WHERE IS ASHLEY?

Lauren out riding her lovely mare.

Have you seen me? I want to come HOME!

On April 3, 2010, Lauren Wiley went to the farm on Rt. 10 in Laurens, NY where her Morgan mare, Ashley, and Ashley's yearling filly, Jordan were boarded. When she arrived there, she was shocked at Ashley's appearance. She was severely underweight. Ashley has been Lauren's horse for many years, and since Lauren IS a vet student at UPENN, she would know what her horse should look like.

Lauren's mother, Lisa, insisted that the farm owner have a vet out to check her out, perhaps float her teeth, and find the reason why Ashley was looking so poorly. Lauren made an appointment with the local vet, but when she showed up, Ashley was not available to her. A second appointment was made for the following week, and Ashley was made available (to be fair, Ashley can be hard to catch at times, but once caught, she is fine.)

While the vet was there, Lauren had coggins pulled on mare and foal. Lisa hadn't seen the mare in awhile, so when the Coggins arrived in the mail with photos, she was shocked at how thin Ashley was.

Lisa conveyed her feelings to the farm owner and asked that new photos be taken so she could see if there was any improvement in the two weeks that had gone by. There were several excuses made, and when photos were finally sent, the embedded information proved these photos were taken at the same time the vet had been out and NOT two weeks later as stated.

Lauren was checking out a farm closer to her in PA where she could move her mare and foal, when she got the call from her mother saying the farm owners had called and told her that Ashley was missing.

The farm owners insisted that no fences were down, that all the other horses were fine, and they thought she had just gone into a different section and not come back down to eat... for three days. She was supposedly lost somewhere on the 69 acres. When Lisa said "She's dead, then. She would have come up to eat with the others" and the farm owner said it could be possible, but they had not found the body yet, and she could have possibly wandered into the swamp area and gotten stuck.

Lisa made arrangements to have the filly picked up, even though board was paid up for another two months for her and Ashley. It was stated that the foal was awesome, easy to handle, in beautiful condition. But the filly that stepped off the trailer was ribby, wormy, and scared to death of being handled. It's taken a couple of weeks to get her to come around, and she's just starting to fill in.

In the meantime, Lisa made several phone calls to the sheriff in Otsego County, NY and the Animal Control Officer in that vicinity to see if they had any reports of Ashley, and to turn in a report that she was missing. It was at this time that Lisa found out that ten days earlier (which would have been the time when Ashley suddenly disappeared) the Animal Control Office had a report of loose horses from that particular farm. By the time they arrived, however, the horses had been captured and returned to the farm.

There has been no closure to this, and Lauren is heartbroken not knowing where her riding companion, Ashley, is.

On Saturday, May 23, 2010, Lisa received a certified envelope in the mail. On the envelope was scrawled " says the mane hair is in the large bag". Nothing else. No note saying "I'm sorry to inform you that we found Ashley dead" and to let the Wileys know what had been done with the remains. No card. Nothing other than dirty filthy hair that does NOT APPEAR TO BE ASHLEY'S! Instead of being dark chestnut, this hair is mostly black, or a sunburnt black. NOT the dark, rich chestnut color of Ashley's mane and tail.

There are reasons to suspect that Ashley may in fact still be alive, and either was traded, sold, given away, hidden away, or wandered off the farm, especially since no firm proof has been given that she is, indeed, dead. As gross as it seems, photos of the dead body have not been provided. And only a small amount of mane and tail hair was sent... such as you would clip from a horse you are grooming for a show.

On Sunday, a report was filed with Stolen Horse, International AKA NetPosse. You can see Ashley's report here and download and print out a flyer here. PLEASE... print out the flyer, distribute it in your area... at auctions, fairs, feed and tack stores, anywhere horse people may see it. Somewhere out there, someone knows the truth about where Ashley is. A reward of $1000 is being offered for her live return.