Buying Horses from Slaughter

CassTheCob

CassTheCob

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Hello everyone,
I'll soon be moving to Donegal/Co.Mayo, and when I do I want to buy a foal/yearling from slaughter/an auction/a kill pen. Does anyone have any experience with this? Can you buy from slaughterhouses? What should I look out for? Roughly how much would the cost of buying the foal be?
Thanks!!
 
why not get one from a reputable rescue- Irish horse welfare, ISPCA or Hungry Horse Outside?? I dont think you cann buy from slaughterhouses,people send their animals there for a reason, like old, unsound, bad temperaments..... not for re-sale.
 
Agree, and why would you want to when you can help out a charity by rehoming a horse that's already been rehabbed and assessed for it's suitability for the home you offer? Is it a badge of honour? So you can go round crowing "I saved my horse from the meat man"?
 
Regardless of your reasons for wanting to buy from a slaugterhouse, I would strongly urge you not to do so. Please re-home through a reputable charity instead and then, if ever you fall on hard times (none of us know what the future will bring) the horse can always be safe as the charity will always be able to step in and take it back.

The very best way to help horses and the welfare crisis is to go through the charities and not try to save horses whose futures have already been guaranteed.
 
marmalade76 said:
Agree, and why would you want to when you can help out a charity by rehoming a horse that's already been rehabbed and assessed for it's suitability for the home you offer? Is it a badge of honour? So you can go round crowing "I saved my horse from the meat man"?
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Rude...
 
marmalade76 said:
Agree, and why would you want to when you can help out a charity by rehoming a horse that's already been rehabbed and assessed for it's suitability for the home you offer? Is it a badge of honour? So you can go round crowing "I saved my horse from the meat man"?
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or maybe just very proud of the fact that they turned another persons rubbish into treasure., its not a sin to be proud.
 
luckyoldme said:
or maybe just very proud of the fact that they turned another persons rubbish into treasure., its not a sin to be proud.
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Has it ever crossed your mind they are there for a reason. Nobody breeds to kill so theres always a reason. If people bred to kill they need certifying.
 
CassTheCob said:
Hello everyone,
I'll soon be moving to Donegal/Co.Mayo, and when I do I want to buy a foal/yearling from slaughter/an auction/a kill pen. Does anyone have any experience with this? Can you buy from slaughterhouses? What should I look out for? Roughly how much would the cost of buying the foal be?
Thanks!!
Click to expand...

You may find the foals who find themselves in this situation are of very poor conformation and often in very poor health. It is a very sad fact that far too many foals are bred from the poorest possible stock. If you do go down this route try to have an independent friend with you who can stop your emotions taking over. I would be hopeless in that situation and would soon have one on the back seat of the car !

Remember also, that these types often carry strangles and huge worm burdens, something that anyone sharing facilities with you will not be impressed with, and problems that will cost a lot of money to put right, if they can be put right, it is not unusual for poor foals to never thrive. Factor in what you want to achieve when the foal is grown, will it be capable of your needs and aspirations.

My advice would be to save a little more money and buy a nicely put together foal from someone who has put some care into breeding the foal in the first place. Then you know what you are getting and can look forward, with a little luck, to a happy future with a lovely horse that you can make into whatever you want. Good luck.
 
Why on earth would you be looking to specifically buy a foal from a slaughter house?!

Its very odd that just because you are moving to donegal that you want to buy from slaughter. There are plenty of charity horses that you can rehome, which do have foals as well. Most foals going to slaughter will have deformity or other serious issues so are better off not being "rescued". There is a young horse (2/3 year old) here that has such a serious hind leg deformity that it can never be ridden, yet the owner who "rescued" it now can no longer look after it and has been trying to sell for over a year now. It would probably be better off being pts to ensure that it doesn't end up in a bad home.

Or you could just buy a foal from a breeder, there are plenty of good, reputable breeders in mayo/donegal.
But if you want to rescue a horse then try a charity - there are a lot of horses currently in need of a home.
 
popsdosh said:
Has it ever crossed your mind they are there for a reason. Nobody breeds to kill so theres always a reason. If people bred to kill they need certifying.
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there are at least 3 farmers around where I live breed to kill. one breeds around 60 foals a year the others I'm not sure of numbers but pretty large numbers anyway. Some of these horses are really nice, solid colour good conformation around 14 hh when mature. Occasionally local people buy a foal to grow on and turn into a riding horse, they make nice riding school/pony club types. However the majority go onto the meat wagon either as foals or around 2 year old when they have grown and weigh more. Breeding to kill is not as unusual as some may think.
Meanwhile plenty of poorly conformed rubbish ends up at a local aution and get sold on as potential riding ponies. Theres no rhyme or reason to it.. I used to think only the bottom end went for meat, not so, as said above there are plenty of well conformed nice temperament lovely ponies around my neck of the woods going for meat on a regular basis.
 
