Stolen Horse After Training Agreement Goes Wrong

[GingerNell]

My question involves personal property located in the State of: CA

We had a trainer who offered to do training on one of our horses (a gelding) in exchange for another horse (a filly). He asked that while he was training the gelding if we could keep the filly with him as he wanted to start training on her to increase her future value. We had a very detailed written contract with him stating exactly what training was to be done and that he was responsible for the feed and board while in training and that the papers on the filly would not be signed over until satisfactory training had been completed. In the end no training had ever been done on the gelding, so we removed him from where the trainer was keeping him. We have since had him in training with another trainer who agrees that no training had been done on him, in fact she as well as ourselves thought something tramatic had happened to him because of his manerism and the fact he had a large gash on his back (he was not mentally the same horse we dropped off, we had previously done work with him and he was a quiet easy going horse but when we got him back he was a basket case terrified of everything). The filly was not located at the facility the gelding was at. We found out later that someone else now has her-we don't know who. We told the trainer we removed the gelding because no training had been done and he needed to return or pay for the filly. He agreed and said he would pay because he sold her(this was done without our permission) but multiple times he failed to show up to pay for her.
We hired a private investigator to see if we could find him (so we could serve him or find where the filly was being kept). He was doing traing out of his parents facility and the pi was unable to locate him or find out any information except for the fact that he has done similar things to this several times everywhere he's ever lived. I believe he's had suits filed against him but has never paid up on them, mainly because no one can find him. Everytime I put an ad on craigslist trying to find her I have someone guess correctly on who had done it. I know there is someone else who had their horse stolen from him(they put the horse in training with him took there money and then said he no longer had there horse)-she threatened a lawsuit and he gave the horse back-didn't work for us, there is a tack shop here where he bought $1500 worth of tack and supplies with a check that bounced and never came back to make it right.

My question is what can we do? A lawsuit would be expensive and according to his history he would not show up anyways and then there is the issue of collecting the judgement. We have contacted the police and they said it's a civil matter because they don't have the knowledge to prove the horse received training or not. Is there anyway besides suing and hoping to receive something? Is there a way to get the cops involved? Or some way that's not going to cost us an arm and leg that well never get back?

[bcr229]

First I would contact NetPosse and post on the Chronicle of the Horse - Missing Horses Forum.

How much was the filly worth? If the value is under the small claims amount in CA ($7500) then you don't need an attorney, and filing is cheaper than PI fees. Make sure everything is documented - you've got the contract, do you have a picture of the gelding's back injury when you retrieved him, did a vet treat the injury, etc.

[GingerNell]

She's already up on netposse but I hadnt heard of the other.

She herself is worth under 7500.
The gelding didn't receive vet treatment because it was already partially healed but there are pictures. Taking him to small claims is fine but we know he won't show and he won't pay up after the judgement.