A NetPosse Christmas Story

A NetPosse Christmas Story
Email, Santa, and Miracles.

By Debi Metcalfe

When a horse owner awakes on a beautiful day just weeks before Christmas to find their cherished horse missing, instead of the joy of the season filling their spirit their heart is broken. After more than a dozen years working missing horses cases I know that bad things happen as often on a holiday as they do every day. But good things happen, too.

Let me tell you the NetPosse Christmas story of 2010, beginning on Friday morning, December 10th..

Early that morning, Shay Cantrell awoke to find her dreams of festive Christmas preparation shattered. Sometime during the night Sonny, a three year-old palomino Haflinger -Morgan gelding went missing from his pasture. No one could explain how Shay’s beloved golden boy Sonny had disappeared. There were no hoofprints found leaving the property.

Stolen Horse International came into existence because one day in 1997 I was in the same circumstances as Shay. Our beloved gray mare, Idaho, went missing. Feelings of victimization, desperation, and helplessness piled on to my loss and consumed my life until Idaho was home again.

Two days after Sonny disappeared I received an email, subject line “Help Missing Horse.” NetPosee.com volunteers began reaching out to Shay Cantrell and her family before my own email note was even sent. One volunteer, Cynthia, told her about Stolen Horse International, NetPosse.com.


All Shay Cantrell wanted for Christmas was Sonny safely back home in his pasture. She filed a report with NetPosse.com but couldn’t pay the fee until after Christmas. Volunteer Angela Kirby, our Executive Coordinator, had been working with Shay since connecting with her on Craigs List. Everything was in place at NetPosse.com but payment.


Our story has plenty of victims as well as an unsung network of caring folks working to help Sonny get home. Stolen Horse International was founded because of the kindness people showed my husband and me when Idaho was stolen from our pasture. My miracle is replayed every day when we see our beautiful gray mare in her pasture. Since Idaho came home I have worked daily to share my miracle with other horse owners.

As much as I wanted to get Shay’s alert out, no organization can run on purely emotional fuel. We had the report and photos of Sonny, but no fee. I sat at the computer desperately wanting to send out the alert, but without payment fee I couldn’t. Product sales, donations, contributions, and report fees keep Stolen Horse International in existence. Keeping up the search for missing horses and paying the light bill is a bigger challenge than I ever expected, and I couldn’t start making exceptions now.

As I was trying to work through my frustration another email appeared. A NetPosse volunteer wrote, “Send Shay a message and tell her it is paid by Santa. Then let me know how I need to pay you and I will pay it for her. Please call Shay and tell her everything is OK and done. Merry Christmas to you and your family.”

As fast as North Pole elves we set to work. News of Sonny’s disappearance went to Facebook and Twitter, to thousands on our mailing list and to the many other contacts we have developed over the years.
When Shay received her email with links to Sonny’s web page, his flyer, and notice of alerts being sent she emailed back, “But I don’t have the $25 to pay for the posting till the first.”

With tear-filled eyes and beaming smile I typed my email reply to Shay on December 16th. “Santa Claus came early and someone paid it for you.J” By return email Shay shared her incredulous gratitude and made a commitment to donate the amount of her fee after Christmas. Two days later Shay emailed me again.

“I just wanted to let you know that we just went to pick up our Sonny. A rancher had seen a flier in a gas station (I printed off several fliers that you made for us and put them around town) He saw Sonny in the woods and called the sheriff immediately. Sonny was about 10 miles away, and he lost a lot of weight! But thanks to you and your site we have our Sonny home safe and before the holidays. Thank you so much for every thing you have done for us!! - "No heaven can heaven be, if my horse isn't there to welcome me.” -
Bradly & Shay

After Sonny had been found I had the opportunity to talk with Shay and learned a bit more about her ordeal. I asked her how she felt when she discovered Sonny missing.

“We were all devastated! Our hearts sank and I felt sick. I thought he was gone for good, that someone had taken him. There were no hoof prints leaving our property. We were worried that we would never see him again. It affected my 4 year old daughter the most; she couldn't understand why Sonny was gone.” she replied. “Sonny was missing for eight long miserable days.”

When asked about Sonny’s recovery Shay told me they dropped everything the moment they received the call to bring their golden horse home. “We are so excited that we got him back. We wouldn’t have found him if it wasn’t for Stolen Horse International. The support we received from everybody is fantastic - so many prayers and people who care and try to fill you up with warmth and positive thoughts. This Christmas is a miracle. Our family is complete again. And Santa, whoever you are, you made all of our Christmas wishes come true.”

Just like I did, Shay Cantrell’s family got their own Christmas miracle when Sonny came home. Sometimes the smallest gesture can lead to a miracle. As soon as I knew Sonny was recovered and home again I sent an email to our own “Santa.”

Cynthia, this was the best $25 gift you ever gave. Merry Christmas, and never underestimate the power of one… this time the one was you!

Cynthia emailed back that it was also the best Christmas gift to her as well. After speaking to Shay at the beginning Cynthia believes a voice from heaven asked her to pay the fee. Cynthia’s email read, “Just goes to show that when the Angels give us a message we need to listen. I only played a small part and wouldn’t have been able to help her if it was not for SHI. We were all in this together. Merry Christmas to all of us.”

Rather than send an email, I’ll take this opportunity to reveal Santa’s identity to Shay.

“Shay, you’ve already spoken with “Santa” and sent her a thank you note for telling you about Stolen Horse International. Your own secret Santa is Cynthia Lawhon, a fellow Texan. Whether Cynthia is your angel or just a special woman who listens when angels speak, now you know who has been there with you all along.

