A bit shocked this morning as it seems one of the industries elite outfits has become the topic of many accusations of abuse and neglect. This is super sad. For anyone who would want to help, Angela Festervan is organizing some things on her facebook profile.

Shameful to say the least. 

So sad, I sure hope these horses get the help they need and SOON!!  Shame on her!!

Just Terrible!!

How in the heck does this happen!? Hard times fall sometimes, and this is a very large operation but she should have cried uncle a long time ago. I am reading that she is still asking very high prices for these animals despite their terrible physical condition. One even quoting her as saying something along the lines of "They'll die here before I sell them cheap".  HOW HEARTLESS and STUPID.  

Don't some top name barrel racers ride their horses? or at leaset hash tag Dufer Quarter Horses in posts? 

If you cant feed it, dont breed it.   They refuse to reduce prices to reduce numbers.  I feel bad for the animals but giving them money is just going to perpetuate the problem.  

They own 2 stallions that have been to the NFR.  Guys French Jet and Dash Ona Drifter.  

Ganter's own Guys French Jet 

There's going to be a lot of big names stained by this... No matter if they were aware/involved or not. 

You are right, my mistake.  Gantors appear to be good friends that stood him there for years.  

They parted ways awhile back & the horse has been on the road with her a huge majority of that time. According to those who have seen first hand things began going south last spring, so chances are he was already pulled from breeding season & back on the road. She probably hasn't been on the property since. There's a lot of people that are going to get drug into this who had nothing to do with it and it would be very easy for some of them to have no clue what was going on there 

what made them elite? 

Money

It truly is heartless, and just no excuses for it. It just guts me to see this, with any animal. She should be way past being allowed to make any decisions for them, at this point in time, and should be led off in handcuffs, and charged with animal abuse/neglect. How could anyone aware of this happening, be silent about it??? This is not an overnight situation. 

I've been reading through all this mess on facebook. Apparently people who have bought horses have had to go through the Defur's bank to get the registration papers, so it seems that these horses are mortgaged somehow. Apparently they have over 400 horses on their property - HOLY COW! I have seen a few posts on facebook where people are pointing fingers at the barrel racing trainers/riders who are associated with the Defurs. That doesnt seem fair at all. Per the Defur Quarter Horses webpage, they have been raising horses since the 1970s and they were into cow horses long before any barrel horses stepped on that ranch. Only they can be blamed for starving their animals. Sad situation and I hope the horses get out soon. 

it's mor fair than you would like to believe

and money doesn't make you elite

Just because you ride for them or train for them doesn't mean you ever have to step foot on the property. If the horses she's bringing to them look decent, you're not going to have any idea of what's going on there. You're just going to feed it a little better while you've got it until whoever comes to pick it up. 

Anyone with their hand in this operation, is accountable for this. Not all the finger pointing is wrong.

1dsoon - That was tongue in cheek

If I were a professional, I would know who I was linking my name to. If I wasn't familiar with them I would ask around. I would find out. Wait, I do that now as an every day person. 

 I am not saying the owners are. There are several horses there who I would consider elite.

That I agree with 100%

be careful who you defend. 

Anyone know the definition of consortium?

Consortium - an agreement, combination, or group (of companies) formed to undertake an enterprise beyond the resources of any one member.

There is a Ganter & Dufur Consortium, LLC.

Now common sense would tell us that if you know someone well enough to go into a business dealing with them, to the extent you form an LLC, you probably know more than you are admitting.

Ok your majesty, whatever you say. You're top dog on the planet, know everything about anything, I always seem to forget that 

I just hope they come to their senses. They have 170ish advertised on the website alone!!! So many nice ones and it's really horrific. I hope they consider a dispersal sale. I dont condone their actions and I'd guess some big risks were taken to get them into a hole this deep. I pray they sell some. I inquired.

He11 hath frozen over. I can't believe I've agreed with 1D Soon twice in one week. 

Update by Angela Festervan on facebook:

"The authorities found no evidence of starving horses at Dufur. There was evidence that trucks and trailers had been in and out of fields where it was apparent that horses had been recently contained and emptied. In other words, there was a major clean up and no one knows to where those animals have been moved. The horses that were found there were underweight but had been given hay.
The FBI will take it from here and they are fully aware that evidence has been intentionally hidden.
Local law enforcement has done all that they will do."

