Horse neglect Springboro, OH (US) Incident Date: Friday, Oct 31, 2003 County: Warren Local Map: available Disposition: Convicted Case Images: 12 files available Abusers/Suspects: » Chris Osborne » Sherrie Osborne - Dismissed Case Updates: 2 update(s) available

Case ID: 1986 Classification: Neglect / Abandonment Animal: horse View more cases in OH (US) Login to Watch this Case

Barbera Spitzner was home Nov. 17, awaiting the delivery of two horses from Ohio that she and her husband, Phil, were to take care of temporarily.

Based on a telephone conversation she had two days earlier with Todd Moone, a South Dakota horse hauler with whom she contracted to move the horses to New Jersey, Spitzner was bracing for a problem. Moone had told her he arrived that day at Hunter Haven Farm in Springboro, Ohio, and found the thoroughbred geldings in poor shape, Spitzner said.

"What he told me was, 'I have your horses,' but he tells me, 'I can't be responsible if they don't make it to New Jersey,' " said Spitzner, 45.

The horses are owned by the Spitzners' son, Daniel, 20, and his companion, Laura Freeman, 30. Freeman, formerly of Farmingdale, and Spitzner, formerly of Jackson, live together in Ellicott City, Md.

When Freeman and Daniel Spitzner, both employed in the horse industry, relocated from Ohio to Maryland, they arranged to keep the horses at Hunter Haven Farm, and later, at the home of Barbera and Phil Spitzner.

When the horses arrived Nov. 17 at her High Street home, Barbera Spitzner saw for herself -- the gray-white Sweet William and the brown Solar were estimated to be half their normal weights of 1,200 and 1,000 pounds, respectively.

"They opened the trailer doors, and (I went) pretty much weak in the knees," said Barbera Spitzner, recalling seeing the horses in the emaciated state for the first time. "You couldn't stop saying, 'Oh, my God.' "

The horses' ribs, spine and hindquarter bones were clearly visible, poking into the hide.

In a Nov. 18 letter to the Warren County (Ohio) Humane Association, Daniel P. Keenan of Bordentown said the horses' condition reflected "one of the worst cases of neglect" he had seen in his 20 years of practicing veterinary medicine.

"Both are severely emaciated, with essentially zero body fat being present and extremely severe muscle wasting," Keenan wrote.

Using the Body Mass Index (BMI) of 1 to 9 -- with 5 being average and 9 obese -- Keenan concluded the horses "scored a 1 or less."

"They had zero body fat," said Phil Spitzner, 52. "They were living on muscle."

Keenan also found the horses to be suffering from the skin infection "rain rot" and cellulitis, an infection of soft tissue, in the limbs.

Now, the horses are recovering, gaining weight on a diet of feed and hay, according to the Spitzners.

"They're doing great," Barbera Spitzner said.

The Spitzners blame Hunter Haven Farm, operated by Chris and Sherrie Osborne, for the horses' condition. They said it seems the horses were not fed and cared for properly.

Earlier this month, Chris and Sherrie Osborne each were charged with two counts of cruelty to animals, said Investigator Mark Duvelius of the Warren County Prosecutor's Office in Ohio.

The charge, a misdemeanor, carries a maximum sentence of a $750 fine and 90 days in county jail, Duvelius said. The charges relate to the abuse of Sweet William and Solar between approximately January and November 2003, said Duvelius, declining to go into detail on the case.

Chris Osborne said the horses were already underweight when they arrived at his farm.

Freeman supplied the Osbornes with a high-fat supplement to feed the horses, but that ran out.

"It's up to the owners to pay for that, anything beside hay and grain," Chris Osborne said. "My responsibility was to clean that stall, give these horses water, grain and hay."

Chris Osborne said the horses had plenty of hay, water and pasture. "The owner has neglected these horses, not me," said Chris Osborne, adding that he had trouble reaching Freeman after she and Daniel Spitzner left Ohio. "I have nothing to hide," Chris Osborne said.

But only the Osbornes are charged, and Duvelius said no one else is to be charged.

Freeman said she asked Chris Osborne to feed the two horses a higher-grade feed, but he de-clined to do that.

"If my $275 a month for each horse could not cover that (higher-grade feed), I'm getting robbed," Freeman said, adding the money should have been enough to include higher-grade feed for each horse.

"There was no good answer for a horse to be in that condition," Phil Spitzner said.

Freeman has owned Solar, 24, since she was a child. Sweet William, which Freeman bought a few years ago in New Jersey, is 16. Barbera and Phil Spitzner gave the following account:

In September 2002, Freeman and Daniel Spitzner, who work in the horse-racing industry as riders and trainers, moved to Ohio. That same month, Free-man shipped both horses to Ohio from a Jackson farm where she had worked.

By the end of 2002, Freeman boarded the two horses at the Osbornes' farm. Freeman and Daniel Spitzner had known Chris Osborne from another Ohio farm, where the three worked, Osborne as a farrier.

In February 2003, the couple moved to Maryland to work at Bowie Training Center, a thor-oughbred training facility, tem-porarily leaving behind Free-man's horses and another two owned by Daniel Spitzner. All four horses were at the Os-bornes' Hunter Haven Farm.

In March, Daniel Spitzner moved his two horses to his parents' home. He eventually sold his thoroughbred and moved his quarter horse to Maryland.

"I feel guilty because I trusted someone," Freeman said. "I feel guilty; I should have never left them. He's (Chris Osborne) got his own horses that look great. 'What were you trying to do, kill them?'"

Freeman said she sometimes was late in her monthly pay-ment of $275 per horse. But she said she always made the pay-ment.

"I've got copies of every check," Freeman said. "I mean, if he never heard from me, I'm sure they could consider it abandonment. But he always heard from me."

In November, Moone, who owns EquineLimoExpress.com in Rapid City, S.D., was to move Freeman's horses to Jackson. At Hunter Haven Farm, he found the emaciated horses, according to the Spitzners.

"My first thought was, 'These horses are going to die because they're so starved,' " Moone said. "He had told me the horses were a little thin, but they weren't a little thin, they were starving to death."

Other horses at Osborne's farm appeared OK, Moone said.

"It's good for the horses they were picked up because they probably would have starved there," Phil Spitzner said.

But, in terms of justice, the evidence -- the horses -- left the Ohio farm, Phil Spitzner said.

"Nobody was there to check on them," said Barbera Spitzner, regarding Freeman and her son not being in Ohio to keep an eye on the horses. "But I didn't expect them to be in the condition they were in. I didn't imag-ine it was that bad."

The Spitzners praised Moone for picking up the horses and delivering them safely to New Jersey.

"This guy's our hero," Barbera Spitzner said.

On the trip to New Jersey, according to Moone, he stopped every two hours to nurse the horses. Moone said it took "quite a lot of extra work to get them son of a guns" to New Jersey in a reasonable state of health.

Moone said he reported the sit-uation to the Humane Association in Warren County, Ohio.

Both horses could be permanently injured from the ordeal, Freeman said. But the plan remains for Sweet William and Solar to eventually reunite with her in Maryland.

"I don't want them out of my sight, ever again," Freeman said.

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