Dogpatch Press

SERIES: Who runs your community? Five stories about predators with powerful friends in fandom.

Corruption behind the record-breaking charity 

Florida’s Mare Fair is an adults-only My Little Pony convention. It crosses fandom for a kid’s show with the edgy chanboard culture seen in news reporting about the MLP fandom’s Nazi problem. The con is organized by and for 4chan users, and bounced between 3 venues in 3 years while gaining a reputation for hateful behavior. It keeps raising criticism about swastika displays and racist dogwhistles, while critics face backlash for protesting. One critic tells Dogpatch Press: “Nazis and racists used Mare Fair as a hate safe space, because they couldn’t spread it at reputable cons… it became clear that management did not care.” Defenders have pushed back with denial and apologism about the con raising charity for horses.

Mare Fair is run by Snowpity Inc, headed by Joshua “Corpulent Brony” Hope, who founded it by milking fandom with silver coin sales and his own cryptocurrency. This allegedly ties con finances to shady donors with crypto-wealth, who donate so much that it breaks charity records set by other cons — conveniently buying a PR front. Behind the front of helping horses, Hope and the con management teamed up with Kyle “Lightsolver” Foster to help run Mare Fair. Foster is a zoophile who abuses horses, according to horse rescuers who claim Foster manipulated power over their operations, after keeping a crippled horse alive in pain and using a baby horse for years of sex abuse. On top of that, Hope runs his own website that hosts bestiality videos (evidence below).

If Mare Fair desperately needed PR to cover up zoophiles at the top, consider what balls it takes to taint their PR by spreading channer dogwhistles with weak plausible-deniability. The 2025 conbook is full of explicit adult references, but more to the point, the con logo design features a horse vagina. Hope’s cryptocurrency, named Mare Bits, also has a horse vagina in the design. The silver coins that Hope pushed are loaded with more 4chan and horse vagina references. What a coincidence.

Ambition leads to expansion, and Foster and Hope teamed up to found a new con in Maryland, Neighcon. Apparently it’s meant to recall the defunct Bronycon in Baltimore. Both men are on the articles of incorporation. However, even fandom tied to 4chan isn’t comfortable with the corruption. Recent protest forced Neighcon to issue vague PR about executive change.

Background about fandoms and under-reporting the story

Bronies, the adult male fans for My Little Pony, emerged around 2010 as irony-loaded followers of a mainstream TV show. Sincere fans young and old have also been around for a long time. Their scene has some basic differences from furry fandom, because of the influence of marketing, merchandising and professional talent under one media property. It rises and falls with popularity of the show, and isn’t as active as a decade ago. However, many furries are also pony fans, and there isn’t that much difference in what they do.

This made it weird when researching this story found that some corners of pony fandom like to brew up forced tribalism against furries, like with hateful stickers and anti-LGBT slurs. This story isn’t for partisan rivalry. It’s by request from furry-adjacent pony fans, because no other media has investigated the problems with Mare Fair. These fans had opinions about why pony fan news has only reported favorable fluff about Mare Fair.

One outlet, Horse News, provided crucial info a decade ago for Dogpatch Press reporting about a scammer who jumped from pony to furry fandom. Now, it only posts a few times a year and one pony fan source who spoke for this story calls Horse News “a joke… for gossip and drama”. Another says “they pose as news but are 4chan memers.” Its Mare Fair coverage only has a fluffy interview, and a 2023 press release about the con starting up. It spread coin sales without mentioning a conflict of interest, where coin seller and Mare Fair manager Joshua Hope was editor for Horse News. Still, the comments had early grumbles of suspicion:

Another prolific outlet, Equestria Daily, got this opinion from one pony fan source: “It’s mostly just one guy now, Sethisto, who posts fluff like China getting their own version of the show so they are getting the best merch.” Equestria Daily’s Mare Fair coverage is censored of criticism (9/8/25). It amounts to bland notices like “Mare Fair largely follows board culture over on 4chan’s /mlp/” (1/17/24), and short blurbs of congratulation:

“We’ve hit another huge fandom milestone! Those crazy rich 4channers have done it again with a pony convention record breaking $103,483 earned for the horsies…” (10/10/24)

A source gives more Equestria Daily background: “Sethisto fired his right-hand staffer, Calpain, for trying to get him to stop harboring problem people with right-wing bias. Channers doxxed Calpain and got him fired as a teacher. Now the same people are harassing critics in defense of Mare Fair.”

If pony fan news won’t investigate for public interest, some fans turned to a faithful furry newshound for help. It isn’t about which scene matters more, it’s about protecting people and animals from abuse in all stories in this series, where furries get criticized too.

