free to good home

sharon1959 said:
Well I hope the foal gets a permanant home. He needs to be gelded and wormed and deffinatly weaned.
If hes given away for free theres no guarentee that whoever has him will keep him,he'll more than likely end up on a one way ticket,very sad.
If gelded,well handled,at least he has a chance for a good start in life. Not too many people want colts and this is why there are so many going for meat.
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How do you know he hasn't been wormed??:confused:
 
mymare said:
They were joking about the gingers....
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I'm sure they were joking but I know some 'gingers' who are fairly easily offended by these kind of comments and they really don't think they are funny. You may think that they should be able to take a bit of stick and laugh it off but believe it or not it actually does actually hurt some peoples feelings and is no more than bullying really. I'm sure there will be some 'gingers' on here who will say they are not bothered by comments like this but I think it just encourages teasing and name calling. My niece who is 8 years old is a beautiful little girl with red hair but has come home in tears because she has been teased at school because of the colour of her hair. I'm sure with parents like my sister (who is also a red head) she won't let it get to her for long but imo it probably comes from the parents calling people 'gingers' and encouraging their children that there is something 'wrong' with being ginger or that it isn't desirable. Is it really any different from any other form of bullying? Sorry to go off on one and totally off thread!
 
ester said:
I'm on the side of nothing wrong with deciding the foal is not for you, whatever the reason you wean it, handle it, geld it etc etc and then you sell it knowing that you have given it the best possible start at having a decent life.
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Agree, if you must breed, then at least give the foal a fighting chance of a good life by doing all of the above.

Giving away an unhandled, ungelded colt because it is not the colour you wanted is irresponsible, God only knows where the poor chap could end up, especially considering his breeding.

It is ironic that this post was made whilst we were all discussing the need for slaughterhouses due to overbreeding and the recession :cool:
 
TED2010 said:
That is an assumption though, I wouldn't class worming as 'handling'
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OK he could have been wormed in his feed, but if he is unhandled and just left with his mum, he will never have had a headcollar on and his feet done, also his immunity from mum will have run out so he will never have been innoculated either. His tetanus innoc should have been done at the very least!

OK the OP thought 'carefully' about his breeding, but it seems to me that because he was not the right colour, he has just been left in the field until now, this is not ensuring he has a good future. I have no problem leaving him until now to be weaned, as long as the mare can cope, I do have a problem with not handling him or seeing to his basic needs, ie farrier, worming, gelding etc.

Offering him up for free to any stranger on an internet forum is not conducive to a good future either!

Geld him, worm him, innoculate him and wean him, then SELL him. I assume he has been microchipped and passported?
 
Fair enough, finding him a home, a good home.

Being unhandled doesn't bother me in the slightest, I take great pleasure in putting in the work into them.

But give the boy a chance, when you go into breeding for your "dream horse" (or whatever you wanted a coloured for)you are never guaranteed to get what you want, so a foal has been born, a mother spend best part of a year carrying him for what? nothing, for someone to say "hes the wrong color" he must go.

And the fact that you have only decided now? to find another home for him? but in all that time of owning him, you could have had him gelded (if hes got his balls) or handled him...but you haven't.

Now I understand that hes not what you hoped for but you should have known that, if you were that bothered you should have just brought your "dream horse", now there is yet another foal to add to the on going population, its getting worse by the minute, people need to get of their high horse and THINK before they do it.

One horse saved but another life lost, thats the way it goes.
 
If hes not handled,hasnt had his feet picked up,never had a head collar on,someones got their work cut out whoever has him.Giving him away isnt a good idea in my eyes as anyone can say he'll have a home for life or good home,next thing you know its sold on and a dealer gets hold of him and then you know where he'll end up as meat. If I was her Id think twice about it.
 
:) I don't personally know what the issue is with gingers, I have had about 5 ginger boyfriends or lovers (I use THAT term very loosely) and they have always been above par in every way.
Hot headed, but thats really rather wonderful in itself :D

Back to the point in hand. I do too, feel a little bit like OP is being villifed for giving away this foal, when as a breeder, surely this happens all the time - but in most cases they get paid for not wanting the foal??

Maybe I'm missing a trick here!!
 
TED2010 said:
That is an assumption though, I wouldn't class worming as 'handling'
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My welsh cob yearling is pretty much un handled. He's fine once you have caught him but even then he's very timid. Not because he's been mis treated or anything. Just that his breeder isn't very well. He has been eating hard feed since the day he was weaned in August, and he has been wormed via hard feed! I wouldn't fancy getting a wormer down his gob lol! He'd take your face off with his front legs :D
 
sharon1959 said:
If hes not handled,hasnt had his feet picked up,never had a head collar on,someones got their work cut out whoever has him.Giving him away isnt a good idea in my eyes as anyone can say he'll have a home for life or good home,next thing you know its sold on and a dealer gets hold of him and then you know where he'll end up as meat. If I was her Id think twice about it.
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Would you believe that this yearling was a wild pain in the bum up until 3 weeks ago?
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He was stabled all winter after being weaned, even though he saw people all day everyday he still hated being caught and touched. He was at the point that he would spin round to kick as soon as you walked in to the stable. Even when I had him gelded he had to have 3 lots of sedation!!! Now he's turned out with 5 quiet ponies he's happy as larry! I thought I was going to have my work cut out all summer but obviously not :D :D :D :D
 
tabithakat64 said:
Coloured trotters are more highly prized, the same as an unusual coloured traditional gypsy cob would be, it's what's known as fashion!