So many people were involved in bringing this one golden horse home for Christmas. There was Sonya and our notification team, Angela who prepared both the report and the flyer, and Michelle who posted the flyer to hundreds of list groups. There were also thousands of NetPosse volunteers who received our alerts, and the folks on our mailing list who post the flyers and send them on to their friends.

That’s our NetPosse Christmas story for 2010. Let me add that I am a believer. I believe in Santa Claus, at least the spirit of goodness that is Santa Claus. Christmas is my favorite time of year. I love see it bring out the best in people.

The 1897 New York Sun editorial, “Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus” is one of my favorite Christmas pieces and sums up the blessing received by Shay and Sonny, our volunteers, Cynthia, and me. May you also be blessed by this short excerpt;

“He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know they abound and give to your life it highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were not Santa Claus!”

Merry Christmas Everyone!
Debi Metcalfe

Special thanks go to Lynn Baber, www.AmazingGrays.us for her assistance with this story.

© 2010 Debi Metcalfe - Permission to publish is understood as long as origination and contact information forDebi Metcalfe is left intact. 

Note: I know there is some spacing problems between the paragraphs. I could not get them to line up right in this software. Sorry.

Stolen Florida Horse Recovered Alive!

Stolen Florida Horse Recovered Alive!

Seen through the eyes of a victim

by Debi Metcalfe and Judy Aregano

On September 11, 2009, Stolen Horse International, aka NetPosse.com, received a disturbing report from Judy Aregano, stating that five horses had been stolen from Florida, one of which was her horse Shilo.

Aregano reported that allegedly two men along with a heavy-set blond woman stopped at a Seffner, FL, property on Williams Road and loaded the horses into a green combo stock trailer pulled by a maroon newer model Dodge dully truck. The thieves pulled up a fence post, cut the fence, drove into the pasture, loaded the horses, came back through, and re-tied the fence to make it look like it was still up.

How do we know so many details? Because someone was watching it all happen. Which raises an obvious question: How could this could happen in full view of “unsuspecting” witnesses? This scenario is hard for anyone to conceive.

I don’t mean to be an alarmist, (actually I do) as the signs are impossible to ignore: Complacency is one reason this happens. Many horse owners really don’t care, don’t think it will happen to them or will turn and look the other way rather than get involved.

Then there is bewilderment as to why would anyone would want to steal a horse? No one steals a horse in the 21st century with the price of horses at rock bottom, right? Wrong. The recession has spurred cutbacks, layoffs and, now, increased theft. With the economy tanking, security pros see a spike in old-time thievery. And what do people steal in recessionary times? Cash, clothes, cigarettes, copper - pretty much everything including horses and equipment. The few dollars one may obtain from selling stolen property may buy groceries or pay the electric bill for a family. Let’s face it, there is always a market for a good cheap horse.

And we all have heard about the horses that are being dropped off because owners cannot afford them anymore. All of those roaming horses are dumped, right? Wrong, often they are lost and in need of being found by their owners. Again, it is just easy to assume that they have been dumped because it is the more complacent act.

In the defense of horse an owner being complacent, it is not totally our fault is it? What do we hear about every day in the news? For the most part, if it is the horrific crimes like shootings, stabbings, fires, wrecks or drug-related stories that make the news. Stories about theft are more often than not at the end of the newscast or flashed quickly – if they make it at all. Stories about horse theft usually make it in a broadcast on slow news days. I can’t tell you how many stories have been bumped for “better” news items. If we don’t hear about it in the news then it “ain’t” happening is it?

On the other hand there has been a great deal of news coverage about the horses that have been butchered in recent months in Florida, and I am grateful for the public awareness. However, how many of those articles mentioned that the horses were stolen first and then offered tips to help you protect your horses from succumbing to the same fate? Very few did, as the theft of the horse is not as important as the gruesome outcome of these poor animals.

This supports the facts that not only are horse owners complacent but we have help in being that way. We have an excuse for not knowing, not helping, looking the other way and not protecting our own. The news media gives it to us. Well, not anymore if you are reading this article.

Keep in mind that the five horses taken in full view of a witness that September day in Florida included:

1. A 1,300-pound stout palomino gelding
2. A chocolate brown Shetland pony stallion with flaxen mane and tail
3. A dark bay mare with an injured hip and a limp
4. A blue roan paint mare with large dark spots
5. and Aregano’s Paintaloosa mare, brown and white in the front half with small brown spots on the white rear end area and four white stockings

This brings me to the reason I have written this article about this horse and her owner. What if no one cared enough to help Aregano? What if we all assumed the worst and assumed that Shilo had fallen into the butcher’s hands. What if we all looked the other way when it came time to help the victim? Well, that didn’t happen. Stolen Horse International is happy to report that Shilo, horse number five above, is home!

Sometimes it is best to hear it from the horse’s mouth, which in this case is Judy Aregano. Her touching story follows.

An Unexpected Happy Ending

During Labor Day weekend 2009, my Paintaloosa mare was stolen from a pasture with four other horses.

I was there when she was born and raised her. I broke her to ride myself. Though I loved my other horses, Shilo and I shared a bond. When the theft occurred, we were in the middle of a move to a farm with 35 acres, finally a home for all of my horses.
I had put off moving the last horses due to my work schedule, and then we got the phone call. Shilo and four others had been stolen from the pasture where they were kept. I was in shock. What do we do?