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Strongly advise against it OP.
Horses going to the Meatman are going for a reason. There are plenty of healthy horses looking for homes in rescues.
 
The other factor is its very hard to look at a horse when it's a yearling and know how it's going to turn out unless you have a good idea of parentage, and in this situation you won't have a clue where it has come from, so you will have to have to be extremely experienced and have an eye for such horses so you know what's you will end up with its a huge gamble in my opinion.
 
We had several excellent ponies working in the riding school from the meat man - they get there for many reasons sometimes through no other fault than being with an inexperienced owner who has had a rough time.

A friend of mine bought a lovely sporthorse filly from the meat man - she is now a stunning 3yr old, recently backed and a treasure. This one had come from a big stud that had run out of money to care for the youngsters and had let them go to the meat man, he knew that they were lovely horses in the making and advertised them on Trade Me and found homes for them all.

So see what is there, find out as much as you can about the horse and don't pay a fortune for it.
 
popsdosh said:
Has it ever crossed your mind they are there for a reason. Nobody breeds to kill so theres always a reason. If people bred to kill they need certifying.
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of course it has, we have a field near us full of coloured cobs, all in foal. At the end of the whatever hasn t sold will probably go for meat, or at least they did last year. Personally i would nt want to go anywhere near the meat man, it would break my heart......the point i was making is that if someone has rescued a meat horse and is proud of it , then its no big sin in my eyes.
 
luckyoldme said:
of course it has, we have a field near us full of coloured cobs, all in foal. At the end of the whatever hasn t sold will probably go for meat, or at least they did last year. Personally i would nt want to go anywhere near the meat man, it would break my heart......the point i was making is that if someone has rescued a meat horse and is proud of it , then its no big sin in my eyes.
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This is probably the luckiest horse you would ever meet.
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/album.php?albumid=6827&attachmentid=28713
 
AdorableAlice said:
You may find the foals who find themselves in this situation are of very poor conformation and often in very poor health. It is a very sad fact that far too many foals are bred from the poorest possible stock. If you do go down this route try to have an independent friend with you who can stop your emotions taking over. I would be hopeless in that situation and would soon have one on the back seat of the car !

Remember also, that these types often carry strangles and huge worm burdens, something that anyone sharing facilities with you will not be impressed with, and problems that will cost a lot of money to put right, if they can be put right, it is not unusual for poor foals to never thrive. Factor in what you want to achieve when the foal is grown, will it be capable of your needs and aspirations.

My advice would be to save a little more money and buy a nicely put together foal from someone who has put some care into breeding the foal in the first place. Then you know what you are getting and can look forward, with a little luck, to a happy future with a lovely horse that you can make into whatever you want. Good luck.
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This ^ Well said AA.
 
Sorry my last post went awry.

This is probably the luckiest horse you would ever meet. However it does not change my overall view that most times theres a reason they are there and in the long run will be kindest if the end comes quick.


attachment.php


I once took a cow to the abattoir many moons ago (over 30) there was a mare with an hour old foal she had on the muckheap . managed to haggle to have the mare and foal in exchange for the cow. This was him as a yearling in hunter breeding class at SOE county show in that whole season he never came lower than 3rd. He has had a great life doing all sorts of things but mainly hunting ,he is now snowy white in retirement nannying youngstock.I beleve he is 32 this year if only he knew what could have been!
The most heartbreaking thing was taking his mum back as I was only allowed to take her on the understanding she had to go back within a year. She was a quality mare but I could never get the story of why she was there out of anybody,I tried several times to buy her from the deal offering well in excess of what she was worth to no avail so can only be thankful I had the chance to save him.
I am sorry to admit even today this upsets me what i had to do. He was at one stage up for the lloyds horse however he then moulted grey lol.
 
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popsdosh said:
This is probably the luckiest horse you would ever meet.
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/album.php?albumid=6827&attachmentid=28713
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i cant see the link! I think my horse is pretty lucky because knowing what i know now about the dodgy dealer i bought him from, he took his chance in an auction and ended up with a home for life. Unfortunately for him his only other real prospect was the meat man. i am quite proud of the life i have given him..its all worked out perfect for us.
 
luckyoldme said:
i cant see the link! I think my horse is pretty lucky because knowing what i know now about the dodgy dealer i bought him from, he took his chance in an auction and ended up with a home for life. Unfortunately for him his only other real prospect was the meat man. i am quite proud of the life i have given him..its all worked out perfect for us.
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Sorry its there now a bit of a tecnphob.
 
