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Copyright 2009 Rocky Mountain Rider. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Reproduction of any editorial material, artwork and photos is strictly forbidden without express written permission of the publisher. For information about reprint rights, please contact the editor; editor@rockymountainrider.com.
March 2009 Issue
“There’s nothing wrong with
those horses. There is no difference from when I purchased them.”
—Craig Heydon speaking
to Sheriff’s Deputies Travis McEldery and Jon Moles on August 4, 2008, the day
that three of Heydon’s four horses were confiscated by law officers.
Both Craig Heydon and his son, Curtis, repeatedly testified in court that
there was “nothing wrong” with the horses when they were confiscated.
Craig Heydon, 71, and his son Curtis Heydon, 37, from near Atlanta,
Georgia, were declared guilty of 21 counts of animal cruelty after a three-day
trial in a Ravalli County Justice Court in Hamilton, Montana. The jury, composed
of three women and three men, deliberated nine hours before arriving at a
verdict on January 30, 2009.
As the bailiff read the verdict, both men stiffly stood facing her, and
Craig Heydon’s face flushed deep red. Craig Heydon was declared guilty on ten
counts of animal cruelty; Curtis Heydon was declared guilty on eleven counts of
animal cruelty.
The onlookers who were packed into the tiny courtroom included the
Looking sternly at the Heydons,
Judge Bailey declared, “Neither of you have taken any responsibility. It is
unbelievable that you blame the horses for all that has happened to them.”
The judge gave each of the
defendants jail time of six months on each count, fined each of them them $585
for each count, and ordered them to relinquish the horses, pay for their care
and costs, and pay jury costs. Bailey then suspended the jail time to 30 days on
each count if all the fines were paid.
The sentence was strong for a misdemeanor trial, but Bailey told the
people in the courtroom that he wanted to send a message that animal cruelty
would not be tolerated in
Mat Stevenson, lawyer for the Heydons, immediately appealed.
The Heydons’ story came to light in early August, 2008, when their
four geldings — Able, a bay gelding in his mid-teens; Diamond, a palomino
gelding in his 20s; Casino, a sorrel gelding in his late teens; and Magic, a bay
gelding about eight years old — were confiscated after spending 55 days in the
back country. Rocky Mountain Rider Magazine printed the story
“Left for Dead” in the September 2008 issue. Read it, as well as follow-up
stories, online at www.rockymountainrider.com.
The Trial
The prosecutor was Ravalli County Deputy District Attorney John Bell, who
admits knowing nothing about horses previous to this case. He had increased the
charges of animal cruelty against the Heydons to 21, up from four original
counts.
Mat Stevenson, the For the Prosecution
At least ten witnesses were called for the prosecution. Dawn Merrill and
Q DeHart were first up. Merrill said that she and Q were trail riding on Big
Creek Trail west of
On August 3, Merrill and her neighbor, Mike Svaboda, spent ten hours
slowly pushing, pulling and coaxing the incredibly sore and weak horse to the
trailhead, after giving him food and water, and three full doses of bute, a pain
reliever and anti-inflammatory.
Svaboda testified that when he went up the trail that day, he had packed
his pistol, expecting to put the horse down. But he and Merrill did not give up,
and Svaboda ended up slowly walking out on foot, leading Able and his own mare.
Merrill said that she and Svaboda took Able to her veterinarian’s
clinic in
Ravalli County Sheriff’s Deputy Jon Moles was originally called in to
evaluate the Heydons’ other three horses when the horses were found by
Sheriff’s Deputy Travis McEldery in a makeshift pen at a Stevensville rental
storage facility on August 4.
Moles, a steady, soft-spoken man with an aura of authority, described his
lifetime experience with horses and back country packing. He clarified the
details of the horses’ condition and injuries: “A fistula (the large sore on
the palomino’s withers) is caused by overwork and an ill fitting saddle. The
sorrel had raw sores on his withers, spine and chest. His halter had rubbed his
face raw. None of the horses wanted to take a step, their feet were so sore.
Everywhere I touched them, they were very sore.
“The younger bay wasn’t as thin but you could still see his ribs. He
had open sores around his feet and his hooves weren’t trimmed to fit the shoes
that were on his front feet only.
Moles choked up when looking at the palomino’s photo. “This was a
total disregard of health and welfare of an animal. You can have equipment
failure – things can happen – but you should take care of the horse if it is
injured. The Heydons should have left their equipment and walked those horses
out and taken them to a vet.
“I would say that these horses were overworked and tormented. I would
say they were tortured.”
The Heydons had taken Diamond to Dr. Andy Cross, DVM, of
Cross testified that the horse was “skin and bones” and had a number
of deep sores on his body, including one saucer-sized sore on his withers. He
found the horse’s teeth to be in good shape. He said that Craig Heydon had
told him that the horse had not had a saddle on him for that last 30 days.
Cross said he knew that statement to be untrue because the friend of
Cross who had recommended him to the Heydons had told Cross he had seen all
three horses saddled at a trailhead within the previous two days. Dr.
Shawn Gleason, DVM, of Gleason
testified that he had given each of the horses “a body condition score.”
This is a method of evaluating animals in a scientific manner and is widely used
by law enforcement in animal abuse cases. The
score runs from one to nine, with 5 being the ideal weight, 9 being extremely
fat, and 1 being extremely thin (bones and spine protruding and easily
noticeable). Gleason
gave Able a 1+, or just above death by starvation. He gave Diamond a 1+ to 2;
Casino a 2; and Magic a 4. Gleason
brought in a portion of an actual horse skeleton to show the jurors how muscle
and fat attach to the vertebrae, and how they would prevent a saddle from
rubbing the withers and shoulder bones. He explained how the loss of muscle and
fat on Diamond had caused the bones at the apex of the withers to be directly
rubbed by the saddle.
