ampudss
Member
I just wondered if anyone else has been through a similar thing - we've all heard of dodgy breeders/dealers, that'll sell you anything aslong as it looks half alive. But has anyone retired a horse to a companion home or somewhere willing to take 'retirements' and found out later its been sold on?
Thinking now it must be quite common but anywho.
Few years ago i put my 6 y/o Irish hunter into retirement as I found out he had Navicular - world shattered, heart broken, career over etc between me and the vet & farrier we decided retiring him would be much kinder at the time than putting him down. He had remidial shoeing with silicone filled middles (which i almost dropped dead at when i found out the cost - thank god for insurance?) and bute 3 times a day. This would mean he was comfortable and pain free for atleast the next 6months - a year. He'd also had nerve blocks put in after x-rays.
I was up there at the crack of dawn, and the middle of the night for months on end before my mum finally decided that enough was enough (i was under 16 at the time) and decided he should be retired to someone who would only want him as a companion or for retirement.
We found a local lady in Staverton, Gloucestershire called Christine Alexander who I emailed and was more than happy to take him on. My parents vetted the yard and she seemed lovely, already having a mish mash of horses, pigs & chickens she'd collected, it seemed like a laid back place.
A few months later he was gone, sold to a dealer called Dilys Van Tromp - who i'm sure in the horsey world to most of us is very well known.
She contacted us via his Passport as our name was still on it and she wondered if we knew he was lame or not. We offered to buy him back at a ridiculous cost for a lame horse - but she never got back to us.
After that, he was sold to a lady down in Somerset - who i found last year, but sadly she'd sold him on to someone. Who, conviniently, she couldnt remember the name of. Hmm..
Needless to say i never found my horse.
I wanted to share that with anyone considering putting a horse into retirement or sending to a companion home. I found out a few months later my insurance would pay out for loss of use for a period of time and by the end of that I could've done the humane thing.
I dont know if anyone knows of any of these people - but if you dont, take the warning & steer clear!
Thinking now it must be quite common but anywho.
Few years ago i put my 6 y/o Irish hunter into retirement as I found out he had Navicular - world shattered, heart broken, career over etc between me and the vet & farrier we decided retiring him would be much kinder at the time than putting him down. He had remidial shoeing with silicone filled middles (which i almost dropped dead at when i found out the cost - thank god for insurance?) and bute 3 times a day. This would mean he was comfortable and pain free for atleast the next 6months - a year. He'd also had nerve blocks put in after x-rays.
I was up there at the crack of dawn, and the middle of the night for months on end before my mum finally decided that enough was enough (i was under 16 at the time) and decided he should be retired to someone who would only want him as a companion or for retirement.
We found a local lady in Staverton, Gloucestershire called Christine Alexander who I emailed and was more than happy to take him on. My parents vetted the yard and she seemed lovely, already having a mish mash of horses, pigs & chickens she'd collected, it seemed like a laid back place.
A few months later he was gone, sold to a dealer called Dilys Van Tromp - who i'm sure in the horsey world to most of us is very well known.
She contacted us via his Passport as our name was still on it and she wondered if we knew he was lame or not. We offered to buy him back at a ridiculous cost for a lame horse - but she never got back to us.
After that, he was sold to a lady down in Somerset - who i found last year, but sadly she'd sold him on to someone. Who, conviniently, she couldnt remember the name of. Hmm..
Needless to say i never found my horse.
I wanted to share that with anyone considering putting a horse into retirement or sending to a companion home. I found out a few months later my insurance would pay out for loss of use for a period of time and by the end of that I could've done the humane thing.
I dont know if anyone knows of any of these people - but if you dont, take the warning & steer clear!