Some nice horses end up at the slaughter house through no fault of their own (owner's circumstances, generally), but all are there for one reason: no one wants them. No one wants them because there are quite simply far too many horses being bred for a limited market. I have had a few horses from slaughter (the owner will phone me if he gets anything in that shouldn't be there), but I don't buy for sentiment and if the OP wants to "rescue" something, going to a welfare centre (there are several in Ireland) would be a far better course of action.
 
he looks georgous...i love a happy ending!
What a shame about the mother.
I do get what you are saying, buying from the meat man is not for me..purely because i don t want to see the horses in the queue.
I just like a nice story with a happy ending, but for every one that has a lucky escape there is another to take its place.
 
the irish horse rehoming project work with the council to rehome very young horses from the pound. Check out their facebook page
The charity lady running it has a good eye and only picks out properly put together ones who will make useful horses. I have two off her and i'm delighted with them, both lovely ponies.
 
My advice would be go have a look around at the horse sales when you get over there. You will soon see some very sad sorry states and understand other peoples comments. From my experience Irish the trend for the Irish to breed horses like we would breed cattle, like everything their are some very good examples of breeding but I have seen some very bad examples also. I have been to many a sales seeing thin wormy animals but with a a little love and attention can be stunners if you know what you are looking at. At the end of the day you do what you need to do so you are happy -Good luck with the move its beautifu country and the people make it
 
popsdosh said:
Sorry my last post went awry.

This is probably the luckiest horse you would ever meet. However it does not change my overall view that most times theres a reason they are there and in the long run will be kindest if the end comes quick.


attachment.php


I once took a cow to the abattoir many moons ago (over 30) there was a mare with an hour old foal she had on the muckheap . managed to haggle to have the mare and foal in exchange for the cow. This was him as a yearling in hunter breeding class at SOE county show in that whole season he never came lower than 3rd. He has had a great life doing all sorts of things but mainly hunting ,he is now snowy white in retirement nannying youngstock.I beleve he is 32 this year if only he knew what could have been!
The most heartbreaking thing was taking his mum back as I was only allowed to take her on the understanding she had to go back within a year. She was a quality mare but I could never get the story of why she was there out of anybody,I tried several times to buy her from the deal offering well in excess of what she was worth to no avail so can only be thankful I had the chance to save him.
I am sorry to admit even today this upsets me what i had to do. He was at one stage up for the lloyds horse however he then moulted grey lol.
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That is a heartrending story Popsdosh. What reason would they give for not selling you the mare? Why were they so desperate to have her in a can; I'm not surpised it's never left you, think I would have been tempted to say she dropped dead in the field. I'm sure if there was a way out you would have found one. How sad.
 
Thanks everyone that's given useful advice and not got all sassy about this! To everyone saying "Ooh are you doing it just so you can say 'look I got this horse from the meat man'" and "there's a reason they're in there" getting their knickers in a twist and nit picking- no. Have you ever heard the quote "You don't throw a whole life away just because he's banged up a little."? I want to get a horse from slaughter/from a bad state so that I can help the horse. It doesn't need to fulfil any ambitions or go onto amazing things as I have other horses. No worries about worms, strangles etc as they will be on my own land and I'll keep said horse quarantined until I've got whatever issue there may be sorted.
To everyone saying I should get one from a rescue: If I get one from a rescue, the horse I would have got otherwise from meat will still be slaughtered, however if I buy from meat the horse I would have got from a rescue will simply stay in the program a bit longer until someone else adopts it. I do like the idea of the Irish horse rescue project though!

Looks like I'll probably go to a few auctions!
 
CassTheCob said:
To everyone saying I should get one from a rescue: If I get one from a rescue, the horse I would have got otherwise from meat will still be slaughtered, however if I buy from meat the horse I would have got from a rescue will simply stay in the program a bit longer until someone else adopts it.
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Slightly flawed logic there, OP. If you don't get one from a rescue, then the rescue will have to turn away other needy horses as they are full, so a horse that could have been rescued if they had room will still likely end up dead, and quite possibly it will suffer more than one which is being sent to legitimate slaughter.
 
I wouldn't bother going to the Clifden pony sales as you are unlikely to find what you are looking for there - not all of them are well handled or well presented, but I have never seen any that need rescuing in the way you describe. You might find one or two at Maam Cross horse fair in October though.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Slightly flawed logic there, OP. If you don't get one from a rescue, then the rescue will have to turn away other needy horses as they are full, so a horse that could have been rescued if they had room will still likely end up dead, and quite possibly it will suffer more than one which is being sent to legitimate slaughter.
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Who needs help more though, a horse that's in rehab and has been cared for, or, a horse with no positive connection with anything and only knows negativity?
 
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