Elf On A Shelf
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Sorry! Bit of a rant! A loooong rant!
I keep 2 horses and 2 native ponies in a 4acre, well fenced field by a main road.
Someone keeps reporting my horses to the RSPCA for various things. So your man comes out, as is his job to check on said horses.
The first time was back in March when someone reported that there were 3 horses stading in a field full of mud, starving with nothing to eat and no form of shetler of any kind. So the inspector came along expecting to find 3 emactiated horses in a half acre field of mud up to their knees. Instead he found 2 well rugged horses, an unrugged shetland, buckets out for food and half a bale of hayledge that they had ad lib access to. Needless to say he found nothing wrong, left me a note and went on his way.
A few weeks ago someone reported the grey horse as being neglected with a broken leg. So again your man came out, looked at said horse, went round the town asking where to find me and rocked up at my place of work! Promptly told me that my horse was incredibly lame and that I couldn't stick it back together with duct tape. I explained that the horse had a hoof abcess and had a poultice on - hence the duct tape round the foot. This didn't placate him. He insisted that the horse was in excrutiating pain and that was clearly evident by the fact that the horse had tried to bite him when he went to look at his leg - my horse doesn't like strangers and has a complete aversion to men so he was kind of asking for it! Once I had told him that and that the problem was being dealt with by both myself and my farrier he seemed ok and off he went.
You guessed it! Back out today! Someone this time had reported that they had run out of hay 2 days ago. So out he comes. And again he rocks up at my work, asks me to leave my job for half an hour to accompany him to my horses so he can show me my lame horse. Nay chance! We were far too busy for me to be off the yard! So then he quizes me about my grey one - which is abcess free now - and was getting quite annoyed that I hadn't got a vet out to the horse but instead a farrier. Vets dig too big a bloomin hole for abcesses, farriers have a nack of making pin pricks to solve the problem. The horse is now sound, where is the issue whether I got a farrier or vet?!? So then he starts on that the other horse was lame - yup, he is a little footsore due to no shoes and the first proper deep freeze of the ground. Both him and the grey get their winter shoes on next week but this didn't please him - it appears that you can magic farriers out of thin air at the drop of a hat! Wow! Didn't know that!!! So he finally leaves and lets me get on with my job and as he leaves he drives past the tractor that had just delivered a bale of hay to the field.
The horses hadn't run out of hay 2 days ago, they finished the last scraps yesterday - not point in putting new stuff ontop of the previous bale that is still perfectly edible. Plus it is a 4acre field with plenty of grass still in it and they get buckets of food daily.
Oh he also wants me to sell some and didn't like my answer of no - I won't sell them as Christmas presents for you guys to pick up from the side of a random road 6weeks down the line.
I feel that both some random and the RSPCA now have it in for. Can you complain to the RSPCA about harrassment?! My horses are fat, well, well fed and are on their winter holidays - oh that also didn't please him! Apparently every horse should be worked everyday and do a job! One is retired due to injury, the other is having a winter break due to their being no showing shows in winter and the other is an ubroken broodmare!
I wouldn't mind so much if they actually set someone who had a clue about horses but this guy doesn't! He doesn't kow what a native is, he doesn't know what lammi is, he can't tell a TB from a shire!
Sorry for the long rant but I feel unjustly picked on and I can't see it ending until I take them all away and put them in a 10*livery yard, wrap them all up in cotton wool and work them all every single day!
I keep 2 horses and 2 native ponies in a 4acre, well fenced field by a main road.
Someone keeps reporting my horses to the RSPCA for various things. So your man comes out, as is his job to check on said horses.
The first time was back in March when someone reported that there were 3 horses stading in a field full of mud, starving with nothing to eat and no form of shetler of any kind. So the inspector came along expecting to find 3 emactiated horses in a half acre field of mud up to their knees. Instead he found 2 well rugged horses, an unrugged shetland, buckets out for food and half a bale of hayledge that they had ad lib access to. Needless to say he found nothing wrong, left me a note and went on his way.
A few weeks ago someone reported the grey horse as being neglected with a broken leg. So again your man came out, looked at said horse, went round the town asking where to find me and rocked up at my place of work! Promptly told me that my horse was incredibly lame and that I couldn't stick it back together with duct tape. I explained that the horse had a hoof abcess and had a poultice on - hence the duct tape round the foot. This didn't placate him. He insisted that the horse was in excrutiating pain and that was clearly evident by the fact that the horse had tried to bite him when he went to look at his leg - my horse doesn't like strangers and has a complete aversion to men so he was kind of asking for it! Once I had told him that and that the problem was being dealt with by both myself and my farrier he seemed ok and off he went.
You guessed it! Back out today! Someone this time had reported that they had run out of hay 2 days ago. So out he comes. And again he rocks up at my work, asks me to leave my job for half an hour to accompany him to my horses so he can show me my lame horse. Nay chance! We were far too busy for me to be off the yard! So then he quizes me about my grey one - which is abcess free now - and was getting quite annoyed that I hadn't got a vet out to the horse but instead a farrier. Vets dig too big a bloomin hole for abcesses, farriers have a nack of making pin pricks to solve the problem. The horse is now sound, where is the issue whether I got a farrier or vet?!? So then he starts on that the other horse was lame - yup, he is a little footsore due to no shoes and the first proper deep freeze of the ground. Both him and the grey get their winter shoes on next week but this didn't please him - it appears that you can magic farriers out of thin air at the drop of a hat! Wow! Didn't know that!!! So he finally leaves and lets me get on with my job and as he leaves he drives past the tractor that had just delivered a bale of hay to the field.
The horses hadn't run out of hay 2 days ago, they finished the last scraps yesterday - not point in putting new stuff ontop of the previous bale that is still perfectly edible. Plus it is a 4acre field with plenty of grass still in it and they get buckets of food daily.
Oh he also wants me to sell some and didn't like my answer of no - I won't sell them as Christmas presents for you guys to pick up from the side of a random road 6weeks down the line.
I feel that both some random and the RSPCA now have it in for. Can you complain to the RSPCA about harrassment?! My horses are fat, well, well fed and are on their winter holidays - oh that also didn't please him! Apparently every horse should be worked everyday and do a job! One is retired due to injury, the other is having a winter break due to their being no showing shows in winter and the other is an ubroken broodmare!
I wouldn't mind so much if they actually set someone who had a clue about horses but this guy doesn't! He doesn't kow what a native is, he doesn't know what lammi is, he can't tell a TB from a shire!
Sorry for the long rant but I feel unjustly picked on and I can't see it ending until I take them all away and put them in a 10*livery yard, wrap them all up in cotton wool and work them all every single day!
I would definitely make a formal complaint and highlight all the inspectors mistakes and your responses to them, useless idiot wanting you to work a retired horse everyday
