Horse injured whilst at trainers

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aramancam

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Sent my 4 year old stallion to be broken by a professional trainer. Had previously paid over a £1000 in fees to get him AES registered and put my two mares in foal. Whilst at trainers we asked for him to be sold and he gave us a £15000 estimate on asking price. A week later the trainer told us he was lame and called his vet. His own vet said he had upper suspensory ligament damage in both legs and this could be caused by being overworked. Upshot was we had to bring him home. As a stallion no yards would take him – the yard we had arranged for him to go to on full livery was too far for the twice daily care he would need on long term box rest so we had to have him gelded and found a place on a local yard. After three months on box rest we found he was unrideable – terrified of anyone getting on him and out of control when someone succeeded. We had spent £3000 on trainer fees for a rideable horse and ended up with a lame gelding on box rest for three months.
A friend has shown us a video of the horse being ridden by the trainer shot four weeks before the trainer told us he was lame and our vet says you can clearly see the trainer was riding a lame horse then. The trainer admits that he knew he was lame but says he thought it was because of new shoes (we are checking to see if he had been shod recently). The trainer had no insurance (Care, Custody and Control) and says he is not liable, that it was just one of those things. We have lost a stallion who could have stood at stud and may have produced top quality foals. Our two mares have produced super foals going to futurity later this year. Would appreciate advice – has anyone had a similar experience? What should I do?
 
Awful experience and sadly things like this happen.

Did you research the trainer? Did you know they had no insurance? Did you go visit the horse during the breaking period and see it ridden?

Sorry to hear its suspensorys, I just had a 5 year old pts due to abnormalities in them which would cause a life of pain :(

Hope you get it sorted
 
Experienced equine lawyer and a very strong determination to see this through.

Such a shame you had him gelded. Sounds like you have some evidence so see where you can take this.

Good luck.
 
God, this is any owner's nightmare. I'm so sorry to hear of your experience :mad:
I can't offer any advice re lack of insurance or possibility of legal action, but I don't suppose you got the trainer's valuation in writing did you?
 
What a horrible experience.

How long did the trainer have him in work before he was lame, was it only a few weeks? One thing I do find a bit odd, If it was only a very short period of being "over worked" during backing and breaking, it sounds a bit drastic that he would damage the suspensory ligament in two legs, if he was a sound and resilient sort with no underlying leg issues? Youbwould think it would take a lot of repetitive movement, unless he had some sort of trauma?

Do you know what the trainer did with him? was it a reputable trainer who is known/recommended for breaking and starting? Did you have his legs scanned? Did you have him insured?

Also regarding the behavioural part, did you have him re-backed when coming off box rest? If he had only just been started and then had several months off, sounds like he would need to be started from scratch again? Especially if he has memories of being ridden while in pain.

It does sound very wrong that the trainer rode him while lame and did not alert you to this sooner, but it is difficult to say if anything else untoward happened, though some trainers have better reputations than others...
 
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Very sorry to hear of your experiences, but horses do go lame you know. Yes, the trainer should have known that the horse was not sound and should not have ridden him when he was obviously lame, but unless there was a specific cause for the injury there is no way of knowing that the trainer caused it. It was your choice to geld the horse, and any horse which has stood on box rest for three months is going to be fractious when first ridden unless brought back in to work very gradually. Two sides to every story, and two ways of looking at any situation.
 
The trainer admits that he knew he was lame but says he thought it was because of new shoes
Click to expand...

WTF! :eek: The trainer sounds like an idiot. If a horse is lame after shoeing, you don't ride it, you get the Farrier back in case there's a nail bind/prick.
 
Sorry to hear of your troubles.

I don't think you could claim against anyone though for him having to be gelded - this wasn't the trainers fault; more that you didn't have anywhere suitable to keep a stallion?
 
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