Horse owner described as facing many stressors

Volunteers tend to horses rescued from Robin Vess' stable in Ottawa County's Carroll Township in January. JEREMY WADSWORTH / THE BLADE Enlarge | Photo Reprints

OAK HARBOR, Ohio - 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.

"I've always liked horses. I've been horse-crazy since I was little," Ms. Vess told one Blade reporter at a horse show in 1989. At another show a year later, she recounted how her love for horses dated back to when "my grandpa put me on one when I was 2."

In subsequent years, Ms. Vess made a name for herself in the local Arabian horse community, founding the Arabian Horse Club of Greater Toledo in the late 1980s and organizing the first "Arabian and Half Arabian Charity Show and Futurity" at the Lucas County Fairgrounds in 1990. Those who knew her then remember her horses were well-cared for.

When she began running the stables and breeding operation at her farm on Behlman Road in Ottawa County's Carroll Township, former employees recall Ms. Vess demanding impeccable care of her horses. Tracy Rusch, who worked at the farm in 2003, said Ms. Vess would insist that all the stalls be thoroughly cleaned daily, used nontoxic fly spray on the horses, and played classical music in the barn to "relax" the animals.

"She was meticulous about how she kept the barn," Ms. Rusch said. "She was hard to work for and she had very, very high turnover because she was so picky."

So when the Humane Society of Ottawa County removed 36 horses from Ms. Vess' farm on Jan. 29th - and euthanized three others alleging they were being starved to death - many people who knew or had known Ms. Vess were left scratching their heads.

Others were not so surprised.

Interviews with some of those people, and information she posted about herself online, reveal a complex and fragile woman. She appears to have clung to her horses even as she descended into depression and financial strife following the deaths of close family members and amid the economic downturn.

Ms. Vess' current situation likely stems at least partly from depression, some people who know her said. Her lawyer, Mark Davis, has said she was severely distressed following the domino-like deaths of three family members. Two aging aunts, Faye Lengel and Mabel Demering, died in 2006 and 2007 respectively. Then Jean Vess, her mother with whom she had lived at least 15 years, died in April, 2008.

Ms. Vess, who has declined through her attorney to comment, has no children and has never been married, records show.

During a recent court hearing, Ms. Vess acknowledged taking antidepressants at the time her horses were removed, and continues to take them now. Mr. Davis said she missed a court hearing because she was seeking treatment for her depression at an area hospital.

In the months beforeJanuary's seizure, Ms. Vess appears to have struggled to keep control of her horses. Police officers were called to her property on five occasions between September, 2008, and October, 2009, to deal with horses running loose from her farm, reports show.

Friend and former business partner Tina Burkhart said she began to realize something was wrong with Ms. Vess in early 2009, close to the anniversary of the latter's mother's death.

Although she did not visit the farm at the time, she said Ms. Vess would cry over the phone and talk about wanting to kill herself.

"She was constantly talking about suicide. She was going back and forth to physicians and trying to get care," Ms. Burkhart said. "I was really afraid to have her commit suicide, so I told her to keep calling and talking to me."

Ms. Burkhart, who has an Arabian horse farm in southeast Michigan, said she and Ms. Vess had joint ownership of seven horses that dated back to 2007. Ms. Vess kept three of the horses on her farm, Ms. Burkhart said.

But when Ms. Vess became depressed, Ms. Burkhart said she began to worry about the horses and began negotiating with Ms. Vess to get her to sign the horses over to her. She said it took months of negotiations.

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."

While the deaths of Ms. Vess' relatives seem to have brought her emotional despair, they may also have left her in a financial hole. Acquaintances of Ms. Vess interviewed by The Blade concurred that her mother and in particular her aunt Ms. Lengel had for a long time supported Ms. Vess financially, and had bankrolled the establishment of the horse farm.

Ms. Lengel and Jean Vess purchased the nearly 10-acre farm in 1996, and paid off the original $167,450 mortgage in 2001. A second $50,000 mortgage on the property was paid off in November, 2007. After the two women died, Ms. Vess became the sole owner of the farm, valued at $241,120.

But while Ms. Vess got to keep the farm, it seems she did not get much money to go with it. Probate Court records reveal Ms. Lengel had no assets when she died. Ms. Vess' mother did not have a probate record. It's unclear whether her aunt Ms. Demering left her any money.

Financial hardship is one reason Mr. Davis has given for Ms. Vess' struggle to care for the horses on her farm. He said the family deaths contributed to the hardship, along with losses in the stock market.

"It was a family farm, so family members supported the farm with their income," Mr. Davis said. "She's trying to raise some money by selling off equipment or different horse gear, or trying to rent out the barn. But she doesn't have her own income coming in."

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.

She also owned some high-caliber horses, including a prized national champion stallion named Benevolence V - one of the emaciated animals rescued from her farm in January.

But while these horses may have fetched a handsome price at some point in their careers, many of them were old and no longer worth a lot of money in today's market, said Terri Figueroa, president of the New Jersey-based Arabian Rescue Mission. Her organization became the official owner of Ms. Vess' horses in February.

The market for Arabian horses began declining in the early 1990s and has been harshly affected by the economic downturn, Ms. Figueroa said.

"It's a really depressed economy and horses are a luxury item," Ms. Figueroa said. "You can go on Craigslist and find 100 free horses, out of which 30 are Arabians and nobody wants them … It's a shame because the bloodlines [Ms. Vess] had on the property are wonderful bloodlines. But something's only worth what somebody is willing to pay for it."

Taking care of 42 horses is also an expensive endeavor. Ms. Figueroa said feeding that number of horses could cost around $6,000 a month, and she would also have to pay for barn employees, veterinary care, blankets, and other items.

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.

Numerous former staff members have said Ms. Vess was a difficult person to work with, and few maintained employment with her for more than a couple of months. Some also complained that Ms. Vess failed to pay them.

"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.

Ms. Vess also earned the ire of her former club members at the Arabian Horse Club of Greater Toledo. Ms. Logan, who said she helped start the club, claimed Ms. Vess was "sneaky" and unreliable.

Eventually, Ms. Vess left the club where, according to Ms. Logan, she had become deeply unpopular.

The club's current president, Karen Miller, would not say why Ms. Vess left, but she said several years later Ms. Vess angered members by allegedly threatening to sue the club, an action she never took, Ms. Miller said.

Contact Claudia Boyd-Barrett at:

cbarrett@theblade.com

or 419-724-6272.

41.50821 -83.14501

Vess THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGT Enlarge | Photo Reprints

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.