Terry, my boyfriend, left to meet the police at the pasture. I stayed behind, calling everyone to watch for her. My daughter Brittany emailed her friends and someone quickly emailed us back insisting that we register with NetPosse.com.

I had never heard of NetPosse.com but was willing to try anything. Brittany filed the report on Shilo. Before I knew it we were getting emails from all over the country … NOT just Florida but all over the USA! People had seen the flyer on NetPosse.com! They were expressing their heartfelt feelings and support and telling me they were posting the flyer of Shilo in barns and feed stores, everywhere! I was so overwhelmed.

A few days later, we had sightings of her being moved to south Florida, possibly because some one had seen the flyer. I had eyes all over the country looking for her. My friend Marylou put me in contact with a special lady in Miami. She is active in ending the slaughter of horses in south Florida. I can't divulge too much info about her. To protect her identity, I’ll call her “Jane.”

I emailed her the flyer. Jane began the search, constantly keeping Marylou (who forwarded it to me) informed of any leads. Then one day, Marylou received an email and in it was a picture of a Paintaloosa mare that had been moved to a barn in Homestead, Florida (over 250 miles away from home). She forwarded it to me.

Could it be Shilo? It looked like her ... but different. She had been body clipped very close and her mane had been roached. The black in her two-tone colored tail had been pulled out and her tail had been cut short. Then I recognized a shield on her side even though the picture was taken at an angle. It was her!

I was frantic! Crying, I called Marylou. “It’s her!” I shouted into the phone.

Phone calls were quickly made, but we had to continue to be so careful. We were to travel to Homestead quietly. They might move her if they know were coming.

We met at the barn, still trying to remain calm. I had come so far. Was this really her? Brittany and I walked around the corner of the barn and there stood Shilo. I cried. Jane cried. Brittany cried.

It had been a long journey. Jane informed us that Shilo would not approach anyone. Yet when Brittany and I approached the fence and called her name, Shilo walked over to us and laid her head on Brittany’s shoulder.

We called the Agriculture deputies and they were on the site in just moments. Deputy Debra carried a notebook of stolen horses with her. She opened it and there was Shilo’s poster from NetPosse.com and many more that she has saved from NetPosse.com’s IDAHO Alert network.

Within hours, Shilo was loaded on Marylou's trailer going home.

I cannot express enough my gratitude to NetPosse, Jane, and the Deputies in Dade County. You will always be in my heart.

For those of you have lost your friend don't give up hope. Shilo’s story was posted in many horse magazines and newspapers because of NetPosse. She was a needle in a haystack. Good luck to those who are still searching. You are in my prayers. ~ Judy Aregano

The Nonprofit NetPosse.com is Here to Help Horse Owners

At Stolen Horse International/NetPosse.com, we love happy endings like the one above, but we must continue to caution you to keep in mind that the happy new year of 2010 has begun but that doesn’t mean all is well with many people trying to survive the recession, or the common horse industry, thief. Because of the ‘risk vs. reward’ nature of horse and tack theft and the potential for greater monetary gain at the end of the day - it is easy for someone to be drawn to stealing when they are down on their luck.

Take steps now so that you don’t become the next victim.

And on a personal note to all of the news media who have reported stories about horse theft and its many victims … THANK YOU! You are one of the very important stepping stones in the recovery of horses, public awareness and the preventative process. Never underestimate the power you have to make a difference, in a positive manner, through your stories.

© 2010 Debi Metcalfe -  All rights reserved. This article is available for publication but you must have permission to publish in any format or medium. Please contact Debi Metcalfe at idahonc@aol.com for additional information.

I need your thoughts on Why SHI charges a fee for our services

To: My Blog Followers:

In the beginning before there was a large group of caring people to help victims search for their horses, there were three women. These three women bounced ideas back and forth, supported each other and offered support to me along with constructive criticism. They were my sounding board in many ways. Eventually and a nonprofit called Stolen Horse International was born from the comradely we shared. They went on to do other things, but are still supportive of NetPosse.com I stayed and work every day of my life keeping SHI/NetPosse alive.

This blog is in its infancy much like Stolen Horse International was way back before we knew it was even going to be Stolen Horse International. I hope that some of you in my small group of bloggees (is that a word?) will offer me the same support as those three women did years ago when I ask.

Recently I have been offering our assistance to UK victims via message boards post, and at times offering a free listing to the victims. Today on one of those message boards I received this message which said, “You should also be advising people that there is a registration fee to report a horse stolen.”
I was scratching my head on that one. I was not sure how to take the message as words and emotions are often interpreted differently between the person posting and the reader. I sat and thought about this for a moment. This person may have thought that I was deceptive or thought we were just out for financial gain. Clearly they didn’t understand what stands behind that small fee.

Would you be so kind as to offer your opinion on my response please? I was trying to explain our organization, our services in an educational matter of fact way. Did I accomplish that task?

You are now my sounding board and your thoughts are greatly appreciated. Thanks to all who reply.

Why SHI charges a fee for our services

Thank you for giving me the chance to address your concern. Yes, there is a very small fee. We are a nonprofit that is supported by these small fees and donations. No one is paid in this organization and it is run by all volunteers. I personally work more that 50 hours a week, in the office. On weeks that I travel to trade shows and do seminars where I am working around the clock the hours are even higher.

