Auction Horses Getting a Second Chance Again

The Camelot auction and networking to find homes for unsold horses are back in action. On another front, settlement of lawsuits involving the Sussex County Horse Show does not answer all the questions about its future.

Networking to save horses from slaughter is back on track for the Camelot auction in Cranbury after sales there were stopped for several months.

Camelot owners Monica and Frank Carper earlier this month leased the horse part of their auction to another dealer so it could resume in the wake of an impasse with the state Department of Agriculture on renewal of their license.

The state maintains its animal health regulations weren't being properly followed by Camelot and refused to issue the license; Monica Carper disputes the state's contention. The matter is scheduled to go before an administrative court judge in May, but Carper would like to get the license renewed before then.

"If they had sat down with us, we could have cleared all this up a long, long time ago," she believes.

For the past two years, the Camelot Horse Weekly on Facebook has been the go-to source in an effort to prevent horses who aren't sold during the auction from being shipped to slaughter. Camelot held the horses post-auction, and people who saw their photos on line would buy them. Carper estimated some 2,000 horses had escaped slaughter in this fashion.

Animals elsewhere who are less lucky are shipped to Canada and Mexico,where horses are slaughtered for human consumption, with most of the meat going overseas. There have been no plants slaughtering horses for that purpose in this country since 2006 because government inspection of slaughterhouses was defunded at that time. New legislation, however, authorized inspections and there are discussions in several states about starting new slaughter facilities.

During the time the sales weren't held in Cranbury, many horses who otherwise might have gone to Camelot were auctioned at New Holland in Pennsylvania, where there was no similar program to save them.

Trainer Lisa Post of Helping Hearts Equine Rescue in Monmouth County was a Camelot regular through the last sale in December, helping to find homes for horses, but when the Wednesday night sales went dark, she scheduled teaching lessons on those evenings instead. Now she's involved again.

"I have networked the horses the last two weeks; I'm happy to see 30 horses a week getting a second chance at Camelot that they otherwise would not have gotten at New Holland," stated Post.

"Too, too many horses didn't get that chance while Camelot was closed.  Too many horses that would have been consigned to Camelot were run  through New Holland instead, and sold direct to slaughter."

The difficult economy means some owners simply can't afford to feed their horses properly and can no longer keep them, but are unable to sell them or give them away because of the glut on the market. The Carpers had eight horses dumped on their property during the period when the horse sales were not being held. The animals were emaciated. Three were sold in the first sale of 2012; the other five are still being fed in order to get in proper condition.

"People need an outlet for their horses," said Carper, who believes the animals left on her land would have been sold months ago if the auction had kept going. The dumping problem is not just limited to the Camelot site. She said she heard people at the auction last week comment that they had found strange horses in their fields.

"People are getting fairly desperate," she commented.

The horse auctions will continue to be held every Wednesday, said Carper, noting they start about 8:30 p.m. after she and her husband auction off tack, equipment and small animals before the dealer who handles the equines takes over.

Lynne Richmond of the state Department of Agriculture said her agency "is monitoring the new operation at Camelot to determine if they are complying with department regulations.''

ON THE RAIL -- A lawsuit and counter-suit involving the Sussex County Farm and Horse Show and five members of the Sussex County Horse Show committee were settled last week with the resignation of five show committee members, including show president Lucille Pagano, and an agreement by the Farm and Horse Show to pay the departing members' legal fees.

The battle began when the horse show had sought to retain financial control over its competition, but the fair required it to hand over all funds and its checkbooks, as its other departments have done at the fairgrounds in Augusta.

"Our hearts are broken," said Sue Gerber, a former show president and one of the five in the lawsuit, explaining they had to give up the fight because they ran out of money to pay their attorney. Gerber and the others feared the 76-year-old horse show would not continue as the same caliber event, with a $50,000 grand prix and U.S. Equestrian Federation recognition, if the Farm and Horse Show took charge of the purse strings.

Alan Henderson, president of the Farm and Horse Show, referred inquiries about the future of the show to attorney Larry Supp, who handled the court case, which was briefly before a judge before the settlement was reached. Supp said at this point he had no specifics, answering only, "our intention is to keep it going."

Show committee member Ken Okken of Vernon, who plans to stay on, noted there is concern on the circuit about what will happen with Sussex.

"I'm at horse shows every weekend because I'm a judge and steward, and I get that question quite a bit," he said.

But Okken vowed the August show will go on as scheduled, along with the series of benefit shows that precede it.

The show, which is preceded by a weekend of quarter horse competition, is A-rated in the hunters and 4-stars in the jumpers. For many years, it was run by veterinarian Robert "Doc'' Rost. His daughter, trainer Robin Rost Fairclough, is the vice president of operations and remains on the committee with Okken.

"I'm doing it for the horse show and for Doc's legacy," Okken said. "It's 76 years, I'm not going to walk away from it. It can't end like this. I will do everything within my power, and so will Robin, to keep this going forward.''

Added Okken, a former president of the show, "It is our intent to make this show go on, to make any transition as comfortable as we can. I'm the one doing the prizelist and I'm not changing anything, aside from tweaking a few classes."

He noted the major classes already have been advertised, "so I think it would be quite difficult to change that at this point. What is 2013 going to hold? I don't know."

The U.S. Equestrian Federation Olympic show jumping long list has two new names; Beezie Madden with Coral Reef Via Volo and Laura Kraut with Cedric. They join McLain Ward, their 2008 Olympic gold medal teammate on the roster, which exempts them from this week's selection trials in Wellington, Fla. Ward was named with two horses, his 2008 Games mount Sapphire, who hasn't competed in a year, and Antares F. Kraut rode Cedric in the 2008 Olympics, but Madden was on a different horse for those Games.

Up to five horse/rider combinations can be named subjectively to the long list, either before or during the trials, which begin Wednesday in conjunction with the National Jumper Championship, which has not been held since 2008.

ACTIVITIES SCHEDULE

Today: Palermo Winter Festival Show, 1555A Burnt Mills Road, Bedminster; Friends of the Horse Park of N.J. and Youth Council Meeting, Rick's Saddle Shop, 282 Route 539, Cream Ridge (1-3 p.m.); Bit O'Woods Farm Dressage Schooling Show, 2207 Fostertown Road, Hainesport.
Saturday: Princeton Winter Circuit Show, Hunter Farms, 1315 The Great Road, Princeton (through next Sunday); Woodedge at the Park, Horse Park of N.J., Route 524, Allentown (through next Sunday); On Course Winter Show Series, 210 Beaver Run Road, Lafayette (through next Sunday); Changewater Stables Show, 483 Route 519, Stewartsville; Tewksbury Farms Stable Show, Hidden River Farm, 745 Amwell Rd., Neshanic Station (through next Sunday).
Nancy Jaffer may be reached at nancyjaffer@att.net.