Complaint Review: Brummel Horse Farm - Westminster, Maryland Internet

I would like to state that Amanda reached out to me recently to rectify the situation to our satisfaction, concerning the mare she sold us (I am the owner of the mare with the bad back earlier reported in this report).  Amanda was concerned and wanted to ensure our satisfaction, so she offered a very appropriate sum of money toward the rehabilitation/treatment costs including surgery expense for our mare, for the repair of her back problem.  We feel this was a very fair offer and we accepted it, and feel satisfied that she took the steps to do this.  We believe there was a miscommunication and misunderstanding on both sides throughout this situation, which led to my making the earlier comments in this report. Therefore I am retracting my earlier complaint, please take note of this.  Thank you.  Lorraine - Chester County, PA. 

Firstly, I wanted to thank you, Lorraine Carreira, for bringing to our attention the faults in our sale agreements.  I believe that you and I had great communication with what you were looking for in a horse.  I now believe that we were not on the same page.  As you know, Sundae was my personal horse for many years and I love her dearly.  If I would have known of any back problem I certainly would not have put her through the rigors of jumping competitions.  

We have revised our sale agreements to take the confusion out of the vetting process.  Out of state buyers are now required to sign a waiver if they do not want a vetting process and also sign an agreement if they are happy with the vet results. 

Lorraine Carreira, what can I do to make this right for you?  In our last e-mail to each other you seemed happy with how we handled this situation.  Please take our new practices into consideration and once again thank you for bringing our faults to our attention.

Amanda

Amanda is now selling as Amanda Manown  at 1901 Lang Rd Hampstead, Maryland she is also boarding.

http://www.speakupforhorses.org/Holland.lasso

I was at the auctions (New Holland and Thurmont), and witnessed Amanda purchasing AND SELLING horses on a regular basis.  Check out the article above and you will see more proof of that.

There are more ripoff reports on her, some of them are a long read and really bizarre, but worth reading all to get an insight into her and her family's personality and operating habits.  Do a ripoff report search on all of her names and businesses listed below. 

She goes also by Amanda Seiler, Amanda Roche, Amanda MacDougall, Amanda Matricciani, and Amanda Forbes.  She also elists her daughter, Ashlen Forbes, to sell horses for her as well. 

 

Her business names change a lot, too.  Past known names have been Your Next Horse, Thoroughbred Propects, Brummel Horse Farm, Sampson Ridge Farm, to name a few known ones.  She was also operated out of Hanover Equestrian Center in Pennsylvania, but the owners evicted her (that's on ripoff reports, too). 

Her name and facilities change a lot.  Your best bet when buying a horse, especially for the hunter ring (her favorite customers), is to be very careful of anyone that fits the following description:

Light blonde, straight hair (although that can change, but her daughter also has it).

Daughter that rides and works with her...about 18 years old, similar looks.  She has a son that is a little younger, too.

40 years old, but may look a bit younger.

Thin.

Smoker.

Big dimples.  Bright blue eyes. 

Very pleasant and personable, until your deal goes sour.

Sounds very intelligent.

Gail, just so you're aware, Amanda did not let us take the horse off the property for a trial period, claiming that her insurance did not allow for this.  So instead we went down and rode the horse there on her property and felt satisfied after riding her in their ring as well as on a subsequent trail ride, that she was a good horse and sound. Since we couldn't take her off the property, and we wanted to have the horse checked by a vet before purchasing, she offered therefore to have a local vet in the area that she uses do the pre-purchase exam, which unfortunately we agreed to.  We know now that this was not a wise move on our part, we should have insisted on an unbiased vet as we feel that the vet she uses was biased and gave this mare a glowing report.  So yes, we did have a pre-purchase exam done, we would never purchase a horse without doing so.  You can say all you want, I didn't put my name out there because I like to protect my privacy, I don't think that's being a coward.  I just want people to know that Amanda's dealings with me were not honest in my opinion and want them to be aware. Because it's hard to believe that if she owned this horse for 2 years prior to my purchasing her, that she must have known something was wrong with her back. She couldn't develop kissing spine in just one month's time after arriving at my place, especially since we are so meticulous about proper saddle fittings right from the start.  There's no other cause except bad saddle fit or an injury like a bad fall or something which didn't happen at our place.  So my feeling is she may have had this mare's back injected with nerve blockers to numb the pain just so it was not noticeable when I purchased her.  And after I presented this issue to Amanda she did not take any responsibility or accountability or even cared to ensure customer satisfaction, I asked if I could at least have some of my money back since she sold me a damaged horse and she refused and acted as if it's my problem now, not hers. Oh and I remember she told me she gave this mare 2 months off before she decided to sell her, I asked her why, and she realized she slipped and revealed this so she suddenly said that she gave her time off because she was too busy to ride.  That just doesn't sound right now that I thought about this comment after the fact, after all this occurred. I didn't think much of it at that time when we bought her when Amanda said this, but now I see that she observed a problem with the mare and gave her time off before deciding to sell.   There you have it Gail. Sorry to burst your bubble about Amanda but this was my experience and it was not a good one. 

First of all anyone who buys a horse without spending the money to have a vet check out the horse isn't dealing with a full deck of cards.  I have known Amanda for several years and she has been more than honest with me.  She has allowed me to take her sale horses home to try them out as well as I used her to sell one of our horses since we were dealing with a personal medical issue and did not have the time to put into dealing with the public to get the horse sold.  It's very easy to post comments on the internet for all to see but it's also a true coward to do so without posting your name to your comments.  I would never have a doubt in my mind about any horses I purchase from Amanda.  She is extremely honest and does her homework to try and fid the best fit between horse and rider.

Gail Groft