MontyandZoom
Well-Known Member
I am fairly new to this forum but just wanted to vent about my recent horse-related stress!
I used to part-loan my boy for a year when I was at uni. I looked after him three days a week and paid half his costs. I very quickly realised that his owner didn't really want him and that the days that I wasn't responsible for him, he wasn't cared for properly. I took it upon myself to look after him every day and she didn't notice since she rarely went down to the field to check on him anyway. I moved back to London in March and in May, my boyfriend went back to uni to visit some friends. He popped in on Monty (he was kept in a tiny field on his own) and found him in a terrible state. He had lost so much weight that he looked like a rescue horse. My boyfriend suggested to his owner that she hand him over to us since we would give him a good home and she agreed.
We moved him down five weeks ago and I was ready to give him an amazing home for the rest of his life. He is turned out with others in a really big field and the first week went really well. He bonded with the other horses and instantly looked settled. However, on the sixth day a new horse was turned out with them who turned out to be a rig. He went mental and beat up all the geldings and mounted the mares. Several horses were injured but unfortunately Monty was the worst. He was kicked all the way through a fence which had barbed wire on it. He had 29 staples in his NF leg where the rig had kicked him and minor cuts covering his whole body.
It was devastating! His medical regime was gruelling but after two weeks box rest and a week of individual turnout in the paddock, he was ready to go out with the others. I put him out with three cobby mares in the smaller field that is next to the big field and he was so happy to be back! He has been out with them for 10 days and he loves it.
THEN...........I went after work last night and he was waiting by the gates with his friends. He was standing a bit funny but he gets stiff behind as he's 19 so I didn't think anything of it. I put his headcollar on and was chatting away to another owner when I looked at his hindquarters and saw the most horrific gash! It is about 5 inches long and deep as anything (the vet easily stuck his whole hand in!). I immediately fell to bits! It is horrible and the worst thing is I can't work out how he did it. The vet says it could be a kick or he might have caught it on something.I went round the whole field looking for something sharp but there is nothing and none of the horses in his field could have done it (they're all 14HHish ploddy cobs and he is 16.2HH tb/id).Besides, I wouldn't think he would be all snuggled up so soon after he'd done it if the mares were responsible. The only explanation is if one of the geldings kicked him over the fence but this seems bizzarre since none of them have any marks on their legs.
I now have no idea what to do or how to feel! It's so rubbish. I feel like I never should have brought him here. It has been so upsetting and draining to see him in pain all the time.
Sorry for the long moan! I feel just about ready to give up!
I used to part-loan my boy for a year when I was at uni. I looked after him three days a week and paid half his costs. I very quickly realised that his owner didn't really want him and that the days that I wasn't responsible for him, he wasn't cared for properly. I took it upon myself to look after him every day and she didn't notice since she rarely went down to the field to check on him anyway. I moved back to London in March and in May, my boyfriend went back to uni to visit some friends. He popped in on Monty (he was kept in a tiny field on his own) and found him in a terrible state. He had lost so much weight that he looked like a rescue horse. My boyfriend suggested to his owner that she hand him over to us since we would give him a good home and she agreed.
We moved him down five weeks ago and I was ready to give him an amazing home for the rest of his life. He is turned out with others in a really big field and the first week went really well. He bonded with the other horses and instantly looked settled. However, on the sixth day a new horse was turned out with them who turned out to be a rig. He went mental and beat up all the geldings and mounted the mares. Several horses were injured but unfortunately Monty was the worst. He was kicked all the way through a fence which had barbed wire on it. He had 29 staples in his NF leg where the rig had kicked him and minor cuts covering his whole body.
It was devastating! His medical regime was gruelling but after two weeks box rest and a week of individual turnout in the paddock, he was ready to go out with the others. I put him out with three cobby mares in the smaller field that is next to the big field and he was so happy to be back! He has been out with them for 10 days and he loves it.
THEN...........I went after work last night and he was waiting by the gates with his friends. He was standing a bit funny but he gets stiff behind as he's 19 so I didn't think anything of it. I put his headcollar on and was chatting away to another owner when I looked at his hindquarters and saw the most horrific gash! It is about 5 inches long and deep as anything (the vet easily stuck his whole hand in!). I immediately fell to bits! It is horrible and the worst thing is I can't work out how he did it. The vet says it could be a kick or he might have caught it on something.I went round the whole field looking for something sharp but there is nothing and none of the horses in his field could have done it (they're all 14HHish ploddy cobs and he is 16.2HH tb/id).Besides, I wouldn't think he would be all snuggled up so soon after he'd done it if the mares were responsible. The only explanation is if one of the geldings kicked him over the fence but this seems bizzarre since none of them have any marks on their legs.
I now have no idea what to do or how to feel! It's so rubbish. I feel like I never should have brought him here. It has been so upsetting and draining to see him in pain all the time.
Sorry for the long moan! I feel just about ready to give up!
