bad situation wwyd?

O

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Ok under another name as not sure if her friend is on here

Fellow livery has gone abroad for a month and has paid a friend of hers to care for her horse. This was the first week and I am not happy with the level of care she is giving it, horse is lami prone and on restricted hours for grazing, its currently being left out 12/13 hours (twice as long as usual) a day, meant to have soaked hay but the hays being dunked then hung to dry. Horse can be difficult to catch when there's fresh grass, found out today she was so annoyed at it running about she refused to feed it when she brought it in. Its being skipped out instead of mucked out and the stable waters never changed (I have been doing it after she leaves so I know its clean for the horses sake)

Her friend appears to have an attitude problem and if spoken to replies with a four letter rant about how difficult the horse is (its not, difficult to catch - although a pain - is its only issue but will come if a rustly bit paper is in your pocket which she's been told)

If I was my horse I would not be happy to return and be told this was happening yet nobody had contacted me to inform me. As she's abroad I'm waiting for her to be up and then will contact her, I've spoken to some of the other liveries today and they've agreed its not being looked after and we could all pitch in with the yard duties (no charge so not a money making thing) at least if she knows then its her decision on what to do

Part of me thinks this is none of my business but when it comes to horse care I cannot stand by and watch this happen. Feel like an interfering busy body but keep thinking if it were me . . . .
 
I agree with you, if it was me I'd want to know. If I was looking after someone's horse I'd pay even more attention to detail than I would to mine!

The way the friend is managing the horses care isn't just careless but potentially dangerous 're the lami and hay situation etc.
And is the horse supposed to make a connection between being 'difficult' to catch and not being fed? It may get worse to catch if it learns its not coming in to a nice big net to munch or its dinner.

I think you should definitely tell her your concerns and then at least she has the chance to change something. I'd actually be pretty annoyed if I was to return to find out my horse hadn't been properly looked after, but people knew and didn't tell me.
 
I think you are absolutely right to contact the owner, it's not as if she would have to come home as you have all agreed to take over the care. The last thing she needs is for the horse to go down with laminitis again.
Sounds like a nice yard you are on. I hope the owner gets her money back from this girl.
 
What does YO/YM say? Were they aware of the arrangement? I would check before contacting the person abroad but agree if it were me I would want to know and be very grateful that my fellow liveries were so nice!
 
If it was my horse I would absolutely want to know, and if I saw the same thing happening on my yard I would be letting the owner know. I think you are doing the right thing by letting her know and it is very nice of you to offer to help out.
 
I would absolutely want to know if I was the one on holiday. You want to relax knowing your horses are cared for and if her horse is a mess when she gets home it will put her off going again, at least if you step in she will know she can trust you and the others that will help

It's bad enough a "normal" horse but as a laminitic the care is obviously essential to managing the condition. Hope the owner gets her money back off the person she's trusted to care for the horse
 
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Step in. You would feel a whole lot worse if said horse had a bad lami attack. Do t feel guilty either, the fault lies with the friend who is supposed to be tasking care of said horse. I, personally would be very grateful that you had a, noticed, b stepped in and c, had a plan to pick up the pieces.
 
Personally I wouldn't tell the owner - unless it's critical / last resort

If any of us had a message while on hols that our horses weren't being cared for then we just pack up and come home (or I would anyway)
If you / rest of yard can sort the horse while she's away to a standard the horse is used to then great - do that and when the owner gets home you can explain what happened and perhaps suggest she gives the people who did the work payment instead of the person who should have been doing it.
 
Thank you all, I rung but my call went to answering machine so have text so she gets it when she's gets a signal/ turns it back on.

Polos Mum I understand what you're saying but she knows and trusts the people who are willing to help so I don't think she would worry knowing we would take on its care
 
Is the YO aware of this situation??

I think you need to involve the YO and make her aware. Even if it is a DIY situation - she still needs to be aware. I'm a DIY YO and I'd certainly want to know if someone on the yard had gone on holiday and left their horse(s) in someone else's care and that that care wasn't as good as it should be.........
 
Polos Mum said:
Personally I wouldn't tell the owner - unless it's critical / last resort

If any of us had a message while on hols that our horses weren't being cared for then we just pack up and come home (or I would anyway)
If you / rest of yard can sort the horse while she's away to a standard the horse is used to then great - do that and when the owner gets home you can explain what happened and perhaps suggest she gives the people who did the work payment instead of the person who should have been doing it.
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A lami horse getting double the usual turnout sounds pretty critical to me. I would hate as an owner to not be told and end up with a horse suffering an attack when I could have changed the arrangement with the 'friend'/located someone else to do it properly. I don't think the other liveries should have to step up for the next 3 weeks due to the friends failings.
 
Polos Mum said:
Personally I wouldn't tell the owner - unless it's critical / last resort

If any of us had a message while on hols that our horses weren't being cared for then we just pack up and come home (or I would anyway)
If you / rest of yard can sort the horse while she's away to a standard the horse is used to then great - do that and when the owner gets home you can explain what happened and perhaps suggest she gives the people who did the work payment instead of the person who should have been doing it.
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Agree with this. Don't let this "friend" ruin her holiday. Just tell the YO to sort the situation out and you do it between you.
 
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A lami horse getting double the usual turnout sounds pretty critical to me.
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If that's the case then absolutely she should cancel her holiday and come home immediately to sort it out -

But if telling her doesn't change anything (ie the great liveries will sort it out anyway) then it just causes stress and worry for the owner without changing what will happen - so what's the point??
Maybe she would want to OK the change of carer or call her 'friend' and give her bo&&(*King but as long as the horse is being properly cared for the does it matter by whom ? she can sort out who her real friends are when she gets back !!
 
I would certainly want to know.

It is up to the owner to decide what to do. She may already have a contingency plan in place.

When we have gone away and left Jay with a friend we had two other yards on standby in case my friend was ill/had an accident. Either yard would have come and fetched him.
 
I actually agree with not telling your friend and let her enjoy her holiday as long as you don't mind helping out. It may be a pain but it's a difficult situation for all involved. Can you offer to bring the horse in at all if the helper can't do it earlier/finding it difficult and perhaps explain that the hay really does need to be soaked rather than dunked (maybe suggest she does the next days hay that day and you can lift it out so its drained by the time she gets there).
 
As the owner of a grass sensitive horse who can also be a bit of a PITA to catch from time to time (he's a funny beast) I would definitely want to know so that alternative arrangements could be made and the offending person never entrusted with anything I owned ever again.
 
Have informed YOs, first step we get the reply from the horses owner, they want her conformation that these changes weren't agreed and get the ok for us to take on the care. I can see their point, even though we know its not right (owner commented on cost having friend down so often - morning t/o, get in early and feed/hay and then evening hay) it would be our word against the friends at the moment regarding the extra t/o not feeding every night etc.

I do think the horse is at risk of being ill, not only the lami but checked the stable today and found a feed bucket in ready, it was obviously wetted a few days ago as it really stank, was warm, was full of flies and was about three days worth of feed for this horse, have thrown it away and left a note with an excuse as think the friend would get nasty if she thought we were meddling
 
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I would definitely want to know about any issues whilst I am away, and always leave very clear instructions to that effect.

However, not everyone is the same. Myself and a neighbour decided not to tell another neighbour (who was abroad on holiday) that her mare had been found with a fractured wing of ilium in her field. We, and the very helpful vet, sorted and stabilised her in the cross ties here at mine. There was nothing to be done but wait and see, so between us we decided to keep quiet until she returned 10 days later. (Mare came good in the end).

Eta just seen your update. Hope horse's owner can be contacted asap to ok changes with YO. Well done for doing your best to help.
 
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