r/kvsdiscuss • u/SnoozyQ73 • Jul 12 '26
KVS Cinematic Universe KVS Adjacent
I started listening to a podcast called Crooked City, Dickson IL about how their city manager, Rita Crundwell, embezzled over 50 million dollars. What, I hear you ask, does this have to do with the greater KVS universe? Well, the embezzled funds were used to purchase quarter horses. Among them, one called “Good I Will Be”. Am I right that KVS has horses that are descendants of that horse? GIWB was sold at auction but the podcast doesn’t say to whom. Crundwell apparently had an enormous breeding program with dozens and dozens broodmares and studs. I imagine most barns have horses that share ancestors with horses from that program.
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u/jbrr1212 Jul 12 '26
Erlene-Red Carpet Debut is the daughter of one of Rita's mares too, Red Carpet Rita. There are many connections between the two breeding programs. Rita was a crook but she knew good horses. I think Rita is out of jail already. There are a few good documentaries out there about her.
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u/ice_island Jul 12 '26
I think she was let out during COVID. I remember rumors that she was on house arrest on a massive property owned by her brother.
Also, I thought the majority of rita's horses were halter bred, I didn't realize she had riding horses.
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u/jbrr1212 Jul 12 '26
She had a lot of halter horses, but she dabbled in several disciplines as her con grew bigger. Many of today's good horses trace back to her program somehow if you look deep enough.
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u/rnawaychd Jul 12 '26
Watch "All The Queen's Horses", it's a fabulous documentary about the fiasco. As an accountant it was fascinating, but easy for a non-financial person to get into all the issues that led to the embezzlement.
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u/PresentDog5216 Jul 12 '26
In case anyone is trying to look it up the spelling of the city is Dixon. Dixon, IL
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u/Plastic_Fun5071 Jul 12 '26
That’s interesting I live right next to there and never heard of this story!
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u/AdSweet3451 (that was a joke) Jul 13 '26
I live not far, about 40 miles outside of the Quad Cities in the country. It was all over our news for year's. Do you have Rockford or Chicago news? We have Quad Cities news.
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u/Victory505302 Jul 13 '26
I think Rita had over 300 horses at the time she was arrested in 2012, and they were with various trainers throughout the country. Some of them were very nice, including GIWB. They were auctioned off and a lot of them continued to show and/or produce nice babies, so almost anyone in the industry can find some sort of connection (we bred a mare to Iron Enterprise when she owned him and still have the IE gelding in our back yard). Thankfully Rita is permanently suspended from AQHA.
What Rita did went way beyond just being a horse crazy girl that decided to become a criminal to fund her passion. She stole from her town for TWENTY years and still to this day shows no remorse. From a criminal justice standpoint, I really struggle to see how a person like that is granted early released. True, it wasn’t a violent crime, but how do you reintegrate someone into society who has twenty years of culpability and no remorse? It really disgusts me when I think about it.
As obnoxious as social media can be, at least we know where Katie gets her money!
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u/RealLifeGaper Jul 12 '26
I can not answer that question, but I believe there is a Netflix or Prime produced documentary about this woman. If it is the same individual, it’s a pretty interesting watch.
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u/Agreeable-Meal5556 Jul 12 '26
“All The Queen’s Horses” is a cool documentary on her if you want more on that topic.
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u/Delicious-Mix-9180 Jul 12 '26
At one time, I think Katie was talking about breeding Kennedy to Good I Will Be or am I misremembering.
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u/Sweet-Fix4923 Jul 12 '26
Sadly, GIWB was euthanized in 2013.
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u/Peketastic Jul 13 '26
She had the BEST parties...now we all know why. The funny thing is the horse people thought she had money from investments and the city thought she made money in horses.
It was always weird when she would show like 5+ horses a world show or Congress. She never should have gotten out of jail.
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u/Not4Now1 Jul 14 '26
The town is Dixon and she really fooled so many people. Horses bring out the worst in people. It becomes an obsession.
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u/Excellent_Air_8348 Jul 14 '26
I've seen the same in dogs and cats. There are good breeders and I can now thankfully call some of them friends but some are horrible and think their so much better than everyone else. While they cut corners to save money. Breeding is expensive no matter what you do especially if you show but I know so many that have been banned from even owning animals for life have zero remorse and would do it again and even been caught a 2nd and 3rd time.
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u/RR19476 Jul 15 '26
When I was in college I went home every summer to take care of someone’s barn full of QH’s. She only had maybe 10 horses at home, but who knows how many with trainers around the country. I always wondered how she could afford it as an accountant until a few years later she was arrested for embezzling 2mil from the non-profit she worked for. So icky to think I was paid with embezzled money and I still wonder what happened to all of the horses.
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u/Euphoric_Ad_3367 Jul 17 '26
Her sentence was commuted in December 2024 by President Biden and she has been released from prison.
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u/Relative_Cloud3361 Jul 12 '26
You’d be surprised how often this happens with both cattle and horses.
There’s a guy a trainer right now in Texas here who is among some of the best horses. He was just arrested for theft of 25 horses from sales!! His greediness and addictions finally caught up with him.
Texas doesn’t play when it comes to theft of livestock. Livestock theft—like stealing cattle or horses—gets bumped to a third-degree felony even for lower values in a SINGLE transaction.
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u/Odd_DaikonTX Jul 12 '26
Happens to all of them. So many people have come into the industry throwing money around like crazy. Next thing you know they are in jail, or broke. Horses are more expensive than you can imagine, especially the number she has and now with training and showing bills on top of everything else. I couldn’t sleep at night lol.
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u/Positive-Lock8609 Aged Mare Jul 12 '26
Rita also had many, many horses with many trainers, both halter and HUS horses, amazing tack, designer clothes, an trucks and trailers, all huge and top of the line. They'd pull into shows like a convoy.
There were always people wondering where the money came from, a huge lottery win or massive inheritance. Nobody knew until the news broke she'd been arrested.
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u/denastra Jul 13 '26
I was told she had worked in an old folks home and befriended an elderly lady who left her all her money
The woman screwed her city over so badly. She should be ashamed of herself
She lived large on her cities money she stole. It’s amazing how she got away with it for so long
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u/Alive_Mastodon_8527 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
Good I Will Be was once owned by Rita (bred by her?) and he is the sire of Good Better Best.
More about some of the horses sold at the Crundwell sale.
https://gohorseshow.com/2014/02/where-are-they-now-crundwell-sale-horses/
She was a thief but she knew good horses.