Digging in to chanboard influence and shady behavior at Mare Fair

Sources for this story draw a direct line from 2017, when 4chan merged /mlp/ and nazi sub-boards, as an April Fool’s joke that never really went away.

They say pony fan cons boosted careers for professional talent, and many staffers worked for multiple conventions, which helped to shape the fandom. It was noticeable when edgy online humor bled in and caught protest on social media. This escalated to backlash towards “liberal complainers” and antigay/nazi jokes. Eventually, deeply involved people quit fandom due to “noticing weird stuff”. They mention people carrying sex dolls out in the open and Foalcon (the same as cub-porn in furry fandom.)

Mare Fair had weird looks from the start. Beyond being 18+ in contrast to mostly all-ages cons, and generally coming from a shady base, there was suspicion about ownership by Joshua Hope with a conflict of interest for pushing crypto. One DJ said the con insisted on paying in crypto:

At the first Mare Fair in 2023, nazi behavior cropped up in the shape of a swastika made with human bodies by the pool. Initially indifferent watchers started protesting, but some let it go as a fluke with hopes for improvement the next year. After the con had to move to a new hotel, the same thing kept happening, among many racist memes. Some panels, art, and dealing at Mare Fair come directly from makers of popular racist memes. There was cosplay of show character Applejack as a plantation owner with slave zebras, and a character “Aryanne” created as a nazi horse. Some of this became merchandise like mass-produced plushes. That’s deeper than a few bad apples to excuse or put out of sight. Allegedly some of the behavior was so extreme that it earned bans in con groups, but a banned extremist was still listed as a top donor.

This is a brief summary to avoid getting into the weeds and playing channer-peekaboo games, but photo evidence speaks for itself.

A source says: “all the public got officially was statements of platitudes from the nebulous executive team. Unlike other pony conventions, Mare Fair did not like to include the names of its executives in its online communications.” Some official con statements contradicted statements from manager’s personal accounts.

In one case, the DJ who said he was offered crypto payment was treated as a liar. In another, the con pretended manager Joshua Hope’s clear words were “misinterpreted” about wanting to ban Pride flags as “political”. (What other cons get to that point after hosting swastikas?) The Pride backpedaling went like you would expect with fans of a wholesome pony show.

Lip service about bad behavior didn’t change who was causing it — while the con repeatedly lost hotels — and “privately, Mare Fair actively tried to suppress people from talking about it, including threatening fake legal action.” The failure of substantial response put attention on the top.

Problems with staff, and the darkest part of the story

If Mare Fair likes organizing with 4chan, channer-peekaboo games, and brushing problems behind PR, then take what’s known as indicative for what’s hidden. (This story protects sources for safety; let’s not hear Mare Fair defenders have a problem with anonymity NOW!)

A brony in North Carolina, named Searing Skies, was the subject of a staffers’ official-tripcode post shown to Dogpatch Press. It identified Searing Skies as staff for Mare Fair at some point. It claimed he was fired due to being a convicted zoosadist who tortured and killed animals with fire in 2017-2021. Make of that what you will, but there’s also Searing Skies’ own social media posts that represent Mare Fair support:

• A defense for Foalcon
• Asking “what does the confederate flag have to do with slavery“?
• Boasting about participating in a group swastika display at Mare Fair.

Back to manager Joshua “Corpulent Brony” Hope and his background:

• He started out with making Youtube videos for bronies.
• His LinkedIn page shows he was an organizer for the Republican party in Florida in 2012-2013 while part of early Brony fandom.
• Source: “I knew the name Corpulent Brony years ago… eventually stopped seeing tweets from him which I assume was because of exile for being an asshole. After 4chan brought racists and Nazis into MLP space, Corp probably worked for a number of years to gather enough support and money to get that Orlando airport hotel.”
• His coin sales used 4chan as a base for fundraising and gathering supportive crypto people.
• Mare Fair corporate entity Snowpity Inc lists Joshua Hope as the main fundraising contact.

Now we get to the darkest part. Kyle “Lightsolver” Foster was named as a zoophile. His online footprint was scrubbed to suppress notice, but there’s still traces of pro-bestiality belief. Is this someone you can trust with animals that can’t consent? How did someone like this get power over cons and horse rescues, like a bad priest at a church with authority over children?

• He reblogged a Tumblr blog named Prettymares that defends zoophilia as a sexuality.
• Sources believe Prettymares is his too… guess why it was scrubbed like his Lightsolver blog.
• Creepy Twitter discussion: “I need to know if this horse is flirting with me” — he wants pictures.
• On Reddit, Foster’s username was Antnoob. It was deleted but this archive matches his name to posts left behind.
• Posts from Foster’s Antnoob account are live on a Horses subreddit topic, “Artificial Insemination (AI) is rape”.
• These match an Antnoob post that supports bestiality if people “care about animals.”

