Advice please - welfare case

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rescuearacehorse

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Hi folks. There are three horses that I, and a number of local horse owners, have real concerns over their welfare. One is very lame, they have no hay, rugs or sign of being fed. They are very thin with what I would think of as a body condition score of 0. I think the owner has been contacted but nothing is being done. They live in a very small field, with no grass, no hay and it's full of muck. They are thoroughbred types. So what now? Not a great picture as it was from the road. I just want to help the poor horses. Horse.jpg
 
Do you know who the owners are ? I would try talking to them before any other action and try and find out what’s going on with the horses.
 
World Horse Welfare or contact BHS Headquarters. They have welfare officers in all counties (that you cannot contact yourself) who can go and give advice, but they also have contacts with other organisations. They are often people like police or vets, so they are well used to dealing with less than helpful people.
 
setterlover said:
Just my opinion but I don't that horse is a 0 in condition . Horses that are not rugged and can looks a bit bedraggled However if they are on good grass but there is no evidence of hay being put out it may be put where it is not visible or late at night when there would certainly be no evidence of it in the morning.
Not sure what I would do may be try to sort out who owns them to sort out if perhaps there is a family problem meaning they are not coming up during daylight hours . However it shouldn't be hopping lame though to be devil's advocate may be getting treatment
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Small field no grass in OP

And I’d absolutely be reporting that horse
 
meleeka said:
There was a recent thread on here (search 'RSPCA') which might be helpful. Might be worth messaging @exracehorse for advice.
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Ok. I went through a severe neglect case. Still ongoing. What I did learn is that, if there’s a local Facebook page group. Or horsey forum, then do a friendly ‘hey does anyone know who owns these horses as one appears lame’. You might soon find out that it’s an ongoing issue and folk are looking away. Next is to ring. Email. Call everyone in horse welfare. Asking for a visit. Unless there is an inspector in your area, you won’t even get a visit. If that fails ,, email your local MP. I has great success with James Cartlidge who pushed the RSPCA for updates. And two days later two horses were seized.
 
exracehorse said:
Ok. I went through a severe neglect case. Still ongoing. What I did learn is that, if there’s a local Facebook page group. Or horsey forum, then do a friendly ‘hey does anyone know who owns these horses as one appears lame’. You might soon find out that it’s an ongoing issue and folk are looking away. Next is to ring. Email. Call everyone in horse welfare. Asking for a visit. Unless there is an inspector in your area, you won’t even get a visit. If that fails ,, email your local MP. I has great success with James Cartlidge who pushed the RSPCA for updates. And two days later two horses were seized.
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thanks - a post was put on the local FB group and the owner came forward, to be fair on her. But nothings changed!
 
I don't think the horse looks at a critical state at the moment and I'm used to looking at well covered Arab's and I like a nicely covered horse, but they don't look starved but it can take a month or 2 for a horse to really drop off without getting what they need.
 
I think the fuzziness of the photo and the angle it's taken from is masking the extent of the situation - I think a photo of the quarters taken from behind the horse would tell more of a story, and also one to show how much/little cover there is along the midline of the back would further illustrate things perhaps.

The way the light is falling over those areas (and across the flanks, and a few things about other areas on the horse) gives me cause for significant concern, but the photo isn't clear enough to be certain of my opinion.
 
1)Contact WHW first. they are most likely to be any use and also they don't touch anything that any other agencies are involved with.
Don't ring or email, fill in their on line report form. The form includes a question about other places you have also reported this to, your answer to that needs to be "none" or you wont get anywhere.
2)They get a huge number of vague 'I saw something bad on the internet but I'm not sure where the horse is' type reports so you need to come over as someone sensible and informed. Give the location as a ///what.3.words reference, they prefer that to grid references, but also give the address and grid reference if you know it. If access is difficult also give a w3w location for where they need to park, beginning of the track to walk down etc. so they are sure it's not going to be a wild goose chase.
3) Don't include anything emotional - don't mention they are 'sad' or 'suffering', don't speculate what might happen in the future. Keep to facts eg horse is 8/10 lame on the off fore, has been for 3 weeks. There is no water in the field. Field is bare and there is no evidence of supplementary feeding. Horses' condition score estimated at ....
4)Give a phone number as contact, they prefer that to email & they like to check you sound legit and that the horses are still there before setting off.

