Public Record Judgement against Kelly Decker
Most of my close friends know about the court case that I won a few years ago against someone named Kelly Decker for flipping/selling a horse I had placed with her in a retirement home with a no-sale contract.
I had said I was going to share the public judgement and I should have shared it to a much wider audience. Apparently despite the court judgement against her Kelly Decker is continuing to do this. I saw her posting in a facebook group summer of 2018 attempting to get her hands on yet another retiring show horse. I spoke to the admin who is familiar with her and who banned her from the group. But, please have a read and share. She is travelling as far south as Kingston, Trenton, and up into the Shawville Quebec area as well as the Ottawa area.
A bit of background on this story:
I had a horse named Bismark back when I was new to the Ottawa area who was sent to me from his owner Evelyn in Nova Scotia Canada. Evelyn and I had an agreement that I would compete and hopefully sell Bismark and send her half of the proceeds unless his health and or soundness necessitated I place him in a retirement home. Unfortunately Bismark arrived from his long journey with a damaged knee and I placed him in a retirement home with Kelly Decker accompanied by a written witnessed contractual agreement that he was not allowed to be sold. Kelly Decker promptly sold him and I took legal action against her, her spouse and the dealer who had him..
The endorsement goes into the details of what transpired. But whats not in the judgement is that it took 7 years in total to go to court and get the funds out of these people. 3 years to get to trial and 4 years of effort in getting these people to pay the damages granted by the courts. I originally just wanted to get the horse back but he had changed hands numerous times and getting him back was not legally possible. In the end my lawyer advised me to go for damages. In total we were granted just over 20 thousand dollars. The majority of it went to the lawyers legal fees, and I sent his former owner half of what was left.
There are 2 good parts of this story
1. Bismark the horse ended up being sold to a great home to a lady who took great care of him. My horse was lucky.
2. The individuals had consequences for their actions
Please verify any home you are sending your horse to, check references, keep it local so you can visit to ensure the horse is being cared for and remains on the property as per your agreement
I am posting this as a lessons learned and warning to anyone who looks to "retire their horse to a good home" There are good people out there but check references and verify that your horse is going to the home he needs to go to.
