Hidden Valley Lake >> After what she says have been years of unfounded allegations, Pasha Tingle resigned from her position as stable manager for the Hidden Valley Lake (HVL) Homeowners Association on Monday.
Several unhappy horse owners who board or have boarded their animals at the HVL stable filed numerous complaints against Tingle ranging from lack of maintenance to horse abuse and poor conduct with boarders. They claim Tingle does little to no work, uses excessive force and have gone as far as to say she starves her horses and called animal control on her.
“This has never happened to me,” Tingle said. “I’ve had horses for 47 years,” and has more than 30 years under her belt as an instructor.
She feels the harassment is coming from their end. Tingle said she’d been cyber bullied and cited multiple unofficial Facebook groups and forums created by HVL members. One specifically targets the stable and the now former manager.
An HVL homeowner at the forefront of the accusations is Cherylyn Johnston. No longer a current boarder, she’s written multiple complaints to the HVL Board of Directors including a nine-page letter detailing Tingle’s alleged abuses.
She said she’s witnessed “a lot of cruel treatment. I’m part of a new movement to change that.”
On Sept. 11, 2014, Johnston made a call to Lake County Animal Care and Control (LCCAC) to report Tingle was not properly feeding an older horse she owned.
Sierra
The 30-year-old quarter horse received a low health score by LCACC from the officer who responded.
“Sierra was a fine horse,” Johnston said. “It was given to her by people who thought she was going to take care of it.”
The officer spoke with Tingle who said Sierra was being fed senior equine feed but was not gaining weight. She subsequently received a Body Conditioning Score (BCS) in the 2-to-4 range, LCACC Director Bill Davidson said.
The BCS is used as a visual assessment for horses to establish an overall health status on a scale of 1 to 9. Sierra’s rating signified the horse was thin and needed some kind of medical attention, Davidson said.
Instead of seeking the blood work suggested, Tingle had a veterinarian euthanize Sierra.
“Took it right down,” Johnston said, adding that a horse such as Sierra had at least another 2 to 5 years left.
But Davidson disagrees.
“Thirty years old is a very old horse,” he said. While he acknowledged that they can outlive that, he said 30 wasn’t an unreasonable age to consider the option of euthanasia.
“I’m not saying they can’t go longer, but horses are very particular animals,” Davidson said.
It also wasn’t quite as swift of a decision as it appears to Johnston either, according to Tingle. Already aware of Sierra’s health issues, Tingle said she decided to euthanize her before LCACC was brought in, but it wasn’t until a few days after the visit that she finally went through with it.
Regardless, Johnston and other boarders were not pleased with the choice. This would also not be the only visit from animal control.
Ember
A second report to LCACC was recently called in by Brandy Roy, a current HVL resident and boarder.
Roy said she witnessed Tingle and another woman use a stud chain while trying to load Ember into a trailer so aggressively to the point that it caused the horse to tip over in middle of driveway. She received medical attention for an injury on her nose. “A good trainer would never use stud chain if she spent time with the horse and taught it not to be afraid,” Johnston said.
The stud chain can go over the bridge of the nose and applies tension which causes discomfort and makes the horse want to cooperate, Davidson said. It’s not illegal, and its use is an objective issue.
“You’re talking about a 1,200-pound animal that with the blink of an eye can run you over,” Davidson said. “There are people in the horse community who will tell you using it is no good and others will say it’s a necessity.”
He went on to clarify that Ember in fact did not have the stud chain over her nose.
“Brandy Roy slandered and lied,” Tingle charged. “I had the chain under the chin.”
According to the LCACC report, Ember was having obvious trouble getting into the trailer, started to panic and began backing out. At some point during the struggle, Ember bumped the front of her face with the trailer, which is what caused the injury, Tingle said. The veterinarian who treated the animal confirmed that it looked like scraping, Davidson said. Furthermore, the officer who took the call spoke with Tingle, another witness and Roy and LCACC determined there was no overuse of the stud chain.
Davidson said it seems to be more of an issue between two groups of people at the HVL stables, those who like Tingle and those who don’t.
“She would never mistreat her horses,” HVL General Manager Spears said.
Johnston said she decided to no longer board her horses at the HVL stables after a confrontation with Tingle during which she alleges the stable manager yelled at her and that it was not uncommon behavior.
Spears has received several complaints and letters from disgruntled boarders about Tingle, again with claims of abuse and poor treatment of members.
Johnston said Spears has yet to respond to any of her complaints.
“Not so,” Spears said. She has “answered to things that would be in the scope of her responsibility.”
Such responses include adding cameras to the stables, as well as a number of scheduled maintenance repairs, Spears said. There’s only so much she can do with regards to complaints of not getting along with boarders, however, and not all of them share the same feelings about Tingle.
Whether seems that the animal complaints are more of a reflection of clashing horse philosophies and cliques or a case of outright cruelty, the allegations have been constant enough that Tingle is now without a job, with a bruised reputation and unsure of what’s ahead.