Absolutely shameful. I hope Teri Dufur and anyone who helped her move these horses rots in jail.

I read that this agreement basically is a way of formally partnering on a horse.

Also if you don't have facebook, it has been discovered that a large group of horses on the Dufur are mortgaged, and the bank holds their papers. Further complicating the efforts to purchase or move animals from there.

Plus the fact that they have all been moved from the farm yesterday.   

So they say on FB.  Which means anything can be true or fake. 

I'm thinking so far in debt that they have no money to purchase feed. Bank says what a horse's papers can be released for, but people are not willing to buy for that price. If a horse does sell, the money goes straight to the bank, so they still have no money to purchase feed. Now for the horses not up for collateral, I do not know. 

This is all, of course, speculating and still does not make the situation any less horrific. 

My thought, if they're not feeding the animals, I bet they're not making their payments to the bank. Makes me wonder, how far behind are they, why hasn't the bank stepped in and taken their collateral? 

It also shocked to me to know a bank took the horses as collateral.  

As a side conversation, I once had to repo about 30 hd of TB's from an old guy.  Luckily we had also just foreclosed on a 50 acre pasture, so we had a place to keep them and feed them.  We worked to sell the one's that were young enough to do something with, but most ended up going to the kill buyer.  It's a lose lose for everyone involved.  

So how does one file a lien on horse papers? I work for a bank and we can file on brands so with cattle this works great as when they go through the sale yard, the check has to be written to both the Bank and the cattle owner. We have taken horses as collateral, but if they aren't branded and if the sale is private, there is no way to stop the animal from being sold. This is why we rarely take them as collateral. A UCC will not stop a private sale or transfer of papers and some people don't care about the papers so don't care about them. The Bank probably doesn't want anything to do the the horses.

The bank would hold the registration papers with a signed(unprocessed) transfer, also file a UCC and CFS, at least here in Utah.  I've done quite a bit of it on higher dollar horses.  

https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/does-bancorpsouth-bank-have-a-collateralized-horse-obligation-eb94b07a7c03

EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS 

The writer of this article is Jud Little's son. He is an investigative journalist. Well done.

There is nothing in this article that wasn't already on FB.  What is the point of this article??

Everywhere on my facebook has been quiet about it for days until this article started circulating today. But the stuff I've seen was more on the Durfur's doings and less on the banks involved & their background. This article is mostly just about the banks & what they've got going on, so I think it's just trying to shed more light on that aspect than anything 

I guess I didnt see much about the banks on facebook. From what I gathered from the article is their financial status isnt great right now either. 

It sure is disappointing that nothing is being done. Nice horses who could have much better lives. I have tried calling, texting and emailing with no luck. 

This bank had net income of $234 Million in 2019 with an ROA of 1.23%, well capitalized and growing at 20% a year.  This is a very healthy bank.  I'm mad as heck at Durfurs but this bank has nothing to do with the problem and isn't struggling as the article is trying to state.  This is a very stupid article.  

I wont lie, math and those numbers had my head swimming. I guess I was taking that the bank was struggling and therefore, it didnt seem like much action was being taken by the bank. I wonder if they have any options? I just want the dang horses to get sold. 

My only comment on this topic: Unless you have been a part of successfully getting a horse out of there in any facet, you have no idea just how twisted things are, nor whom is jumping through hoops to have made things happen

I think this stems from a disgruntled employee. The ultimate goal of the situation is to get the horses removed or changes made in the feeding program. When horses were apparently removed some people had very negative remarks about that. This ranch has some horses listed for sale that are on the lean side but certainly not staving.  The pictures of horses in stalls have no explanation. There are quite a few really well known barrel racing trainers located in proximity to this ranch and I have not seen anything posted by them. I have seen several threats that have been posted but if the sheriff's Dept in that county does not feel there is a problem, I don't think threats are going to be very effective.   

I personally dont like what I have seen/heard even from some of the "well known barrel racers." With that said, I would just like to see something happen. When they ignore all calls, texts, emails... I think there is something going on.

I would expect them to have said something by now.