Hate Mail

Well inevitably, as this blog becomes a bit more popular, I am getting a LOT more hate mail and nasty comments! I'd like to share some of the most amusing examples with you, and respond to a couple of accusations. I have allowed the following comments to be published, by the way, because I am not only fair-minded enough to allow criticism of myself and this blog... I am also delighted when one of my haters provides me, and you dear readers, with a good chuckle.

 Sometimes I don't approve comments (or "cements") in order to save someone from their own embarrassment. In the heat of the moment it is difficult to spell, or even make sense, and I understand that. However, "your a bog shot" was just too awesome to pass up.

My "A" bog shot, hmm... YES, that's it! This is now the official drink of North Horse! We'll start with lots of sour apple pucker schnapps, for the nice boggy green color and the sour faces of my haters, and because horses love apples (and I love schnapps), add 1 dash amaretto almond liqueur for that scent of cyanide, and top it off with champagne, because hey, let's celebrate the fact that there ARE good horsemen and women out there!
It's the North Horse Bog Shot!

 This next comment becomes really poetic. Strangely, weirdly, beautifully poetic. I think someone was aiming for sarcasm and missed, before ricocheting off of "crazy" and then hitting "cosmic hippy babble."

I love this next comment because it's so ironic. In order to comment on one of my posts, Blogspot requires you to do some fairly annoying bullshit. (Sorry about that.) So someone wasted the time to do that, in order to simply comment:

Barb Thiry of course is the notorious horse abuser you guys helped me raise a fuss about, eventually leading to charges being brought against her. If fighting to get horse abusers jailed is not having a life, I will gladly accept that fate! Usually, I don't bother to click the "allow" button for these types of boring insults. I published this one because, again, there's some delicious irony here. You see,the very next comment I approved was:

 Hah ha hah! I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't, of course.

Seriously though, there's a reason I pick on "backyard breeders" as well as confirmed horse abusers. Aside from usually committing sins of their own (like having barbed wire fences, breaking and breeding too young, not bothering with ultrasounds or vaccines or training, breeding lots more horses when there are already) backyard breeders are very often the reason that people like Barb Thiry get their hands on horses.

Next up, I'd like to address some concerns here:

HAh HA Ahahhaah hah hahh ha ha hah
 "I hope karma bits in in the poo poo"
Ohhh God, the laughing hurts
Ahhhah
Ah, okay, I'm done for now.

Well, beginning at this comment's rational bit, let's talk about the issue of anonymity. 

I don't talk about my "secret identity" much because there are actual scary people out there, animal abusers I've pressured authorities to prosecute, or just wackos, that would like to physically hurt me or my animals. So yeah, I'm not likely to announce my full name and address every time someone casually demands it.

That being said, my "secret identity" is hardly secret! If you're a long-time reader, chances are you know who I am. I've posted pictures of myself and my husband, my art, and my horses. I've talked about my profession. I've attended lots of horse events and participated in rescues and fundraisers where my real name is announced to all and sundry. I will delete comments that have "outed" me (or other people thought to be me) for the express purpose of trying to get people to harass me... but again, my name is hardly a secret.

Maybe that's not quite enough though, considering the hilarious accusation in the comment above, particularly about "not doing anything physical" involving my animals. So I've created a new page called The Author to give folks a bit of my background.

Now let's continue in a serious vein for a moment...

The vast majority of the time, what I write about is pretty much what other people have already advertised about themselves. I just point out how obviously wrong it is, adding a little color commentary to the words and photos that are already out there. 

If you are proudly advertising your stud as HYPP N/H, if you are breeding a bunch of grade horses with poor conformation and keeping them behind barbed wire, if you are dumping your old horse free on Craigslist, if you are using harsh bits on your poor horse... then the problem isn't really my talking about it, is it? No, it's you doing it.

Well that's all I've got for today, folks! I hope you enjoyed the hate. Stay tuned to North Horse for more... Including a look at the Wisconsin Horse Council's controversial stance on the gaited horse abuse scandal.