The above meme describes this next fake friend absolutely perfect. Colleen is definitely not a genuine person and will do anything to create a reputation for herself that matches what she wants others to believe. But she is the fakest person I have ever known or associated with. She will turn on anyone that doesn't benefit her any longer. And she will take credit for other's work and if you call her out on it, she will go into attack mode and act like you're in the wrong and not her. And she will change her personality to fit into a particular group that somehow benefits her.
I had to learn all those lessons the hard way.
I got to know Colleen over 7 years ago, through my time volunteering with a local horse rescue that she was the founder of, Walking in Circles. My involvement with her began when she had discovered a small ranch for sale about an hour south of the horse rescue called Cedar Hill Farm that she was hoping to lease and allow the rescue horses a place to graze during the summer. She not only managed to do that, but she also started using Cedar Hill for horse clinics, trail rides and competitive trail competitions. I attended one of her Confidence Clinics after I sustained several injuries from my first horse, Dakotas Baby Doll, who was totally unsuitable for me. I was ready to give up on riding, but wanted to try a confidence clinic to see if I could muster up enough confidence to have one last try at my dream of horse ownership.
Well, the Confidence Clinic was a success and I was soon looking to sell Baby Doll and buy a safer, more compatible horse for my abilities. After selling Baby Doll, I discovered my current horse, Apache and asked Colleen to go with me to check her out. She offered to let me board Apache at her house so I could try her out on trails and be sure that she was the right horse for me. Colleen had a boarding business at her house, so this worked out perfectly. After realizing that Apache was going to work out for me, I then started paying Colleen to pick up me and my horse and take us to her organized trail rides, competitive ACTHA rides and riding clinics at Cedar Hill. And it wasn't long before Colleen had organized a horse camping weekend, and I signed up and paid her for that, too. I started to think of Colleen as a friend, even though I had to pay money to do anything with her at all. But I figured that it cost money to operate a horse rescue and the money was going to a good place.
Or so I thought.
At Walking in Circles Horse Rescue there is a board of directors that Colleen had to answer to, and one day Colleen was asked to resign after it was discovered that Colleen was mismanaging the rescue's money and spending the donations for personal things that weren't benefiting the rescued horses. I refused to get caught up in all the rumors and gossip and badmouthing of Colleen, because I wanted to be loyal to Colleen for her helping me get back into riding again. But it was shocking and disappointing to hear people, who were supposedly Colleen's friends, like Loeta, Christine, Peggy, and others talking badly about Colleen.
But Colleen quickly reinvented herself and signed onto a lease-to-own for Cedar Hill Farm, and eventually even gathered up a bunch of investors and sponsors and began to get boarders and trainers signed up to do clinics at Cedar Hill, all so she could purchase Cedar Hill and make it her own. And before long she had changed the name of Cedar Hill Farm, to 4 Winds Equestrian Center.
Eventually I realized that I wanted to expand my riding skills, so I started riding down at a place called Acacia Riding Adventures, in San Acacia, NM, because they were riding on rugged trails and in unique areas that were exciting and fun. Dacodah is the owner of Acacia Riding Adventures and he provided me with well trained, seasoned trail horses and fun adventures that instilled confidence and good riding skills. But when Colleen, warned me not to ride at Acacia Riding Adventures, I wanted to know why and asked Dacodah. Apparently, Colleen and Dacodah had tried to go into business together forming Acacia Riding Academy and it worked out very badly with Dacodah having to file restraining orders against Colleen. Dacodah had a lot of warnings to give me about spending time with Colleen. But I refused to listen and instead just focused on building my riding experiences and skills down at San Acacia.
