Anyone had any success with rehoming a horse from one of the charities?

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YummyHorses

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As above really.

Am bringing my mare and daughters pony home from livery and have the space for a companion horse/pony. I also need a horse/pony to babysit my mare when my daughter pops out for a hack as she is a very needy soul and will become very nervous/unsettled when left alone!!

What successes have people had? From where? How does it all work? What doesnt work and any warnings against?

Thanks.
x
 
I have one from horseworld, went and looked at her, had a home visit passed and brought her home paid a fee of £60 towards her and they come out every 6 months or so to check up on her. No problems at all and i have a cute little shetland from them.
 
I've had 2 from WHW over the years. A field officer did a home check and then once approved we quickly were able to collect the pony. The field officer visits regularly (unannounced), but I found them very helpful and always prepared to offer advice. When the time came to have my last WHW pony pts the field officer was great, and even offered to hold my girl for me if I couldn't face it. I would definitely recommend them if you are looking for a companion.
 
Thats nice to hear - I have seen a little shetland pony on their website who looks fab. He is way up north - I think in Scotland in fact. I presume its the borrowers responsibility to pick up. Will need to have a chat with them about how it all works but I would love to be able to help out as so many horses and ponies seem to be going to charities at the moment.
 
Plenty of people do but after I visited Ada Cole(which had just been taken over by ILPH) very friendly they came to inspect my set up and I passed. The ponies on site here had lots of behaviour issues although there were many success stories of people giving the horses great homes, lots of pics of all ages riding competing etc etc. My criteria was good with farrier and more importantly 110% traffic as now and again we needed to come along an A road ie for farrier. They were my requirements.I didnt want a riding horse, age irrelevant thought I could do a good deed!

So I ended up in Norfolk ILPH after a 2.5 hour drive after telling them this was my requirement. Got there tons of horses but no one could tell me if the horses were good on the road. No where to try out as it was in the middle of the countryside(really very rural)! For me it was a complete waste of time and I was probably very unlucky. But I was cross about it! As I could have taken one and it ended up dead on an A road!

I ended up buying a companion which was rideable and wasted with me. Even I couldnt believe I was buying one!!
 
Yes I've had a few children's riding ponies over the past 10 years from SWHP near Monmouth without any problems (apart from the sadness when they are outgrown and go back). It depends where you are situated as to finding a reputable charity that suits you, as most of them tend to operate within particular areas. I think the Blue Cross also operate a system for companion ponies where some costs are met by them/vet medicine co. ie injections, dentist etc.
 
I'd second a recommendation for SWHP. We have two from them - a ridden pony and a little companion pony. Both are absolutely fab. The companion pony was a bit nervous to start with (hardly surprising seeing as she had originally been abandoned) but is great now and is quite happy to be left on her own in the field without stressing while the others are out being ridden.

I didnt have a good experience with the ILPH (about ten years ago) who told me when I rang that they had lots that would meet my criteria (I wanted a companion urgently as my mare was on her own after moving from livery to my own land). i made an appointment and went and looked but the person in charge had gone out and no-one much at the yard seemed to have a clue about any of the horses. I left my details - and they rang me EIGHTEEN MONTHS later to say they had a horse I might be interested in.
 
I have had two companions from Horseworld. They are/were lovely horses (the first very sadly had to be put to sleep early this year).
Horseworld have been very professional and well-organised when we've been there to see the horses. They give you quite detailed notes about how the horse behaves (grooming, farrier, loading etc) and also its vet notes (which you can study before you take it on). We have found that their assessments of the horses have been very accurate so there haven't been any surprises.
We get a friendly inspection each 9 months and they are always happy to talk on the phone if there are any issues.
They do have a geographic limit (details on their website) but roughly an hour and a half from Bristol. You have to arrange to collect the horse from their farm near Bristol.
All in all I think they're great and would definitely recommend them to anyone looking for a companion horse.
 
We had a horse many years ago from the Bluecross although we actually took him on from someone local (I assume this was ok'd by the BC at the time),he was 22 when we got him, I think the reason was essentially we were being offered a free horse who was rideable! Lol. He came with his best buddy (a donkey) and the pair of them were fab. The horse was ridden for 2 to 4 years before we retired him and he lived to the ripe old age of 36! He was a bit of a loon in some ways and I think he must have had 9 lives with some of the 'incidents' he had.

The blue cross were very good and came an visited about once a year and, even when we were concerned he was struggling to keep weight on they were very helpful and understanding. I certainly think it's a good thing to do as you are giving a home to a horse who may not have had the best start in life. Also, should you not be able to keep them for any reason you know they always have a home to go back to and the charity will either take them back or rehome them straight from yours.
 
YummyHorses said:
Thats nice to hear - I have seen a little shetland pony on their website who looks fab. He is way up north - I think in Scotland in fact. I presume its the borrowers responsibility to pick up. Will need to have a chat with them about how it all works but I would love to be able to help out as so many horses and ponies seem to be going to charities at the moment.
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Hi, yes it is up to the borrower to collect. I have 2 from whw and they have been a pleasure to deal with. As someone has already said, the Field Officer will do a home check, then you would be invited to the sanctuary to meet some of the loan ponies/horses.

Everything has always been straight forward, and they are great to deal with. I would highly recommend them.
 
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