Facing another vet bill !!!

tubby1

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I am interested in opinions on my current situation. My mare came in with wound to her leg last week which is needing ongoing vet treatment and box rest. At the time I was more interested in making sure she was ok and correct treatment was received. Now looking back the story I was told by the yard owner just doesn't add up. When the horses were put out in the morning the Y/O had put her horse in my field. Without any prior discussion. The paddocks are rubbish with no grazing, normally I would put hay out for my guys but thought with a different horse their might be fighting etc so I didn't. I waited 1/2 hour at the field to check they were ok with each other. And they were only going out for a few hours so thought they would be OK. When I was leaving the y/o had put her other horses out which had got loose (again) and she told me she couldn't be bothered catching them so had left them in the walkway to the fields. This meant I couldn't get my horses out till they were caught. Fast forward 2/3 hours I get a call from another livery saying my horses had been injured and should she bring her in. When I arrived there was one horse running loose my horse was in being hosed. The yard owner told me what happened saying she had just hurt herself by getting caught in the fence by fighting with a horse in the field beside her. A horse she normally gets on with. When the vet arrived she said the wound was a few hours old and today I went to check the fence and there is no way she injured herself on that fence. On the walkway side of the fence there is a bit of fence missing as if it has been cut. When I checked all the fencing it was very damaged and I wouldn't put my horses back out in it. I and a few other liveries are leaving very soon because the health & safety on the yard is appalling. Now I am facing a large vet bill ( the third time this year ) and feel it's the y/o fault for not providing adequate fields/ fencing etc . Where do I stand in this. I am annoyed the y/o didn't call me even though she was aware of her injuries. She was going to get her horse out my field and leave my horse in even though she was hurt. Nobody can look me in the eye just now and I just feel I am not being told the full story. Surely the y/o has some duty of care to provide safe turnout etc . Sorry for long post and thanks for reading.
 

applecart14

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I know exactly where you are coming from. After spending just short of £5K on shockwave, injections, multiple scans and a course of PRP, my horse had an accident which resulted in him nearly breaking his leg. A member of staff tied him up outside his stable to change his rug prior to turn out. They tied him next to a wheelbarrow and he stuck his leg out and managed to put his foot through between the wheel and the frame and walked off with the wheelbarrow attached to his leg banging the wheelbarrow into the sides of the stables in the aisle whilst the poor girl was screaming her head off. Luckily my best mate was there at the time, and he managed to get his leg free, but the leg came up like a tree trunk and left lasting damage to his leg resulting in calcification in the damaged area of the ligament. When I saw the YO the following day I was amazed to be told "its your horses fault he was injured as he was dicking about" !

The staff did apologise and i suppose looking back it was just one of those things, we were talking to each other afterwards. But all I wanted was an apology of the YO and I was amazed when she said what she said to me. The YO does have a duty of care, but at the end of the day if you started down this route she would just chuck you off the yard. The same YO in my previous story threw a friend off because a loose horse kicked her and broke her arm in several places. My friend was unable to work for a long while as it was a complicated fracture and was a teacher so could have lost a fair bit of money. She had been working at the yard at the weekends for the YO although it was a weekday when the YO rang her on the phone to help her catch the loose horse (and she was off duty at the time). When she approached the YO about the possibility of the YO meeting her half way in respect of the costs of full livery for her two horses as she wasn't able to take care of them herself due to her injuries the YO refused. My mate got a solicitor involved and the day the YO got the summons through the post she threw her off the yard giving her two hours!

As it happens my friend won her case and got a decent compo payout. She was happy with the yard she ended up at , but you might like to think carefully about the YO throwing you off if she got wind of you wanting to take action against her and be prepared for this eventuality, which I am sure would be at very short notice to be spiteful.
 
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Equi

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The one thing that annoys me so much is when YO play paddock swap without asking. My boy gets very badly bullied the big wuss that he is so he is in the small paddock of knee deep mud on his own, but they keep putting horses in with him. He then drops weight and becomes a pig to manage. I understand space is tight, but don't take on more than you can bloody house is my thinking!
 

glamourpuss

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Honestly? In any other walk of life you might have a case to get the vet bill paid.
However, in the horse world particularly the livery business it is very rare/unlikely that there is a case.
First of all you have no proof the YO is lying & the accident didn't occur as she said. That's just you suspicion. In fact she would probably counter that you left the yard happy with the turn out arrangements.
The only thing the YO is liable for is the delay to the vet treatment. Again she could counter that she didn't see the injury or that you've been unhappy with previous vet bills so she was reluctant to call the vet on your behalf.

I'm sorry, it's rubbish but that is how I see it. That said I'm not legal so someone who actually knows what they are talking about will be along soon!
 

Jazzy B

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OP really rubbish for you but unfortunately I think because you turned your horse out in the first instance would suggest that you found the turnout arrangements acceptable and you would have to prove somehow that the yard owner was lying about fencing and timings....
 

Goldenstar

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It's rotten , but in way a way you assume the risk when you keep your horse on a badly managed maintained yard .
Horses injure themselves even in the best managed situations and you will have issues proving what happened without witnesses prepared to tell you straight what happened .
The best you can do is move to a better yard as soon as possible .
Surely there must be some well managed yards about reading on here you would seriously doubt it .
 
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