Valitar horses focus of bankruptcy case

SAN DIEGO — Where are they now? That’s the question that a bankruptcy court in San Diego is trying to answer about dozens of horses that were once part of Valitar, the human-equine acrobatics show that flamed out last year after just a handful of performances at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. When Valitar closed in late November, dozens of performers, employees and vendors were left unpaid. Equustria Development, the company founded by Rancho Santa Fe resident Mark Remley to produce the show, declared bankruptcy Dec. 14. Many of the company’s assets — including the massive tents that housed the show — have since been sold. Meanwhile, the animals that were the centerpiece of the show have taken center stage in the bankruptcy proceedings. Marketing material touting Valitar said the production had a cast of 54 horses. Not quite half of those animals belonged to performers who appeared in the show, and the rest belonged to Equustria or to Mark Remley and his wife, Tatyana. Several of those horses, worth thousands of dollars each, are missing and still more are caught in a legal tug of war between Remley and his creditors — many of them cast and crew members. On Wednesday, attorneys for both sides met in a creditors’ meeting in San Diego to discuss the whereabouts of the horses and who actually owns them. Horses owned by the production company can be sold to reimburse creditors, but horses owned by Remley would remain his personal property. Read the rest at http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/may/16/valitar-horses-bankruptcy/