WARNING: DISTURBING CONTENT — Leaked board meeting audio about Kyle “Lightsolver” Foster preying on rescues

Below is an hour long audio file from a Discord voice board meeting. It leaked in August 2025 and covers the discovery of alarming events with Kyle in 2022. It gets some denial as fake, on forums where it circulated, but Dogpatch Press made contact with sources who were present at the meeting to verify it. Full names aren’t being given in text, but are identified in the audio. It features staff of Mare Fair, an operator of a horse rescue and con charity partner (Kim), and a horse rescue president and licensed psychologist (Christina.)

This link has the file and here’s a summary.

7:00 – 10:00 Introducing Christina as president of a Missouri horse rescue and sanctuary. Kyle/Lightsolver volunteered there for over 10 years. She is a licensed clinical psychologist who relocated from running a large nonprofit in Louisiana, working with at-risk youth using equines for therapy. Her license includes an oath to protect vulnerable populations as a mandated reporter, including animals. She has no personal vendetta, and didn’t reach out to the con, she was contacted about strange incidents. Everything she will say is the whole truth, and her first-hand personal experience.

10:00 – 12:00 Describing the Missouri rescue. Christina was brought in to develop its therapeutic arm with animal assisted therapies, and became president and general manager. They are very large, serious, and accredited, with over 200 horses and 200 acres, and corporate sponsors. They do continuing education with practicing veterinarians, teach vet tech students, have a resident vet with a full medical wing, and a one of a kind 4H and show program.

12:00 – 15:00 Kyle’s power over the rescue. Christina didn’t know when she got there that Kyle was deep into every level of everything technical. A new arena was built for the therapeutic wing and Kyle got involved with wiring for all the cameras. He wasn’t supposed to be part of that, she was introduced through him taking more and more control. Kyle was temperamental but with 10 years of involvement he had many loyal people. The founder had a new husband, Ken, who befriended Kyle and made him best man at the wedding.

Kyle Foster with one of his victims Ziggy

15:00 – 20:00 Trouble with Kyle. In summer 2022, Kyle didn’t come to work, with no contact for 4-5 days. It was very bizarre, and everyone was worried, making a safety issue with a large property, were cameras and fields checked? They divided up checking hospitals and jails, and Christina would check cameras. Kyle always wanted to be on night shift, and owned a badly crippled horse named Sugar and a mini horse named Ziggy. Christina found camera footage from Sugar’s stall of Kyle sexually abusing her. Kyle was found in jail, and Ken bailed him out and brought him back. That’s when Kyle spilled his guts about his love for Sugar and having no relationships with people. Kyle had trouble for child pornography on his computer at a university he worked at. He showed the rescue staff bestiality videos he made on his own phone, so security footage didn’t even have to be revealed.

20:00 – 23:00 Fallout about a predator inside the Missouri rescue. The founders were in a reality warp, torn by being friends with Kyle for a decade, with pressure to give him another chance. Christina is a professional who knew they had to protect animals and couldn’t allow him on the property. She provided contacts for Kyle to get professional help, and he rejected it, saying they were the ones with the problem and he should be allowed to love whoever he wants. It was a “big brawl” with members of the board. Christina stood firm about compromising her license and profession, because an accredited organization that claims to protect animals couldn’t tolerate sexual abuse. She gave an ultimatum about resigning and reporting as a mandated reporter. Donors were contacted, board members resigned, she was brought on board, and Kyle was ordered not to come on the property, but still manipulated people to try sneaking horses out for him.

23:00 – 27:00 Health of Kyle’s victims. Ownership of Sugar and the other victim Ziggy was forced to be signed over to the sanctuary, and Kyle could never come back. There was extreme effort to verify Sugar’s inability to walk, “a complete tragedy that never should have gone that long” while she was kept alive in agony. Kyle said “she never tried to get away” to justify abusing Sugar, tried to stop her from being euthanized, and says Christina killed her. Independent vets were astonished that it was allowed to go so long.

27:00 – 30:00 Getting away from Kyle. When Christina took management it took a year to detach Kyle’s control from multiple layers of security, and get back access to their own assets. Kyle’s proximity is a threat and he’s extremely vindictive. The rescue purpose is to take care of the animals, and there are laws and registries for child abuse, elder abuse, and domestic abuse, but none for bestiality. Christina is a firsthand witness of Kyle going to other rescues; she didn’t pursue him and thought it was done, but she was contacted about problems. The rescue board had to put Ziggy in protective hiding so Kyle can never find him.