Gleason explained that when he inserted his fingers into the wound, he
“could palpate the bone.” He placed his thumb and fingers on either side of
a withers bone on the vertebrae to demonstrate.
Denying the Heydons’ position that the horses had underlying illnesses
which had caused them to become thin, Gleason explained how simple basic care,
including plenty of food and water, had brought the horses back to health. When
asked if he felt that the Heydons’ care of the horses was a gross deviation
from care needed to sustain a horse (wording from the animal cruelty law),
Gleason replied that if there was something stronger than gross deviation, that
would be his choice of wording.
Dr. Robert Brophy, DVM, of
“I was most impressed in that I had never seen a combination of such
injuries and starvation before. I’d seen them separately, but not together.”
Brophy said that blood taken from Able for tests by Dr. Richardson had to
be diluted to be processed, as it was so high in enzymes (a condition signifying
tissue break down and muscle cell injury).
When asked if he had ever gone into the Wilderness to care for injured
horses, he replied that he had – a number of times. “I have hiked in, ridden
horses in, and flown in [to treat horses].” For the Defense
Dr. Dick Richardson, DVM, of
“He wasn’t depressed, which is one sign of starvation,”
“Lots of horses that are moved here [to
Finally, The Heydons Tell Their Side On
the third day of the trial, Craig Heydon told his side of the story, in a
rambling account that was often cut short by his own lawyer, or by objections
from Heydon
told of growing up on a farm in “What
Curt (his son) and I were planning was to have a camping trip, moving at the
most ten miles at any one time, and have three to four camps in all, over a
90-day period,” Heydon explained. “Curt
and I did a lot of backpacking [in the past], but my knees won’t let me hike
any more. Curt had never ridden a horse before. We went to a local horse dealer
for help, but were only able to get two pack horses. “We
priced out pack saddles, but they were very expensive. I never packed a horse
before, but the guy I was buying from suggested two old riding saddles and
making them work for packing. “We
looked on the internet and found other horses to look at to buy in “The
bulkiness of the two tents, sleeping cots, and camp table was a problem. We
anticipated horse shoe problems and had all the horses shod by a farrier. We
bought hay once we got here and spurs when we found out we needed them. We
bought two extra shoes for each horse and 50 to 60 nails. “Can’t
say I anticipated all that these horses would need.”
During his testimony Craig Heydon usually referred to the geldings
individually as “it.” Curtis Heydon always referred to Able as “she,” a
term that he explained, with his lawyer’s prompting, was an endearment. Both
father and son insisted that the horses were always given as much food as they
could eat, both by grazing and with supplemental feeding.
Craig Heydon explained, “On June 9, we went into the Wilderness. [They
rode nine miles up Big Creek Trail to
“We had 200 pounds of supplement for the horses. We had saddle sore
cream and a fifth of grain alcohol for cleaning purposes. We took the pack
horses in, unpacked them, and brought them out for a second trip in.
“Preacher [the sorrel renamed Casino at the shelter] lay down five
times after his pack was put on. There was not a thing wrong. I was the one who
took care of the horses and packed them. Curtis took care of the camp and
cooking. I’d let the horses go graze in the morning with a drag rope after
trying unsuccessfully to use hobbles.”
The Heydons had planned to continue up the trail from
“After June 25, we took out gear we decided was unnecessary like the
cots and folding table. Packing and unpacking was a big headache.”
In explanation of the horses’ many injuries, Craig Heydon said that the
horses had fallen a number of times. “The palomino [Diamond] took a fall in a
‘mud puddle.’ The sorrel [Casino] had tried to pass the rider leading him on
the trail and had fallen and cut his chest with his ‘breast plate.’ The
younger bay [Magic] went down twice. The older bay [Able] went down five times.
Each time they got abrasions.”
Both Heydons repeatedly stated that they wanted to get “up to the
Continental Divide” near Elk Summit, Idaho, to spread Curtis’ wife’s
ashes. [
They spent much of July camping in the
Within a couple of days after getting to Idaho, they said that they
smelled something rotten and found the palomino had a very large, oozing,
maggot-filled sore on his withers. They tried to clean it with alcohol and
doctor it with ointment. When they moved camp, they explained that they cut out
the saddle blanket around Diamond’s sores and saddled and packed him lightly.
At the end of July, they decided that Curtis would make a day’s ride
(about 20 miles) over
Curtis planned to pick up their truck and trailer parked near
Curtis Heydon admitted under cross examination that on his ride down Big
Creek Trail on August 1 that Able had gone down “a few times,” before the
final time when the horse wouldn’t get up “because he was stubborn.”
Both Craig Heydon and his son, Curtis, repeatedly testified that there
was “nothing wrong” with the horses when they were confiscated Closing Remarks
“Life includes all kinds of things that don’t go our way,” said Mat
Stevenson, defense attorney, in his closing remarks to the jury, while casually
chewing gum. “We need to have the freedom to do what we can without facing
criminal charges. Could they have prepared better? Yes. Is it gross negligence?
No.”
John Bell reminded the jurors that there was a difference between thin
and emaciated, and that ulcerations, untreated wounds, and abscessed feet were
gross deviations from the standard of care. What’s next?
The Heydons’ appeal means that they could go to Montana Judicial
District Court in
As RMR goes to press, the
Copyright 2009 Rocky Mountain Rider. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Reproduction of any editorial material, artwork and photos is strictly forbidden without express written permission of the publisher. For information about reprint rights, please contact the editor; editor@rockymountainrider.com.
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