I worked at Sloucms for 8yrs and while some of the things being said are true some are not. In response to Horsesinheart502 in the whole 8yrs I was there the horses were never abused in my opinion. Were some things there neglected that should have been taken care of absolutly. I didn't always agree with their methods but they do mean well they seemed to just get overwhelmed. They should have long ago Gelded their stallions as they have more than enough young stock. The horses do not live on dirt lots they have large pastures connecting to the dirt paddocks that you see at first. The slocums have about 89 acers of pasture and 140 horses they need to downsize. I do agree with the statements made about April, she is the main reason boarders and voulenteers have left. I personally had a huge blowout with april and moved my three the next week. The mare I bought from them is now a hunter and is very successful. Also the foals are handled from birth, halter broken and consistantly worked with and turn out to become very good trail horses, or if worked with by some one that shows turn out to be great show horses as my mare has proven time and time again. The stallions have mares in their paddocks because slocums believes in pasture breeding. Their stallions do treat their mares fine and are not agressive. In response to the horses being worked too hard this is also not true. They don't ride lame horses, they will only let a horse be ridden 2hrs tops. Lesson horses are only ridden 30mins sometimes do two lessons in a row which comes to an hour of walking and trotting. I also agree that they work their help too hard and April tends to verbally abuse the volunteers. would I recommend Slocums... NO! would I recommend you buy a horse and turn it into a nice show horse like I did absolutly! The people at slocums mean well but are in way over their heads. I pity them and feel bad for all of the horses I worked with for so long but I did my part a got three horses out of there.
Pros: They do have some horses worthy of the show ring
Cons: April is not easy to get along with and is verbally abusive to voulenteers
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