These fees are necessary to pay our bills and to keep our doors open so that we can provide help to victims and our educational services to horse owners. We do not have grants or government funding. We do not have advertisers who pay our expenses. We have to find our own way to make ends meet.
This fee does two things:

1) As stated above, it helps us pay the bills we have in our mail box each week. We are a business and like any business we have to pay electric, Internet, website cost, insurance, office supplies, travel, cost of supplies, maintenance, dues, contractual services (Ex: accountant and computer services)etc. We have all of the expenses applicable to any business. Just because we are a nonprofit business doesn't mean that we are exempt from bill payments and that everything is given to us free. However, some people are confused or perhaps don't think about it and tend to think that we do get everything free; therefore we should not charge for our services. All of the money we collect goes 100% back into keeping our doors open, victim’s services and our many educational programs.

2) The second purpose for the fee is to help keep dishonest people from filing false reports. I have been doing this since my own horse was stolen in 1997. I have seen and heard it all and nothing surprises me anymore. We use to pass along emails and list horses for free a long time ago about stolen horses. The more people found us the more we learned the harsh truth about a small percentage of the people, some people lie. Since we started charging the fee we have had very few cases where people are not telling the truth. Dishonest people in general do not want to pay to distribute their fabrications.

It is rare that a person who has a stolen or missing horse even thinks about the fee, especially since it is so small. We did a poll a few years ago and one of our questions asked if the fee was justifiable. The response was totally in support of the fee. Most thought the fee was to low for the work that we do and the help that victims received. All thought that if a person who could not afford to pay $25 for the huge benefit they received may not even need the horse back. The comment that was made most was, "If they can't afford this small fee how can they afford to have a horse?"

I am a victim of theft myself and I would have gladly paid any fee, let alone a small $25 fee like the one here at Stolen Horse International that may do any the following but is not limited to this list alone:

1. Allows listing not only one but two horses for that price.

2. Gives you your own personal webpage with as many pictures as you want to place on the page.

3. A professional looking printable flyer to be distributed through IDAHO ALERTS. A link will be placed on your personal page so anyone can print as many flyers as they wish from anywhere in the world.

4. Your information is not just sitting on a webpage waiting to be found by people who stumble upon the information. An IDAHO ALERT, named after our stolen horse, is sent to thousands of email boxes, first through our NetPosse volunteers who send the alert to their friends and associations who send the alert to theirs and so on and so on. With the help of the victim we also try to pinpoint areas of concentrations to distribute the alerts.

5. Your info will also be included in one or more of our newsletters using the email service Constant Contact, a professional service (another expense) which reaches thousands.

6. If the information we request is sent to us we also do press releases which are sent to all of the AHP, (horse world version of the AP service) which may lead to the victims exposure on more websites and magazines. (By the way, this is another one of our expenses. There is a fee to join this service)

7. Consultations: Need to talk to someone who has been there already? You may call us for help.

8. Experience and support from people who have been in your shoes, work in law enforcement, legal services etc.

9. Currently the stolen, missing, lost and fond listings are administrated by three primary people, allowing a personal touch to each case.

10. Nothing is hidden, not even the fee on our site.

We have worked hard to accomplish what we have in the horse industry. Our reputation is above reproach and we do try hard to keep it that way. I understand that you may not trust me so I invite you to Google Stolen Horse International, NetPosse or Debi Metcalfe and to get to know us better.

I hope this addresses your statement successfully.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Any thoughts? You can post a comment here or email me privately at idahonc@aol.com

When My Mother Called Out the Posse in the NY Times

I was so glad to see this article about a woman, her horse and a family that touched me in many ways both during the search for her horses and after her death. What a beautiful tribute to Carolyn. This is such a sweet story that you really should not miss it, even if you don't have horses. It was an honor to meet this lady and so sad when she passed away. Instead of flowers her family asked that people send donations to Stolen Horse International. No one had ever done anything like that before. The kindness of the Lawniczak family has helped so many, and her legacy continues in this article. You may want to visit our NetPosse page with out tribute and the original info on Murph and Sunday after you read the article below
http://www.netposse.com/stolenmissing/Sunday_MurphFLstolenDec05.htm

December 27, 2009

Modern Love

When My Mother Called Out the Posse

By BRANDON LAWNICZAK

MY mother called to tell me that her horses had been stolen. The year was 2005, not 1885, and the place was central Florida, not South Dakota. So my first reaction was, “Horse rustling? Really, Mom?”

But it was no joke. As my parents had pieced together that morning from footprints, tire tracks and fence damage, the horses really had been stolen. During the night, thieves had parked a trailer on Interstate 75, several hundred feet from my parents’ farm. They then climbed the steep embankment, clipped open a wire fence, sawed through several boards and headed straight to the closest barn.

Inside, they found an aging, slope-backed quarter horse named Sunday and a small Haflinger named Murph, grabbed the two by the halters and took off with them in the trailer.

My mother was apoplectic. These horses were her wards, two among nine in her barn at the time, and she had let them down. “Why us?” she asked, the timeless question of victims.

Murph and Sunday were not riding horses, and I didn’t see how they could be remotely valuable to thieves, except maybe on some black market where old horses are sold into a grisly end. Their fate, to me, was obvious. Although I spoke encouraging words from Chicago, I didn’t believe my mother’s beloved horses stood a chance.

The previous year my parents had moved from rural Michigan to Ocala, Fla., rolling land dotted with thoroughbred farms and strip malls. The chill of the Northern winters had become more than they could bear, and this was a new beginning in their last phase of life. They bought five affordable acres that had once been part of a larger farm before developers hacked it up and built large houses on every lot except my parents’.

Their 12-stall barn was attached to a one-bedroom living quarters. On the property in Michigan where I’d grown up, the horse barn had been 600 feet away. Now barn and house were under the same roof — my mother’s utopia.

