. Do not adopt a horse from them, do not volunteer for them and if you are considering joining a rescue, check around, there are many others that are honest and sincere in their attempt to help horses. Habitat for Horses has lost that. :-(

Sincerely,

This is a true story and the victim chooses to remain anonymous.