Complaint Review: Stephanie Wind - Windsong Sabino Arabians - Elizabeth Colorado

Please understand if you are reading this that this is NOT to bash the horses at all. I have, over the years added 6 of Stephanie's horses to my herd and appreciate every one of them. I also have several of my own with very similar bloodlines that I wouldn't give up for the world. This is purely to alert everyone to her dishonesty. I let it go the first time it happened over a contract with Aatlas, I will not let it go quietly again. The following information I know and fully expect to be deleted from nearly everywhere I have posted it, but it has to start somewhere and I know there will be a few places where it cannot be touched. This is something people need to be aware of.

Please be careful when dealing with Stephanie Wind or Elements Arabians. I had a contract and deposit on the 2009 bay sabino colt, Awestrukk as of the end of August 2009. On September 16th, my deposit was cashed by Stephanie. Nearly two weeks later, after asking numerous times for her to send her signed copy of the contract back to me and mark Striker as sold, this is what I get in response...

"Before you and I spoke about Striker, I'd had numerous e-mails back and forth with someone else about him, and had sent them a contract on him. After not hearing from them for a while, I had assumed they were NOT purchasing him and so agreed to sell him to you. Unfortunately, they have since sent the contract back with a 50% deposit on him, and Jim said that I need to honor the sale to them since they had wanted him first. I think the fact that they are able to pay for him in full is part of why Jim put his foot down too. I hate to do that to you, but I really have no choice. :( I can send you your $ back immediately if you want, or I can send you a contract for the next sabino colt at a lesser price, if you wanted to make payments ahead of time to be guaranteed your pick. I have no other contracts for a sabino colt now, and will be sweepstakes nominating the ones from Sailor. I also have Kiwi - the Sabrina filly by Smoke - who is in foal to Shaali up for sale. I would let you have her for $750 if you wanted her. She is tested as single agouti, so is able to produce black, and is definitely sabino herself so I would expect her to produce sabino as well. I understand if you prefer to get your money back though."

I replied with the fact that is was in her hands to do the right thing and honor my contract. She halegallyly already done so before the other party sent a contract and 50% down when she CASHED my deposit on the 16th. I have since told Stephanie that I do not wish to promote her dishonesty and would rather have my deposit back. I have yet to hear from her past that first email and she continues to ignore any contact from me at all. I have spoken with several equine lawyers and have been informed that I have a very strong case should I wish to pursue it.

I also asked her to inform the other party of the legality of Strikers sale, which I can see she has also ignored by continuing with the sale as he is now stated on her web site as SOLD to Becky Francis of Louisiana. I can see clearly that this is a matter of money and the other party apparently had offered more than the $6500 I was to pay or were unaware of my contract entirely. I prefer to believe the latter. Amazingly whenever something goes amiss, it is always blamed on 'Jim'.

It makes me wonder just how honest she has been with other people? Striker's sale included free board until the end of September when he could be cleared of strangles, as the entire herd had been exposed and several had contracted it. Another show of her dishonesty as she lists Brio on the stallion page as having an 'issue' which required gelding. He had a case of b*****d strangles in testiclescals and they had to be removed, it is a sad story, but I don't think would have effected his sale as a gelding to just list what the 'issue' was unless it was to not alert everyone to the fact that strangles was on property. I see that she has listed on MareStare that several horses have left the property in recent weeks, I do hope that their new owners have been informed about the strangles. She also told me that the strangles was brought in by outside mares that were brought in for breeding, but now I see on MareStare that she is shifting the blame to a horse returning from the trainer. Which is it?

She was always very vocal in conversation with me about how horrible or stupid some of the other sabino breeders are, including blaming the death of her mare on WS Very Superstitious, calling Moonlight Money Maker 1/2 paint and stating that R Khasper is worthless for anything other than max white foals. She very strongly gave her disgusted opinion about numerous people who had purchased horses from her for $ and then sold them or their foals for $$. ?? Isn't that how the world goes round? You buy, mark up price, and resale? Hmmm, I think that's even how Walmart does it... where is the issue with that? Which then made me wonder what she thought about my sale ad for a filly produced by her mare, what was she saying about me?

Unless this issue has been cleared as well, I was told by Stephanie that she is unable to attain registration papers on Saba Mashaali, however she continues to breed him. I do understand that she can be authorized to sign breeding certificates on his owners behalf, but what happens if that changes and there are numerous foals due or already on the ground?

In any case, fuglyblog.com makes a very good point on September 11th, 2009 when they say that she is only in it for the money, I would have to agree at this point as she has paved it very clearly. And her statement on MareStare the following day does nothing but prove the point. "I mean, after all, the foal that was the result of my breeding Sailor as a yearling is DROP DEAD GORGEOUS and already sold to Germany..."

Please be wary of any contact with Stephanie, I would hate for this to continue. Sabino's have a hard enough time proving themselves as is, we don't need anyone's bad business helping the cause. People will get away with murder until someone is willing to stand up and put an end to it, and just because Stephanie and Elements Arabians mass produce sabinos doesn't mean you have to buy from her. There are plenty of quality sabinos out there, you just have to look. Thank you and God bless.