Her horses ranged in age from 10 to over 30, ancient for equines, but once my mother welcomed a horse into her barn, a lifelong commitment began. No one could care for them as well as she. Her three sons would grow up and leave; the horses, and my father, would stay.

After months of tireless redecoration of their new place, the wallpaper, wainscoting, paintings, coasters, shelves, pillows, bedspreads, candy dishes, area carpets, toilet seats and even the light switches all depicted equestrian themes: cowboys, jumping thoroughbreds, fox hunters, grazing palominos, frolicking appaloosas. Many of the objects were gifts from her sons. Hers was an easy birthday.

After the theft, I received daily updates. My mother contacted authorities at all levels and provided them with photographs of the animals. The state police would no doubt put their best men on it, I cynically thought. She worked up a flier with an urgent plea. A reward was offered.

My youngest brother and his family, also recent arrivals to Ocala, helped staple the fliers to nearly every phone pole, fencepost and bulletin board within a 10-mile radius. A skeptic of the Internet, my mother found, of all things, a Web site dedicated to rescuing stolen horses, netposse.com. With the help of my brother, she posted her entreaty online, with images of Sunday and Murph.

Then she took to the airwaves. A local television news crew arrived the following week to film footage at the crime scene. In the report that was broadcast, the reporter began by recounting the sad story in a voice-over as my father led a horse from barn to paddock. Then my mother appeared on the sofa dressed in Western attire, her dark hair neatly combed, holding framed photographs of Sunday and Murph on her lap. She sat straight, perceptively self-conscious, as she described the horses and how much she missed them. She was never a person who invited attention, and I could think of little else that would enticed her before a camera.

I praised her efforts, as futile as I believed them to be.

When my brothers and I were children, my mother taught us to ride until we reached the point where we needed, or thought we needed, professional instruction. We rode Western style, like cowboys, and most summer weekends the family piled into our Suburban and hauled the trailer to horse shows throughout the “thumb” of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. A three-day show at the county fairgrounds was an annual ritual, the five of us sleeping in a rented motor home, the horses tied up in a nearby pole barn.

It is not easy keeping horses. The beasts are helpless in captivity. Every morning my father faithfully rose at 5 for two hours of watering, feeding and cleaning the stalls. Later they had to be fed again, some let out, others let in. And then there was the evening feeding and cleaning. This Sisyphean existence was my parents’ life for decades. We sons helped at times, but my father bore the brunt, never complaining. He lived to do it for her.

As a grumpy adolescent, fed up with the chores, frustrated we couldn’t take a normal vacation or join a country club, I would occasionally turn to one of my brothers and say, “She’s crazy, you know.”

I stopped riding when I was 16. Cars, girls, sports, whatever the teenage distraction, I lost interest, and my horse life all but ended. How much it ended became clear several years ago when my wife and I hired a guide and two horses and went trail riding in the Colorado Rockies.

All we did was sit and walk, not even trot, over a mountain pass. It was nothing compared with what I used to do, what my mother still did every day, and yet at the end of the trail I nearly collapsed in pain when I dismounted. My legs had lost all facility with the saddle. I hobbled for days.

Weeks passed in the search for Murph and Sunday. My mother’s daily reports stopped coming. As I had already concluded, she had little reason for hope.

Then one day, a month after the nighttime theft, my mother called, ecstatic. “We found them!”

That morning a local sheriff had called to say that state officials had raided a run-down farm 100 miles away and discovered a dozen or so horses loose in a field. One of the agents recognized Murph from the photographs my mother had distributed.

Apparently, the state had put its best men on it.

My first thought was that if I had been in my mother’s place, Sunday and Murph would have spent their final days malnourished, mistreated, unloved and on the fast track to becoming dog food.

She hung up and raced to the truck and trailer with my father. It was late afternoon, but she was determined to bring them home right away. They drove 200 miles and returned early the next morning for the reunion. She later reported to me that when she released Sunday back into the stall with his mother, Gypsy, she bit him on the shoulder.

I’m sure my mother had hoped for an amorous whinny, a rubbing of necks, a nibbling of ears, or something from a horse’s scant repertory of physical affection. But she laughed it off, for she had her own relationship with them whether they liked each other or not.

A year later, my mother was thrown from her show gelding. She had been loping in the paddock when he shied and stopped unexpectedly. She slid along his withers and fell 16 hands to the ground and broke her femur just below the hip. All her life she had seen dangers lurking everywhere — tall buildings, bridges, tunnels — but the risks of cantering atop a tall steed seemed to elude her.

I spoke to her often on the phone while she recovered. With several pins and screws holding her bone together, she was sleeping at night in the reclining chair because she could not lie in bed comfortably. At first she was restricted to plodding around in a walker, and then with a cane, until months later when she was able to get along with only a slight limp.

During what would turn out to be our last conversation, she told me she was almost ready to ride again. But days later, while standing at the kitchen sink, singing a song in her decorated environs, her horses nearby and my father in the next room, she collapsed.

She was 68, too young. The doctors said it was most likely a heart attack or a clot. For people her age, a risk of surgery — the surgery she needed because she was thrown from the horse — is blood clotting.

AFTER the funeral, my father dispersed the herd. One local couple had a large fenced front yard and wanted to wake up to the sight of grazing horses. That’s where Sunday and Gypsy went, weaned but eternally together. Another family wanted a trail horse for the kids. The show gelding was sold to a young girl. My brother took Murph and the others. We’ll never know whether my mother would have approved of the disposition, but without her there, none of it made sense anymore.