Edited to add link to report form

www.worldhorsewelfare.org

Worried about a horse? - World Horse Welfare

If you are worried about the welfare of a horse in the UK, find out how to report the situation.
www.worldhorsewelfare.org www.worldhorsewelfare.org
 
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DI'd y
Glitter's fun said:
1)Contact WHW first. they are most likely to be any use and also they don't touch anything that any other agencies are involved with.
Don't ring or email, fill in their on line report form. The form includes a question about other places you have also reported this to, if your answer to that isn't "none" you wont get anywhere.
2)They get a huge number of vague 'I saw something bad on the internet but I'm not sure where the horse is' type reports so you need to come over as someone sensible and informed. Give the location as a ///what.3.words reference, they prefer that to grid references, but also give the address and grid reference if you know it. If access is difficult also give a w3w location for where they need to park, beginning of the track to walk down etc. so they are sure it's not going to be a wild goose chase.
3) Don't include anything emotional - don't mention they are 'sad' or 'suffering', don't speculate what might happen in the future. Keep to facts eg horse is 8/10 lame on the off fore, has been for 3 weeks. There is no water in the field. Field is bare and there is no evidence of supplementary feeding. Horses' condition score estimated at ....
4)Give a phone number as contact, they prefer that to email & they like to check you sound legit and that the horses are still there before setting off.
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Did you really mean that OP should say on the WHW form that unless she has contacted other organisations she won't get anywhere? I would have thought the opposite would be true.
 
the horse is easily a 2 if not worse, the indentations around the spine and pelvis can be clearly seen. If they are this poor now in December and have no grass or hay I doubt they’ll see spring. I would follow @exracehorse advice.
 
Pearlsacarolsinger said:
DI'd y

Did you really mean that OP should say on the WHW form that unless she has contacted other organisations she won't get anywhere? I would have thought the opposite would be true.
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The form asks "have you also contacted other agencies"
The answer needs to be "no", "none".
They don't like to get involved if others are already dealing with it.
Thought I said that, maybe not clearly! Thank you for pointing that out.
I have edited my 1st post now for more clarity.
:)
 
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I'm a BHS welfare advisor, and have often found myself in situations where owners say they have already had the RSPCA and WHW out, or phone me later to say the others have turned up, so I don't think multiple reporting is necessarily a problem.
 
Mustard said:
I'm a BHS welfare advisor, and have often found myself in situations where owners say they have already had the RSPCA and WHW out, or phone me later to say the others have turned up, so I don't think multiple reporting is necessarily a problem.
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That's good to know, thank you.

I was basing my advice on recent experience with a particular WHW branch*.
I was told they would only respond if there was no previous report to other agencies. I got the impression they were inundated with second hand reports from people who had heard about cases on SM. Maybe it varies in other areas I don't know?


*(There was a happy outcome, which did involve a multi-agency response. WHW co-ordinated and WHW field officer made the first visit but RSPCA visited with them subsequently. Horses are safe but can't comment further because matter is sub judice .)
 
BHS (British Horse Society) Tel: 0247 6840 517 24/7

HAPPA

Redwings
www.redwings.org.uk

Concerned about a horse? | Redwings Horse Sanctuary

If you are concerned for a horse's welfare, including if you suspect it has been mistreated or abandoned, you can report it to us
www.redwings.org.uk www.redwings.org.uk

RSPCA (Royal Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals) Tel: 0300 1234 999 24/7

WHW (World Horse Welfare) Tel: 0800 0480 180 8.00 a.m. – 5.30 p.m. Monday – Friday
 
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