New Holland Sale Barn

Has anyone heard of this place? The girl I'm boarding with (yes, still have the arab mare.....and still boarding there...because nobody has any openings near me, and mill run farm/stables is being put up for sale for the millionth time..so..no luck there.) told me she's going to get a pony from there this Monday...so I decided to do some research into it..turns out there's a LOT of reports of stolen horses and quite a few reports of sick and diseased stock going there (like the horse with strangles that was sold twice at the barn)..and I'm worried about her bringing back a horse infected with something that's contagious, and spreading it to my mare....and being that she's stuck there for a long time, or until someone in my area can board another horse, I can't avoid having her exposed to something like that. I also know they have alot of goats/sheep/cattle that go through..none of which probably have any vetting done before the sale and probably are covered in all sorts of crap...and I'm scared of going down there if she does get another horse and bringing home some disease to my goats and lambs.
So if anyone is familiar with this place, is it as bad as it seems, or am I just needlessly worrying????????

Originally posted by appyday
New Holland is a well known KILLER sale..lots of killers buying/selling Lots of Amish horses being $%^& canned there for various reasons. . It is a high volume sale of low quality animals. Usually the last sale a horse will hit. Lots of horses leave there and go straight to Canada to the killers. Anyway lots of dealers frequent there. (ie lots of sickness) I personally would not bring anything to my barn from there without a 30 day quarentine somewhere else and a vet check. You are asking for trouble. Your vet bills will cost you more then the horse you get if he/she infects your barn with URI and Strangles.

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Not me myself who is going (or even remotely wants) to bring back one of these horses....I just wanted to know if my reason for worrying was accurate. If I had my way my mare would be far away from that place (being the place where she is being kept now)....but hard to do if there's nowhere to keep her.

Do you board horses Appy? And another dumb question from a non-horse owner. What are the "strangles"? Sounds very unpleasant.

Originally posted by Christy
What are the "strangles"? Sounds very unpleasant.

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Hey Christy, found this Strangles is a highly contagious and dangerous infection caused by a bacteria known as Streptococcus equi which affects the lymph nodes. It is spread to other horses by direct contact and can be spread by contaminated food, water and equipment. Horses under 5 years of age are more susceptible than older horses and it most often occurs when the weather is cold and damp. Once a horse becomes infected the symptoms usually appear within 2 to 6 days.

The horse has a sudden high temperature, its lymph nodes become inflamed, accompanyed by nasal catarrh and often coughing. The horse is distressed and may be off its feed as swallowing is difficult. Although not usually fatal if left untreated the lymph nodes can abscess. These will usually burst and drain but in extreme cases the abscess can become so large as to cause the windpipe to be crushed resulting in strangulation of the horse.

Originally posted by Christy
Do you board horses Appy? And another dumb question from a non-horse owner. What are the "strangles"? Sounds very unpleasant.

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In addition to Ken Kings description..here's a photo of the horse that was sold and had strangles....
http://members.tripod.com/errphotos/0a12ce10.jpg
There's also some more photos here...I didn't originally see the photo at this site...but when I tried to find the article again..came across these pics as well.
http://members.tripod.com/errphotos/id2.htm
It's also make you think twice before buying from the amish. True, it's their religon...but it doesn't explain the way some of them raise and treat their animals. Nothing I've ever gotten from them has been even mildly healthy or satisfactory in anyway (although they do have some nice quilts and produce...)..and most of the time when I do buy something from them it's out of pity..once paid a dollar for a disabled duckling that was getting trampled by it's cage mates (and another dollar for a healthy one to keep it company...:-D)..brought it home and tried to nurse it to health...did well for a will but not having the use of it's legs finally got to it. Cried for a long time of that one... but the other duck ended up fat and healthy, so she (at the begining we named her donald, but when she started laying eggs, which she did under cars and our livestock trailer...so that when it was time for us to take the goats to show and we hitched it up...the eggs were squashed and we had to deal with the smell of rotten eggs for a long time..., that was when we finally discovered that he was a she.) went to duck shows and provided us with not-very-tasty duck eggs until something snatched her up and ate her (she was a free roaming duck). Not to mention that they also sell rabbits for easter..and not just a few..but a whole lot of them..I got a new zealand (typed...definately not purebred) buck and a doe from them when I started with my first rabbits...since at the time I didn't know of any body who bred purebred rabbits. My grandmother wanted to breed them to have some meat rabbits for stew...but the buck was infertile. Also have gotten a few goats from them....which was a while ago..but now it seems that the scrapies rule doesn't apply to them..as nothing they sell that requires the tags actually has them. But the horses is the main thing that gets to me..once saw two horses, not belgians or even a draft like horse, just the kind you would see pulling a buggy, at the newer farmers market by the library...pulling two wagons (yep, one attached to the first) that were the kind you usually see them hauling hay with, in short, two very large wagons that are usually pulled with giant belgians, and even then with some straining. Instead of hay, it was loaded down with some bedframes...scrap wood...alot of junk. The horses were sweating and weazing..and when they stopped to rest, the man on the top of the wagon hit them square on the a** with his whip...just to move them foward a few step so his lazy self wouldn't have to walk the difference. Got off the wagon...for about an hour and gave them nothing to drink, or even just to walk them to the shade. Some, or maybe even most that I see of them do treat their horses nice...but alot of them treat them like a nanjemoy-an treats an automobile. Enough ranting though....just wanted to get my two cents in.