After the death of a parent, one reflects upon life because, inescapably, it makes you consider your own and forces you to take stock. And the question I kept asking myself was this: What would it be like to have what my mother had?

As I came to appreciate over the years, especially near the end, she wasn’t crazy. She was passionate, driven by love and the kind of irrational dedication that vanquishes your fears, fills your days, wrests you out of bed in the wee hours, convinces you that standing ankle-deep in a stall of fetid sawdust is the only place you want to be, and gives you the faith that, no matter the odds, if you try hard enough, if you make the effort, you can save a life.

Life has given me much over the years for which I am extremely thankful, but I don’t have that.

Brandon Lawniczak is a lawyer in Chicago.

You Can Be The "Santa" that Puts the Present Under the Tree

We had another stolen horse report come in last night from AL. How dare it do that right when I am in the midst of our annual eBay fundraiser... actually it is more like a STORM that has lasted since the day before Thanksgiving!

We are here to help our victims and in true form Angela and I stopped all of the painstaking work you never see behind the scenes (that is another blog in itself) of the auction and jumped head first into the journey to get Sonny home.

Within in a few hours his alert was sent to thousands via email, message boards and social networking sites. We will contine to work on this one for days just getting out the information. One of the many responses to our alert came from someone who innocently thought they could not help and got me all stirred up this morning.

It is human to error and believe me I have plenty of them to prove it. So when I saw the remark on this message board I jumped on my educational soapbox quick. (It is a soapbox isn't it?)

My response was meant to make people think. Did I accomplish my task? And like this entire blog, it is unedited and retains all of the grammatical mistakes I am known for since I have little time to write, much less edit my own work. But then I am really not capable of editing or I would write correctly the first time hmmm... I am off track... I do that. Oops!

Anyway....here is the response.

Yes, Barrel Horse World, the link to find Sonny could be on this group! You could be the "Santa" that puts the right present under the tree this year. But not if you think, "I am too far away to post flyers" like most people do because you really don't understand the dynamics behind the travels of stolen horses.

Now it is time for me to do one of the things I do best, educate. I hope everyone will take a moment to read my commentary which is based on years of working with stolen horses here at NetPosse.com.

Weekendgambler, I understand where you are coming from on that thought. I once thought the same as you did. I don't anymore and thank you for opening up this topic for me to discuss.

I am not sure where you are but at this point there is really no such thing as too far away unless you are out of the US, Canada or Mexico. My horse went up and down the eastern seaboard between NC and PA and then ended up in TN in less than 6 months. We found her in TN 51 weeks after she was found.

Here are a few others that we have worked with over the years.

• A CA horse ended up in CT.
• A CT horse ended up in TX. 
• A CO horse ended up in NE.
• A GA horse ended up in NC
• A CA horse ended up in OR
• A NH horse ended up in ME
• A MO horse went KY before it was recovered in IA.
• An OK horse went to TX and back to OK in 4 days.
• A Can. horse was found in CO
• A FL trailer was found in TX

And last but not least there is Max, an IL barrel horse who ended up in MO. We only wonder where that little guy went in the 58 weeks he was missing. Aren't we thankful that the little girl who posted that flyer didn't think she was too far away to help?

Who knows where those horses have been before they were found. Sometimes horses do stay in the same state and they are usually found within 500 miles of where they are stolen. And yes, sometimes they are found just a few miles away but as you can see, when a horse is gone it can be anywhere in the world in a short time.

I know it is easy to think you can't help if you are not familiar with the "stolen horse world" like we are, but please assume that Sonny could be near you instead of the opposite scenario. If you don't, we just may miss bringing this one home.

Finding these missing horses is really all about networking and people participating in random acts of kindness.

Go to the site right now. http://www.netposse.com/stolenmissing/Sonny_trailer_ALstolenDec09.html  and print a flyer and post at your local tack store horse or horse auction.

Pass this message with the alert link, http://tiny.cc/StolenSonyAL  to all the people you know and ask them to do the same. You never know who they know or who their friends do.

It's the season for giving, and in this case it is only a little of your time, so lets try to get Sonny home in time for Christmas.

And to all who do anything large or small, thank you more than you know.

Happy Holidays

Debi

PS: Sonny's trailer, pictured R., was taken with him.

I haven't blown away!

You may think that I have given up writing in this blog or that I have blown away or something. Neither are true, especially the latter with all of the eating I have been doing in preparation for Thanksgiving and since T-day.

I have been eating way too much and way too often lately. I am guessing that might have something to do with the stress and time deadline I am under to get the 5th annual Stolen Horse International fundraising auction launched.

Stolen Horse International is truly run by family and friends and is truly a mom and pop (Harold and I are the mom and pop) organization that has grown into a small corporation that does huge things for horse people. None of which we could do without family, friends and the kindness of strangers around the world.
Angela and her daughter are up from Alabama to help get the “show on the road” and we have been working day and night since last Monday. Harold has pitched in the weights and measurements department. My son Casey has been doing some driving for Harold to go out and collect local items for the auction. Angela’s daughter has been sending out announcements on the Internet. But mostly, it had been me and Angela working from sometimes four in the morning until late at night.

What are we doing you wonder? Why does it take so long? Well, let me give you a very short run down because I really need to get back to work.

All of the items that are donated have to have descriptions recorded, and in some cases found again. Once that is done they have to be sorted by category, tagged so Harold and Casey can find them for shipping later, photographed and then put on a shelf to wait for their journey to the new owner.