In my opinion selling a horse because it isn't the favoured colour for the sport you wish to compete in is no different than selling a show horse that didn't make the height or a dressage youngster because it's paces aren't flashy enough.

Good on the original poster for trying to find his colt a good home rather than selling to the meat man.

Many trotters make excellent riding horses. (My friend brought one as a project last year and sold on 6 months later to a top PC home for nearly 5K).

& is trotting a healthy 18 month old up and down the road any different from racing a TB of a similar age?
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just what i was going to say, some people on this forum are bullys that seem to all live in the perfict world!
 
alligator40 said:
and one is owned by a fly-by-night-shyster and the other has a pampered life
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FML comments like that really bug me and really makes me wonder if the poster has engaged their brain
i have a trotter who i bought as a 9 month old unhandled colt and i can garantee he is not hammered on tarmac and that i am not a fly by night shyster
he was only for sale as he wasnt coloured
 
happyhack said:
not necessarily....I've seen trotters that have been treated nicer than some racehorses

good on the OP, totally agree with everything Tabithakat and MissBird say.
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I agree. How many threads on here are about buying ex racehorses for nothing? There are racehorse rehabilitation charities that give race horses away! Race horses generally have dreadful lives. Broken at two, fittened like crazy and milked for all that they can give, then flung out when they stop winning! Theres a man up the road that keeps and races trotters. They may not have the Ritz to live in, but they are kept fine, and stay with him all their lives.

I don't think there is anything different with breeding a foal and giving it away (to a good home) than selling it for a couple of hundred quid. You still have no control over what happens to a foal once its left your hands whether you sold it or not. Half of the people I know with mares have thought about breeding from them - half of them are not fit to breed from, but in the owner's eyes they are the cat's whiskers. Horse and Hound is full of foals for sale. I don't see why so many people are getting so outraged at the OP.
 
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Honey08 said:
I don't think there is anything different with breeding a foal and giving it away (to a good home) than selling it for a couple of hundred quid.
I think there are a few problems with this, first off the owner had a specific colour of foal in mind, if it was any other but coloured it was useless in her eyes. For this reason she should not of bred she should have gone out and selected a foal to buy.
But since foal was born and the colour was wrong the foal has been left unhandled, ungelded not a great start in life for a 10 month old foal! He is a prime example of what walks through the doors of the UK's abattiors.
If a foal is purchased for a price the buyer has invested into its future, if foal is just passed on for nothing the owner has not made a loss if said foal isnt cared for properly

You still have no control over what happens to a foal once its left your hands whether you sold it or not.

Yes but a reputable breeder will handle the youngster making the job of bringing it on in its new home a hell of a lot easier. Giving it a fighting chance of survival.

Half of the people I know with mares have thought about breeding from them - half of them are not fit to breed from, but in the owner's eyes they are the cat's whiskers. Horse and Hound is full of foals for sale. I don't see why so many people are getting so outraged at the OP.
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On a for sale sight ppl cant comment on the internet asking questions and giving opinions. OP chose to post her advert on a forum, of course she will be bombarded with ppl who are outraged at her irresponsibility, in todays current economical climate passing off an unhandled colt is not setting it up for sucess, a forum is the place to discuss such matters not to advertise a horse to a free home (which does make me suspicious that OP just started the thread for a reaction) :rolleyes:
Even if this is the case and there was never a colt free to a good home I wouldnt say our time has been wasted, gives ppl a chance to discuss such matters which is informative and hopefully makes others aware of what an irresponsible thing it is to do.

I would like to add that im aware this doesnt happen to all foals/horses who are given away for free yes many end up with loving homes and may go on to do very well. But id say these lucky horses are in the minority.

sharon1959 said:
If hes not handled,hasnt had his feet picked up,never had a head collar on,someones got their work cut out whoever has him.Giving him away isnt a good idea in my eyes as anyone can say he'll have a home for life or good home,next thing you know its sold on and a dealer gets hold of him and then you know where he'll end up as meat. If I was her Id think twice about it.
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^^^^ agree!!!
 
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I find myself still bemused that those that see no wrong. As ive said previously, its not about the attitude of the OP that bugs me - its the general trend in people breeding more unwanted horses.
 
Lets face it, ANY horse born has the capacity to be unwanted. So in order to never breed a potentially unwanted horse, you'd have to never breed.

IMO :)
 
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