No one else is to blame for deaths of Jeanne Ryan's horses

To the Editor:
I was born into a horse-owning family 44 years ago. I have always owned horses. Until I was 18 years old, I was a member of the National Pony Club, where I was educated on horse care, nutrition, horses digestive system, anatomy, safety, and riding. I own three horses today and take full responsibility to oversee all their needs are met. This includes quality hay, grain, water, turnout, regular vet care, equine dentist, chiropractic care, every 6-7 weeks visits from the farrier, and even one of my boys has regular check-ups with a opthamologist specialist at Rhinebeck Equine Clinic.
My horses, along with Jeannie Ryan's horses, are domesticated companion animals who were not born into the wild. They can not fend for themselves locked in stalls or in paddocks. They rely on humans to meet their needs and demands.
In September 2015, my son Shane and I moved to Goshen. Shane joined the wrestling team for Goshen High School. The first meet Shane attended, he did not do well. As he was very upset, another teammate approached Shane with a woman wearing breaches and boots to encourage Shane not to give up. At this moment I had goosebumps from Liam's ( Jeannie's younger son) words. I turned to his mother and she introduced herself as Jeannie Ryan. From that meet I continued to always sit by Jeannie at meets and talk horses.
When I first learned about the accusations against Jeannie, I didn't believe them. I know the equine world can be very judgemental, but deep down in my gut felt if Jeannie needed help financially or physical help to tend to her horses, she would have asked me. At the end of any day ,nobody in the Orange County horse community would not step up to help horses in need , even if the owner was disliked.
I personally kept my mouth closed and didn't voice my opinions until I had some facts. The past two days I stepped away from my busy business to attend Jeannie's trial. Many eye openers for me.
I was disappointed with the first day of the trial's main witness. I don't believe Mr. Ozman has any adequate horse knowledge when claiming a farrier, who is responsible for hoof care, also floats horses' teeth, or that laminitis is caused by underfeeding a horse or pony. I did have to chuckle though when Michael Sussman, Jeannie's lawyer, had to be educated on text messages vs. chats on a cell phone.
Today my heart shattered for Jeannie's oldest son, Jimmy. Watching Jeannie, Sussman, Jeannie's Goshen Car Wash boyfriend, hairdresser, and Jeannie's mother trying to pass all responsibility off to an underage child who should not have had the responsibility in the first place to care for 20 horses. In my opinion Jimmy is not horse educated when he referred to horses' hooves being horses' nails.
Horses and ponies' digestive systems work 24/7. For proper digestion, horses must have roughage (hay or grass) offered to them at all times. Two flakes of hay will last an average horse or pony at most two hours. It was also stated the ponies were fed beet pulp, which is used to help hard keepers maintain weight. Beet pulp is fed wet because it is dehydrated dried pulp that swells significantly when wet. Beet pulp has very little nutritional value. A mare nursing a foal needs a higher protein diet, just like a nursing human being. Calorie intake must be at least doubled. Jeannie's instruction to feed the mare was only to feed two flakes of same hay other ponies were fed. Lactating mares should be fed a richer higher nutritional hay, such as alfalfa.
If Jeannie was able to afford and to physically go on a vacation to Ireland to attend a wedding, and picket Legoland, she was more than capable and should be held accountable for her lack of responsibility to tend to her domesticated ponies' needs. The blame game and torture to Jimmy should just stop. The ponies were Jeannie's, and on Jeannie's property. This makes her responsible. Nobody else is to blame for the deaths of ponies and neglect to one.
I look forward to attending the rest of court proceedings and hearing expert witness testimony.
Lainey Geniti-Reynolds
Goshen