I was also warned by many other people about Colleen and how she uses people for her own gain, and how she had spent donations to the horse rescue for her own personal vacations and for personal items, like a brand new Living Quarters Horse Trailer and a new truck. I was told by others how Colleen will include you in her life and keep you around, but only as long as you benefit her in some way. I was told by Barb how Colleen had used her and taken advantage of her and her husband when they were planning to invest in the business at Cedar Hill. And I was told by another friend R, who she and her husband had volunteered at the horse rescue for Colleen, that Colleen was not to be trusted...ever. She knew things about Colleen that were shocking. And even another friend L, who had boarded her horses with Colleen and volunteered at the horse rescue, told me that Colleen was only nice to you when it benefited her. I was told by Colleen's own daughter and granddaughter that Colleen was known to dump people in a heartbeat if those people were at all any inconvenience or did anything she didn't agree with. Even her own family. And I was told that Colleen would even make up lies to create false stories about people she had kicked out of her life so she could manipulate her current friends and associates into siding with her. I had heard Colleen bad mouthing and being critical of others in her life, but I chose to ignore it because I thought we were friends and I was naive enough to believe that she wasn't doing the same thing to me. And I have to be honest, too, even though it makes me feel ashamed. But I wanted to be included in Colleen's circle because she was always making activities and events happen and it felt good to be a part of that and feel needed and liked, even if I was being used, and even if I felt deep inside that things just didn't seem quite right.
But anyway.......soon Colleen was having me be more involved at 4 Winds. She had asked me to take photos of the facilities and clinic and riding events and in return for the use of my photos, she offered me a lifetime membership at 4 Winds Equestrian Center, with full use of all of the trails, the arenas and round pens and indoor arena and discounts on boarding. She also asked me to host and plan trail rides and horse camping events and she asked me to be the Administrator of the 4 Winds Equestrian Center's Facebook page and to be in charge of online advertising. In hindsight I should have got everything we agreed to written into a legal contract, but I doubt Colleen would have been willing to sign it because that's the way she is able to take advantage of people to get what she wants.
Well, after the Fourth of July Canyon Ride and then a riding event up at Starry Night Ranch she showed me truly what a fake friend she really was. I had been going through a lot of personal problems in my life involving that clique of women that used me and then back stabbed me, along with marital problems involving abuse and infidelity, and it all finally culminated in depression and anxiety. I felt like I had fallen into a deep hole. But instead of being a good friend and supporting me, Colleen instead, along with her husband, blocked me on Facebook, removed me as Admin on the 4 Winds page, and took me off her 4 Winds website as a ride host and organizer. She snuck around and did all that behind my back without telling me anything. I was shocked and disappointed because I had done nothing to her. We hadn't had any arguments or disagreements. She just up and deleted me from her life because I was having personal problems and she felt like I was a liability somehow, even though I had done nothing wrong at all to her or her business.
I called her out on what she did and she accused me of faking my depression and she tried to convince me that if only I would move to AZ to be closer to my husband, my life would be better.
She never even asked me why I felt the way I did or tried to show me support and encouragement. She didn't care that my husband had been verbally and emotionally abusing and even threatening physical abuse for many years to our 3 kids and me as well. She didn't care because she was never a real friend. Colleen never asked about my husband's infidelity and him joining an Asian Dating site for many months so he could meet young Chinese girls and cheat on me. She never asked about the thousands of dollars he was spending on the Asian Dating site and the gifts for the Chinese girls he had long phone and video conversations with. She never asked me about my husband taking me to dinner for our 24th wedding anniversary, and then coming home to video chat with a Chinese girl afterwards. She never asked about how my husband was using our two son's money to fund the cheating and lying. Or how he was using one of our sons to tell all his Asian girl fantasies and desires to. He even showed my son photos of these girls and asked him which ones he would like to be his new stepmom! Colleen wasn't there for me when my husband flew to Hong Kong to meet these Chinese girls and take them out to dinner and a hotel and how I had to find out this was happening through our bank account statements.
I must really be a magnet for disloyal, cheating, dishonest, backstabbing, fake users. Because of my experiences over the past few years, I have learned that I am way too trusting, too honest, too loyal, too kind, too generous, and too naive. Bad people just really seem to seek out people like me.
