Betsy Lirakis had expressed interest through several years of wanting to acquire a particular horse of mine. She had bought two relatives previously and raved both publicly and privately over how pleased she was with their temperament and training which she further went on to attribute in large part to the handling and training that I had given them before she bought the two.
In 2010 I contacted Betsy to find out if she had any continued interest in buying the mare now that I had decided to sell her. She was informed of the price I was asking, confirmed that she was very interested and also expressed that she would only be able to buy her on payments.
Having had several years of history with Betsy and the positive business relations from having sold her horses before I agreed to let her take the mare before she was paid for. Prior to shipping Betsy reimbursed me for the price of Coggins, Health Certificate paperwork and the vet fees for those services. We were also in regular contact with one another via email and phone conversations.
A commercial shipper picked the mare up from my farm and delivered her to Betsy in Vermont, and I confirmed her arrival by contacting Betsy two days following her pick-up. She said she arrived, was anxious with her new surroundings but looked to settle in quickly and she expressed no unhappiness or discontent in that interaction.
That was the last phone conversation I had with Betsy. Following the mare's arrival she refused to accept phone calls and did not return emails except on rare occasion to say that she had been without internet for a week's time and would reply to me the following day. I found this excuse to be untrue considering during the entire week she claimed her internet to be down she continued to post frequently throughout the day to her Facebook page.
This continued for several months. I left voice messages asking her to call me back or email me so we could discuss the matter, stating that if there had been any issues or if some financial problem had arisen preventing her from making payments to please at least communicate that fact to me so we could go from there. Silence.
My fiance was able to reach her by phone on his own telephone a couple of times, each time she mentioned she was at a horse show and would call me as soon as she returned home. After those two calls she no longer answered his calls as well. I made an effort to reestablish contact with her in a way that was non-aggressive or threatening in hopes that any problems could be handled directly.
By this time I began to feel that perhaps she was not having genuine problems but instead she had intended to acquire my mare without paying for her and felt that it could be cause for public concern as she is a breeder and not simply a private purchaser. I wrote again to Betsy an email expressing my confusion as to her continued lack of contact and obvious avoidance and also expressed that I did not wish to raise the issue in a public forum but felt that perhaps other sellers should be made aware that she agreed to buy a horse and was now refusing payment.
This email was met with a fairly rapid response from Betsy. She replied that she had been doing me a favor buy agreeing to take my mare and considering the horse market there was little chance of her finding another home better suited than hers. Further, she said that she had conversed with several other horse breeders and acquaintances of hers over this period of time and they all came to the conclusion that because of the market the mare was now only worth auction or meat price instead of the originally discussed purchase price; a purchase price which she had never attempted to negotiate prior. She accused me of threatening to send the horse to auction and that was why she offered to take her to begin with, which is completely falsified.
To close her email reply to me, she stated that she was willing to pay me her estimate of auction price, the total sum of $300. My other option in her opinion was to either ship the back, which was no longer a financial option for me, or to sell the mare to someone else from Betsy's farm during which time she would charge me $250 per month in board until the mare was sold and moved.
Now, I acknowledge my own mistake in having allowed my mare to leave my farm before having payment in full. However, that does not negate the fact that Betsy agreed to purchase the mare for her asking price then proceeded to cut off contact and then effectively hold the mare for ransom. She is publicly visible as a professional horse breeder, a business person, and these actions are clearly not those of a professional nor of a sound business.
I believe Betsy to be diligent in a number of business practices, however it is obvious that given an advantage she will exploit it to her own gain.
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