Middleburg Horse Seizure Highlights Difficulties Posed By Repeat Abusers

Danley’s wife, Bonnie, was also involved in the business. She graduated from Virginia Tech in 1965 with a degree in agriculture and minor in animal science. A former schoolteacher and retired Marine Corps captain, she owned and showed the 1981 and 1982 World Champion Morgan western pleasure stallion, Green Bay General. “Under Bonnie’s care, management and nurturing, he lived to the ripe old age of 31 years,” noted the Shenandoah Equine Investments website.

Despite the Danleys’ decades of experience and knowledge, Dennis has multiple convictions for mistreatment of his horses. He was first convicted of one count of cruelty to animals in Loudoun County, Va., in 1997.

The second instance was in early 2007, when concerned local residents convinced Jefferson County, W.Va., authorities to investigate the condition of horses Danley kept at Blakeley Farm, near Charles Town, according to a 2007 report from WHSV, an ABC television affiliate.

Residents made multiple complaints to the Jefferson County sheriff’s office over the course of several months.

Authorities finally visited the farm in March with a veterinarian, who said that about 10 of the horses were malnourished. All of the horses’ ribs were visible and many suffered from rain rot, Cpl. Vincent Tiong of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department told the Herald-Mail newspaper. Several horse carcasses were also found on the property, left along a fence line to decompose.

Danley cooperated with the investigation, according to the Herald-Mail, but when the conditions on the farm did not improve, he was charged with 10 counts of animal cruelty. Danley’s wife defended their actions to the paper, blaming financial troubles, not malice, for the horses’ conditions: “Financially, we are strapped. We’ve been doing everything we can to take care of those horses. We’re just
flat-out broke.”

Danley agreed to plead no contest to a single charge of animal cruelty in August, accepting a suspended 90-day sentence and a year of unsupervised probation.

Under the terms of his probation, Danley was allowed to continue working as a trainer but was not permitted to own or care for any horses for five years, according to Hassan Rasheed, Jefferson County assistant prosecutor. But because Danley’s probation was unsupervised, West Virginia authorities were not monitoring whether or not he had any animals under his care. (Prosecutors do plan to file a motion to revoke his probation, Rasheed said, based on the violation in Loudoun County.)

In September, in the wake of his plea agreement, Danley was indefinitely ejected from the track at Charles Town in a decision by the management company, Penn National Gaming Inc., according to Danny Wright of the Charles Town stewards’ office. Racing records show that Danley has not run a horse at any track since March 2007.

Danley’s attorney told the Herald-Mail at the time of his plea that the horses had all been nursed back to health and sold to a farm in Virginia.

Strike Three

By November 2007, about three months after Danley’s sentencing in West Virginia, a caller concerned about the condition of horses under Danley’s care on the Virginia farm had alerted the Loudoun County Department of Animal Care and Control, according to spokeswoman Laura Rizer. Animal control officers made several visits to the farm, working with the horse’s caretakers—Danley, Pablo Cosme and Donald Cutshaw—to improve the animals’ conditions. The officers were aware of Danley’s previous conviction in West Virginia, Rizer said.

But by late January, “the horses had declined really dramatically,” said Rizer. A veterinarian was brought in to examine them and said their condition warranted removal. The 48 Thoroughbreds, which ranged from yearlings to seniors and included stallions and pregnant mares, were seized on Jan. 23. None scored higher than a 3 out of 9 on the Henneke body condition scale, Rizer said.

At a hearing on Jan. 30, Cosme, who owned five of the horses, relinquished his ownership. He told the Leesburg Today newspaper that a recent injury left him unable to work or care for the animals. “I would like to have them back though,” he told the paper.

Cutshaw, who owned one horse and leased the Middleburg farm where all the horses were kept, also relinquished his ownership.

Danley was not in attendance at the hearing, having requested a postponement that was denied. Loudoun County Animal Control and Care Director Tom Koenig told the Leesburg Today paper that when animal control officers last spoke with Danley, he was working in Lafayette, La.

Ownership of all the horses was transferred to the county. Some of the horses have additional part-owners, Rizer said, and officials are attempting to contact those individuals. If they can prove ownership and have not been involved in the care of the horses, they can petition to get their horses back, she explained.

One such part-owner was present at the hearing. Richard Rutherford, who owns a share of the stallion Sandlot Star, told the local CBS television affiliate WUSA that the son of Seattle Slew was among those confiscated and that he hopes to regain ownership. He said that shareholders paid Danley to provide the horse with good care.