Do any loan homes actually work out? Frustrated and Sad - Rant!

[Annagain]

There are good loan homes out there, there really are. I had my first pony, a 12.3hh Sec B on part loan - his owner had her own land and he got abandoned with her as a foal so she kept him, broke him in and found a 12 yr old me to ride him through a friend who taught me at the local riding school. I paid for his shoes and any riding costs but didn't have to do much else with him - although I was there every waking moment! After a year, I outgrew him and moved on to her Section D with the same agreement. The little one then went on loan to a family she knew and to another family who knew that loan family after they had outgrown him. All 3 loanees loved him like their own, treated him like a king and they worked out brilliantly. By the time the the 3rd lot outgrew him she had got divorced and lost the land so he went on loan to the local riding school and they bought him after a few months.

The Sec D became my horse of a lifetime. When his owner first left her (vile) husband, I (at 16) went from part loaning him to a full loan and he moved to a local livery yard. She was stil involved but with 2 kids to look after on her own he was mostly my responsibility. When they got divorced, the husband was insisting he was his and he was going to sell him for meat (he was that spiteful!). She was the registered owner, but to be on the safe side she sold him to me for £5 - all registered properly with WPCS etc. I was 17, my mum still doesn't know! She had to move away to rid herself of the ex-husband but my boy stayed with me another 10 years until he had to be PTS suddenly at 27, she was on the end of the phone as I sat with him as he slipped away. She and I are still good friends and meet up when we can although she lives over an hour away now.

 

[ShmellyEm]

I've been incredibly lucky finding a loan home for my boy while I'm at uni, she was the first person who came to try him and he's incredibly well looked after and happy, he'll most likely stay with her after I've finished! So sorry to hear you've had bad experiences, hope you find someone for your boy soon.

 

[happyclappy]

Unfortunately,d espite checking the loanees, getting references, their premises etc, I have yet to find a loan home that turns out well. Perhaps I expect too much.

 

[SarahWeston]

I loaned a horse out about 15 months ago. It's working out beautifully and to all intents and purposes he is her horse and I only retained ownership of him so that if anything suddenly happened to her he could come back to me and be safe. I have changed my will so that if anything happens to me he will be hers. He's having a better life than he would have with me (mine ar all on 24/7 turnout and he is better off coming in at night). However, if she suddenly wanted to send him back for whatever reason we'd not quibble with her, I just want him to be safe.

 

[suej102]

Hi everyone and firstly thank you all so much for your responses. I didn't think anyone had answered as I didn't have any email alerts, and then just came in the forum and found all of your messages waiting for me - doh! Well, I am now a little clearer and will definitely not loan him again. I have found a retirement home that I like the look of but have one or two concerns that you may be able to help with. The main one being that he will be living out full time in a herd (up to 200 acres - space is not an issue!). They check he horses twice a day with feeds and haying etc and bring in once a week for full check over and a bit of tlc. He is now 23 and did live out for a long time until the past couple of years where is used to coming into a stable at night. Am I being a wimp for worrying about this? It's just that as the rain was hacking down in droves last night I started to wonder if I could bear the idea that he would be out all night in this if I retired him to this place, although much else of it sounds wonderful? Arghhhh - enough with the dilemmas!

 

[pansymouse]

So long as they're appropriately rugged old horses are fine living out, in fact it's often better for their mobility to be out moving about rather than been confined in a stable.

 

[suej102]

Thanks Pansymouse - it makes sense but the foul weather right now keeps me doubting myself - I'm so worried about getting it wrong for him!

 

[Firefly9410]

I would try the retirement home OP. I would not sell a 23 year old and I would not loan anything out and it seems you have decided the same. That does not leave many options so retirement must be worth trying, if it does not work out you can think again about what is best to do

 

[Dave's Mam]

My 23 year old is out 24/7. She's very woolly (has feather right up to her bum) & has her rug & she is thriving.

 

[Charlie77]

loaning can work, I took my old mare on loan when she was 13yo I kept her till she was pts age 33, I didn't know her owner when I took her, I did know of her through a friend, I rode her all one summer and her owner offered full loan at the end of that summer, i was only 12 at the time. chris her owner was always at the end of the phone if i needed her but also didn't ever bother me. she was also only 2 villages away. funnily enough chris and i are now very good friends have to admit i was scared of her when i was younger!
i also took on a pony a few years ago. she was only a baby, she only grew to be about 31.1h i ended up backing her but she was to small for me, i loaned her to a friend of a friend a lovley older lady who will never out grow her, she kept her on loan for well over a year before she asked to bye her, i did sell her only because i remember how worried i used to be when i had my loan mare that one day her owner would ask for her back.
so yes loan homes can work. if you can find a local person through word of mouth?
shame your not closer my dad is insistant he wants to take up riding again. hes not ridden since i lost my lovely old loan mare x

 

[Equi]

I know a mini doesn't register on many peoples radar, but i've had my little man on loan for over a year. His owner and i have become really good friends and shes always gushing about how well looked after he is. I have showed him, taught him to drive and generally messed about with him so he is not just sitting here. My ridden loans have not worked yet, but maybe in the future..

 

[Dusty85]

Having previously loaned a horse for a couple of years I can say yes they do work out sometimes- but I am a genuine person and I really enjoyed taking care of said horse and improved him, his schooling and got him out completing etc. I am lucky that I was also in a position to be able to afford him, and all of his needs.

The loan ended after two years as I needed to concentrate on work/studies etc. Im still good friends with the lady who I loaned him from (who has since sold him).

Im sorry it hasn't worked out for you, but some genuine loaners do exist.