After that the item has to have an ad on NetPosse.com and then listed on eBay. I have a story about that but I will get to it later.

Angela and I work together like a two person assembly line on this task. She is writing the descriptions, looking up information on the items that we need but didn’t get from the donors, finding values, website addresses etc, and putting them into a Word doc and some on the website, before passing them off to me.

Once she completed all of the items she had been working on (except the new tack) she started helping me list them on eBay because of the problems we were having on my desk with putting the data in the computers. The items have to be individually boxed and carefully weighed and measured before we can input the data on eBay. Ebay calculates shipping from those measurements so if you have large postage fees, IT’S NOT US doing the calculations! It’s eBay!
In between all of the listing we still have still had to check emails, answer the phone and sadly on Thanksgiving Eve, send out a stolen pony alert.

This process alone has been a nightmare this auction season because of my slow Internet connection and slow computer combo. Many times I have pushed my chair away from the desk and said, “That’s it, I am not doing this anymore! This is driving me nuts!” Try looking at two white screens side by side from two computers and waiting for them to load a webpage for what seems like hours all day long. It does something to this person. It is driving me to the nuthouse for sure!

I don’t know what is wrong with the computers but I see a big bill ahead finding out why they are sometimes sick. You know those geek doctors don’t come cheap!

We spent hours with a sweet Time Warner guy on Friday. He even called in reinforcements and all the while valuable time is slipping by and items are not going up on eBay. While he was here I was working on the third computer, my trusty laptop trying to get a few things done in-between the intermittent Internet connection. After a while it too was inflicted with the same sickness as the two computers at my desk and its loading screens turned to white for a while.

Even with all the problems Angela, who has not had the problems as much on her computer, and I trudge onward. Our goal is to finish listing what we have submitted for the auction today. More will come later, thankfully it always does. Once people see the many great items we have in the auction they want to become a part of it too.

Auction donations, most of which I have collected by foot, phone and emails, have come from companies, trainers, strangers, NetPosse members and even an old school friend for whom I connected with recently on Facebook. I must thank of course Angela, but also Sonya who has kept us busy for hours listing her many donated items and Michelle who walked the floors at a tradeshow hunting items for us. She did it very well too!

There have been a few nonworking moments during the past six days. We went to see Blind Side Tuesday night. I recommend that movie to everyone! We did find some time to enjoy Thanksgiving Day and have a wonderful meal prepared at home by Angela, Harold, Casey and myself. Angela photographed my family for our upcoming Christmas picture. Getting my two grown children who still act like kids when together, in one place with the parents and three dogs, one a 12 month old huge chocolate Lab puppy was a trick in itself.

Last night we took the biggest and most needed break after working from four in the morning, we went out to eat seafood and came home to play Wii tennis.

I am very thankful for Harold who is not making me cheese toast and will soon lay it on my desk sitting on top of a paper towel. I hear the ice dropping into a glass from the refrigerator so I know my diet coke is on its way. Well there it is now, “Thanks honey.” He is the best isn’t he and no, you can’t have him!

I am thankful for Angela far more than she can ever know. She is my rock, the person who keeps me sane in this crazy stolen horse world, the organizer and much more. God gave me a gift when he dropped her into my life.

Angela would be a whole blog so I have to stop now because at this point we still have close to close to 100 items to list somewhere between the website and eBay. So, I guess you know what is coming next. It is time to get back to work!

I think my computers, like me are overworked and tired but they are hanging in there with me. Neither of us has crashed yet. Oh my gosh, let me find some wood quick! Knock, knock, knock on wood!

What is the name of the song that has those words in it? OH NO! I will be trying to figure that one out all day too!

I know I am late but here is my belated Happy Thanksgiving and my wish for a very happy holiday season to come.

Mine will be when I finish this darn auction!

PS: This blog entry was written fast and without editing because I need to get back to work!

PSS for Christi: I have not forgotten you. My heart is breaking for you over the loss of your mother on Wednesday. You and your family are in my heart, my thoughts and my prayers. I know that she will be happy with your father in heaven and will smile down upon you. God bless you all in this time of mourning for your tremendous loss.

Does This Really Happen?

“Here is an attachment of the stolen Spotted Saddle Horse, Tennessee Walking Horse. Please feel free to post on Facebook, if you have that talent...I am not talented! It has taken all night all day to do this...I can't imagine what Debi and Harold Metcalfe go through each and every day!”
What you have just read was sent to me in one of my emails yesterday. Before I answer the question I must first tell you about the person from which the question came.

I actually met this little spit fire NetPosse member this past July at a clinic in Georgia in which she hosted. She cares so much about her horses that she not only wanted to protect them by getting them microchipped and freeze branded that she decided to do it herself. And she did this for the first time in front of an audience! Now that is gutsy! She is my kind of woman! No fear!

Meet NetPosse Sonya!

She has been very helpful in the past with various tasks that I needed done for NetPosse and for the victims. Every alert that is sent to her is sent to her own contacts. It did not surprise me when she not only made the first contact to me about a recent theft in her state but, she has been working right with the victim up close and personal ever since. I can’t tell you what a help she has been.

Sonya has learned her lessons well from the examples set forth by me, Angela, Michelle and countless other volunteers that have come before her. The email excerpt below shows just how hard Sonya is working.

“The TV station is finally meeting with the owner after a week. Tomorrow, the Sheriff's Dept. may show up as they promised again for the 5 or 6th time? A newspaper is doing an article, because I spoke to a girl whose 1st horse was stolen by her trainer. So see what God does....and Thank You!”

