More on Robin Vess

http://toledoblade.com/article/20100411/NEWS16/4110301/0/news13 [There is a small picture of one of the rescued horses.]

It's a long article so here are some of the highlights.

Of all the possible explanations for the troubles surrounding Robin Vess - the founder of a local Arabian horse club who is accused of starving dozens of horses on her Carroll Township farm - one detail is guaranteed to confound:

She has always loved horses.

The now 55-year-old woman began buying horses when she was in her 20s, and she has been passionate about the animals since she was a child.

Not really unusual. Lots of animal neglectors love horses. We often call them hoarders.

When Ms. Burkhart went to pick the horses up in October, she said the horses were "in bad shape." She bought Ms. Vess 50 bales of hay and 10 bags of grain to feed the horses. One horse, a 13-year-old stallion, looked so bad she decided to take him too. She said she arranged to pay Ms. Vess $4,500 for the horse over time, in the hope she would use that money to buy feed for the horses.

"I had never had any interest in this horse at all, but I felt really sorry for him," Ms. Burkhart said.

Nevertheless, in a recent court hearing in Ottawa County Municipal Court related to her 42-count animal cruelty case, Ms. Vess insisted that her horses had been well-cared for and had plenty of food.

"They did have feed and they did have water," Ms. Vess told the court. "They were fed twice a day."

Fed horses don't end up ranking a 2 on the scale. You have proof?

Mr. Davis has argued in court that Ms. Vess is indigent, and requested that Judge Frederick Hany require the state to pay burial expenses and necropsies for the three horses euthanized during the rescue. The judge denied the request last week, citing Ms. Vess' ownership of the farm and a Toledo condominium that was in her mother's name.

Her trial that had been scheduled for Tuesday was recently postponed.

According to Web sites for her ranch, "Far Niente Farms," and breeding operation, Ms. Vess offered a plethora of services, including horse management, boarding, training, breeding, artificial insemination, stallion promotion, and even photo shoots.

Must be an old website.

Horses were not Ms. Vess' only vocation. She was also a long-time seller of nutritional supplements and other products for a direct selling company called Shaklee Corp. Linda Logan, a former friend of Ms. Vess, recalled that she ran the business with her mother in an office in Toledo during the 1980s and would do people's makeup.

"She did it once on me and people just marveled," Ms. Logan said. "Robin was very talented." In a profile on a Web site for entrepreneurs around 2006, Ms. Vess posted a profile statement in which she touted herself as an accomplished businesswoman.

"I have a Nationwide Sales Force in Multi-Level Marketing, Member of the Million Dollar Club, and sell the world's best supplements through my online store," Ms. Vess wrote.

On the same Web site, Ms. Vess said she was looking for investors in a universal replacement cap for lipstick tubes called "Lipvue," which she claimed to have patented and was about to go into production. "Sales projections are staggering" she wrote in one post.

More recently, Ms. Vess started an online dating site called RecoveryMatchfor2.com which she heralded as "the world's only online dating and friendship site for people in Recovery."

In a blog about herself, she lists glamorous-sounding activities and achievements, including travel to the Caribbean, teaching a seminar in "business success" and meeting "such greats as Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Og Mandino" at spiritual seminars.

Those who met her describe her as always very well-dressed, wearing suits, jewelry, and high-heels even at horse shows. At a recent court hearing, Ms. Vess appeared in a black suit and knee-high stiletto boots.

"She was really picky. Even if you left a piece of poop in the horse stall, she would be on your case," said Kristin Nagy, who worked two months for Ms. Vess in 2002.

Ms. Rusch, who helped Ms. Vess also for two months in 2003, said the breeder had "help wanted" ads up continually at local stores because she burned through her staff so quickly. Evelyn Knipp said she gave up working for Ms. Vess in 2000 after six months at the farm because she wasn't getting paid. She said Ms. Vess would give her checks and then cancel them.

"The woman could take and show her horses all around the world, but she couldn't pay her help," said Ms. Knipp, angrily.

"She always made it seem like she had a lot of money,'' Ms. Knipp said.

Carroll Township police reports show two complaints from people who did work for Ms. Vess in 2007 and claimed they were not paid.

Another man, Jay Benoit, told The Blade he worked at the farm with his girlfriend for just a day before Ms. Vess allegedly threw them off the property without paying them.

Her lawyer, Mr. Davis, confirmed Ms. Vess had some disgruntled former employees, but he said that was because she was strict in demanding good care for her horses.

That's not strict. That's OCD to the point of insanity. Horse lovers naturally want the best care for our horses. But we don't go completely off the wall with that want. Around here if someone's that crazy about it, they're going to be doing the work themselves because eventually they'll run out of people to ask to do it for them.