Bereavement Dilemma

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mtj

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I'm expecting to have one of my horses pts today - very ill in hospital.

On his passport, I noticed a previous owner had him for 7 years, before selling him 6 years ago - not to me. If you had been his owner for that long, would you want to know he had passed on? Just need to get my head straight on this as i will be returning passport (with address) to issuer.

Thanks
 
I am so sorry to hear about your poorly horse. You have my admiration for thinking of others at the awful time.

I personally would like to know I think if you sell a horse after a long time of owning you always wonder what they are doing and if they are being looked after.
 
How concinderate of you to think of someone else at a difficult time. 7 year is quite a long time and yes I think I probably would LIKE to know but I wouldn't feel it was my right to know. Do whatever you are happy with, if you feel it's too hard to contact the old owner then don't, I'm sure you won't burn in hell for it. If you feel you would like to do it then I'm sure they would be pleased you thought of them.
Good luck for what sounds like an awful day ahead of you. My thoughts are with you and your poorly horse. x
 
Having just been in the reverse of you, I sold my old horse, Benji, about a year and a half ago, after owning him for 5/6 years and my friend rang me on Sunday night to tell me he was going to have to be PTS on the Monday, and also asked if i'd like to be there.

I was glad she'd let me know, and also be apart of the process as he was a very dear horse to me and it was a sad sale.

guess it depends on the reasons for the sale to be honest with you.

well done you for keeping others feelings in mind in what is a horrible time for you
 
I had this a couple of weeks ago, I had been in contact with charlies old owner(before dealer), and yes, I did let her know, before it happened. She had had him for a long time, and she actually came up and said goodbye to him. Do what you think is right, there is no right or wrong answer to this one.
 
Thank you for all the kind replies.

He is still going - looks shocking but still has a very healthy appetite and scoffed a pack of polos earlier!

Nevertheless, vets are very concerned about him and have my consent to pts immediately if needed. He has severe respiratory problems and we are now awaiting results on tests for a lung tumour.

The outlook is very pessimistic. I will send a letter to the past long term owner if he doesn't manage to recover.
 
Very kind of you to think of them :hugs:

I would also get in touch with previous owners if anything ever happened to my Holly. I actually got in touch with them when I bought her to let them know where she is and how she is doing :) Both of them are now good friends and come and visit from time to time :)
 
Fingers crossed for you and your poor horse MTJ, you are both being so very brave. Thoughts are with you.

I think that I too would appreciate being told the bad news if I was the horse's previous owner. But, as Vizslak said, it's not my right to know. And again, it's purely personal.

I haven't discussed this at all with said person, but I know for a fact that when it's time for my oldest mare (now 29) to go, I will definitely be getting in touch with her last owners to let them know (but then again, I give them an update about once a year at anyway! and, although it's possible I could have got completely the wrong impression of them, they really do strike me as people who would care and would appreciate things like this.
 
Sorry to hear about your horse being so ill.

I only knew one of the owners who had my horse before me and she only had him for 6 months to bring him on and I would always tell her if things weren't good and he was having to be put to sleep as she and my pony had a great relationship and he adored her. And I know she'd want to know.

I think what you're doing is very considerate. My eldest sister had the opposite situation...when she left home at 18 her horse was given to a horsey family my parents knew on the understanding that as my dad was the local vet, he would be the one to put the horse down when the time came. They never got in touch when that time came and months later broke the news to my sister that he was no longer alive when we bumped into them at the local gymkhana... Not a good day...
 
The lady I sold my connie to (I had him for 5 years, had to sell as my situation changed beyond belief and had no money otherwise I would have kept him to the end) let me know just after she had to have him pts. Things happened quite quickly at the end and she didnt have my details to hand. Apparently she agonised for days over whether to let me know and in the end her Mum called me. I was so pleased she did as I often wondered about him and she knew that had I had any other choice I would have kept him. We kept in touch initially so that I could make sure they had settled together but once I knew all was OK I made the decision not to as I found it upsetting and didnt think it was fair to any of us. At least I know that he was looked after all his life and will never fall into neglect, for that I am grateful.
 
Sorry to hear your sad news.

If the previous owners have been in touch for updates etc then yes let them know. If not, then I wouldn't - sometimes people just need to close that door when their horse moves on as it can be too tough to stay in touch.

Re the passport - I think you can request to have the cancelled passport returned to you by the passport people. I did this with my last pts horse as I like to keep something of them but am not a 'piece of hair' person.

Best wishes
 
So sorry to hear about your boy!

I think it's a nice thing to do. I had bought Harry via a dealer (selling on behalf of his owners) who had mentioned his breeder. When H was PTS 9 years later I wrote to the breeder. Turns out they hadn't bred him, they had just bought his and brought him on, but they remembered him very, very well. They were really pleased to hear he had had a good life and told me loads of stories about him which was very very sweet!
 
When Thea was PTS last March the very same day I rang her previous owner and told her what had happened. We had always kept in touch I just felt it was the right thing to do as she loved her so much.
 
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