 

[MagicMelon]

I had 2 rubbish experiences with loaning too - both of which were meant to be "permanent" loans. I was extremely picky about where the horse went as I wanted to feel no doubt that they would get on well with the horse and the horse would be happy etc. but still it didn't work out so I have lost all faith with loaning! First person had him 3 months, she said everything was great but then suddenly at 3 months she said he'd been dreadful bullying their other horses and even kicked the light out on their car (this horse never kicked so must have been stressed!), I had explained to them PRIOR to them taking him that he might be best suited to being kept in a paddock on his own (with company right next door) or out with just one other horse as he could be funny in herds, but she said she'd tried him on his own and "he looked miserable" (weird, considering this horse had never been turned out with other horses until we got him so he was pretty used to being on his own!). Anyway she returned saying she couldn't cope, she also said he was a bit too "strong" to ride, shocked by this I asked about her riding routine and she said once a week she rode him and took him on the beach (this horse had never seen a beach until he went to hers)... so she rode him once a week and took him straight out to an exciting place then wonders why he was strong... uh huh. He came home thin and pretty wired Second lot practically begged me for him, I drove 2 hours to check the yard he'd be on etc. before agreeing to it, all seemed great until I got a call from a "worried" person who had kept her horse at same yard saying how horrible they were to him and that they couldn't afford to look after him etc. this was confirmed by 3 other people I spoke to so I went to pick him up the very next day He looked in good condition and calm etc. so I still don't know if this was really the case (or some people who simply didn't like her) but I couldn't take the risk He's now at home and I'd never consider loaning ever again unless to a friend!

 

[Equi]

Loaning to a friend is the worst thing to do. I had my old cob on loan because i thought it would help my friend who wasn't really interested anymore and financially wasn't sound. A year into the loan he got lame, and she refused to see it and claimed i was making it up - so i spent a year and a fortune trying to get him sound to no avail. Took me another year to finally get her to take him back into her own care - so two years wasted that i could have had another horse. In that time i didn't ride much so i lost the ability.

 

[tootsietoo]

I've loaned out twice, and neither time did it really work out. I think as someone said earlier, there's always the option to hand the horse back so perhaps people aren't as committed as they think. Perhaps it's almost inevitable that they don't work out - there are always problems with horses, and if you own it you have to see it through. If you have someone else to pass a problem (or a perceived problem) on to, it's probably too tempting for lots of people!

I'm on the other side now - I have a horse on loan. I am doing my absolute best with him (including seeing him through a 6 month period of lameness and all the associated vets bills), yet the loaner keeps nitpicking at what I am doing, and I am on the edge of handing him back to her. I am doing everything I said I would and that she wants me to do, yet she doesn't seem to trust that I'm not lying about how I'm looking after him!! Whilst I am committed to this horse and plan to keep him (unless our relationship completely falls apart) I have decided I will never have a horse on loan again.

 

[Boulty]

I had it work very successfully with my old horse for 2 years when I was away at Uni. He would probably have been there longer had loaners circumstances not changed meaning I took him back earlier than planned. His arthritis had deteriorated in the time he was away but that wasn't the fault of the person loaning him (he was out 24/7 with access to a bedded down shelter and had as much grass and hay as he could wish for). He wasn't ridden as much in last few months as previously but as he wasn't been loaned out to be schooled and was turned out that really didn't matter to me.

I was fortunate in that when I was home on holiday or work placements he was close enough to visit (tbh I'd still have dropped by every few months even if not to check all was still well)

 

[suej102]

I thought I would just take the time to thank you all for your responses - it seemed like a pretty 'hot' topic! I am now in the process of retiring my boy once and for all as I just cannot go through the stress of loaning him out again - and if anyone is considering loaning out their own horse, I would proceed with caution, although I feel I did this too and still got dumped on twice by fickle loanees. I will put this one down to experience, but never again!

 

[mytwofriends]

i loaned one of mine out a few years ago, to a word of mouth "good friend" of a friend. She had him for four months, and in that time was a) in love with him, b) won several jumping competitions on him, c) became scared of him after a sniff of spring grass, d) stuffed him full of calmer and wanted to buy him, and then finally e) changed her mind and sent him back with literally a day's notice, as he wasn't "the one" after all. So, my horse returned to me, shoes hanging off (one attached by a single nail which they hadn't noticed when loading him) and he'd acquired the most horrific habit of napping which he'd never done before.

I'd never loan a horse of mine out again based on that experience. I know there are good people out there, but once bitten, twice shy I'm afraid.

 

[Llee94]

I loaned my mare before the owner offered to sell her to me. I treated her like my own and we payed for everything. I did have to sign a contract that was an inch thick (owner was a trainee lawyer, so it was watertight and very specific for e.g. If it is between 1-5 degrees she must wear xxxx rug etc and also specified exactly what food she should have). I thought this was a bit extreme to start off with but the owner had been burned once before by loaning out another horse that came back crippled and un-rideable. Of course we kept to it, and any changes we felt were necessary were discussed with the owner, who always agreed. So good homes are out there!
However, I loaned my pony out to a young boy who wanted to go out and have fun. When they first got her, she was the best thing since sliced bread. He won loads of competitions on her, took her to camps etc and they said they loved her and really wanted to buy her if possible. Then out of the blue (at the end of the summer once he had had all the fun), I got a text one evening to say they didn't want her anymore but wanted to hang on to her until they found something else. Totally out of order in my opinion, you either want her or you don't and if you don't, you don't get to keep her till you find something better! I understand that not everything works out, I just couldn't believe they just sent me a text (they could have at least called me to explain) and felt that they had just used my horse for a summer of fun before giving her back. I went to collect her first thing in the morning which they we not happy about as it left him pony-less. I still see him out eventing (he has been very successful and been on GB teams) but I am always ignored because I took my pony away from them. She was later sold within two hours of advertising to a lovely family who had years of fun on her, which is all I wanted for my girl.