Horse Breeder Guilty of Six Charges

BY MATTHEW WINTER
SALISBURY POST

Carolyn Nance will spend six days in jail for cruel treatment of six of 16 horses taken into custody by Rowan County Animal Control officers in December.

However, Nance will be able to continue her horse-breeding operation, a ruling her prosecutor called disappointing.

Rowan County District Court Judge Ted Blanton convicted Nance, 48, of six counts of cruelty to animals late Monday night. He acquitted Nance of 10 other cruelty charges and one count of assault and battery with a deadly weapon.

Nance allegedly used her sport utility vehicle to try to run over officials who visited her property off U.S. 601 on Dec. 21 to take custody of her horses. Blanton dismissed a related charge of communicating threats.

Blanton delivered his ruling after about 10 hours of largely defense testimony Monday, most notably from Nance, herself, and another defense witness who shocked the trial's audience with criticism of Nance's treatment of the horses.

Lawyers defending the self-described horse breeder Monday claimed the emaciated condition of many of her herd of about 20 horses could be blamed on lice and severe diarrhea possibly caused by ''chemicals in the water.''

Judge Blanton, however, found her treatment of at least six horses inexcusable. In addition to ordering three years of supervised probation and 100 hours of community service, Blanton sentenced Nance to six days in jail, to be served one at a time and not concurrently. ''One day for each horse,'' Blanton noted.

''... I want you to think again and again about having to go'' and about how she treated the horses, Blanton told Nance.

Although Blanton would not comment on his ruling after the trial, his convictions apparently concerned the six most malnourished horses found on Nance's property. These six horses will remain in the custody of Animal Control officers until new owners adopt them, the judge ordered.

The 10 remaining horses taken into custody by Animal Control will be returned to Nance, but only after she proves she can provide for them.

Blanton also ruled that Animal Control officers will have the authority to inspect Nance's operation and her animals throughout her three-year probation.

On the stand, Nance produced receipts to prove she bought more than $2,200 in ''high-quality'' feed over the last six months. Nance assured the court she fed this feed to her horses. ''I never acquired a taste for it myself,'' Nance said.

After estimating that one of her mares could be worth $10,000, Nance argued that purposefully starving her own herd would have been like ''burning down the bank.''

Defense witness Randy Reamer, a Salisbury attorney, painted a different picture of Nance, to the chagrin of the defense attorneys who subpoenaed him to testify.

Reamer, who with his wife runs a large and successful horse breeding farm, has bought and sold horses with Nance over the years. Reamer described Nance as a woman who was unable or unwilling to spend the money needed for veterinarians, a part-time breeder who was known to ''play things close to the line'' when it came to buying feed for her horses.

After viewing pictures of flooded stalls at Nance's property and emaciated horses, Reamer testified that he had ''never seen a living horse who looked that bad.''

''If Carolyn kept a horse in a stall like this, she ought to be convicted,'' Reamer said, prompting gasps from audience members expecting a sympathetic defense witness.

When prosecutor Cynthia Barnhill showed Reamer a picture of a horse Nance had bought from him some years ago, Reamer said, ''That makes me sick.'' Reamer also repeatedly testified that Nance ''did not have a good place out there,'' and claimed that lice would not cause the kind of weight loss seen in her herd.

''I don't think she has the means or the ability to turn that place into a breeder's facility,'' Reamer said. ''Never has, never will.''

Defense attorneys Bob and James Davis had no comment about their decision to call Reamer to the stand.

Nance's defense seemed to rely mainly on two points. First, Nance apparently loved her horses and did her best to care for them. She did not willingly set out to starve her horses, which her attorneys argued is required under the criminal statute of cruelty to animals. Secondly, some of the horses' weight loss could be the result of illness or parasites.

In his closing argument, James Davis acknowledged one ''chink'' in Nance's defense armor - she did not call a veterinarian when her horses began to lose weight last fall.

Nance testified that she treated the horses for lice and worms, and that the horses were beginning to improve when Animal Control officers took custody of them and filed charges against her.

However, Barnhill argued before the judge that it would be ''downright scary'' to think that the horses had improved by the time the county got involved.

Nance's acquittal on 10 of the 16 animal cruelty charges may have been due in part to a ''body-scoring'' debate waged in court. Two veterinarians who testified for the prosecution rated the health of the 16 individual horses seized from Nance.

Both doctors admitted the rating system is subjective, and Blanton returned guilty verdicts on only the most malnourished and lowest-rated horses.