Burying a horse at home - Wales

[Ranyhyn]

I've spent most of the afternoon trying (and failing) to get through to anyone at Defra or the local council so thought I'd ask here.

Is there anyone who has chosen to bury their pet horse at home (Wales only) and if so did you have any issues or have to get any permission at all? It seems the legislation and subsequent exemption I have found only applies to England and I'm keen to make sure things are in place as I dont want to be running around trying to organise these things whilst my horse is being dropped in the field!

TIA

 

[Sugarplum Furry]

In Wales, yes you can if your horse is a pet. Two of mine sadly passed here are buried in my field.

From the gov.uk website..

Horses
In Scotland and Wales, only pet horses can be buried.
In England, you’re allowed to bury horses whether they are pets or not.
For further information, contact your local trading standards office and the Environment Agency.
You can also use NFSCo to collect your horse.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Just a word of caution, my neighbour buried a pony on her land and said never again - the hole needed to e much bigger than they thought would be necessary and rigor mortis had set in by the time they were ready, so that caused further problems.

 

[conniegirl]

Just a word of caution, my neighbour buried a pony on her land and said never again - the hole needed to e much bigger than they thought would be necessary and rigor mortis had set in by the time they were ready, so that caused further problems.

Every time we have had it done at home (we mainly have had veterans so done more than a few unfortunatly) we have had the hole already dug, pony was PTS near by and then the farmer "rolls" them into the hole. We are lucky that we have a local farmer who is horsey and will take care of it for you, once the horse is PTS and you have said all your goodbyes, he prefers if the owners walk away before he puts the horse into its grave.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Every time we have had it done at home (we mainly have had veterans so done more than a few unfortunatly) we have had the hole already dug, pony was PTS near by and then the farmer "rolls" them into the hole. We are lucky that we have a local farmer who is horsey and will take care of it for you, once the horse is PTS and you have said all your goodbyes, he prefers if the owners walk away before he puts the horse into its grave.

Yes, I think that was the neighbour's mistake but it was an emergency pts, which complicated the issue.

 

[conniegirl]

Yes, I think that was the neighbour's mistake but it was an emergency pts, which complicated the issue.

makes it much more complicated i'll agree. The only emergency one I've had collapsed in his stable and was pts there. Absolute nightmare to get out of the stable and up into the field apparently, Thankfully farmer came to the rescue again and dealt with it all.

 

[Sugarplum Furry]

The lovely Welsh farmer who buried both of mine, 2 years apart, asked me the same question both times.

He enquired softly, in his beautiful Welsh accent 'Now then, would you like your horse to be buried facing east'?

I'm not sure if he was religious or he thought I might be but I did say yes please 'cos you never know. He was also very gentle and respectful when he buried them. Good man.

 

[Ranyhyn]

The lovely Welsh farmer who buried both of mine, 2 years apart, asked me the same question both times.

He enquired softly, in his beautiful Welsh accent 'Now then, would you like your horse to be buried facing east'?

I'm not sure if he was religious or he thought I might be but I did say yes please 'cos you never know. He was also very gentle and respectful when he buried them. Good man.

Thats beautiful.

We're ok on the movement front, we have our own tractor and our next door neighbour is a builder with a rig big enough to big a hole ( I already teed him up 6 months ago to be on alert... he thinks Im CRAZY anyway) but I was concerned I'd need some kind of permission in place etc.

She's only 19 and I'm sure has no plans to cark it anytime soon but I know I want her here so it pays to be prepared. Thank you all x

 

[Snowfilly]

The lovely Welsh farmer who buried both of mine, 2 years apart, asked me the same question both times.

He enquired softly, in his beautiful Welsh accent 'Now then, would you like your horse to be buried facing east'?

I'm not sure if he was religious or he thought I might be but I did say yes please 'cos you never know. He was also very gentle and respectful when he buried them. Good man.

A friend of mine is Welsh and I’ve helped him bury a couple of his dogs; he wanted them buried facing East as well.

He isn’t religious as far as I know but I didn’t like to ask him about something that seemed so private and so important.

 

[Ranyhyn]

Burying them facing the rising sun. Its quite sweet really.

 

[alibali]

I'm in Scotland which I believe has similar rules to Wales. I sought permission from the local council and sepa before burying my first horse. You need to make sure they're a certain distance from any water course etc. My second is buried side by side with my first. I just assumed permission for him. They're facing south towards the hills as field slopes steeply east to west so facing east isn't possible. My local JCB driver took care of it, says it's a regular part of his job, very respectful and wanted to know their names before hand.

 

[MagicMelon]

Im also in Scotland, Ive never got permission and have (unfortunately) buried 3 horses now on my own land. I simply get my local farmer who has a JCB to dig the hole and deal. He's very good about it, and makes a "neat" job of the hole afterwards, my last horse was 17.2hh so it was a sizeable hole. You just need to be careful not to put near a water course. We all have well water here but our well is far away on the opposite hill (with nobody else's nearby) so no issues where I buried them.