Sonya is responsible for getting the report filed. She is responsible for helping the victim get her pictures emailed to us for the website. She paid for the listing. She is responsible for getting the news media involved. She has been sending me updates. She has been rallying her troops to help find this horse like it was her own. Below is an example of one of the dozens of emails that she has sent since her first email telling me about the stolen horse.

Sonya said in one email, “I have 60 fliers ready for the owner to pass out as well as me and I only barely know how you feel...good Lord! So what can I do as a slow satellite girl? This was an interesting chore. But, now it is the wait. That is the hard part and then, once you get it in ...does the wait matter? The TV channel is interviewing her due to pressure from the horse community here.”

It was after three days of working night and day, attacking the many task that are involved in the first few days after a horse is stolen that Sonya wrote to me the following email with exasperation in her voice asking, (Yes, I can hear emotion in the words typed in front of me.)

“I may vent here. I called to see how the afternoon went with trying to locate her horse in Cuthbert. I told her to start contacting the auction houses and asking for fax # and then, send a fax of the flyer. She said she had called the one in Alabama. Not any of the others. She was at a Field Trial and could not call at the moment?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....etc. Grr Does this happen often?”

What she is really wants to know is when I work this hard for someone to help them find their horse, is it often that it seems like I am working harder or care more about getting the horse back than the owner?

Unfortunately the answer to that question is sometimes, yes. The owner of this horse was at a field trial today, just a few days after her horse was stolen. Would I have been there? It is hard to say since I really don’t know the circumstances in which she had to be there. I do know from my own personal experience that it you would have dragged me kicking and screaming to any event other than something where I could pass out flyers and enlist help in finding Idaho. Perhaps that is why she was there?

Still, I know Sonya had to be wondering at some point after loosing sleep and constantly thinking about what she could do next to help; is it worth all the work? Poor thing is on slowwwwwwwwwwwwwww satellite internet too. I chuckled as I pictured her sitting in the study pecking away at the keys, reminiscence of my early days on dial up.

“I feel for you because I have been sitting at the satellite computer...with clouds wanting to kill it, but being patient because I am on a mission!”

I know computer problems and am doing this blog for the second time because my desktop seemed to have a mind of its own tonight. And in its mind it didn’t like what I was writing the first time and decided to shut down AOL and POOF it was gone! I actually liked the first one better and have not found the same words for this rewrite.
My mind is wandering and I need to get back to the subject. But first, now that I am thinking about it I have to say this and get it out of my system in regards to my dear desktop. &^%$#@!!!!! @#$%^!!!
Pause…………………………………………………………………………………

Cleansing breath…………………………………………………………………….

Now it is out of my system. I can continue. Where was I? Oh yes, work at NetPosse.

The hours here are long and tiring and sleep is something that eludes me way to often. I stay up late unable to wind down. I get up early because the thought swirling in my head demand my attention more than the pillow top beneath me. The phone rings off and on all day with people asking questions I have heard many times. I treat each one as if it were the first time I heard their questions.

I spend my entire day checking emails, answering the ones I can and setting aside the others for later, hoping I don’t forget them. There are reports to follow up on with victims and law enforcement officers. There are articles to write and interviews with the news media. Some of my other duties include marketing and accounting for which I am really under skilled. I twitter and check my Facebook. I spend hours processing on IDAHO Alert.

There is also my travel schedule which includes many task before I even turn the key in the ignition in my car to leave the house. Task like setting the event, planning my presentation if I am speaking, planning and gathering the materials for the booth, making DVD to play in the booth, buying and packaging products, packing the car, shipping materials ahead of me when I fly, packing my suitcase and packing Harold, (yes ladies some things never change). Let’s not forget that when Harold goes with me then we have to find care for my mother-in-law Nell.

One of the biggest and hardest tasks of any nonprofit is finding the funding to continue the work that is done. We are no different and this recession has made it even harder to find the dollars and fundraisers to acquire the much needed funding. If I could just find someone to do all the other things or someone to just take over the fundraising I may find time to ride my own horse again.

If you don’t know me you may think I was complaining about all the work. True some days are good ones and some aren’t so good. I do get disillusioned at times but it is all worth it to me. You see, I love this job.

I didn’t ask for it nor would I have chose to work the hours I do. But, I love seeing people benefit from the educational programs we have set forth for a decade. I love seeing random acts of kindness that would not have occurred had it not been for the theft of one horse in 1997, Idaho. I love working with enthusiastic volunteers like Sonya, who has learned so much and is so caring and unselfish.

I love the good people that I meet. I love solving problems with Angela and hearing her input. I love Michelle’s ability to answer questions on my behalf because she has volunteered so long that like Angela, this small nonprofit has become part of her soul.

In a days time I can see the worst of people and the best of people. I can be disappointed, mad and happy in the same period of time.

Why do this job if it is so hard? Because, when an email drops in my box announcing another recovery or I get a phone call like the one from Keith Caughran who found Max after 58 weeks, there is no feeling like the one that flows over my body in that moment. I have no words for that moment but I can tell you this, it is as if my whole body is smiling. Now that is a mighty big smile indeed.

At the end of the day when I do drop in bed exhausted I know that on this day I, Debi Metcalfe, made a difference. And because of all the good I witness, I never underestimate the power of one.

And to you Sonya, this week you became that ONE in a big way. Thank you. :-) I hope you stick around!

Now, on 11/1/2009 at 2:06 AM I am going to drop on my pillow top.

Good night and thanks for listening.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz