Moderator's note:
this thread is under moderation consideration and may be reopenned shortly, but in the meantime, I wonder if this account of my interpretation of this mess is anywhere near the actuality of the situation:
This is a very , very confusing story. I do want to caution members to not equate a confusing story with a made up story.
We have to concoct what we can from the bits and pieces that the OP puts out here, and it seems that she has left out a lot, and put things in a very helter skelter order. It might be made up, or, here's my possible interpretation:
OP was given this horse a ways back, wither bone broken (in her care? Before her getting horse? I don't know)
OP is getting ready to go to College and cannot afford horse. She tries to lease him and/or give him away for free (thus the various ads ).
No takers. OP needs hospitalization for unstated reasons, and unstated amount of time. OP puts horse in care of woman and pays her $500 for unstated amount of time/care. Boy friend goes every other day to check up on health and well being of horse. Boy friend does not really know horses and does not really notice that horse is getting skinny.
OP gets out of hospital and finds (not sure how she finds this out. Was it a phone call? Did BF go to barn and find horse gone?) that horse is no longer in the care of that woman. Somehow, she finds out that the hrose has been "sold".
She puts up ads and within 48 hours gets a reply from the "buyer", who says she paid $5000 for this "free" horse.
* now here is where I imagine that the caretaker, figuring that the horse had been offered for FREE before, decided that she was now the owner of this "free" horse and decided to sell her. She may or may not have actually "sold" the hrose to the buyer. Maybe she just wanted to be rid of the horse and gave it for free to this "buyer', who then figured she could scam some money off the OP. Heck, maybe they are in collusion about this.
So, "buyer" says that horse has been beaten and starved. When? Well, how long was the horse in the caretaker's care? The starvation part could have happened during that time. The "beaten" part could have happended in transit, or during the hrose's stay with the buyer. When was horse sold? That is something that needs verifying.
Maybe buyer is saying this to cover her own tracks?
In any case, the OP , if she really has a true story to tell and wants the members to understand, she needs to go back and tell the whole story, in correct chronological order. This might help the doubters get on board , if they are wrong in their suspicions.