The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

With reference to the article about the horses at BASH in The Tribune on April 19, I must set the record straight.

The horses concerned are not the property of Terry Miller. They were taken by him from Marlon (Wayne) Johnson six years ago. Mr Johnson was leasing them for his small riding business which was on the Water Board’s property where BASH is located.

Mr Johnson was leasing from three sources, one of which was Happy Trails Stables. Two of these horses had been sent there for re-schooling in preparation for their work at Happy Trails.

Mr Johnson has had extensive experience in this line of work both here and at the Ocala Stud in Florida, where he was based for several years.

The horses leased all had the proper paperwork drawn up by Happy Trails Stables and signed by Mr Johnson. Mr Greenslade of the Royal Bahamas Police Force has copies which were sent by DHL to his office on July 13, 2010, and the Bahamas Humane Society has the same. So there is no mystery here.

In 2010, Mr Miller had a falling out with Mr Johnson and as a result used his apparent influence with the police force to have them come and remove Mr Johnson minus his horses, goats, rabbits, dogs and personal effects, which he has never been able to retrieve to this day.

We went to court on four separate occasions that year and every time the case was adjourned. One of the magistrates sounded off against Mr Johnson when he asked a simple question, leading us to wonder why when Mr Miller behaved disrespectfully in court on a previous occasion not a word was said.

With our failure to achieve anything through the justice system we had to wait until the inevitable happened – the starvation and death of the animals.

In the meantime, Mr Miller seemed to think that he could make money in the horse business. We do not recall any charitable programme involving inner-city kids or recovering drug addicts. Renting our horses to tourists also turned out to be a flop for him.

The horses gradually became unusable, which is the state they are in today. Sadly, several have had to be euthanised as they had passed the point of no return.

In the meantime, Mr Miller told The Tribune about our having boarded the horses with him – so ludicrous as to be totally discounted. Unable to produce any paperwork backing this up, he has now changed his story (see Tribune, April 19). At no time during this whole debacle has any authority figure – court or police – asked for bills of sale, which would be the first thing asked if this situation was anywhere else.

Friends of the horses have attempted to check on them over the years only to have Mr Miller call the police on them (the police arrived with squad cars straightaway. Amazing!)

The horse highlighted on the front page of The Tribune on April 19 is a little mare called “Soca” belonging to Mr Johnson. He originally paid $2,000 for her and we have the bill of sale. She was recently sold by Mr Miller (we are told for $4,000) to a gentleman in Freeport, but when she arrived there it appeared that she had some neurological condition, incurred somehow at BASH, which prevented her from being ridden. She was therefore returned to Nassau, but, having had two months of correct feeding, has started to gain weight. Hence her fairly healthy look in The Tribune’s photo.

The picture of Mr Miller’s grandson petting one of the horses is very misleading. Children have not been involved with the horses to any extent. At a recent summer camp held at BASH for kids, some of the parents were appalled at the condition of the horses. As for people in the neighbourhood being sad, all we have heard are complaints.

Thank goodness for the BHS, who have done their level best to assist in this most difficult situation and have now succeeded in removing the horses to safety. Let’s hope that this is the end of the matter.

I trust you will publish our side of this sad saga, which seems to have been lost up until now as no one seems to be interested to hear it or understand it in spite of the fact that everything is documented and Mr Miller has no paperwork to support his claims.

Let it be noted that there are many interested parties both here and internationally who are awaiting the outcome of it all.

S F SMITH

Nassau,

April 21, 2016.