California Riding Magazine • April, 2009

The Gallop: Mix-Up Madness
Good Guinness at center of
colossal shipping blunder.

by Erin Gilmore

When California trainer Patrick Seaton put his Grand Prix mount Good Guinness on a trailer last fall to be sold for owner Richard Konecky, he had no reason to believe the 12-year-old black Irish Sport Horse gelding would arrive anywhere other than its intended destination. But six months and an uproar in the horse world later, Good Guinness was declared missing and then quickly found via a chain of events that highlights the power of the Internet while reminding the horse world why due diligence during shipping is vital.
With consistent West Coast Grand Prix finishes in the last three years, Seaton believed that Good Guinness would sell easily as a Junior/AO jumper on the East Coast. Using bi-coastal trainer Ali Nilforushan as his agent and liaison, Seaton sent Good Guinness to Frank Madden’s Long Island, NY stable to be sold on Sept. 8, 2008. Seaton was notified when the horse arrived on Sept. 14, which was a few days later than he had expected but not entirely unusual.

“At the time, I was on the road at the fall indoor shows. When I got home I started working with the horse that had come in,” says Madden. “I thought he was a good guy with a nice attitude, but he didn’t have the quality I had hoped he would. Ali had described him to me as a very high quality horse that had done well in the Grand Prixs. I called Ali within a week and said ‘Geez Ali, this horse isn’t as cool as I thought he would be.’ But I thought he could be a nice equitation horse so we brought him down to Florida and I had one of my riders show him in some low jumpers and Modified Children’s.”

Seaton kept tabs on the horse’s progress via monthly calls with Nilforushan, but as the months ticked by, Guinness’ performance paralleled Madden’s initial assessment. Seaton, who knew his horse as a talented Grand Prix jumper, was disappointed when talk about sending Guinness to a different sale barn began to circulate. So during a trip to Florida on Sat., March 7, Seaton dropped by Madden’s barn to check up on his horse.

Seaton asked the grooms to direct him to Guinness’ stall when he arrived. The horse they showed him was the same height and dark brown/black color, but the horse wearing Good Guinness’ halter had a brown nose, a scar on a hind leg, missing front teeth and a bright white star. Guinness’ passport documented a black horse with a roan star, and didn’t mention the teeth, scar or brown nose. These differences had been passed over by the people who didn’t know the “real” Good Guinness, but they were immediately clear to Seaton. Upon closer inspection, Seaton discovered that Irish Sport Horse “Guinness” had a faded Holsteiner brand. For months an “imposter horse” had been living as Good Guinness with no one the wiser.

Internet Detectives

With the real Good Guinness unaccounted for, Seaton began to spread the word throughout the horse community that his horse was missing. He requested the shipping logs from hauler Earl Jacque, and began to trace all horses that had been on the trailer with Guinness in September. Within 24 hours the story had taken on a life of its own via the Internet. A Facebook group was formed, a “missing horse” flyer and e-mail blasts were forwarded and distributed on equine news sites, and a discussion thread was started on the popular Chronicle Of The Horse magazine’s online forum. It was that thread which cracked the case early Thursday morning; with thousands in the horse community logged on and reading or contributing to the forum, an anonymous message was posted suggesting that a horse matching Guinness’ description had been showing in Gulfport, MS under the name “Kanye.” Minutes later a link to show photos was posted, minutes after that a poster called Seaton while another e-mailed him a link to the photos. As the pieces quickly fell into place on the forum, Patrick called the trainer of the barn where Kanye was stabled. By the end of the day he confirmed that Kanye had been positively identified as Good Guinness.

Good Guinness, jumping with Patrick Seaton.

Kanye / Con Air

During Guinness’ original cross-country trip, the real Kanye, an 11-year-old Children’s Jumper with similar markings and color as Guinness, had been picked up in Texas on a trade for owner McLain Ward. When the trailer reached the East Cost, hauler Earl Jacque laid over at Barney and McLain Ward’s Castle Hill Farm in Brewster, NY before bringing “Guinness” to Frank Madden’s Hunter’s Moon Farm in nearby East Norwich, NY. When Jacque left the Wards’ farm, he took Guinness’ passport and halter but mistakenly loaded Kanye, leaving Guinness behind. The Wards subsequently leased Kanye (actually Guinness) to a junior rider at Annabel Benito’s Resolution Farm in New Jersey. In February, Guinness spent three weeks competing (and cleaning up) as Kanye in the Low Junior/AOs at the Gulf Coast Winter Classic in Gulfport, MS before returning to New Jersey in early March. “We thought that we were getting a horse named Kanye, and we were just as shocked as everyone else about the whole mix up,” comments Benito. “We just feel that we had a great time with the horse and were sad to see him go, but really grateful to have him in the barn and part of the team for that time.”

As soon as Guinness was identified, he was moved to Beacon Hill Farm in Colts Neck, NJ. Junior Sophie Benjamin, who attends Princeton University in New Jersey, rode Guinness in California in 2008, and helped confirm his identity in the hours after he was found. At press time Guinness was still at Beacon Hill with Benjamin watching over him. Kanye was returned to McLain Ward, presumably to be put up for sale, this time as himself.

Happy Ending

“We are just happy Guinness has been found,” says Seaton. “If I ever send a horse cross country again there will be a photo of the horse getting on the truck and off. I hope this incident will change the big picture, as far as including photos on horse passports and a bigger follow through from the USEF on horse identification. Things could have been done to avoid this whole situation, starting with a picture on the horse’s passport.

“What’s more, it shouldn’t be so easy for someone to register the wrong horse with the USEF,” Seaton continues. “There should be a better system of micro chipping and identifying horses.”

Indeed, Kanye was positively scanned for a microchip in the days after the switch was discovered. The chip traced back to a former Dutch owner and identified Kanye as Con Air, a registered Holsteiner.
“It’s unfortunate it happened like it did, but there was nobody at fault,” says Nilforushan. “I think everyone in this misunderstanding lost. I lost two horse sales; Barney and McLain lost a horse sale. Earl made a mistake but I forgive him, and I don’t have any ill will towards him, McLain or Frank. I think it was pure accident.”

Above all, this story underscores the power of the Internet. The Chronicle Of The Horse forum provided a place for the person with the right information to anonymously step forward. That post was the catalyst that led to the horse being found less than four days after word was released. Online forums aren’t without their share of criticism for the amount of speculation and gossip they generate. McLain Ward released a statement after Guinness was found that denounced the forums as “the true scandal.” However, gossip and insinuations notwithstanding, it can’t be overlooked that everyday horse people sitting at their computers around the country swiftly solved the mystery.

“In the end I’m glad both horses are sound and healthy, and that we had a bunch of very reasonable, non-hysterical people involved on both ends trying to solve this,” says Madden. “All the pieces came together to bring some closure for everybody.”