30:00 – 36:00 Sugar’s abuse. Sugar went through constant agony while being kept alive for Kyle to sexually abuse for years for his own gratification.

36:00 – 40:00 Legal case. In Florida, the other rescue owner Kim appreciates help to protect her 28 horses from abuse. This is speaking the truth, documented and witnessed despite fear of Kyle suing them for revenge, to carry out their mission to protect animals. Kyle’s version will be that a mean lady took control and killed his horse. They got the law involved immediately, but believe this has left state level and become a federal case, so it’s now hidden without records.

40:00 – 53:00 Manipulation of the con’s Florida rescue. Abuse of Ziggy started from being a baby. The board meeting was so this doesn’t happen to other rescues. Kim discusses health problems that made it hard to deal with the hell of putting up with Kyle. Kyle manipulated her to do what he wanted, while others warned her about something wrong. They learned that Kyle hid his past with the Missouri rescue. He took control of the Florida rescue’s operations and kept Kim from access while trying to get to her horses. He wasn’t able to touch them, but Kim had to stay quiet while getting help, in fear of control and revenge. She brought Christina to tell the story, even though Kyle freaked out and threatened her and her rescue to try and stop her. Kim asks for help to save the horses.

(End of audio summary.)

Art commission that Kyle got of Sugar, matching other evidence that he really had these horses.

A vulnerable rescue

Two professional horse rescuers risked their careers to sound the alarm about a predator they had to fight hard to stop. Notice that Christina won change by alerting donors — how likely is that with Mare Fair’s crypto donors? Their support has been pushing back while records get deleted, with con staff alleged to scrub forums they help run. Please reach out if you have tips. 

Sources say Kim is retired and spending her retirement on rescue, and association with channers led to isolation from other professionals. One believes: “the rescue lost other sponsors until they became increasingly, then almost wholly dependent on Mare Fair. To the point where staffers started volunteering at the farm. THIS GUY Kyle was one of them…” Another says: “It was weird to see an 18+ pony con raising money just for 1 horse rescue. The first time I thought about it was when they were selling MLP porn art packs to raise money for the charity. I just couldn’t believe the organization would be ok with it.”

Even a retired person with health challenges was able to take action. Now fandom is empowered with inside reporting about the corruption.

Joshua “Corpulent Brony” Hope’s real bestiality video hosting

Is anyone still holding out skepticism that Mare Fair management was in the dark about an abuser inside while being trustworthy to help animals? Here’s a clincher. Hope made a video hosting website, pony.tube, with dogwhistling like his other projects — that goes all the way to actively, personally supporting full bestiality videos — humans abusing actual horses.

The pony tube About page names it as Hope’s. Lightsolver was named as a Patreon funder. The moderation policy: “NSFW videos (including of actual horses) are welcome, but please mark them as NSFW.” That info was pointed out in a tip in the last month, but just scrubbed. The page now says “updated 2025-10-21.” Archives of the page show the message existed for years prior to founding Mare Fair. Hello, damage control!

Scrubbed.

The General tab is still labeled “Omnia vincit cunnus equæ 🐎 ”, which translates to “The horse’s cunt conquers all.” Compare to Hope’s silver coins that were labeled in latin “The heat (of a mare) never ends.” Just joking, except…

A source says “I tried searching the site on Google, and the first hits that popped up were bestiality porn posted on it years ago, with a comment where Corp saw it and welcomed it on his site.” 

CAUTION: Archives verify the pages exist, but don’t show explicit video. Hope commented approval on the video of a man sexually abusing an actual horse. The video was recently scrubbed, but there are explicit screens, and it was up for 5 years with the comment from Hope: “Nice, removed you from the autoblacklist.” There’s many more on the site, like a 10 minute compilation full of people abusing actual horses, and they show up in Google results. It was never very hidden.

The problem doesn’t go away by getting rid of one guy

Let’s keep it short and say that this evidence would be the kiss of death for events of every fan organizer involved, if fandoms hold a standard for honest organizers and protecting others from abuse.

Mare Fair looks like it isn’t doing well when it keeps losing hotels, but Joshua Hope, Kyle Foster, and some other enabling associates founded Neighcon together under the corporate entity Harmonic Ventures. Even if things get moved around on paper, the corruption isn’t going anywhere without being forced to.

The day of the leak.

MORE IN THE SERIES

• Tennessee furry group leaders corrupted with predators and drug death; two evidence documents.
• Mephit Furmeet put one of the world’s most infamous zoophiles on stage to represent the fandom.
• UK furry event founder and outed zoosadist ring member is still running events 7 years later.
• Nazifur sex offender keeps going in and out of jail while misleading furries to trust him.

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