Complaint / Review
Melissa Giambrone, Dean Fazio, Barn Owners And Others Rescue
Trades/Sells lame unsafe Horses for healthy horses and refuses to make good on them

I placed an ad on several horse classifieds looking to sell/trade a young paint for a well broke horse for a beginning rider for my daughter. I was contacted by Melissa who said she had a well-broke sorrell/white 10 year old mare she would be willing to trade. It had been ridden by her young children.

We set up a date/time to look at the horse. Her boyfriend rode the horse first and then my daughter got on her. She seemed fine and very calm and quiet.

We made the trade and she even trailered the horse for us because she said she was a 501c3 horse rescue and wanted to know where the horse would be. Seemed reasonable enough. This was done on a Saturday.

My daughter rode the horse Sat., Sun., and Monday and then she started limping. My daughter rode her 1/2 hour tops each time.By Tuesday I had to call in the ferrier (she had thrush but we had no idea the extent of it at the time) who suggested I call in the vet.in emails before the trade she told me the horse had no hoof problems other than thrush-she was very healthy.

The vet put her on SMZ's, Bute as well as told us to pick her feet daily, apply Thrush Buster daily and no riding or turnout for a week.in the mean time, my daughter groomed her and did all the work needed to her feet.

After a week, we contacted the vet and said she seemed better so he said she could ride once per day for no more than 15 min. As soon as my daughter went to get on her, she (the horse) threw herself to the ground. She did this to her twice. She also did this to my husband.

I called Melissa and told her she needed to come and look at this horse as it was crazy and something was wrong with it. She came out the next day (Sun) and her boyfriend Dean got on her and she did the same thing to them over and over and over for approximately 45 min. Before they left her alone.

She sells/trades horses she does not have the proper vet papers for (I never did get mine) as well as says she has these horses longer than she actually does. She was not even a legitimate rescue at the time. She has kept my horse which was supposed to be her personal horse and has since sold him as well as resold the mare as a great 4-H project suitable for kids.

She is definitely a RIP-OFF!!